Al Krow

Yup, you and me both! In fact no spare bass, no spare amp, no spare PA, no spare transport. Completely amazed that such an amateur approach has had no issues doing multiple paid gigs over many years. We do have two (excellent) vocalists though, so I guess that counts as a spare...

Ah you're getting an MBD2 - I've heard only good things about them! Update: I see from your post above that it's landed! Congrats!

Not at all Paul. Don't think anyone really thinks taking a spare amp is "wrong". It's a perfectly sensible approach! I think they object to the silly insinuation that if folk dare to have a different back-up plan (such as DI'ing into the PA) then this could either fatally damage their "brands" or they are being unprofessional. I guess we should all take spare PAs, have a hire car lined up in case ours breaks down en route and a backing lead vocalist in case of a sore throat? For a paid pub gig? What nonsense.

But is it even correct to say that (all) P pups are humbuckers? My understanding is derived from the following - and I do appreciate it may be relatively basic. "... there IS a difference between P-bass pickups and humbuckers (both double coil pickups): because, although they both are humbucking pickups, humbuckers have 2 coils under each string, allowing them to ‘pick up’ a wider area under the string, and creating some phase cancelation, resulting in a ‘fatter‘ sound, with attenuated highs and strong lows and mids. On the other hand, P-bass/split coil pickups are essentially 2 single coil pickups one next to the other… So why do they sound different compared to regular single coil pickups? Well, this is due to the size of the coil used on each of these pickups: Since split coil pickups have a smaller coil than single coil pickups, this very coil is wound more times, creating a different inductance. To conclude, you don’t necessarily need a humbucker pickup to buck the hum. This can also be achieved with single coil pickups thanks to either of the following options: Use a noise cancelling/humbucking single coil pickup – which were created to keep the sound of single coil pickups while eliminating their inherent hum Set both single-coil pickups to the same volume – this will cancel out the hum, while creating a trademark “mid scoop” sound And the truth is, nowadays, most single coil pickups are noise cancelling."

I don't disagree that P pups can be hum-cancelling, for a minute. My point is a very simple one: if you had a bass with P + MM set up and were to say to a bass player that "the bass has P + Humbucker pups" folk would instantly know what you were talking about - he or she would be (rightly) imagining a P + MM pup set up. If you said (also technically correctly in Cuzzie speak) that the bass had "two humbucker pups", I bet almost no one would immediately think that you were talking about a P + MM set up.

Not sure anyone should disagree with the above sentiments! (sorry if I've misread the script by concurring Cuzzie, on this occassion lol!) I think we have, between us, come up with 3 commonly used solutions which should all work just fine: - DI straight into the PA; - DI into the PA vis a pre-amp pedal to get your desired tone shaping / grit (or indeed your complete sound if it's a decent multifx e.g. Helix); - take a spare amp with you. Given the relatively straightforward Plan Bs available, Paul for me you've hit the nail on the head.

That was a seriously painful experience, Paul, and you have all our sympathy on that one mate! Out of interest have you had any breakdown issues with your other non-valve / SS amps?

So how complicated would it be to DI through the PA? Well, although I've not ever needed to do this on any gigs so far (touch wood), actually it can be a complete doddle and potentially avoid any disruption to the flow of the set - another factor to bear in mind. In my case there's a spare Gtr (high Z) input to our Allen & Heath mixer which means I can just take the lead out of my amp and plug straight into the mixer (without even needing a DI pedal - although please shout if you disagree with this bit). Job done. How does it sound? Well I've just given that set up a spin and it's very passable, bearing in mind it's a 10" speaker (albeit a quality RCF 310A) and hasn't been tuned to bass frequencies in the way a bass cab will be. I suspect a lot of you will have decent 12" or 15" speakers for your PA which should sound even better. Sufficient insurance for the hopefully blue moon event of a modern SS amp going down at a gig? Yes, for sure for me and similarly several gigging bassists on this thread. I appreciate others want to take a more cautious approach and have a back-up amp instead. Completely respect that as being an entirely valid solution. Just not one I feel is necessary for my two covers bands.

Haha it's not all about you, even if you are talking baloney some of the time! I mean seriously, who calls a P pup anything other than a "P pup"?

Or you could just DI through the PA 😁

Agreed. I had the same experience with hardly being able to hear myself once and, similarly, it was no fun! But as we've observed, actually needing to use the insurance of DI/spare amp/spare FRFR etc should hopefully be a once in a blue moon event.

Hah! In which case, when I upgrade my current amp I really should hold onto my existing SS amp as a backup, without feeling too guilty! The comment about age / reliability of existing gear touched on is also an important one. And as Chris and several others have pointed out, to have nothing go wrong for 20 years with decent SS gear, which generally seems to be more reliable than some of the older valve amps, seems a long time to be carrying about a spare amp without ever needing it. I get that DI'ing via a PA may take a little setting up, but to hear myself I would simply step closer to the FOH and include a touch the bass in the monitor. After all, we are talking about pretty rare circumstances if we did an average of "amp-downs" encountered between us vs number of gigs we've amassed.

Home insurance is a tiny cost in comparison to the cost of your home. In that rare emergency, you can always simply DI into the PA and job done.

@jrixn1-that's very fair. But Steve's solution above or just DI via the mixer is even simpler / cheaper and avoids needing to cart around another piece of kit that you may never need to use.

I think it can balance out though. I suspect you've got a very decent PA though plus several monitors? We have two lightweight RCF310As that can handle 3 vocals, acoustic guitar and sax, and we manage with just one monitor for the vocals. Our backline serves as the "monitors" for bass and electric guitar, which works just fine for pub gigs. My sense is thay you need a pretty decent PA to handle bass as well as quality separates can - so it boils down to which route you're going down and clearly both can work well. In terms of the OPs question: I've never had an amp blow, never bothered with a spare and we will have a spare lead somewhere so that I can DI into the PA in an emergency. Or not and audience probably wouldn't notice...

@MB1 so glad that you have rendered OCD obolete on this thread 😉

This one is definitely stealing the thunder from its 5 string brethren in my herd (with one notable exception!):

Thanks Alfred - and good luck with your writing and teaching! One final suggestion from me (again please do with as you feel appropriate or just ignore!) Have a think about putting the 500 exercises in order of difficulty and by also key signature starting with C. As someone who is new to reading bass clef, finding that the first exercise was in the key of B major with 5# was a little scary 😁

Agree it's a real head turner. Doesn't sound too bad when played by young master freak either!

You're really piling up my "watch later" YT list 😁

Ah ok thanks Wat - yup I should have said VM4 rather than 5 but I seem to default 5 string references these days!

@wateroftyne - enjoyed your YT review. Did you you consider a Sandberg VM5 as a possible alternative?

Would have been great to have had included the Berg neck pup in passive mode on your tone review and compared it to your P basses. Maybe next time eh?