Al Krow

The issue you currently have is that you are using an 8 ohm cab and your amp is only putting out 250W. Get the 4 ohm version of the VK 210 MNT. The cab will be able to handle and deliver the full 500W from your DG 500. You should then have zero problems keeping up with your drummer. If for some reason your full 500W is not enough (and I can't imagine why that would be!) you would need to have a look at the whole rig, including your amp and maybe switch to the DG M900 and VK210 LNT 4 ohms (which can handle 1200W RMS).

And you choose your partner based on the colour of their hair, I presume? Just to keep things real, of course.

Totally agree that if you're buying second hand at whatever price, most of the price 'hit' will typically be taken by the first owner. I was really thinking (and should have made it more explicit in the OP, which I will do now) about folk buying new £3k basses.

Two confessions: 1) Like @dannybuoy I'm also using a TC Spectracomp (not the Keeley) as my comp at the start of the chain. 2) If I was buying all over, instead of the Keeley I'd probably be tempted to get this:

You can almost always find the £300 bass you fancy to try before you buy, and even if you can't and it doesn't work out... You can almost always find a purchaser for the £300 bass without losing an arm, a leg, several organs, a couple of fingers...

They're both pretty transparent. It doesn't have the fancy lights that MXR has, if that's important for you. It has less control over parameters than the MXR has, unless you get the Keeley Pro version. But it knocks it out of the park when it comes to being a limiter.

Let's make that three in a row for the Keeley. It's very transparent so don't expect it to nicely colour your tone, it won't. It's also a great limiter. One of the best. That's what it's ended up being on my board.

Well I fortunately haven't yet, but I've just been looking at a few of the basses in the for sale, with stories along the lines of: I bought this amazing new bass!! ...I've had it 3 months, but it's not for me and I've decided to move it on Lots of nice appreciation from fellow BC'ers on how gorgeous it is But still for sale with not a sniff after 18 months... Ouch!!! I can't get my head around the whole thing. Sure if you've got £3k to blow on a bass and that's what you want to spend your hard earned cash on, go for it. But I'm guessing at that price it's going to be a 'dream bass' for even folk with cash to burn and what a nightmare when it doesn't shape up to what you hoped for and no one else wants it. Is the lesson here a simple one? Avoid designer basses unless you're absolutely sure what you're after and do everything you can to get your hands on something similar by the same luthier to try out before committing to buy?

Just get a VK210 MNT (or possibly an LNT, although your DG won't need that much power handling) and you won't need a second cab. Your ears will totally love you. Job done.

Although it's not an issue for the OP as he can get a second 8 ohm cab, I hadn't previously spotted that the DG M500 doesn't have a 2 Ohm mode unlike its big brother the DG M900. That's almost the wrong way around!

A very good analogy about the direction of travel.

If you want it a lot smaller, that can be sorted. There's a very clever chap by the name of @GisserD, who's got a bit of a following both over here and in the US for his little creation (I'm claiming credit for the blue and white edition). Be warned, he's tall...

I can't deny any of the above. And I'm possibly even worse: I've just turned down the possibility of a BF BB2, which is one of the most loved cabs on this forum, for the chance to get a Fearless F112. Bye Alex, hello Guy. Actually that's not entirely true about saying bye to Alex: my BF SC at 21 lbs continues to blow everyone away for what it delivers at its weight-point. And frankly I can't bear to part with it. It's just that back in the real world (and even on BC) there are so many fellow bass players who find that Markbass hits the spot at a price that's half of the stuff we've got ourselves into.

Ok that does it!!! I just gotta get me one of these. ...oh wait, I did that already. Now where did I leave it? 😄

So setting the bar high then? Funny thing is if you go into a store, the assistants will react with hushed tones if you mention high end Markbass. We are such bass snobs!

Please define "great".

Ashdown amps have earned a very loyal following on here, and are a great UK success story to be celebrated. But with the arrival of superb multifx like the Helix Stomp, this belated, expensive and underwhelming foray into pedals by Ashdown feels like someone deciding that diesel engines are the future when the rest of the world is moving onto hybrids.

No, no, no! Mixing cabs of different makes is akin to creating mules according to "them that know better" and to whom forlock tipping is required.

You would be already regarded as a minor rock god if you had. Made of vonder clay.

Weird he should think that. In my experience drummers manage to change key (and rarely moan about having to do so) quicker than just about anyone else in the band 😂

The TC is an amazingly good value combo. I also had a 115 that @Pat2019 now uses as my first bass combo. The 210 and 208 came out soon after I bought mine and I suspect if I was starting over, I'd go for one of these two instead now, just for the tighter punchier bass tone they seem to deliver.

Congrats! I suspect you'll totally love it. The clips I've heard of Cuzzie playing through his have been great (I hope he doesn't mind me saying). And I know I regularly get beaten up for my neanderthal views on speaker cone size, but if there were no other considerations (weight, power handling, frequency response etc) and I wanted a single cab, I really don't think I've come across anything better than a 212 for getting everything right. Funnily enough 95% of the folk who tell me I've got it wrong own either a 212, or 2 112s, or are making do with a single 112. (I appreciate I'm being a little Fearless in making such a claim). 😄

So Cali CB, DG AO Ultra and Pitch Shifter sorted. I think it's just paid for itself! And that grin on your face would obviously be priceless 😁