Quilly

I'm approaching 50 and I still think that some of the indie bands from the 80s and 90s are overrated sacred cows and that there's great alternative music around now, if people just got off their butts to try and find it, and there's no excuse now with Spotify and what not.

Valve amps , although gorgeous sounding give me the heebie jeebies, I’m always convinced a valve will die or the some other catastrophic failure will happen , ridiculous I know . As I’ve had 3 full valve heads that never went wrong .

I recently purchased a TE elf as a backup so it’s not exactly a huge lug around and a great amp in its own right. My main amp is an Ashdown Spyder and honestly I can’t imagine it ever going wrong , built like a tank

You definitely need a second bass and amp imo

I played a wedding gig many moons ago where my amp just sputtered out after the second song , luckily the BL had a DI box and I was able to plug directly into the PA. I’m so paranoid that something will go wrong at a critical moment I’m bringing way too much to gigs that’s never used, it’s kinda ridiculous Am I alone ?

I actually got drafted as replacement bassist for an old timey old New Orleans 10 piece by out guitarist (who plays banjo with them) at first I was like “what am I doing here” but now I really enjoy the music. It’s actually OK to play on bass , well, that type of jazz.

If I was going to do a swap Id have a J body with a P neck ! The chunkier the better 😅

They wouldn’t be able to sell stuff cheap then because they would have development overheads . Lidl sells “rice krunchies” and “nutty Ella” , everyone knows they’re knock offs but they’re cheap and usually OK. This is no different

I really don’t like the ratfur on their gear, guaranteed to pickup dirt, wear out and generally look like 💩 within a couple of years . Give me good old fashioned tolex all day

I think its great that there are generic brands like Beringer, Bugera and Harley Benton around making 'acceptable' gear for beginners or folks that don't have a lot of disposable income. "There was none of that in my day" and the cheap gear on the 80s was pretty awful, the next step upwards was usually unaffordable. People will always strive to obtain higher end gear so I cant imagine a hand full of generic brands are going to hill innovation and R&D overnight. I cant imagine Pfizer going bankrupt because Tesco sell generic paracetamol.

I was never crazy about Beringer stuff, very cheap fit and finish, saying that all the Beringer gear we have in the band has never left us down (but usually knobs and sliders have broken off) , its like the "Dacia" of music gear . HB stuff is great, sometimes it might need a little finishing off but unbelievable value for money and genuinely decent gear. As I said I've had bugera stuff and it always seemed decent to me anyhow.

I has a bugera BVV3000 bass head for a short while, an SVT clone and it was a good amp as far as I could tell. I sold it on due to its weight more than anything but it sounded great and seemed well put together. I currently have a bugera 5W guitar head and it seems like a good amp also, sounds good to my ears and solidly built. I think they make pretty good amps at the moment. The 3 valve bass head looks like it should be a good amp, despite the optimistic wattage rating.

At home I play by Sandberg California VS because its getting a bit old now (12 years) and has a few dings and scrapes so I'm not to fussed if it gets another scratch or 2 but it sounds and plays great. Gigging I use my fender P bass (for acoustic and jazz gigs) and by Sandberg Basic for rock gigs because it has a great stingray-like punchy tone to it, I always bring the Sandy VS to gigs as a backup.

I think Andy was talking about the similarity of the name with that of a certain sports car.

Exactly what I thought

I had the heavy gauge ones (0.052 - 0.110) but I couldn't get on with the tension on them. These feel much better and still sound great. I'm using a little bastard 30W and barefaced two10. The whole combination sounds amazing, really retro 60s sounding setup. Perfect for Beatles covers, Motown covers etc.

Just put in a set of la Bella low tension flats on my p bass … my god 😮

I had one for about 4 years until I sold it about a month ago, it sounded great but TBH I never really used it much for gigs (too nervous). I actually preferred the sound from the 30W little bastard and when I needed more oomph I had a much more rugged 550W Ashdown Spyder, which is also a superb sounding amp, so it kinda fell between 2 stools. I bought a TE elf with the proceeds which I'm already getting more use out of. Would I buy another one...probably not if I'm honest but its a great amp for what it does.

I actually ended up with Lollar Pbass/90s and absolutely love them, nice and aggressive mids.

From all the 'classes' of amps I've used what works best for me is a valve preamp with a traditional AB solid state back end. You get the warmth from the valves and that clean power from the power section, and because preamp valves don't wear out quickly you don't have all that amp servicing/biasing malarkey.

One of the nicest amps i ever used for bass was a Carlsbro 50top 50w guitar amp . I’m so sorry I sold that but it was a big of a heavy lump. Seemed plenty loud to me.

This old chestnut, not all SS amps are created equally for instance I’ve had a few wimpy class D heads but then I had a beast of an old school trace head that really put the flap into trouser flapping , that being said my valve 30w little bastard valve head really packs a punch . I had a 100w Ashdown valve head but never really got to open her up fully