Dan Dare

I've found with my very infrequent sales (I hardly buy and sell - I try to find what I like and stick with it) that the BC sales forum is a reliable place. The only thing I don't like is that you have to set a price when selling. Sometimes, you can get a pleasant surprise when selling on eBay, especially if several get into a bidding war for what you're selling. I do notice that a few selling on BC have an optimistic view of what their stuff is worth. Typically, average used values (excluding vintage, rare or unusual items) tend to work out at around half new retail.

The late great Jimmy Smith played all the bass parts with his feet on his Hammond. Very tasty bass parts they were, too.

I'd sell the bass complete and try a Jaguar. Short or medium scale, depending on model, P/J pickups and not too expensive.

It's cheap and easy to experiment with cap values. They cost pennies.

THs do have a baked in tone (warm/thick), which you can modify but not lose completely with the eq (which is only 4 band) in my experience. If you like the sound, great. If not, you're probably better looking at alternatives. I have an AG700, which is less coloured by nature, although even it has some of the trademark Aguilar sound. Fortunately, I like it.

I love tucking into the buffet at functions (provided I'm invited, natch), but you have to watch out. If you overdo it, you can be nodding off in the second set - like those films of the lions of the Serengeti, where they kill and eat something and go to sleep under a tree for two days...

You need to bypass the preamp entirely if you want something genuinely "flat" (if such a thing exists, which is debatable - all amplification has a sonic signature of some sort). A plain power amp is the obvious choice. You may not like the results, of course...

True. I was in the same position as you - needing something compact for small jobs. I went shopping for combos, tried a few and liked the Markbass 1x12. I was about to buy one, when I saw the shop had a Phil Jones C4 cab on display, so out of curiosity, I asked to try it. It was considerably better - surprisingly so (to my ears at any rate) - than the MB (and that was driven by a little GK 200w head). It sounded even nicer when I got it home and plugged my AG700 into it. I bought it and have since sold my other cabs and got two more PJB cabs, so I can take as many as I need to get the volume required for a job. If you like your Super Twin, the advantage of getting a Super Compact is that you will get the BF house sound in a smaller package for lower volume situations. They do turn up used, so if you're not in a hurry, you may well find a nice one and save a bit.

Don't be concerned about a neck "taking on moisture". If you throw the instrument in a river or leave it out in the rain, it probably will, but hard woods such as maple are tight grained and not at all porous. They will not absorb moisture over the course of a couple of hours playing. Products such as Tru Oil, Birchwood Casey, etc are meant for gun stocks and similar, so will leave a slightly shiny finish. Most seem to consist primarily of linseed oil. A wipe down after you've played will be fine. If it gets dirty, clean it as suggested above.

I put a couple of Celestion Neo 10s in a cheap secondhand 2x10 cab a while back and got decent results. I may have been fortunate that the cab suited them, but don't be too worried about matching drivers to cabs. Within reason, most good quality units will work fine in the standard sized cabs that exist. Manufacturers, especially those in the budget/mass market, tend to stick to the tried and trusted as far as specs/designs are concerned.

Two very nice (and portable - especially the LM3) heads there. Any decent 1x12, or even 1x10 if you don't need to push the volume, cab ought to do nicely. Cheaper than buying a combo, too.

Not wise to answer this for fear of tempting fate.

Is the cab link out at line or speaker level? If the former, you can do it, but will need a DI box with attenuation, to lower the signal sufficiently to avoid overloading the input stage on the mixer. If the latter, no.

Agree with Ebenezer. What head do you use with the supertwin (I assume you mean the BF cab' and not the Fender guitar combo)? If small, light and decent, no point in duplicating it by getting a combo.

You may struggle to play "heavier stuff" on a 5 string through £200 odd worth of kit at any volume and with any quality of sound. Is it possible to save a bit more?

You're making my point. I haven't seen a YT vid of Tal W miming to a track. She behaves like a proper musician - lets her fingers do the talking and doesn't (despite the fact that she's rather gorgeous) trade on her looks or give it large to the camera. So drop the smug nonsense about "having the audacity to be a woman", etc, eh. You know very well that's not what I'm saying. Have the gumption to post a photo of yourself on your sig', too. Stop hiding behind a cartoon.

Talk about deliberately misunderstanding me. Find me a video of a woman playing (I concede that MA, if she plays the stuff on the vid', knows what she's about) who isn't eye candy that gets any attention. Oh, btw, I have daughter who is, among other things, a mountain bike instructor and triathlete. She could kick my and your @rse.

H&K stuff is usually well built and decent. If it was cheap, I'd be surprised if you're disappointed, provided it works OK. You can get that acoustically transparent foam very cheaply on eBay if you fancy recovering the grille.

If it's a powered monitor, it should work. Best if the monitor has an input gain, so you can adjust its level independently of the main amp.

I'd bet that's an IcePower module in a box. Quite a few offer them. Output numbers look a bit suspect. It doesn't work out that way in practice (doubling of output every time the impedance halves).

Oh Gawd. There are a load of these vid's on YouTube of cute (and sometimes scantily clad) young women playing along to tracks. The comments are full of drivel from the lustful and stupid about how wonderful they are, etc, etc. Look closely and you'll notice you often cannot see the jack on the instrument in many of them, which suggests it ain't even plugged in and that they are miming. All very contrived.

In similar vein, I was playing in an irish trad' band at a wedding. People will often book a band to play some trad' early in the evening, before a disco or function band takes over to play music for dancing for the rest of the night. A bloke came up to me and demanded that we "play some rock n' roll for the youngsters". I explained that, whilst he and I, being the wrong side of 60, may have listened to rock n' roll in our youth, "the youngsters" these days want something very different. He was very offended and made a big fuss because I'd suggested that he was old. In the end, I had to tell him to go and look in the mirror...

Power amps go for very little secondhand. Always worth a look on evilBay etc before buying new. Brand, provided you stick with decent name stuff, doesn't really matter. They tend to be much of a muchness as far as quality, output, etc is concerned. Everyone uses pretty well the same circuit.

"Real bargain for the festival season". Great for banging in tent pegs...

Who plays in the upper register? Guitar players, that's who...