Dan Dare

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the equipment you have. It will do all you ask of it (and well - it's all high quality stuff). You will just be wasting money chopping and changing and will notice little if any difference. Bertbass makes good points (particularly about frequencies reinforcing each other) and I agree with suggestions to route the bass through the FoH rig and lift your rig up so you hear it better.

Not at all. MDF is dead/inert and quite heavy for its size and thickness. Probably worth adding some bracing internally. A lot of high priced hi-fi speaker cabs are made from it. Make sure you wear a dust mask when cutting it - some nasty stuff used to bind it together.

Pink Tour Paedo, surely... (with apologies to Spinal Tap) Some mates of mine - they are all 60+ - have a band called Simply Grey, which I think is a pretty ace name. To answer the original question, I think the name is important. Creates expectations and many do tend to judge a book by its cover. I've agonised over choosing/inventing band names - opening the dictionary at random, picking the Scrabble letters out of the bag, etc, etc - for too much of my time. When you get a good one, it's worth the grief.

Why worry about seeing them? Do you look at your hands all the time and/or spend a lot of time at the dusty end of the fingerboard?

Musical saws used to be popular in music hall/variety days. A number of companies made them (a pal has a Sandvik 'Stradivarius'). They are usually thinner than standard wood working saws, so you can put the slight 'S' bend into them that you need to produce the sound. You play them with a cello bow. See:

Ah, that magic word. "Custom".

Always great when you find a magical combination. A pal uses one of the original Epifani 1x12 cabs and that's similar. Astonishing for it's size. Two would be all you would ever need.

FOUR 15s? Now that's just showing off...

+1 for a separate head and cab. Apart from easier upgrading, if something goes wrong (which will usually be to do with the amp), it's easier to connect another to your cab and carry on, rather than have to take the whole lot to the repair shop and be without a rig. Heads are generally small/light these days, so there is no real "convenience" to having a combo. The separates approach is also scalable. You can take out only what you need for the job.

This. Wedding/function bands are part of the event, along with the flowers, catering, disco, photographer, etc, etc and not the main attraction. This also applies in pubs and clubs and even at ticketed gigs - many are there to be sociable, enjoy themselves with friends and so on. That's their right.

He sounds like fun. What was his day job? Primary school teacher? Traffic warden?

I think that making "affordable instruments" is part of Gibson's problem. In addition to the leisure brand acquisitions referred to above, they appear have spread their core business too thin, trying to appeal to everyone. They make solely in the USA (and fair play to them for that), pay people proper wages and as a result, are never going to compete with far eastern manufacturers who hire children, pay them in bags of gravel, don't have to abide by any workplace or materials regulations, etc, etc. When I was young (a loooong time ago), a Gibson was something you aspired to owning. I saved up for several years to buy my first Gibson instrument. Now, every shop seems stuffed with them and they are trying to sell at all price points. They should go back to making things that are special/desirable and leave the entry-level instruments to the mass producers, even if that means, as it undoubtedly will, that they become smaller (and also leaner and fitter). Just my opinion, of course.

It is frustrating, but not everyone is like that. I'm not dissimilar to you - own a high quality PA and am on the case when it comes to business issues and I've been in that position. There are some who view someone like us as a nurse/nanny/skivvy and try to take advantage. It's the same in most areas of work - there are people who take the lead and those who tag along and do the minimum. I don't think our advice will change anything (it isn't as if the band members are likely to say "The chaps on Basschat agree with you, so we'd better pull up our socks", after all), although I appreciate that you are probably looking for a bit of a confidence boost or confirmation that you are not being unreasonable (if what you say is true, you are being very reasonable). That's fair enough, but you don't have to answer to anyone but yourself in the end. I'd advise telling them exactly what the problems are for you and what you expect them to do to put it right. Don't take no, or even maybe, for an answer. If you go, they'll have no gigs and no equipment, so make that clear to them. Draw up a list of agreed goals/changes to the way things are and make them commit to them. If they won't do that, walk. As others say, with decent equipment and business sense, you will be an asset to plenty of bands (I'm assuming that you can play a bit, too, of course). It may be tough to be without something in the short term, but you'll be glad you did it later. Bon chance.

Whenever I play through 15s, I realise that, whilst modern, compact cabs have a lot going for them - clarity, punch, tonal accuracy, etc - there is something missing. Warmth, heft, feeling the sound, call it what you will, it is very satisfying. I used to run a Bassman 135 and later a Trace AH350 through a 2x15 (with original rubbish Fender speakers replaced by Peavey Black Widows) and you could just lean back on the sound and luxuriate in it. Lovely. I keep thinking I should try a 15 to augment my PJB cabs to give me the best of both worlds.

Too many variables - distance, size of band required, how large a PA, lights needed, duration, catering provided, etc, etc.. We're quite cheap on a Tuesday afternoon, but rather dearer on Saturday night.

It mostly is (pop music, that is), but we love it because it's part of our lives/growing up. No such thing as a subjective opinion, fortunately.

Bitsa = kit car

Dacia Sandero, surely (the Harley Benton, not the car pic')?

Dead right about Aguilar pricing. I bought an AG700 last year and knew when I did so, that it was an expensive way to purchase an IcePower module and a preamp circuit. However, it sounded better than anything else (Genzler, Glock, MB, Mesa, etc) I compared it with in the shop, so I bought it. It suits me and I like it, which eases the pain of the cost. Their cabs, however, are stupidly expensive and you can do better for less, as others point out.

Never come across one. However, the fact that it's new and going for peanuts should give pause for thought. Suspect it will be some kind of sub and that you'll need to add cabs for the mid/top. Yet more weight/bulk and probably additional amplification to carry.

I think, in view of your comment that you "still need power" and the fact that you are using a MB 104, that it will not have enough grunt for you. Clarity and tone, yes, but there is a limit to how much air four 5 inch drivers can shift, even with Mr Jones's clever porting and solidly built cabs. I have two PJB C4s, which are fine for a small/medium sized job. I add a 4B if I need to make more noise. Even then, it doesn't quite have the weight of sound of my old Epifani 310 (with the same head), although the sound is first class and, being small, the PJs are much more easily portable.

Too many to list