Dan Dare

I have bought from them on a couple of occasions and found their service to be very good. I visited by train once (cheaper than the car with my old git's railcard) and it started to p1ss down whilst I was there, so Mark gave me a lift to the station (unasked) with my new toy. Can't say fairer than that. If you go on a Saturday when they are busy, they may not be able to roll out the red carpet, but you can't really blame them for that.

I have several C4s and 4Bs. They're very clear and clean. I use one for practice/home playing and it works well. However, you have to bear in mind that it is difficult to get that headphone sound out of any cab. The drivers in headphones may be small, but they're only about an inch from your eardrum. That helps gives the sound weight and immediacy and means you hear all the frequencies they produce, unaffected by room reflections, etc. If I could find a cab that sounded as good as my bass into my A&H mixer through my DT770s, I'd snap it up. I'm still looking.

As you chaps will no doubt be aware from my endless harping on about it, I'm a PJB owner and fan. They are front ported and do seem to have this quality. The cabinets are solidly made - the ports are not just holes cut in the baffle - and heavy for their small size, which must help. Mr Jones considers front porting to be best. However, one of the nicest sounding cabs I've owned was an old American made Ampeg SVT210HE, which was rear-ported. I bought it new many years ago and I've always regretted selling it. I looked for another for a long time without success, sold it and a few weeks later one - not mine - came up in the classifieds. Sod's law. So I guess port location doesn't matter that much, provided the cab is well designed and made.

Yeth. It ith.

In for a penny, etc

Inspired by the discussion on the thread about hilariously bad songs, can I invite you all to submit your nominations? Here's mine: The Flying Lizards - Money - YouTube

You can run a bass into the line input on a mixer if you push the input gain sufficiently. A Di box is a better option.

Hello. I use PJB cabs (C4s and 4Bs), which I like a lot. I had a Flightcase combo, which sounded lovely within its limited power output. The 400/Suitcase is considerably more powerful and more of the same. If you like a clean sound then I can confirm it has "beautiful low ends". If you want that "oomph" (which is often a little artificial to my ears), you may find it lacking. You really need to try one and judge for yourself.

I know. The Shaggs' father was no doubt proud of his girls and genuinely believed they were good, but his ignorance caused him to take things a little too far. There is naivety and honesty in the painting your child brings home from primary school. It's terrible, but you don't judge it by any kind of absolute standard, because it's the work of your child. You love them, recognise the effort they put in and want to encourage them. So you praise them, frame it and hang it on the wall (as I did with a couple of my daughter's paintings). Friends tell you it's sweet/cute and you thank/agree with them, but you shouldn't attempt to make any claim for its artistic merit (unless you are deluded). What irks me is the people who use The Shaggs as a vehicle for their own pretensions - claiming they are able to see or hear something special in their so-called music that we mere mortals are unable to perceive, etc, etc. It's terrible music by any kind of yardstick.

If you only want it for bedroom use, a small mixer with reasonable eq is a good option. You can feed the music you want to play along with into it, balance it and your instrument and listen via headphones, an amp or even your hi-fi. Plenty of cheap used small mixers to be had.

Many of the songs highlighted above are obviously awful, but either tongue in cheek or done with the obvious aim of cashing in (which is fine. I don't have a problem with it). Truly hilariously bad songs are those where a guileless writer/performer believes that they are making good music.

PJB or AER

You don't really need a Powercon on an instrument amp. They can handle higher currents than an IEC, which is why larger PA amps use them. However, no instrument amp will draw the kind of current that makes one essential. The fact that they are lockable is a bonus, although you can get locking IEC plugs and sockets.

Anything by The Shaggs has to be a contender. For example - My Pal Foot Foot - The Shaggs - YouTube

Would probably do much the same as I did, bearing in mind that there wasn't the choice of stuff available back in the 1970s/80s. I've never been one for chopping and changing a lot, don't buy things on impulse or whim and always try things out pretty thoroughly before taking the plunge. I played a borrowed cheapie when I started dabbling with bass. Having decided I wanted to take it more seriously and being keen on J basses (because many of the people I admired played them), I looked for one and found a 1972 in a hock shop in 1982 (you could do that back then). Bought it for not a huge amount and it was my only bass until around 10 years ago, when I started trying and buying the odd additional instrument. Still have the 72, of course. Rig wise, it was an Ohm combo when starting out, then a Bassman 135 with matching 2x15, then a Trace AH350 plus Ampeg 2x10 and 1x15, then a BBE pre plus power amp with the same cabs. When I decided to go compact/lightweight, I discovered PJB cabs and now run them with an AG700. I guess that, knowing what I know now and assuming I was starting out now, I'd go straight to my present set up (assuming I could afford it, of course), which I'm very happy with.

I'd say it's more not unsupportive. I didn't expect her to make me the centre of her existence and she didn't expect me to.

I notice you're in London. If you can get the old one out, take it to Clerkenwell Screws (just off Grays Inn Road - Google will find them) and see if they can match it. They have all manner of shapes, sizes and threads (including American) and have been helpful to me over the years.

The Retroglide is very similar in concept/layout to the old TE heads - essentially a pre with quite extensive graphic eq mated to a power stage. Given that it's designed by the same person - Mark Gooday - who made the old TE heads, it has to be worth consideration.

More of it, which drives the price down. If you see something you really want, I expect one of us could grab it and BC could do a relay to get it to you. I'd be happy to help. As a long-time PJB user, I can confirm that isn't the case. There is physics that actually favours multiple small drivers over one larger one. I find they don't want for volume or low end and the size of the drivers obviates the need for tweeters. The clarity and lack of harshness (always an issue for me with tweeters) is excellent. The downside is that they are inefficient and need some power to drive them properly.

I don't consider a "supportive" partner to be important. I certainly wouldn't tolerate one who was actively opposed to my playing (and would not hang around if that turned out to be the case), but I'm happy for me to do my thing and for her to do hers. My late partner would occasionally come to see me play and I would occasionally go to functions, etc at the university she worked at, but we didn't feel the need to be in each other's pockets the whole time. Keeps you more interesting to each other when you each have your own lives/passions.

As I understand it, the amp in MB12 combos is pretty much identical to the Little Mark head. The spec's are the same. Given that the combo will drive an additional cab', why bother replacing it?

I'd go for the EBS. However, it can be had new for only an additional £60 - see EBS Classic Session 120 Bass Combo Amp at Gear4music - which gets you a guarantee, etc

What about Eva?

A thinner string will always have more "ring". As others say, all basses exhibit this quality to an extent. If you want brighter sounding lower strings, you will need to use lighter gauges. Roundwound strings are brighter than flats and nickel wound are brighter than steel. You will also need full range amplification (read expensive) for that piano bass quality, especially at any volume. How capable is your amplification? If you are using the strings the bass came with, they probably won't be the best, either in terms of quality or freshness. New strings will always sound brighter than worn ones. If the notes are indistinct, that is usually a sign that replacement is required. Nickel rounds (something like D'Addario nickel XL, which are widely available and not too expensive) in thinner gauges are probably the best option.

Given the city's industrial past/heritage, the answer has to be most definitely. Metal bashing made Birmingham the greatest industrial area in the world. Sorry to be a nerd.