Dan Dare

Exactly. Expecting absolute silence when one lives in any kind of urban environment is utterly unreasonable. Even out in the sticks, it's not achievable. I'm sitting typing this in rural Hampshire with the patio doors open and the bloody birds are squawking away, some selfish so and so is mowing his lawn (the audacity of the man) and a blasted helicopter has just flown over. Disgraceful. I'm going to send a strongly worded letter of complaint to my local council.

I always respect Bill's opinions. He knows his onions. Just as well for you, eh? Now, about my other point, re Hartke and 1000w not being a "pipedream" rating. Let's hear your wisdom.

Ah. Good old "musical differences" again.

Two more things. Hartke is a reputable manufacturer. Perhaps not quite as sophisticated in its cabinet designs as BF, but better than many. Their drivers - hybrid and aluminium coned, for example - are quite innovative. They don't simply play the me-too game that so many do. What really "busts up woofers" is feeding them a dirty, clipped signal from an amplifier that is struggling to deliver enough power because its power supply is inadequate. Reputable drivers can deal with short term transients of up to twice their rated constant power as long as the signal is clean and the cabinet they are mounted in is properly designed.

It's a matter of degree. When you see people perform their songs live, they won't necessarily copy exactly the way they played it on the record. Duplicating a part from the original isn't necessarily essential, but widdling around with it is not good. If there are key or iconic phrases and so on, it's vital that they are right and that whatever you add or alter is true to the mood of a piece. "I'm making it interesting" begs the question "For who?". Best not to excuse sloppy or wrong playing with the old chestnut "It's how I feel it".

Perhaps, but as has been discussed extensively on here previously, wattage is a crude and not particularly accurate measure of what an amp can deliver. A 700w rated amp may deliver that in a one millisecond burst when connected to a test meter, but not into a reactive load like a speaker cab. That applies especially to some class D amps, which can be optimistically rated (no names, no pack drill, but the letters T&C spring to mind). 1000w isn't necessarily a pipe-dream cab rating. Barefaced rate their 2x12 cabs at up to 1200w and their 4x10 at 1000w and they are not known for exaggeration. It isn't at all unfeasible that a good quality 4x10 could safely handle 1000w. The OP isn't asking for more absolute volume, but more low end weight. It's well-established that a more powerful amp will give a fatter sound, even at lower volumes.

Unless the person in the story was practicing at ludicrous volumes, a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman looks to be in order.

A lot of good advice above. You aren't driving your 4x10 to anything like its potential with your current amp. A decent 4x10 can produce plenty of low end weight. A single 12 or 15 will likely struggle if you add it, as well as causing issues others refer to above. I'd be investigating a more powerful head to get the most out of the 4x10.

It does to a degree, but if you want flat/clean, a TH is probably not the ideal choice. The AG 700 (which is what I use) would be more suitable.

If you sit on a stool to play, remember to hold the neck as close to vertical as possible and play jaaazzzz. Nice.

That was one of my favourite Rick Beato interviews. Chuck was funny, thoughtful and gave a ton of good advice. Great musician and man. Thoroughly disproved the notion that you should never meet your heroes (even if only via a recorded interview).

Absolutely. Even more strange that they give those musicians money to be bored for a few minutes.

I could try potatoes if you like.

Don't blame it on the sunshine Don't blame it on the moonlight Don't blame it on the good times Blame it on the bogie

They slime together

My hovercraft is full of eels.

Spectors are quite good in that regard, too.

This, but bear in mind that if you are playing with acoustic guitars and vocals, the musicians may find all they can hear on stage is your bass amp if you aim to fill the venue from backline alone. Small venues often don't have any monitoring to speak of. So you may want to do as suggested and take a Di from your amp (or use a DI box if it doesn't have one), so you can play at more reasonable levels on stage.

The strings do not "vibrate against" the neck, unless it's a fretless with a low action, which will tend to give you that "mwah" sound as the string contacts the board intermittently along its length as it vibrates. The string vibrates in free space and the only two points of contact with the instrument are the fret at which it's fretted and the bridge saddle. Think about it.

Spot on. Pickups are not microphones. Microphones detect vibration/movement of air molecules and convert that into a minute electrical signal. Magnetic pickups detect movement of a string within a magnetic field and convert that into a minute electrical signal. In both cases, those minute electrical signals are amplified by the, er, amplifier. The difference is that the acoustic tones are not sensed or detected ("heard", if you like) by a pickup. Try shouting at your magnetic bass pickup and see what comes out of the speakers. Unless it has gone microphonic, the answer will be nowt.

Maybe on a fretless. On a fretted, the fret is one end (the other being the bridge) of the part of the instrument that the vibrating length of the string contacts. The 5-10mm or so of string between the fret and the point at which your finger presses the string against the board doesn't vibrate (or if it does, it's negligible).

This. If I like the way my instrument plays, I couldn't give a rats what anyone else thinks or says. Nor should you.

I find if I drink a lot of bear, the fur tends to get stuck in my throat 😬

You don't have to crank an AG700. Mine sounds nice at low volume and it is useful, if you want a clean tone, to have the headroom. They're quite pricey. The Ashdown Retroglide, despite what the name might suggest, is versatile, with extensive eq and does modern/clean, vintage, etc. Not available new, but you can pick them up used in good shape for sensible money.