Dan Dare

I did not say that "often bad sound is user error". The word "often" was in your post, not mine (save as a quote). Obviously, missing, damaged or malfunctioning/faulty equipment or corrupted mains power is outside the control of musicians (assuming it isn't their equipment that is missing, damaged or malfunctioning/faulty). I always carry a power conditioner. It's smart to do so, not just because it will treat mains-borne noise, but because valve gear especially does not like poor quality power, especially over voltages. The mains voltage can often fluctuate and spikes/surges are not rare. I've heard/seen plenty of bands that sounded terrible because they didn't know how to use their kit properly. Leaving aside the instances to which you refer, poor sound rarely "just happens".

Come again? It may not be one individual's fault (several people may be conspiring to make it bad), but it doesn't just happen. Not learning how eq, gain, etc works is definitely the fault of those who don't/won't do so. One of the biggest obstacles to a good band sound is each player insisting on using "their tone". The sound(s) they like might be pleasing in isolation, but combine them at any volume, especially if you fail to take account of room acoustics and the result can be a mess. It's part of the job of being a musician to understand these things and know how to compensate for them. At a dep' gig, the singer/guitar player was struggling with the mixer at soundcheck and it sounded appalling. I looked over his shoulder and the gains were all over the place. I suggested he set them properly and he said "What do you mean?". I set them correctly, adjusted the eq and all was fine. To his credit, he said "Oh. You do know what you're talking about" and asked me what I'd done, so I showed him.

I use several of those aluminium (they're actually ply with an alu' skin) camera cases you can buy from Argos, Amazon and similar for mic's, cables, etc. Cheap and sturdy.

True dat.

Pickup swapping seems to be the musician's equivalent of the hi-fi buff's cable swapping. I've never been able to hear much difference between quality p/us. Granted, you'll notice a difference if you replace a POS with something decent, but apart from that...

You sure about that? Blockhead + one extra letter (a single "o") = (drum roll) Bolockhead. See the "Read before posting" thread 😊

Ian Dury and the Bolockheads (I know, mis-spelling, before the grammar nazis attack).

There are plenty about, but you wouldn't want to play with most of them. I assume you've tried the usual places - Join my Band, etc? It's a bit of a chore, I know. You usually have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.

So many pubs, so few names.

Exactly. Those types of people buy most of the "special edition/limited production run" instruments.

I think Jack may have realised that. His post might not have been entirely serious.

Agreed. A shame they went out of business. I have a B1000 head and it's excellent. Very good and extensive eq and plenty of power. It's a little more transparent sounding than my AG700. I also use it to drive the monitors in my PA. I like it a lot.

It has a certain... charm. I have an idea his method consists of throwing a lot of instrument parts in a pile and screwing them together however they land.

Hilarious. I expect there's a used car lot out front of the studio called Keef's Wheels.

You'll find him on eBay. The clue to his name is in my post above. As far as I know, he isn't on here.

Don't think so. His, erm, modifications are not engineering-based, as a bridge would be. His schtick is more along the lines of putting 5 strings on 4 string instruments (pole piece alignment? Pah), splaying out tuners to accommodate "big hands", hacking random pieces of wood from instruments to "improve balance" and so on. He shares a name (first and surname) with the ex-husband of the Princess Royal.

Appreciate that. we weren't taking the p*ss out of you. As others suggest, try your idea and see how it works out. You may have to adjust action, truss rod, etc to accommodate the change.

I wondered about that briefly when I saw the thread title. However, MDP doesn't have the ability to self-examine necessary to ask others whether something might be a good idea. With apologies to the OP, MDP is well known to this parish as a "modifier" of electric stringed instruments, primarily basses. It's fair to say he has what might best be described as issues, not least of which is an unshakeable belief in the rightness of his, er, innovations. We don't mention him by name for fear of being accused of being discriminatory.

Good point. By the time the OP has bought a sub to augment the low end, he might as well stick with the GR cab and Mesa D800. That's already a very light and portable bass rig, so there will be no weight or space saving.

Traditional tenor banjo tuning was CGDA - as a viola but down an octave. The Irish trad players tune it like an octave mandolin to GDAE. What do you want to use it for? Guitar tuning would be mainly useful for chordal, rather than single note playing. You do tend to lose a lot of the essence/character of an instrument when you change the tuning. It's worth the effort involved in getting to grips with the way an instrument is tuned, rather than turning it into a copy of something it isn't. I play mandolin, fiddle, guitar and bass and have no issue with different tunings when I switch between them.

A keyboard player I work with uses a DXR10 as backline. It has great clarity, plenty of power and works very well. I don't know whether it would be up to being a bass amp, though. It doesn't have the volume (as in size, not loudness) that a bass cab does and isn't designed to go as low as you'll need. Are you able to try the band's cabs with your bass? At the price they are, I'd be wary of buying on spec'. Remember that 11 o'clock on the gain and volume is deceiving. You might think it's less than half power, but those controls aren't linear. It's probably quite a bit more on peaks.

If the input gain clip light isn't flashing and the cab farts, you're either causing the power stage of the amp to clip (too little power - amp cannot produce sufficient power and cuts/clips the peaks from the signal, resulting in a near square wave) or pushing the drive units too hard (too much power from the amp causes them to hit their extension limit), as Alex at BF points out. Could be a combination of both. Modern compact cabs with a single 12 or a couple of 10s and compact amp heads are very capable, but there are physical limits to how much they can do. Playing outdoors or very loud calls for a lot of power and sufficient drive units to shift enough air, especially for bass. A brief fart from the cab won't cause damage, but if you don't turn down and keep blasting away, it will.

C*nt Basie

D'Addario Chromes for me. They feel good under the fingers and are a little brighter (but not harsh) than La Bellas and more traditional flats. They last well and mellow nicely. There's a 45-100 set or a 40-95 set (which is the one I use), which is low tension for a flat, but not soggy feeling as Tomastiks can be (particularly the A) in my experience.

Which Tannoys do you have? I've always wanted a pair. My old house had a 25x15 ft lounge, so I could have accommodated decent sized ones. The place I've bought recently has a lounge around half that size, so I'm thinking 8s or maybe 10s. I fancy building a set of those Wilmslow Audio kit cabs and getting a pair of Tannoy DCs to put in them.