Dan Dare

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?

Sounds good. I still miss the sound (but not the weight) of my old SC 24-4-2 mixer. They are very solidly built, the preamps are excellent and the eq is subtle and very useable. Does it use an external power supply? Some smaller SC mixers do. As long as you remember not to power up the PA until the mixer is on (and power the PA down before unplugging the mixer), you shouldn't have issues with the fact that it doesn't have an on/off switch.

Do you, having grown up "using gay as a pejorative word", whilst being "in the closet, and deeply ashamed" feel you must compensate for that by trying to police the language and conduct of others?

Eh? We're six days, SIX DAYS, into 2022 and someone is declared to be the "Sound of 2022". So whatever extraordinary music is made (or not, of course) during the remaining 359 days of the year, it won't qualify. I suppose the fact that the winner is a good looking woman with big eyes didn't hurt her chances... Beam me up Scotty.

Ditto. Why sell it for that reason? Makes no sense. If the assertion is true and the smell was so offensive to him, it could have been left to air for a few weeks, or even kept closed and not used. The description is just a bit too fulsome to be credible, imho (I know. I'm a nasty, suspicious old git). And why the need for all the talk of "You can trust me. I'm a retired teacher", etc? Sounds more like a retired double glazing salesman to me. I'd steer clear, but that's just me. It's no bargain at the price he's asking, either. Caveat emptor.

I have a Fusion, which is heavy for a gig bag, but gives very good protection. Not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for.

Another PJB fanboy here. I used to have a Flightcase, which I ran with a power amp and a couple of C4 cabs when I needed to make more noise. The Flightcase was great on its own for lower volume applications and adding the C4s plus power amp to it gave more of the same. Great sounding set up, but a little inconvenient onstage as I could not stack it neatly. I eventually sold the Flightcase, but kept the C4s and acquired a couple of 4Bs, which I use with an Aguilar head (with as many cabs as I need plus a power amp if necessary). I found the cabs are responsible for much of the sound and that any high quality, clean sounding head will give very similar results with them.

Good advice. I find a playing to a metronome/click a bit dull, so I set up simple drum patterns on the computer to practice with. Ii makes it more interesting. As far as avoiding discomfort is concerned, the aim is to find a posture that makes playing with the least physical effort possible. I would have a look at the various teaching videos, copy them to start with and then adapt what they recommend to suit your physique. We are all built differently. If, for example, you have shorter arms, you may need to have the instrument closer to vertical in order to reach the lower end of the neck. Finger length/hand size will determine whether and how you need to make position shifts with the left hand (assuming you are a righty). And so on. Don't be too bound by what is stated to be "correct" technique. You refer to keeping the thumb in line with the middle finger, for example. I find that uncomfortable - it causes tension in my left hand - so have the thumb in line with or even slightly behind the first finger. Different strokes for different folks.

I picked up my AH quite cheaply used on eBay. They and SC mixers come up quite frequently. If you want new, the Soundcraft Signature 10 has 2 auxes plus fx and is available for around £240 at the moment. Looks ideal for your needs.

The only way to know whether it would be an improvement is to try, which could, of course, get expensive if you try several. If you use a neck p/u, it will be slightly narrower, which may cause the pole piece spacing to be out of kilter with the string positioning. It may not be by a lot, but you can't know without trying. One thought that occurs is that you could see if the Squier plastic housing (which will be the right size for your bass) will accommodate the replacement p/u. On my J bass, the pickups are not a tight fit in the housing and can be removed easily. It won't work with pickups that are epoxy potted into the plastic cover, but might with those that aren't. Armstrong pickups are good, not expensive and the company is very helpful. May be worth an enquiry to them.

Aw, go on Bill. It will be entertaining. I've heard and used cabs using drivers of all sizes that I've liked. I do seem to have had a preference for those that used 12s, but that's probably because they were of better quality or better designed. Currently, I use and like 5s.

It's become a bit of a cliché that old school = weight/depth of sound and class D = thin, etc. I had an interesting experience recently when I used an old school Ampeg rig. It was at a gig where the other bassist already had his gear set up and he suggested I used it to save dragging things around during the changeover. Decent of him. I thanked him and thought "Great. Looking forward to this". To tell the truth, I was a bit underwhelmed. Sure, it sounded big, but no matter what I did, it was soft and unfocussed, compared to my PJB cabs and AG700. How much of the belief that old school = depth, etc is due to nostalgia, I wonder?

If you don't remove the pickups before using steel wool, cover them thoroughly with masking tape. If you don't they will be covered with a fur of wire wool fragments, that you will never completely get off them.

You really need to try stuff out. Reviews and recommendations are useful - they help give an idea of what to put on the shortlist - but I wouldn't buy on that basis alone. That's a shortcut to disappointment (and one reason the Marketplace is full of nearly new, good quality gear being sold on because it didn't meet the buyer's expectations or needs). A couple of years ago, I spent the best part of a day at a well known bass shop trying things and came away with an amp I hadn't seriously considered because I found it worked best for me. I'm still happy with it. Given the amount of money you're thinking of spending, it's worth taking a day (and travelling if necessary) to try stuff. I'm glad I did.

This. You don't need a separate master volume. It's useful to have an input gain and separate master volume when you want to control the amount you overdrive the preamp. It's not essential, though, especially in a bass amp, where you won't usually be looking for overdriven/saturated tones. If you do want them, use an external preamp/fx unit.

Yep. He's actually cut into the peghead. No wonder there are "one or two notes where the string wheezes a bit"... I'm almost tempted to arrange to visit him and try one of his creations, just so I can tell him what a piece of sh1te it and his so-called workmanship is.

Someone must buy these CS instruments or they wouldn't offer them. My guess is wealthy weekend warriors - lawyers, architects, IT specialists et al - who have money to burn. Many of them think nothing of dropping 100 grand on a car, after all, so 10 grand on a bass to impress their mates is almost small change. I'm glad such people exist. When they get bored with their shiny toys, sensible people like us can buy them for a fraction of what they paid for them.

When you add a powered cab to a combo, you drive it from a line out or preamp out of the combo, which means it will be controlled by the gain/volume controls on the combo. As the powered cab does not have its own preamp, it needs a line level signal to drive it. The output from the bass will not be sufficient. According to the manual, the GK MB112-II has a "chain output for use with MBP series", so that's what you should use.

There's a Tecamp 2x12 in the classifieds (not belonging to me or anyone I know). It's in Northampton, too. Worth a look?

No, they are a business. They (and most other businesses) don't really want your old kit. They offer low in the hope that you will take it away and sell it privately. They have to clean it, set it up/remedy any issues, offer a guarantee and see it sitting on the shelf with their money tied up in it until it sells. They'd rather not do that. If you don't want to make the effort to sell privately and want the convenience of trading in, it costs you. What's wrong with that?

A pleasure. Hope it was some help. If you've gone for the Eich, that should serve you well and be plenty powerful enough and you can always use your fx to colour the sound to your taste. I suggested the Bass Gallery as your profile says you're London based. If you're in Northampton, you could take a trip to Bass Direct in Warwick. Not a million miles away. Go on a weekday when they're not busy and you can play with/try stuff to your heart's content. Cabs tend to be more of a personal choice. I'm a PJB fan/user, but I don't think they'd be the best for your intended use and you'd need a lot of them to make a noise (I run up to five their 4x5 cabs depending on how loud I need to be). I like their clarity and the slight warmth of my AG700 complements them well. Whenever you audition cabs, do take your amp with you so you know how they will work together. Have fun.