chris_b

I have never used a pedal and I've never been asked to. I try to buy gear that sounds great out of the box and matches the sound I want. Fortunately that sound seems to fit. I've played songs that had pedals on the original, chorus etc, and so far no one has commented when I just play it straight. While ago I bought a Thumpinator to see what it would do for my sound, but I kinda lost interest and haven't even bought the transformer for it yet.

Try it. Many players use both. If swapping starts to cause problems either practice harder or stop playing one or the other. I don't swap. I only play 5's. I have nothing against 4's but for what I want to play 5's are the most flexible option. I have done 2 gigs with a 4 string bass since I switched to 5's in the mid 90's. One was a Rock and Roll gig which was easy and the other was on a borrowed bass in Prague, for an all originals gig where I had to transpose on the fly a whole set of 5 string bass parts. Definitely the most uncomfortable gig I've ever done.

That is not really logical! Transfer your OCD from "volume controls must be full on" to getting "a better tone".

You find them amongst the guys you know from other bands.

Honestly, there are a lot of bass players who would love to sound like that.

I mostly agree with that. Of course we all buy gear for ourselves but very few of us are playing in a vacuum. Buying for yourself only is only a good idea if your opinion matches the rest of the band. I don't agree with the views expressed that ours is the only opinion that counts in all this. Turn up to a blues band sounding like JJ Burnell or Chris Squire and you're going to be an ex-bass player pretty quickly. This is why I think there are far more important factors involved than achieving the "sound in your head".

There's PMT at Farlington, but jump on a train and you'll be in central London in an hour.

You can play any song. You've set your bass up like 90% of the session players in the 50's and 60's and they managed to play everything on a bass such as this. You can add a lump of foam under the strings by the bridge if you want to kill some of the dynamics, but the way to do it is to change your technique to fit the song.

IMO if you are never going to gig you'll be missing the best part of being a bass player, but. . . . You can go down the heahphone route with something like a Phil Jones Bass BigHead. This will take up no space and cause the least noise, so you can play late at night. There are good small combos around, like the Markbass CMD 121P. You can rehearse with one of these. There are good small amps and cabs. A 110 or 112 cab (Barefaced, Bergantino or Aguilar etc) and a 200 to 300 watt amp (Aguilar, Markbass, Trace Elliot etc) would work well.

Why read between the lines? Just read the lines! As I posted, neither BF cab or combination is an alternative for the other. They all have strengths and some can combine to become stronger.

I put polystyrene sheets between the case and the cardboard box when I'm risking entrusting my bass to a courier company.

These days the Two10's come with the switch. snap

The SC has a full low mid sound and 2 sound fantastic, but the SC isn't designed to go as low or as high as a BB2. Because the SM is a smaller cab it won't go as low as the SC or BB2, but with the tweeter it emphasises the mids to high end. The SC and SM together give you a wider range than 2 SC's and they work very well together. I borrowed an SM from Barefaced and found I preferred the SC/SM combination, but as I had just ordered a Two10 I didn't have the cash for the SM. It is top of my list to run an SM with one of my SC's.

Don't get hung up about your amp running at half volume vs full volume. I doubt you would notice a significant difference between an amp running half and full volume through the same 4 ohm cab. IMO the best and most flexible rig utilising small cabs would be two 8 ohm 112's or 210's. You can use 1 or 2 depending on the gig. If I had to chose a single 4 ohm cab I'd be looking at a (less flexible) 212 or 410. The only single driver small cab that's loud enough for me to gig with is my Barefaced SC.

I remember Alex giving talks to the SE bass bash about cabs, sound etc. before he even thought about making his own cabs. Now I'm sitting here with 2 Two10's and 2 Super Compacts stored in the corner and 2 One10's set up for me to practice with. I gig them all. I'm not sure I need 6 but can't really decide which should stay and which should go. They all sound pretty good to me.

Adding to your sound? Easy. Put a Super Midget (8ohm) on top of your SC (8 ohm) and uprate your sound to a whole new level.

A Shuker is a great bass, so is your Sei. You don't need to own great looking basses. Print pictures of them, put them in an album and ogle them at your leisure.

Replacing speakers with a sound bar is not the same as adding a sound bar to a TV. Almost any sound bar will be an improvement over internal TV speakers, but you're well into specialist areas if you want to replace separate speakers with an equivalent quality sound bar.

I don't like having to search for a good sound. I just want to plug in and it's there. IME it's easier to do that with good, well matched, gear. Getting a good bass sound isn't about obsessing about the "sound in your head". Depending on how good your imagination is "the sound in your head" has an equal chance of making you sound completely crap as it has of making you sound good. Self delusion is a dangerous thing. I've seen players who think they're getting the best sound ever, who actually sound terrible. It's important that we sound good to others, which means we have to listen to the sound we are actually making in conjunction with the sound they are making. If you want an "extreme" bass sound then you have made a very small target for yourself. For a more traditional bass sound just focus on not sounding bad and you'll sound great in a band. You'll get more gigs by being a good player. So what you play is always more important than how you sound.

"Unique gain structures" doesn't really mean much to me. With boost and cut controls I just start with everything at 12 o'clock and find a good sound from there. If I can't find the sound I want between 11 and 1 o'clock then I know that amp isn't for me. So unsurprisingly all the controls on my TH500 are at 12 o'clock. . . . except. . . . I turn the Drive off (fully anti-clockwise) and the Master is where ever I need it. So far I have never cut and only occasionally boosted the Bass or Treble but never beyond 1 o'clock. I realise it is limited and doesn't have the broad range of a D800+ or even my AG700, but the TH500 makes a sound I like and seems to work particularly well with my Precision. I have heard the effect of the Drive control called subtle. Well it's too subtle for me. I have tried it a few times but don't really hear much of interest from that control.

They will probably have done a lot of work on designing and building a crossover so that the right frequencies are delivered to the correct drivers. If a "punter" puts 2 cabs together they will both be working with the whole signal so if there are mismatches in the drivers that might be apparent in the sound. With a good crossover the different drivers should fit together like a jigsaw, because they will be handling different frequencies. snap!

An amp rated at 150 watts @ 4 ohms will be putting out about 75 watts at 8 ohms. Sorry, IMO your problem is not enough watts. I'd get a 500 watt amp so that you'll have 250 watts available for your 210. Then you can add another 210 if you need more volume. A second 210 will improve your tone as well.

Does the Last Waltz by the Band count?

1) You can pair 8 ohm and 4 ohm cabs. I do with my BF 110 and 210 and in the past with a Berg 112 and 212. If you do that they work very well. 2) Stop generalising. As others have said. . . depends on the cabs in question. 3) Call Vanderkley and ask them. They know their cabs better than anyone.

Again, not true. There are all sizes of drivers and multiples of them. These are all designed and used in conjunction with the aims of the designer. If you think a 15" driver is the way to get low end, you're thinking is out by 30 years.