NancyJohnson

I've got a pair of M-Audio speakers that run off a Focusrite Scarlet. They're delightfully loud. You could easily find a pair close to your budget. Going back in time somewhat, about 20 years ago, I bought a Dell PC from the Dell Outlet store. Back then, Dell would make hundreds of PCs for deals in computing magazines; once the promotion was over, they'd discount the remainder and allow you to customise things when shipping. The PC came with a frankly fantastic 2.1 set up...powered sub and two satellite speakers. It sounded awesome, loud, totally great. Stupidly dumped the whole setup when I bought our current computer as the connections were incompatible. In hindsight, I'm certain I could have hotwired it somehow to work with our TV in the extension.

While I can understand the appeal of one of these (powered) cabinets, the overriding things would be chucking money at something I neither want or feel I need and the hassle of actually freeing up funds to purchase, so read that as flogging all my gear! In truth, I don't like the look of stuff like the Headrush/Alto style of cabinet; frankly would prefer to simply stick with what I have enclosure-wise, unload my Darkglass and purchase something that better suits from an amp perspective.

As I've posted elsewhere, after years of playing clean, my first bit of outboard (and tone heaven) was a BassPOD, shortly after it was a BDDI (and all the other Tech21 stuff). I honestly thought the AO900 was going to be an ideal solution; I'd used a Alpha pedal and didn't really have an issue, but the head itself is pretty gnarly. By way of observation (with this head), if you want consistency you need to concentrate on just using a single bass, or set up your basses so they all produce identical tonal characteristics to each other. The amp is undeniably a great bit of kit, but it's stopping me from using anything aside from my Spector, which it's set up to use. Emulation of valve overdrive/distortion is an odd one. I used an Ashdown ABM for a while and the valve gain stage just added this nasty crackle (like a loose connection) rather than a bit of creamy/cranky, so I just stuck a BDDI into the effects return. At present, I just need to move the AO900 and I'll throw the swag from that towards something else. Like I said, it's difficult to go somewhere and just try out a load of stuff...Bass Direct, maybe, but not before the head is sold.

I've got a Barefaced Big One, a pair of Darkglass 1x12s, and currently, an intact pair of testicles. Give my wife's propensity of asking when I'm going 'to get rid of some of the speaker cabinets' I don't need/want a powered cabinet I'm afraid. And I'd prefer not to be wearing my balls as earrings as well! 🤣

I owned a Landmark head - the 300. I'll admit I liked it a lot (here's the but), but when you're playing these little venues where you have to park miles away or even go up on the train, carrying a 4U/5U rack and a bass is nutso; this is where the appeal of a lightweight head is; sometimes it's necessity over choice. A lot of UK venues offer tired/worn out backline - I'm sure this is the same in the US - or you have headliners that won't let you anywhere near their stuff, so at least with a small head (that you're happy with) you're kind of assured that at least a decent tone off an XLR will go to FoH. @Tech21NYC You do make some outstanding kit and I've haemorrhaged enough £££ on it over the years. I've gigged with enough bassists over the years that love the BDDI (I recorded this afternoon - engineer insisted on me using one!); many have expressed pity that there's not a class-D amp with one in the pre-amp.

Drive over to Julian Mullen in Reading.

I had a VTBass rack unit AND a VTBASS DI. Didn't mind them, but the BDDI/RBI was superior, or more to the point, it suited me better. If @Tech21NYC had made a head with the RBI then it would be my #1 choice.

I'm not so familiar with the DG pedals; the backbone of my tone was Sansamp BDDI for years. When the AO was announced I ordered thinking it was going to be a one box solution to satisfy my needs. I remember @Wolverinebass saying that the Alpha suited me more than the Omega, which is largely correct. Anyhow, I've decided to relist the AO900 and will do so this weekend. Replacement, well, I just don't know.

I posted a while back about simply going the stomp/small (class D) Poweramp route. I could live with that. I saw a review of the Boss Katana bass head a few hours ago, but a peak rate of 500w isn't going to be enough. Suppose the thing is - and while I live a few miles from Andertons - actually trying stuff out is nightmarishly difficult.

It's an odd one, but a case of wrong type of distortion. The AO is somewhat middy; the videos where you see these metal guys going nuts with Dingwalls, not once have I ever been able to emulate anything close to that. I was never happier than when I got my first Sansamp BDDI and then migrated to an RBI/Poweramp setup. I've gone through a lot of kit since then, chasing tone. There has to be something.

