Al Krow

Tricky situation Phil! I know of one band who are 'talented hobbyists' rather than semi-pros, with other sources of income, and who are happy to take home less each from gigs so that their dep bass player, who is a pro and lives off his performance income, can get a decent fee. They end up with an excellent bass player who is happy to commit and the rest of the band enjoy the gigs much more as a result Tangentially, I've heard of a band leader not personally taking any payment from gigs in order to be competitive on pricing, so the rest of the band got a decent fee per gig, and building up a roster of venues. The band then put up prices once they had got themselves established. I guess we've been fortunate in not needing to do either of the above, but there's a certain logic to the first and I do have admiration for the approach taken in the second! They may give you a sticking plaster solution till you find your permanent band member. Good luck!

Interesting point which I'd not really given any thought to: a low male can often get comfortably down to a b1 = 61 Hz. My ignorance, but why would it matter if that was being handled by the sub(s) rather than the tops?

A first review on bass, looking at just the presets... Maybe just a couple on there that I might be tempted to use e.g. 49 T-Wah, but I suspect the value-add, as with many multis is going to be from creating our own patches.

@Pirellithecat - question for: do you think not finding a bass tone that you are happy with could potentially be down to too much low end in some of the more cramped venues you're playing in?

I can appreciate that the subs will make a big difference, particularly at outdoor gigs which is where we notice the lack, but we do precious few of those. But, as you say, space can be limited at a lot of indoor, certainly pub, gigs and we do seem to manage to get a pretty decent low-end with our more humble 912As.

Impressive set up! Welcome to the A&H CQ18T club! I'll be hoping to join you in the RCF 932A club at some point soon - I think our singers deserve better than the more budget 912As we currently have, to bring out their vocals. But as for RCF 705 subs and custom IEMs...you've left us for dust!

Nice! The SR Premium range have an active / passive switch, but will set you back a fair bit more...as would my Spector EuroLX which doesn't have an active passive switch, but does have a very accessible battery socket to compensate (which I think all the Ibby ranges will also have). Guess just need to add "check battery" to the pre gig routine!

KZ ZARs tick all the boxes for me (prefer to my Shures and KZ ZS10s). Very competitively priced via Ali Express.

Just leaving this here! Super compact and just £80 for a multifx, amp modeller and IR loader.

I'm sure none of us are keen on encouraging child labour exploitation. But you disrespect so many nations and their hard working citizens by making such generalisations. Where exactly are "these places" in the "Far East" you refer to where children are working 7 days a week for 12 hours a day, making high tech bass PA equipment that we consume here in the West? Which Western bass equipment manufacturers are you aware of who are importing such kit without looking at the working conditions of the factories making the products they import? It would be good to know - I'm sure we would all benefit from the research you have done on this.

I'm sorry that is such an offensive, bigotted post. Exactly which far eastern economies are you referring to?

Welcome! The Zoom B1-4 is a wonderfully good value piece of kit - this thread may be of interest to you: Zoom B1-4 & B3N - Effects patch ideas and tips - Effects - Basschat

After two very late night finishes on Thursday and Friday at a couple of our pub residencies and back home in the small hours, which included having to deal with one of the venues that had hitherto supplied the drum kit not having one anymore, but not bothering to inform us(!), we had a real treat Sunday morning as the course band for the Hackney half-marathon for our fourth year. 8am arrive to set up and then 25,000 runners streaming passed over 2 hours which we played solidly without a break - so a bit of a marathon for us too! Made doubly special for me by having my daughter participating as a runner again this year. A complete blast and a great atmosphere! A little insta clip here to give you more of a feel for the event.

Interesting if you're equating K12-2s with RCF 912As in terms of your personal preferences Phil?

Oh that's interesting! What do you feel they are lacking? Consensus seems to be they are comparably good to RCF speakers and, I guess from what's been said, the FBTs also.

The plastic bucket load, right? 😅

V. helpful A/B based on the spec sheets, although I guess the proof of the sound has got to be in the hearing? Not sure about the power ratings you've suggested though - the 912A's are stated to be: LOW FREQUENCIES: 1400 W Peak HIGH FREQUENCIES: 700 W Peak Which I reckon should translate to 700 + 350 = 1050W RMS per speaker, which is decent? How rugged is plywood typically vs toughened plastic?

Apologies to the OP for the RCF fanboi thread derail! But...which RCFs are you guys using?

Again no experience with FBTs, sorry, but I can vouch Phil's comment that the RCF 912As are good, and maybe worth adding to your shortlist if they are comparably priced? I was really happy with the sound we were getting at our last couple of pub gigs, fulsome low end without needing a sub. (Very short clip here to give you an idea of how they were sounding on Saturday night, recorded on our singer's phone).

