Marty Forrer

Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Weich strings growl nicely and bow nicely. 99% of sound guys have never done a double bass and have no clue. They treat it like a bass guitar... boost the bass, cut the middle... wrong, wrong, wrong.

The point is.... there is no point (of difference). Not trying to be an a**e, but there are five trillion bands like you out there. You need to stand out from the mob. A point of difference. Why would a venue manager hire you? Because you're good? So are many others. You need one of the following to stand out: * A smokin' hot female singer(s) * A different genre? I played latino rock for five years. We had more work than we could handle. * A different slant on your covers? Devo? B52s? * I currently have my own covers band and we have five gigs booked in the next fortnight. Why? Because there is no other band like us in our area. Why? Because when I formed it I looked at the market and realised there was a gap. So I deliberately chose the material and the appropriate musicians to fill that gap. These suggestions will obviously not all work for you, they are just food for thought. Having a point of difference is crucial, in my opinion. Without it you are just another anonymous face in the crowd. Google a band called Mad Jack and the Hatters. Why do you think they stand out from all the other bands of their genre? Yes, I know it's sexist, but that's the way things are in the real world.

Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash contains the most basic slap line. Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley contains a basic pentatonic line. Learn those two and you will be able to play 80% of rockabilly songs.

Barefaced.

Just thought I'd put this out there. I have two BF One10 cabs and these will likely be the last cabs I ever buy. So, I invested in a pair of BF covers for them. Gotta say, they are so well made, so well padded and fit so well, they are well worth the 50 pounds each. I could have got some made for cheaper, but I'm glad I went with these.

Lee Sklar Paul Chambers

Never done a gig without a backup? Fair enough. I've never done a gig in 35+ years with a backup, and never had an amp or cab go down. I guess it could happen one day, but I'll never take a spare. I'll just run a line to the PA if that ever happens.

I have an fDeck and it's a good piece of kit. The problem is he does not ship outside the US, so I got mine delivered to a friend who then sent it on to me.

The Ballad of Sally Rose - Emmylou Harris.

Giamma... the BF One10 cabs are probably not for someone who likes a lot of highs and nuance in their sound. I am oldschool, I love that Paul Chambers/Willie Dixon gut string sound, so they will probably be the last cabs I will buy. The Super Midget would be better if you like sparkle. Also a Greenboy Fearless 110 or 112 which in my opinion is the best double bass cab ever made, but heavier than the Barefaced, which is why I go with BF. At 7.5kg for a One10, my damaged back loves them.

Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl Rick Vito's solo on Bob Seger's Like A Rock Iris DeMent - Our Town Alison Krauss and John Cale - Lay Down Beside Me. Nessun Dorma - Pavarotti The Pearl Fishers

Someone mentioned trying to keep up with the young cats that are killing it. Why? Do you want to be a bass superstar? To be a regular gigging bassplayer does not require you to "kill it" .... it requires you to play with taste, tone and time. When I was younger I went through the usual phase of learning Jaco, Rocco Prestia, etc. Then I realised I never used all those chops in a live situation. So I refocused onto guys like my inspiration, Lee Sklar. I found the less I played, the more work I got. In fact I stole a weekly jazz residency off a guy who was "killing it" because the rest of the band (keys, sax, trumpet, drums) wanted someone who laid down the chord outlines and kept the bottom end happening. These were guys at the top of their game, but they wanted a BASSplayer, not a bass soloist.

I currently play in four working bands, of which two are my own. When I want to form a new band I just phone or approach the people I have chosen to be in it. If you're new to the scene then open mics and jam nights, and scan the notice boards in music shops.

Does not answer your question, but I love my Barefaced 1x10 cabs. I play double bass almost exclusively these days and have played most everything out there (but not Schroeder). Greenboy cabs are fabulous too, but heavier than BF.

My R-400 took the dreaded tumble. A bandmate didn't realise and put it down on end. Needless to say it went over, on concrete. Thanks to the wonderful construction and top shelf components, it still works just fine.

I live in New Zealand, so my purchase of the R-400 was totally blind. The only review I could find was wateroftyne's, so it's all his fault! J/k! I have no regrets at all, it suits me just fine. Despite the minimal knobs, it has a very powerful eq, although most of the time I don't need it, flat is fine. I opened it up one day (because I'm a tinkerer) and the build quality is absolutely top notch. Componentry matches any top end head I have ever seen. I still keep an MB200 but am using it to power my monitor wedges in my PA system.

I've gone from GK MB800 (D class) back to a HandBox R-400 (A/B class), but I'm keeping my Barefaced cabs I now have no more gas, and I have a GK MB200 for rehearsals.

The big difference is that GK has a "baked-in" sound, the R-400 is a lot more neutral. I went from a MB800 to an R-400 because of two things. First, I play mostly upright bass and the R-400 gets the sound I want easier, and second, the R-400 is repairable by any decent amp tech, the GK is micro circuitry and would probably need a board replacement in the event of a problem. Oh yeah.... a third! I hate having knobs to twiddle, and the R-400 is minimal in this regard.

I have two Barefaced One10 cabs and have cranked them up to earsplitting volume with and without an FDeck adjustable HPF. My double bass has much more low bass in it than my P bass, hence the A/B with the filter. To tell the truth I noticed negligible difference with or without the filter, regardless of what hz was selected. This tells me that a well thought out and designed cab and driver combination should handle any load.

One thing that needs stating. There is a big difference between a clean signal and a dirty signal. Most speakers will handle a pure signal many times their rating, but not if the signal is dirty. I went to a Peavey clinic once where 30,000 watts of power amps were cranked full on into a 500 watt speaker with a pure signal running, and it was fine. As soon as some dirt was introduced the speaker started farting and our ears started hurting. I have run my GK MB800 (500w at 8ohms) into my Barefaced One10 cab (200w) no problem, but I run the cleanest signal I can get.

Mine has the slanted vents on the front with a purple light behind. I agree with everything you said about this amp. I had been using class D amps for some years, and going back to this A/B design with its big toroidal transformer and very simple eq system was like putting on a comfy old pair of slippers. I even took it apart, because I'm an inveterate tinkerer, to see what it looked like inside. I tell you, it is magic. Every solder join, every heat-shrunk terminal, every component is meticulous and top shelf. Leszek is a magician.

That's exactly the same as mine. Love it!

Here we go! HandBox R-400 > two Barefaced One10s. [URL=http://s112.photobucket.com/user/rockabillybassman/media/001_zpsyg9xo8sa.jpg.html][IMG]http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n176/rockabillybassman/001_zpsyg9xo8sa.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

R-400 just got delivered. I'll put up some pics when I get home.

Yay! My R-400 has landed in the country (New Zealand), just going through Customs now.