sykilz

Here, hopefully, is a very very poor photo taken with my very old phone, which manages to make it look further away than I actually was! Really got to appreciate the work rate of Mr Butler, in fact it was funny to see just before the solo bass bit at the start of NIB a roadie applied some sort of mist spray to his right hand, assumedly some sort of pain killer like footballers magic spray!!

Apologies if anyone posted anywhere else about Sabbath at the O2 last night, but I was lucky enough to be about 25 feet from Geezer Butler, wow what a great player, his plucking hand is frantic, and he fills in so much sound to make their riffs more " bouncy". Great sound where I was too, he played Laklands from what I could see, mostly P types with good punch to the sound. Good night!

That looks fantastic to me, can't get enough black on a bass IMO.

I recently started doing proper regular pub gigs, 4/5 a month, and my mate, who plays rhythm guitar, says " where's your spare bass, what if a string goes?". Never in 26 years playing have I broken a string. The guitarist has done three mid song changes in the last couple months. Glad I'm not a guitarist! Still, if they had proper BIG FAT strings like us, perhaps the problem wouldn't occur!

My second hand PF 500 started cutting out at first proper gig once volume was half way up with tone flat. Now have a TC BH 500 and it's ( for me,anyway ) such a much better head, way better tone and never had the volume past 3, in a silly loud 5 piece hard rock band.

Feeders "Buck Rogers" and "Tobacco Road" in the Dave Lee Roth styley are both smile inducers at the moment.

I liked them since day one, they've evolved with age, the thing I find is that I'm always disappointed with their albums until I hear the songs played live, somehow the songs they choose to do live work better than in the context of an album. As said though, the gems seem to be a bit more thinly spread nowadays. Always worth a look live though, Eddie is a great modern day front man and sings with real passion.

"We've had a refit so there's a nice little stage area now." LITTLE.......!!! We had to stack up, health and safety nightmare!!

My standard corvette swamp ash is about 8 1/2 lbs, so not too heavy, its German made in 2004 and cost me £325 used a year ago. Sure theres a little bit of wear on the body, but it's a working instrument, chuffed to bits with it. The nut width is a jazz like 38 mm but the depth of the neck is quite fat, which fits nicely in my paws, some people may not like it though.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1383241484' post='2262068'] And my experience is completely the opposite. I'm in my 50s and I had to recently quit by covers band because I'm simply too busy gigging, rehearsing and recording with my originals band. The covers band were struggling to get a gig a month while the originals band plays on average once every week - and paying gigs too. While the gig fee for the originals band isn't as consistently high yet as the covers band was when you deducted all the expenses that each band incurred actually doing the gig the originals band comes out slightly ahead! The covers band was basically plodding along playing gigs to roughly the same people - mostly mates of the guitarist and drummer while the originals band is off all over the country playing enthusiastic audiences of all ages, some who are discovering the band for the first time others who come and see us play at every opportunity. It is probably more to do with the attitudes of the members of each band towards how the bands were run rather than the choice of material, but the covers band was prepared to coast along, while the originals band is actively doing stuff - playing chasing up gigs interacting with our fans on social media. I know which one is most fun for me. [/quote] Good for you sir, must admit the drive to push ourselves now a days in the originals band is somewhat diminished compared to the good ole days, and that, as you rightfully say, is a major factor , maybe the type of music too, who knows, I'm happy doing both and glad I still can.

I'm in my forties and play in both an original metal band and a rock covers band, both of which , i've been told ( by people not on my payroll ) are pretty good. However getting originals gigs is like pulling your own teeth out, and you only usually get 40 mins, and theres no pay-check and usually very little audience. The covers band plays 2 plus hours to packed sweaty pubs with a good party vibe, and theres a roll of notes at the end of the night. I love both, but you can't beat playing your own riffs that you lovingly sculpted yourself. Real world though, I'm never going to play my own stuff at a major venue at my age, so yes, being in a covers band lets me enjoy a bit of rock star vibe when the crowd is really into it and singing along!! I still reckon the singer in the covers band in question here is a bit special though.

