Dan Dare

Exactly that.

It's a free country and you're welcome to do it any way you like. You may or may not get it to work doing it that way. Bill was explaining the way to get the best result. Ideally, you need to be able to control the frequency ranges and relative amounts of power going to the subs and tops. If they are very different in terms of efficiency/sensitivity, you will struggle to balance them. Used power amps (especially old school - i.e. class AB/heavy) can be picked up very cheaply these days, so it's worth picking one up. An inexpensive basic crossover from someone like Behringer isn't going to break the bank, either.

Much good advice above. A 15 won't necessarily produce more lows than multiple smaller drivers. Chris B raises the important point of efficiency/sensitivity - how much acoustic output you get for a given input power. That is down to cab design, as well as driver type/size. Simply adding a large single driver cab won't necessarily give you more of what you want, especially if it produces a lot of subsonic or infra bass, which can cause issues with the PA via low frequencies travelling through the stage floor, up mic stands and into mics. It can also muddy the sound in the room.

Toilet seat "was brown and worn, now refinished". I'll, er pass, thanks.

Yep. They will probably move production to somewhere cheap, but continue to charge the same prices. Even if they don't lower standards, they will still be quids in. I happily paid the high price (compared to other brands for an equivalent) for an AG700 because I liked the fact that it hadn't been built by children in the Far East earning minimum wage.

Same as. Can't stand the over-hyped, frantic tone of many YT vid's. No doubt people making them have been told you have to "grab" or "engage" the viewer. Just pees me off and I'm more likely not to watch.

Given the price of the amp, changing valves (or at least, more than one of them) would not be a cost effective option. Assuming it has separate pre and power sections (it may not at 5w) you could look into substituting the preamp valve for a lower gain version.

I'm in a similar position, having played mandolin and guitar for 30 years. I prefer to use my fingers on the bass if I can, but I find there are some approaches that really demand a pick. It's more to do with the attack and shape of notes than the tone. You can approximate it to an extent, but really, using a pick is the only option in the end.

I have a Carvin B1000, which has a preamp valve. I like it Has 6 band eq, so is tonally very versatile. They're not common, but worth trying one if you can. I swapped the ECC83 valve for a slightly lower gain version, which gives a more finessed transition when moving between clean and valvey sounds.

I would just suggest that you don't buy anything sight unseen or unheard on the basis of recommendation alone. All the kit suggested above is good. Whether it will suit you is another matter. You wouldn't buy a car without driving it. It may be inconvenient/tedious to traipse around trying things out, but it's the only way to guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Neutrik make a fat-bodied jack plug which will accept heavier speaker cables.

Perhaps, but it doesn't hurt. As I have a fairly powerful PA, I just use offcuts of 2.5mm cable to make my bass rig cables. 4mm is overkill, I agree.

No, but have a look at this (only a few mins) - How to wire Neutrik SpeakON cables - YouTube - which shows what to do

Speakon cables are simple to make. Just make sure you buy genuine Neutrik Speakons (cheap copies don't always fit well and can jam) and decent cable - Van Damme or similar. Get at least 2.5mm for all but low power applications. No soldering required. Just cut the cable strip to the correct length (the Speakon packet has a diagram to guide you) and screw them in. Takes 5 mins tops. You only need two pole 99% of the time.

"... to ensure there will never be two of the same". I do hope he's right.

Another toy for the weekend warrior with more money than sense.

What I wanted to be/do changed every week when I was a kid. That hasn't altered yet and I'm in my dotage...

I'm not surprised he's done this. He's a nice bloke. A band I used to be in played support for him once. He was very down to earth and chatted with us, even complemented us after our set.

I use my fx send to drive an additional power amp and cab when I need to make more noise, but that's it.

Bill's right. Power output figures claimed by amp manufacturers tend to be over-stated. An amp may produce its stated maximum power output over a few milliseconds at, for example, 1khz into a resistor, but it will be very unlikely to be able to sustain that. You will hear distortion if you are pushing a speaker too hard. Most speakers can handle short term bursts/peaks above their rated power, anyway.

Now all I have to do is buy some ties.

I've always been under the impression that most active basses have passive pickups with on-board powered pre-amps/eq. Is that not the case?

Someone will buy it. Probably some architect, lawyer or similar with more money than sense who can't play a note and who wants to impress his pals or who thinks it will be an "investment".