Dan Dare

Good buy and schlepping it will help keep you fit 🙂

This is very true. The sound that pleases in the showroom, studio and your home is often less than ideal at gigs. I occasionally hire myself and my PA out. At one gig, the bassist had a BF Big Twin and insisted on flooding the place with low frequency mush. I tried in vain to persuade him that the object of the exercise was not to demonstrate how fabulously extended the frequency range of his rig was, but to no avail.

I reckon many silly prices are due to people being ordered by 'er indoors to get rid because the place is crammed with instruments So they put it up at a stupid price and tell her "I'm trying to sell it, dear, but nobody's biting".

Given that weight and compactness are the main reasons people choose combos, separates can actually be a better proposition. One of the crop of class D heads plus a lightweight cab (or two/more) is often a lot lighter to carry. I prefer two journeys to and from the car with lightweight stuff, rather than one with a lump. Separates are also scalable -you can add cabs for bigger jobs - and in the event of a failure, you have more options. The gear tart in me would still like an AER, though.

Probably an AER Amp 3. They are on the high side of affordable and I periodically wrestle with my desire for one.

This is a good solution ,but make sure you use a DI box that has the necessary attenuation (not all do and those which do tend to be more expensive and use high quality transformers, such as Jensen). If you're using a valve amp (not applicable with a Rumble, I know), you need a box that provides a dummy load to to the amp to avoid destroying your output transformer.

Which would support the notion that they ship to their UK distributor in bulk and items are sent out individually from there. Makes sense. If we want quicker delivery, we can always buy from and support a UK-based company. May cost us a little more, of course.

This. It would make no sense for them to despatch dozens of individual parcels to the UK. Easier and cheaper to put them all in the UK-bound container and ship it weekly. Not unreasonable of them.

You can't have it both ways. You brought up the notion of entire reworking/artistic freedom and then claimed we were discussing one semitone. Make your mind up. Interestingly, we play this number in my soul band. Our keyboard player was playing the major third on the way up as well as on the way down. We had a quick word and played him the Otis original and, being a sensible grown-up, he didn't try to double down or claim he was "interpreting" it. He just said "Thanks, chaps. Got it" and played it right from then on.

No, we're not. As someone who has stated above that reworking entire songs = artistic freedom, etc, you should know that. That one semitone started the discussion, but it's broadened a lot more since.

"I'm sticking it to The Man/making a stand for artistic freedom by playing a load of wrong notes". Cool.

This. If he's local, it's only a couple of hours out of your life. There could be some pink, potentially red, flags. The main one for me is that there are plenty of good soul/funk bass players about, but they usually know their worth and expect to be paid. The word "collective" does smack of no money, hippies, etc, but there's only one way to find out and it's easy enough to make your excuses and leave if he turns out to be another Walter Mitty.

Right on, man.

Paper cones are often doped to increase stiffness and durability. You could try that ("Google "speaker cone dope"), but the stuff isn't cheap. In my experience, once a cone has aged, dried out (or got damp - the OP mentioned the combo had been in his garage for years) and become brittle, fixes will only work temporarily and the bullet - a recone or new driver - has to be bitten eventually.

As long as "making it your own" isn't code for "can't be bothered to get it right, so I'll wing it".

Of course.

The Super Compact is the most traditional sounding of the BF 12" cabs and should do the business with a suitable amp. It and your Markbass should be perfect for the old school sound you seem to crave. Which leaves the instrument. Something like a P bass would be far more likely to do the business, imho. It's also worth noting that no single 12" cab will give you the sound you get from a large PA. The laws of physics and all that.

Sounds as if someone felt threatened by your experience and knowledge. Shame it cost you a friend.

"Gourmet tone woods"? Oh dear. Interestingly, quite a few exotic woods are poisonous.

This. once you reach pension age, the mortgage is paid off and the kids are off your hands, you can just play what you enjoy and not worry about whether it will go anywhere or pay the bills. A job keeps some money rolling in and helps you stay in touch with the human race. It's a good place to be.

Good advice from Bill. I had that same cab many years ago and it improved a lot when I replaced the nasty, flimsy Fender drive unit, added some simple bracing and acoustic foam and lengthened the port (I used a shelf of ply to extend it).

My AG700 is simple - 4 band eq, input gain and master and that's about it - and powerful. It's been reliable over the years I've had it. It'll probably go pop now I've said that...

What keeps me in the game is the fact that I wouldn't know what to do with myself if playing music was no longer part of my life. I've been doing it for more than 50 years and it would leave a big hole if it ended. As is the case with many musicians, my social life is heavily tied up in it. A lot of friends are musicians. It's also a major part of who I am - my identity and how I perceive myself.

I agree with those who say bullet dodged. It does sound as if the others were not on the same page as you, so it would only have been a matter of time before a falling-out occurred. As you've nothing to lose, ask the singer if it's bugging you. If she's gone along with it, she's hardly in your corner and it isn't as if you'll be burning any bridges if the deed has already been done.