Wow, great vocalist, does Coverdale and Plant really well, and thats not easy.

I never realised how different it would be doing pub gigs, I only ever used to do gigs with my originals metal band for the last, 20 odd years, and used a Hartke ha 3500,350 watt head, but always went through a house p.a. and stupidly sold that rig before getting back into playing, I thought I wouldn't need much power playing little pubs, but some venues you need a good deal of grunt. I like charics suggestion above best, I'm gonna start saving!!!

[quote name='Who's Who' timestamp='1382592298' post='2253990'] They now do the 5210 combo which has a Hydrive 2x10 cab with the newer LH500 head inside. They can run a second cab fine [/quote] Just checked that out, bet thats a lot better than the original one I had, which was 250 watt head, sounded nice but think it was limited by the small size of the cab. That with an extension should be good, though pricey.

I just started in a pub rock, no instruments through the p.a. type band, and my ampeg pf500 into warwick 4x10 wasn't loud enough, have upgraded to TC electronic bh500 into their 4x10 and have masses of spare volume, so it's a bit of a minefield, there I had 2 supposedly 500 watt heads into 4x10 cabs, but both with very different results. I got the TC stuff because I heard another bands bassist using it, see if you can get into some pubs and do a bit of eyeballing and listening to other peoples rigs.

I've owned the ha3500 head and the hydrive 210 combo, unless they changed it you couldn't run an extension cab from the combo,and mine struggled to be loud enough for a rock band, the speakers would fart out at about half volume. The 3500 head into a peavey 4x10 was simply awesome however, plenty of headroom and power and great choice of tones, so for me I'd definitely not get the hydrive combo, seperates is much better route long term, IMO.

Pub rocked, great gig and if you're on the hunt for a rock amp with plenty of balls, I can heartily reccommend the BH 500, monster monster.....will have to wait for a bigger pub to try the 212 as well!

The tone is good, the deepest bass I've had from a rig but tight too, with the sort of air movement that makes you grin when standing near your speakers! I think its probably versatile, but to be fair I'm doing pub rock gigs, so loud,tight and powerful is just what the doctor ordered! Pleased 4 stringer here!

Crikey, did a full on loud as hell rehearsal last night, used to put an Ampeg pf 500 through a warwick 410 cab and was pushing really hard, gain on full before clipping, volume on 7, last night took the BH 500 and the 4 x10 TC cab.........goodness me , gain where it should be, master volume on..... 2. Just. In fact just under 2. Now i know these things aren't comparable as you don't know where the amp will run out of puff, but the rig was awesome, had the bass up a notch on my Corvette and a little on the amp, and had to back off because the low end was getting a bit much. Dead impressed. Gig tonight in a pub with other band,was going to take the 212 cab too, not so sure its needed now!

[quote name='BanjoChris' timestamp='1382106906' post='2248101'] Here's my 2x10 & 2x12 stack in action, being taller than the guitarist's 4x12. Master set on 5 and ear plugs most certainly required. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_7rp1jXlrI [/quote] In fact the rig looks to be taller than the actual guitarist too, so if you put stuff on top he can never get to it! Unexpected bonus! Our guitarists are all quite short in both bands, will hide beer here!

First chance to try the rig this weekend, one practice tonight , think I'll use the 410 on it's own, then gig with other band tomorrow, tempted to use 410 AND 212, why, because they're there.!!

And it dwarfs the guitarists amp. Which is very important.

Now theres an idea, three cabs is way cooler than two. And taller.

Wow, great service chaps, will have to download the manual, that would make sense! Hoping I'll get away with just the 4x10 but my new venture into pub rock with no p.a. assistance has taught me to be prepared!

Muchas thanks guys, the chap I got them from off here reckoned much the same, I thought these things were kind of set in stone, you shall go no lower than 4 ohms or fry your amp, but as it`s all their own stuff, must be o.k ! Thanks for your quick replies, will have to go blast my garage apart to check now!