Dan Dare

The advantage of a sub (or subs) is that you do not need large top boxes. Anything more than 10s is overkill, really, unless the venue is massive. Subs really need to be of high quality. Budget offerings are prone to suffer from poor definition, overhang and the dreaded one note bass. It's better to have one good 'un (low frequencies don't need to be in stereo) than multiple cheapies. One of the best sounding compact rigs I ever heard was a little Nexo PA, comprising two 10" + horn tops and a single 12" sub. It didn't sound in any way small. It did, however, have some pretty serious amplification (made by Yamaha, which owns Nexo). Size doesn't always matter.

Middle market stuff has certainly improved, but there is still an enormous gulf between it and companies such as D&B. Mid range and especially budget gear is built down to a price. You can only squeeze so much out of a pint pot.

I've told this in another thread before on here, but it fits well in this one, so apologies. When I played the fiddle, I used to do a lot of ceilidhs and barn dances. One night, I was booked as part of the band for a Burns supper. It was quite a smart affair - chaps in DJs and kilts, ladies in ball gowns, etc. The usual format for such occasions is that the band provides background music during dinner and then plays for dancing. It's a tradition at a Burns Supper that the haggis is brought into the dining room at the start of the dinner itself, accompanied by a bagpiper. It is placed on the top table and the MC recites Burns's Ode to a Haggis. Bagpipers are very busy on Burns night and good ones are not to be found on every street corner. As a result, they can play many jobs during the evening. They go to a venue, pipe in the haggis, collect their money, accept a dram or two and head off to the next one. It was obvious, when the piper arrived, that he had done quite a few jobs already that night and had accepted a generous dram at every one of them. He was plastered. However, he was still able to walk in a straight line and play, so all was good. The chef carried the the haggis into the room on a silver salver, accompanied by the piper. The procession made its way to the stage, where the haggis was placed on a table placed at the front of it. The MC stepped forward and began his recitation, whilst the piper stood to one side, playing and marking time on the spot. The effort of blowing into the instrument, combined with the skin full he had imbibed, caused the piper to lose control of his bowels for a moment. As he was wearing his kilt in the traditional manner, there was nothing to catch the product of his lapse, which plopped down on the stage between his feet. This wouldn't have been so bad - the height of the stage made it unlikely that anyone could see the offending item. However, whilst marching on the spot, he stepped in it and slipped. His boot flew up, propelling bits of it into the audience. The band hastily vacated the stage and howled with laughter in the dressing room. The piper was ejected and the mess was cleared up, but the evening never really recovered.

If you use enough of them, yes. A PJB 4x5 is equivalent to a single 10 in cone surface area (I appreciate there's more to it than simple driver area). I haven't measured the XMax, but the cones move a fair amount visually, so the displacement has to be good. In practice, one of them gives the equivalent output of a high quality 10 or even a 12. It's surprising how much poke it has. I have 5 of them, although I've never used more than 3 in anger (if I see a good used one, I buy it). 4 of them, driven by my head plus a power amp, sounds mighty. My neighbours were not happy. The beauty of them for me is that I can take out as many as I need and because they are so small, they're an easy carry and fit into the car boot. Tonally, they are on the clean side, although not hi-fi or sterile. With small drivers and no tweeter, they reproduce highs without sounding spiky or brittle. I use mine with an Aguilar head (plus power amp if needed) and the warmth of it complements the cabs nicely. I should imagine a Markbass will give similar results. I'd try before you buy, however.

My main instrument for many years used to be the fiddle, which meant I was booked for a lot of folky jobs. Back in the day, medieval banquets were very popular. They were utterly inauthentic and formulaic - large quantities of iffy food and drink, an MC who dressed up like 'Enery the Eighth, singalongs, folky tunes and songs, plus various speciality acts/entertainers (strongmen, magicians, knights in armour who staged sword fights and so on) - all for a bargain basement price. I played in a tourist trap near Tower Bridge for several years. Some of the entertainers were a source of great merriment. One guy in particular used to cover for several of the performers. He was a physical fitness fanatic who seemed to believe he was indestructible. His enthusiasm always got the better of what little common sense he had been born with. We used to wonder whether he took steroids – there was always a pungent smell, reminiscent of bulls and horses, about him. He came in one night as a dep. for the regular strongman, who used to hammer a nail through a plank and pull it out with his teeth. He bounded onstage and hammered the nail through the plank in fine style. Bending down, he gripped it between his gnashers and straightened up with a flourish. There was a chorus of squeals from the audience as the nail stayed where it was and a couple of incisor teeth fell to the floor, to the accompaniment of a spurt of blood and a lot of curses from our hero. Nothing daunted, he had them replaced with metal ones, which made him look a bit like Jaws. On another occasion, he stood in for the magician and managed to set himself alight whilst fire-eating. He ran about with his hair ablaze, beating himself about the head to try and put out the flames, until a barman appeared from behind the bar and put a fire blanket over him. Some of the punters stared in horror, while the rest, believing it to be intentional and part of a comedy turn, roared with laughter. Luckily (largely thanks to the barman's quick thinking) he was only mildly scorched. My mate the guitar player stared at the spectacle for a moment, an expression of utter disbelief on his face. “Christ”, he declared. “What’s he going to do for an encore? Cut his d1ck off?” I'll have a trawl through the diaries for some more.

Great stories. You should write a book. I'd buy a copy.

I'll try to hide my disappointment.

If it doesn't bother you or cause problems when you play, it's up to you. I tend towards OCD, so I' probably mix some ebony or rosewood dust (sand a spare bit to create the dust) with a drop of glue, fill and smooth it.

