Dan Dare

I've found this with a number of string brands. I think the stickiness is due to whatever the manufacturers coat them with to prevent rusting in the packet. Since I started cleaning new strings with meths/alcohol, I've not had a problem.

Motown - JJ and Bob Babbit (I'm pretty ancient). The first bass part that really made me want to play the instrument was Tears of a Clown, which was Bob.

I used to have a Lehle pre' (which I regret moving on) and tried to run it direct into a power amp. I found I had the same issue as Jakester above. Couldn't drive the power amp adequately. Shame, as the Lehle was excellent. In the end, I gave up and bought an AG700 and traded the Lehle against it.

Odd request. I could understand if they asked for something £££/exotic, but a Rumble? Decent, competent amps and nowt wrong with them at all, but hardly the last word or cutting edge in bass gear. I'd take your MB rig over a Rumble any day of the week. I'd be asking them what sound they mean - bright, distorted, clean/dirty, old school, etc. Are you able to speak with their regular bassist to find out what he sounds like?

Slow day then. Does the label really matter?

Not sure about that. The bass guitar was originally developed to be a portable, convenient and amplifiable substitute for the upright bass. There's as much dissimilarity between it and the UB and the guitar and electric guitar. The electric guitar predates the bass guitar by only about 20 years. Both were quickly used by musicians for their own, rather than any traditional qualities.

Great advice. Although a '78 isn't truly "vintage", it's still worth a bit more than an off-the-rack new one. If it works well fretless (not all do), it seems best to keep it that way.

Good personal hygiene, large vehicle to transport the rest of the band, own PA. That's what got me a lot of work back in the day, not any musical ability.

If you Google "speaker cabinet corner protectors", you'll find plenty (they don't have to be used on speakers, obvs). Penn Elcom has a decent selection. Re material, I'd go for ply. Something like pine would look nice, but it isn't that stable or strong and can warp. For covering, there's good old Tolex, or you could use something like Tuff Cab paint.

Old TE stuff is rack width. However, there is no complete internal casing (there wasn't on my old AAH350), so you cannot just whip it out and put it in a rack case. Ashdown make ply amp sleeves. Given that they were originally TE, the dimensions/layout will probably be similar. May be worth asking their advice.

I admire good tribute bands. The dedication and attention to detail required to play the material true to the original (musically and stylistically) is impressive. I played a large wedding once where the main band was a Beatles tribute. They had the right instruments and amps, the right clothes and sounded very close, including spot on vocal harmonies. They were great and I enjoyed their set very much. However, I couldn't play in a trib' myself. I'd get bored. I'm too much of a grasshopper. I like to flit from one artist/style to another. My failing, I guess.

If you're in the Oxfordshire area, FinnDave is selling a 2x10 Ashdown combo at a reasonable price in the Market Place (no connection to me, so not trying to boost a pal's sale). It has a tweeter, so should do your required clean and sharp.

Does Lee Sklar not live in the "real world"? I've seen/heard him play in many styles (but not "clangy metal", oddly enough). Metal players like Dingwalls because the long scale means the low end is clear (good for de-tuning), intonation is accurate due to the fretting and the pickups give even tone across a wide frequency range. That doesn't limit them to metal. I've tried one and I thought it was something of a Swiss army knife instrument, albeit a modern-sounding one.

I lived in London for 68 years, until moving away this year after my retirement. I never had an issue travelling home after gigs on public transport. In recent years, I virtually always drove - you can't really carry a bass and rig, even a compact one, on the bus or train. However, I used public transport when carrying just a gig bag and bits and I never had any trouble. Obviously, you need to exercise a modicum of common sense as you would anywhere, but don't allow doom mongers to infect you with their irrational fears. London is still a very safe place compared to most cities.

Thanks Bill. That's very interesting. I didn't realise that volume of air was not the main determinant. I'll Google Pressure Vessel/Cabin Gain and do some reading.

In photography, you alter aperture and exposure time to control the amount of photons reaching the film to ensure they are correct for the ISO rating of the film, light conditions, whether you are attempting to capture a moving subject and so on. How is there any parallel between that and the behaviour of a drive unit or speaker cabinet design? Am I missing something? Low frequency reproduction is, of course, "possible even in small volume" - my headphones tell me that. However, the tiny drivers in my cans only need to energise the minute amount of air between them and my eardrums. If you wish to energise the air in a large space - a room, bar or whatever - you need to shift a much higher volume of air over a much greater distance. A small hi-fi speaker might reproduce sufficient low frequencies in a domestic environment (they are usually measured in an anechoic chamber by a measurement microphone placed one metre from the cone to produce their spec's, which tells you little about how they will perform in anything other than a small, quiet living room), but they won't cut it for live music. Your 12" open baffle speakers may produce sufficient bass in your living room, but, as anyone who has tried to play bass through an open backed guitar cab will attest, it is not sufficient when playing in a band context in a room of any size. Remember also that most recorded music is compressed to a greater or lesser extent, which reduces the dynamic range and creates an impression of loudness. Play your bass through a bass amp driving the average pair of domestic "mini-monitors" and you'll destroy them in short order. Bill will correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the idea of isobarik loading was to eliminate out of phase reflections rebounding from cabinet walls and striking the driver cone. Isobarik cabs employ two drivers working in parallel, one directly behind the other, so the column of air between them acts as a piston. It is that, not stuffing, that is supposed to enable isobarik cabs to fool a driver into thinking it is in a larger box. If you stuffed the cab, it would impede the movement of the column of air between the two drivers, so isobarik cabs are not stuffed. Is that correct, Bill?

Bill said rather more than that. He observed that extended low frequency performance at any volume demands a larger cabinet. That's an iron rule, I'm afraid. One can bend it a little via reflex loading, porting, etc, but it holds good. There is no equivalence between the photography and speaker cabinet design "rules" you cite.

I've never played through a Laney, but the Orange heads I've tried have had a quite modern/punchy quality. One might even say they were a bit in yer face - perhaps a little lacking in vintage or warm tonality. So it depends what you want. If you like both and the Laney has the feature set you prefer, I'd lean towards that in your shoes. Generally, it isn't a good idea to buy without trying. Is it really impossible to do so?

It isn't so much the limited volume that will be the issue, but the lack of any real low end (see Bill's comment above). A small PJB cab would be much better in that regard and of comparable price. Granted, it will be heavier, but they're still easy enough to carry.

Not always the case. Whilst the mains power supplied to a property in the UK is pretty good/clean, it depends what else is connected within the building where you are running your gear. A lot of buildings contain all manner of stuff - commercial lighting, refrigeration, etc - which can cause problems and mains-borne noise.

Agreed. Much of their gear wouldn't make it out of the shop door if they didn't do it. That said, it's perfectly possible for them to follow their engineering instincts and make stuff that does the job in real-world situations when the "showroom appeal" button is not engaged.

Peavey Black Widows. Yum. had a 2x15 back in the day, which I liked a lot. Sold it when I got too decrepit to lug it up and down the stairs to my first and second floor flat and gave up driving a Volvo estate..

For what it's worth, I tried a number of amps side by side several years back when I decided to give in to advancing years and go lightweight. I spent an afternoon at a well-known shop that sells most of the name brands. Among those I tried was a Glock Steamhammer. It was a fine sounding amp and turned out to be my second choice. It was clean and powerful and I liked it very much. I bought an AG700 in the end, because I felt it had a little more warmth when I wanted it than the Glock. I should point out that I use PJB cabs, which are clean - some would say hi-fi - sounding and I made sure I tried the amps with PJB cabs. Had that not been the case, I may have gone with the Glock. It was a close call. Do test amps with your cabs of choice before buying.