See you've got a wanted ad up for Zoom B2 Four @AlexDelores I suspect most of us only make use of a fraction of the capability of our multis, and having something you'll be able to get more out of sooner makes a lot of sense. Given you're already up to speed on the B3, your familiarity with Zoom pedals should be a big jumping off point for the B2-4, which is two generations of Zoom multifx on from the highly regarded B3, and will hopefully deliver a few useful additional features for you. Fwiw - I also fall into the PC editing camp as I find it much easier to cut and paste and tweak patches that way and definitely don't have time during gigs to be adjusting pedal parameters, given that I'm on desk duties for my sins! It was part of the reason for not migrating to the latest gen of Zoom pedals as their latest software is Apple/iOS only and the super easy to use Tonelib editing software for Zoom pedals only goes as far as the previous B1-4 model. GLWT new pedal! PS I've actually held onto the first multifx I ever bought, way back in '96 for sentimental reasons: my old Zoom 2020 😊

Zombie thread resurrection! I agree that LEDs on a non-latching footswitch would be really useful e.g. for us GT1000Core and Helix users where we're looking to get another couple of stomp switches available, but also to know whether it's been engaged or not when it can sometimes be a little tricky to hear through monitors in a band mix. I've come across a couple that should do the job - Dual Momentary Footswitch with Latching LED - Bright Onion Pedals but getting on for £75 if you select a colour for the pedal (and once you've spent £70 on it, you may as well get something that you like the look of right?) Looking like it should a similar job for less than half the price: Nux-NMP2 I've gone for the budget option! UPDATE: the Nux-NMP2 LEDs are unfortunately not latching in momentary mode...looks like it's going to have to be the more expensive Bright Onion option... Followed up with useful chat with James at Bright Onion, his pedal would get me 70% of the way there - one limitation he flagged of the LED only being turned off when when the momentary is pressed again i.e. LED will stay ON if scroll through different patches on my GT1000Core, and would need to manually correct using the sync buttons - not too practical mid song during a live set. He recommended midi as the better alternative for me.

Another Zoom fanboi here! A Zoom B1-4 was at the heart of my gigging pedal board for five years. I've not used a Boss Gt-1B, but have recently switched to GT1000 Core and am loving it - it's incredibly good at certain fx that the Zoom really couldn't get close to (e.g. drive / fuzz) and I have managed to strip back my pedal board considerably as a result, so I'd be really happy to recommend the GT Core as another multifx for you to put on your shortlist!

There's something so energising about an audience up and dancing and loving your music! LA Mixtrax (@lamixtrax) • Instagram photos and videos Had a couple of great back to back gigs on Friday and Sat night, at two different venues, both of which left me and my crew with a happy grin on our faces. Could have been a disaster last night with our drummer having a flat tyre! But he managed to set up double quick, and we started our sets with only a 15 minute delay, and made up the time by taking a shorter break. Our PA/sound set-up is relatively simple: 2 x RCF 912As (no backline) which delivers a meaty low end without needing a sub, but is not as good as the higher-end RCF 932A's for mids so we probably will think of upgrading at some point this year. The band had a few line-up changes at the start of the year and we no longer have a keys player; so it's now a pretty basic instrumental trio of guitar, drums and bass with female vox fronting, but we're starting to figure out how to fill out the sound e.g. by making sure that any doubling-up of bass and guitar lines are kept to a minimum or me occasionally adding a little octave or synth when the guitarist is solo'ing. The current line-up all use IEMs (wasn't the case previously: guitarists, in particular, seem to much prefer their amps and backline to IEMs, whereas singers seem to love them - maybe because it shuts out the guitarists' amps? 😅). The band are all starting to appreciate the flexibility provided by our A&H CQ desk to give them their own personal monitor feeds and I'm sure this has been key in IEMs now working so well for us. I love the work that has been put in by the new band members to get on top of 5 hours of set material which allows us to keep things fresh/varied at our residencies for both us and our audiences, and we're all getting rewarded by the reception we've been getting when things fall into place, as they seemed to on Fri and Sat night.

I personally love it! I've got 7 drive/fuzz pedals to list for sale now 😂 I never quite clicked with my various attempts on Helix Stomp, but loads of folk manage to put in the necessary time / have the expertise to get it sounding really good for them. Sounds like you're in that camp? If so, probably makes sense to stick with the devil you know!

Arrival of a GT 1000 Core has meant I've been able to cut down on a lot of individual pedals I was previously using for gigs when I had my Zoom B1-4: the GT Core provides an excellent drive/fuzz, along with the usual modulation fx and not too shabby an up-sweep filter either! So I've found myself just using the two pedals shown, and wanted to get a compact pedal board to match which can more easily slot into my gig bag. I found one by a previously unknown brand "Strich" - the feet were a little too tall for my needs at 4cm & 3cm respectively, but easy to unscrew and replace with four 2cm ones, which still allows plenty of clearance for my HB Iso Pro 5 PSU on the underside.