agedhorse

There have indeed been some documented issues with the brown colored new plugs from Neutrik, being exactly as Eich had experienced. A bigger problem has been some of the cheap knockoff plugs from Asia, their cost is irresistible to some cable manufacturers and they can damage the mating jacks too.

Maybe, but if the SpeakOn jacks are PCB mounted it's going to be more difficult and with a greater chance for a more thoroughly damaged speaker.

Exactly the reason for my path in the industry, it’s much more pleasant working with seasoned pros in general. It also pays MUCH better. it depends very much on the level of sound techs and engineers you are working with.

Clearly you need to play a better class of gig. I worked a lot of festivals where 15 minutes was the standard turnaround time between acts. A festival patch and good communication makes it pretty easy with just a line check and quick monitor mixes setup.

Yet most audience members would prefer shorter than 15 minutes…

To clarify, I mostly handled international acts on the “Americas” side of the pond, both touring but later as the A1 (lead audio) in several “higher end” venues. The only UK tour I did was in the 1980’s with Taj Mahal, and I never encountered any issues. I stopped working dive type venues in the early 1980’s, realized early on that it would be impossible to make a living and raise a family. I mostly worked venues in the 1000-2500 cap range, in part because there’s respect built into that type of venue, but also because they tended to be union or union friendly facilities with clearly defined work (and safety) rules. My crew made it ~40 years without a reportable accident or injury. During this entire time, I designed pro audio and bass/guitar gear for some of the largest names in the industry during my downtime. Now that I’m retired from pro audio events, I design full time for Mesa Boogie and Gibson, It all goes hand in hand, I met others who had design “side hustles” while touring as well. The touring experience helps make good, real world, player friendly solutions for players.

From this post, you must be a whole lot of fun to work with. Most players play a whole lifetime of gigs without getting “screwed” by sound engineers or coming to blows with a sound guy. I was a sound engineer (FOH) for 40 years working the international touring circuit mostly. The first time a player threatened one of the crew, they would get an introduction to the head of security, who quickly defused the situation by either compliance, or the act was cancelled. It almost never happened because this kind of behavior simply wasn’t tolerated at this level. Nothing screams immaturity like an act or its members throwing a “toddler temper tantrum”. Yup, the higher quality venues and the better acts generally end up with better backline. I don’t recall seeing junk more than a couple times a year at most, often it was really good gear.

The intent (at least my intent) was to go beyond the Bass 400+ with changes and feature set that make more sense to today’s players. I asked hundreds of players what they would like to see different on a reimagining, what features are now considered important or essential. The variable HPF was at the absolute top of the list, but so was the pre-post switchable DI, aux input, headphone output, and somewhat surprisingly the USB power port. Size and weight were also a common wishlist item. Some of you here participated in that TalkBass thread and poll, there was a remarkable degree of agreement too.

I don't know how convenient, but Surrey Amps has done excellent work for us for many years. Well qualified IMO. https://surreyamps.co.uk/

Perhaps if copying a proven design, but even then the economies of scale are against you. Now if there is no value assigned to labor, and you already have the tools, the gap is closer, but it's the "proven design" part of the equation that makes a difference IME. There's also the cost of developing the design and building prototypes that's often (conveniently ignored), but by ignoring even the minimal cost of design, labor, quality hardware, testing and wasted materials, then yes it can appear to be less expensive. There are also the DYI designs that, due to inexperience or lack of understanding, become "amp killers" due to not understanding reactive load limits in amps when it comes to crossover design, that bring hidden costs to the table. Yes, I run into this often enough, especially from the OCD crowd that thinks that every crossover needs multiple Zobel networks without any consideration for what ends up being lumped resonant tank circuits. This is just my experience, based on what I have seen over the (many) years.

Yet many of those plans are pretty poor when compared with established quality commercial designs. That’s been my experience overall. Economies of scale regarding quality commercial conditions makes it very difficult to build for less cost, especially if considering the used market.

Indeed it does, if you want it to look nice.

Maybe because they can buy a proven solution without trying to reinvent the wheel? I've heard some dreadful DIY PA gear in my career, yet the "builders" of that gear thought they were the greatest speakers since sliced bread. I designed commercial pro audio gear (including speakers) for a couple of the larger US and Italian manufacturers, and even with my in-house resources, it just didn't make sense unless those manufacturers were paying me to build prototypes or sample units.

With high output basses, be sure you are using the gain switch in the low gain position.

We've discussed it many times, but nothing concrete one way or the other.