Al Krow

Nah - you're very welcome here! (I'll amend the thread title to be inclusive of both the AO900 and the M900 Mk2) And congrats on the new amp - looks great!! What cab are you pairing it with?

I'd love to, but if I manage to last another 15 with my bands, I'll be a happy camper. How long you been at the game so far and managed to keep a smile on your face? What would you say the secret to keeping it fresh and fun is? ... Oooh, now that would be material for a whole 'nother thread

That's because the OP mentioned having a budget 😁

I've only been at this game with a bass for 6 years. Guess I'm still in the honeymoon phase

Need some original footage from you Mr @HazBeen!

Harry knows how much of a pain it is to wrap up and courier basses safely for international dispatch and so he went the extra mile for me. In fact the extra 200 miles and came over to London to my door to pick up the bass he'd bought from me. What a top guy and excellent bass player and great to spend some time in his company. Looking forward to a curry night out, next time you're over, and hopefully we can get one or two London BC'ers along to join us. And 9 is exactly the right number of basses, not 8.

Ibanez SR per chance?

So based on the input and recommendations from this thread, it does seem there is prevalent use and significant benefit to be had to adding a sub to our 10" tops in terms of additional low end and allowing the tops to focus on mids / highs without having a big chunk of their work diverted to the energy draining low end. I have narrowed my choices down to two of the lighter 12" speakers: RCF 702 AS II - 39lbs, built in mixer & crossover, f resp 40hz to 120hz - £696 new Alto TS312S - 55lbs and almost 1/4 bigger in size than the RCF, crossover, f resp 44hz to 95hz - £344 The RCF is almost double the price of the Alto, but the weight & size differential I suspect is going to make quite a lot of difference in terms of portability of the RCF to me which means it will get used more regularly and, based on the awesome reputation of the RCF alone (as I've not heard either in practice), I would expect there to be a bit of step up in speaker and component quality in the RCF vs the Alto with a corresponding greater clarity / lack of low end 'muffle' for the RCF. If I could get a vgc RCF 702 AS II used for around the £500 mark that would be a clincher. Any recommendations for good used sites for PA gear where I might be able to pick one of these up?

What? That 5 strings are quite possibly the best sort but you're a bit crap at them...? That's very honest of you to 'fess up to 😁

@2elliot seems to have his finger closer to the pulse on this than the rest of us

Don't look now, but this thread is about to hit a major milestone in the number of views it's had! What a great set of basses with such a loyal following - and for good reason! - you've made Yamaha! 🥂

Ditto! Ok so in my case it's been just 21 months and only a couple of higher-end more flashy basses have have come and gone. But the last bit is spot on!

Well yes, but I didn't want to presume! But given that it's the same vintage white as my BB 1025, you can understand why it caught my eye! Must admit I've generally preferred the look of the BBs without the pick guards, but the PG plus the chrome knobs on that X look great!

Excuse my pulling you over to this fanboy thread to avoid risking de-railing the Berg one! 😉 Couldn't but help spot the rather tasty bass you have on the left hand side (and a not too shabby rig either!). Which model?

Thanks very much for jumping in. One of our local retailers is currently quoting £399 = $500 (give or take a $). You can appreciate that's causing a few of us to hesitate and we're hoping it's a typo on their ad. [Aside: I'm loving my Red Ripper btw - guess it's now a collectors item since you've stopped production! No plans to replace?]

Sounds like you've had a pretty good experience (apart from the weight!) with your Altos! A sound guy would be nice, but we've managed perfectly well without and I'm sure loads of other bands do too. As for technical knowledge - if you can learn a full set of songs you've got the ability, between you, to connect up a sub to a PA. Well that's my view of the world anyway! 😁 In terms of limited budget, the Alto 312S appears to offer remarkable value for money, but totally appreciate that if things are tight that is gonna be a constraint.

But if they all had the same bridge and the same pups, then how would our beloved Yamaha be able to justify charging premium prices for the higher end basses? 😄

Bear in mind they will dock you a small % for the privelege of using Invapay. Which definitely annoyed some of my bandmates.

Hey Paul - saw on another thread that you still have a DG head and BF rig? (Which is exactly what I'm also using for my gigging rig). Out of interest did you let your AO go and replace with another DG unit? And if so, what was it about the AO head that didn't hit the spot for you?

Yeah fair! My Q on preserving low end stands, though, particularly with lack of clean blend.

Had just over 100 responses in from bands both here and in the US. Results took me by surprise: about 70% of bands said that they used a sub as part of their PA and another approx 10% that they were thinking of getting one. Perhaps a skewed sample in that bands who don't use maybe simply haven't registered, but for some reason I thought the proportion of bands using would be lower maybe 50:50 or less. But based on your feedback (for which many thanks!) clearly subs are both popular with gigging bands and obviously seem to work in practice. Looks like I need to start making the case to my covers bands!

Like the concept and could be a neat successor to the DHA valve preamps. But seems to be geared at 6 string guitars - any idea how it will perform with bass; in particular preserving low end? Couldn't see a clean blend on it.