I have a few basses (all good), several cabs (all good), some Sansamps (all good) and a Darkglass AO900 head. I've posted previously about how I haven't really bonded with the AO900; it's a tad too aggressive/gnarly for my liking. I adore the power and that I can jack a stomp into the effects return, but ideally I'd like to be able to have a small/loud one box solution to give me a bit of Geddy Lee style clank and Jean Jacques dirt, so I'm looking for recommendations. I guess the amp will return £650/700 which I can throw at something else. Help!

After an abortive three days trying to install this, it went off to Julian Mullen to do the work. It went in as a replacement for a John East Uni-3 that just stopped working. Got the bass back home about an hour ago. I'm of the mindset that if you invest in a suite of products, they should all kind of work with each other; so the Tone Capsule into an AO900 should be peachy, eh? Well, happy to report the bass sounds fantastic in isolation. The cap has three boost/cut options bass, low-mid and hi-mid. There's no real sweepable mid thing going on but there does appear to be an element of treble passthrough, but man alive, it's just glorious to my ears.

I've got a list of what I own on a spreadsheet. Serial numbers/anticipated values etc. Said spreadsheet also includes contact details for @cetera.

I've been to a handful of open nights and on one occasion was unfortunately asked up to play bass on a couple of songs that I didn't actually know. "Is Paul out there? Where is he? Oh, there he is. Come on up!" ['Oh, sh*t, oh, sh*t, oh, sh*t.'] "Nope, you're OK." Wife interjects, "Go on, it'll be fun." Sigh. Well, it wasn't fun. The evening was full of these dead behind the eyes bedroom-warriors; blokes who'd taken up guitar because they had a bit of money pre-retirement. All the gear. Gibson and Fender. Guys with an arthritic claw like grip on their necks, struggling to extend beyond three chords whilst reading off music stands. One of the blokes had the fecking audacity to later stroll up to the bar and tell me I wasn't following the right bassline despite never having heard Wonderful Tonight or whatever wretched Clapton/Eagles thing it was that they were playing; this despite him being one of the most inept guitarists I've ever witnessed. Sure, each to their own but, with all respect to the OP, I'd sooner cut my arm off than play the selection of songs listed there.

Christ on a bike, yes. It doesn't matter how great the bass looks, if the headstock doesn't work from a design perspective it's a non-starter. The five string looks way better.

Aah, the Blue Lagoon, Iceland. Years ago my mother stoically gave me several bits of sage advice. 'Don't smoke, stay out of the sun where possible, drink in moderation and find yourself a decent moisturiser.' My dad had skin that resembled dry leather; much as I loved him I didn't want that, so I've followed all three for 40+ years. Here's a recent one.

Isn't this the same with every copy bass? Lost count of the posts I've read here and elsewhere (for instance) extolling how a £125 Harley Benton Stingray clone growls as much as the real thing or how Rockingbetter clones clank like the real thing etc. I think usage of 'special sauce' wins Basschat for today. "Oh, your Epiphone is fundamentally all round better than the '60s Thunderbird it's copied from, y'say? Does it have the special sauce?"

Whether this is right or wrong, I don't know, but years ago one of the guys doing our live sound said if you want to use mids do it from the bass as you simply 'can't produce modulation for a frequency that doesn't exist'. This stayed with me since; if you squirt your desired tone to an amp from say a Jazz bass, your tone control is simply open (pickups open, unaffected) or the high frequency is being cut (thus rolling off the highs). In theory any mids produced away from the source are simply emulations as they don't exist in the original signal source. I guess this leads on to the active circuit argument; there's John East units installed on several of my basses, all have a midsweep frequency/boost control. Used sparingly, this'll allow your tone to cut through the mix. It works significantly better than any outboard tweaking.

Personally, the better perspective would be to have a mid/mid frequency-sweep stack on the bass; this way you're in control over what hits your amp/board.

Sometimes you just have to take a direct route and be the voice of reason; the thread has been viewed 350 times, I'm sure there's many who probably went, 'Really?' when they read it. Perhaps it's just the way I'm wired, but there's little point in skirting around things, always be as direct as possible.

I honestly don't get these type of what's-your-favourite-colour? type threads. OP has used a pick previously, but is asking for plectrum recommendations and how to use them. What follows will inevitably be dozens on well-intended posts suggesting plectrums of various makes/thicknesses etc. Come on! The OP purports to have been born in 1972. They're 52-ish. It's like riding a bike or tying your shoelaces. If you've used one previously, you know what you've used, whether you were happy with it and you simply don't forget. Please.

It wasn't huge by any stretch; dedicated Gibson/Fender/Rickenbacker, plus the usual areas. There were a few regulars; the guy that came up with the Badbird bridge for old Thunderbirds, a German guy that had a phenomenal amount of Gibson basses