Played a wedding at which everyone - guests, not the band - got absolutely rat faced. Come the end of the evening and we were looking for the best man, who was supposed to pay us. He was nowhere to be found. Someone said they'd seen him in the gents, so off we went to find him. He was lying on the floor, semi conscious and with vomit all down him. We couldn't get any sense out of him, so went through his jacket pockets and found an envelope of money with "band" written on it. All good, it seemed. At that moment, the door opened and in came several of his mates, who decided (unsurprisingly) that we were mugging him. Things got a bit lively, but fortunately, there were five of us and three of them and we were sober.

I would expect the BF 10s to be a bit closer to the MB, as they are designed to be a little more old skool sounding. My favourite BF is the Super Compact. It does old skool (sounds fab' with a P bass), but is more versatile and doesn't have a tweeter - a plus point for me. Were I in the market for cabs, I'd definitely have a couple.

Apologies for harping on. The only advice that really makes sense is to go shopping and try things. Ones man's meat is another's poison and all that. If you like the sound of your little Peavey, try a bigger one as a first step. Choosing cabs can be a minefield. Only your ears can decide. I find a modest cab driven by a high quality head works better than the opposite combination, but that's just me.

All fair points. It does irritate me that manufacturers bandy the tern FRFR, with the implication that anything labelled as such is somehow superior to "coloured" bass/guitar amps. Some players talk of not using eq/running their amps "flat", which is not actually "flat" at all - it merely means one is hearing the preferences of the preamp designer. Leaving aside the obvious point that any piece of equipment will colour the sound to a greater or lesser extent, the colouration is often desirable. An electric bass or guitar has no sound or "tone" of its own. It is essentially a piece of timber, coil and magnet that senses the vibration of a length of wire in a magnetic field. It produces a purely electrical signal (unless the pickups are ancient and have become microphonic). It needs the character and colouration added by the amplification/eq to sound good to our ears. It may be preferable for vocals, brass, wind and acoustic stringed instruments - things that have a sound of their own - to be reproduced "flat", but not that length of vibrating wire. Given that modelling of amp and speaker sounds aims to copy the sound produced by "coloured" amps, speakers, etc, why not just use them in the first place and forget about trying to create a facsimile with a computer? As far as no hi-fi system ever convincing anyone that they are listening to live sound goes, the best can get pretty close. Few people have heard what is possible - not surprising, given the cost. I'm not talking about the systems most of us own that probably cost a few thousand, but stuff that would cause people to say "How much? You can buy a new car for that". The results can be jaw dropping. I own a pair of typical mid-range domestic hi-fi speakers. My Fohhn PA blows them out of the water. Mind you, it should, when you take price into account. Real pro audio is a different (and much more expensive) world.

The term FRFR has to be about the most misused in the world of sound reinforcement. Full range? Between which frequencies? At what distance? At what volume? Flat response? Where/in what room or space? Even massive PA speakers and ludicrously expensive studio monitors will only produce a "flat response" in the conditions under which they were developed and measured (probably using an anechoic chamber). Even then, frequency range and the volume at which the allegedly "flat response" is produced will be tightly defined. Add room acoustics to the equation and everything changes. No plastic box speaker costing a few hundred quid can realistically be claimed to be FRFR. Rant over. I feel better now.

Given that the recording is a mega-bucks production, made in a very pricey studio operated by expensive people at the top of their game, the answer is "heaven knows, but you aren't likely to get it with the average gigging amp and a stomp box".

Always found them helpful and friendly and the staff are all players and enthusiasts.

If the budget is limited and you're looking to upgrade in the not too distant, buy used. I have to say that it's hard to combine budget, light and loud (you say you need to cover a lot with the bass in a power trio). Budget, loud and heavy? Can do. Ditto light, loud and expensive. If weight is an issue, use several smaller cabs, rather than one large one. I've not heard of reliability issues with Ashdown and their backup is very good. Of course, if one is regularly pushing gear beyond its capabilities, all bets are off. I'd try some stuff and not decide on the basis of recommendation alone.

You do realise that Aus and NZ are not one and the same? They are 2.5k miles apart.

"We"? You're in NZ. I thought that expression was coined by the Aussies. As far as whinging goes, both of your countries have taken it to new heights over the plague recently, so beware throwing stones from that glass house you're living in.

My '72 sunburst was similarly battered, although not as bad as that. I stripped it back in the 90s. Fortunately, the grain wasn't bad, so I oiled it and left it bare. Wish I hadn't, now roadworn is 'in', but there we are.

Sorry to be boring and add this to yet another thread, but if you use wire wool, cover the pickups thoroughly with masking tape to prevent fragments from coating them in a fine fur that is very difficult to remove.

Tbf, life in a Clash tribute band is more risky for a P bass...

Go and try them. Then you can make up your own mind, free of "fanboying" ☺️

Using an add-on power amp to drive one of the cabs would be a safe option, assuming your head has a pre-out.

This is interesting (and this is not a political point). There are 650 parliamentary seats in the UK. There are quite a few safe seats (of all colours), but many- even those that are not out and out swing seats - are quite finely balanced in terms of voting. Nationally, this tends to be the case - have a look at total numbers of votes cast for the various parties, particularly the big two, and you will see this. It takes surprisingly small numbers of people to change their vote to produce marked changes in results. Well under a million votes cast one way or the other - which is only around 2% of total registered voters - can produce large swings. The first past the post electoral system tends to amplify this effect.

But is it any good for metal?