Happy Jack

Oh God ... he's lit the blue touchpaper ...

Not sure what makes "a pair of RCF 312As" a "compact budget PA". You're straight into £650/£700 if you buy new, and that's assuming that you already have the poles, the cables, and of course the mixer. Obviously a lot depends on (1) what you currently use, how big it is (dimensions, not Watts), how much of it could be re-purposed to work with the RCFs, etc. and (2) what makes the new venues you're targeting a challenge, is it because they're very small, or because there are noise limiters, or because access is restricted, etc. @Silvia Bluejay and I have a spare system too, in fact we have enough components to create a variety of different rigs to deal with different challenges. Most of our purchasing is driven by reducing the weight and simplifying the load-in/set-up at the venue. We play far more pubs than clubs, and very few events that you'd call 'functions', and we totally prefer the power amp + passive tops route for most gigs. Passive tops don't need a power supply + XLR cable, just a Speakon, so that's half the pluggery and cable routage and the Speakon cable will be far more robust under pub conditions than a 5M mic cable. Passive tops weigh a great deal less than active so they're much less likely to get knocked over by that drunken woman in a low-cut blouse as she dances sideways into the speaker pole. And if they do get knocked over, they're far less vulnerable to damage and far cheaper to repair or replace. Power amps are available cheap as chips these days and, sitting under the mixer, they take up effectively no space at all. Best of all, assuming that you currently run a top-end functions-stylee PA system with powered subs and tops, bells & whistles everywhere, then going the power amp + passive route will complement the existing rig because you can use it as a top-of-the-range monitoring system if you want.

Not sure I've understood this fully ... do you mean that the bass remains on the stand while you play it?

You need more amplification ...

Life's like a box of chocolates ...

I'm well impressed at the people suggesting that the OP use an £850 head as a "backup amp". I'd prolly be inclined to buy something rather cheaper. For £219 you can buy a brand-new Trace Elf, which will not only do everything you are likely to need in an emergency, but is also easily small enough to fit in the front pocket of your gigbag. Job done.

Technically speaking, fasting for three weeks can also be described as starving to death. 🤨

Oooooh! Topical!

Well needles have got to be better than a slap in the face with a wet kipper.

How soon can you get over here? 😉

My son has just sent me this link, but I am WAY out of my depth trying to read this stuff. Anyone with a scientific / medical background care to comment? https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.758575/full

I was once (briefly) in an originals band with a pianist called Barry ("just call me 'Bazza' - everyone does") and a drummer called Gareth ("actually at school they called me 'Gazza'"). We needed a guitarist. Barry found an Australian called Wayne. Welcome aboard Wayne, we all said. "Nah mates, call me "Wazza", OK?". Seriously.

A single 90-minute set is barking mad ... is that what you actually did? If so, then suggest to the band that you split it into 2x45 minute sets with a 10-minute break between. Have a decent MP3 player (NOT a bloody smartphone) tee'd up to play appropriate music through the PA during the break so the audience isn't sat there in complete silence. Any smokers in the band will welcome the suggestion in a nano-second. If you've no smokers then point out the advantages of a short break for correcting the band's sound, sorting out technical issues, persuading the guitarist to finally tune his instrument properly, and - of course - sending the brass section to the bar to get a round in.

Ah now, you didn't mention that it already has an appropriate pickup. That looks like a very easy £300's worth of DB to me, and a WAY better starter bass than I had! If you're really unsure what to do with the flag on the back, try buying some low-tack sticky vinyl. Cut to shape and stick on, leaving you with the option to peel off again later if you choose. I wouldn't suggest oing this with a nitro finish but the back of this bass has of course been painted. My sister and brother-in-law are American, both NY City liberal types. As a Brit I didn't really get the whole Confederate flag thang until I had a chat with them a few years back. To me, that flag meant Good Ol' Boys and The Dukes Of Hazzard and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Turned out I was living roughly 40 years in the past. These days, that flag has a similar resonance to yer average Yank as a Nazi swastika.

The drummer spontaneously combusted?

On the drive home from a gig?

Plenty of good advice already given, but my comments (FWIW): No 6-piece jazz group should be loud enough to cause serious issues with feedback. At any sensible volume, feedback (if encountered) will be very probably down to poor cab placement rather than something fundamental. You're more likely to be plagued by a boomy rumble. If you have an isolator pad for your cab then best use it. Failing that, try putting your cab on a stand, a beer crate, or even a chair ... get some distance between your low frequencies and that stage. While you're at it, be ready to roll off the Low on your amp really quite sharply; I frequently gig with the EQ all at 12 o'clock except the Low which is down at 9 o'clock. The railway arches are your Get Out Of Jail Free card. The acoustics will be so unpredictable, and probably so unusual, that any unpleasant sounds can be casually dismised with, "Well what do you expect in a space this shape?". 😎 Enjoy the gig and don't worry too much about the sound. If you obsess about whether or not the audience likes your tone, you'll lose sight of what matters ... your playing.

Obvious questions ... Where's the gig? Are you playing a winebar or a church hall? Will you be on a raised wooden stage or a concrete floor? What style of music will you be playing? What's the band line-up?

Keep an eye out for a pre-owned Mike Lull. Weights vary but - in general - Mike Lull basses are amongst the lightest bits of boutique kit out there.

Why thank'ee kindly, Young Master. The neck feels just great, an absolute delight to play. The only thing I'm having to fiddle with is the action. As you know I usually have a much higher action on my basses, and I haven't quite got my head around having it as slick as this. 😂 It's fine at the start of each set but, as I get more & more carried away, I dig in more and start to choke the strings. They tell me, it's all in the fingers ...

I bet you're missing that fretless Mike Lull neck by now ...

My drummer always starts at the right speed and all is good until he starts doing BVs ... as soon as he starts singing (which he does well BTW) his drumming accelerates.

I honestly wouldn't have believed it possible to make a 14-minute video on how to count in a song. Now that I've watched (the first two minutes of) it, it's pretty clear that I would have been right.