largo

I did one gig with 2 x Compacts and was told by the rest of the band to get rid of one as the on stage volume was too loud. Thankfully I only had one of the cabs on loan anyway. I did turn down, but I do feel you need to drive these cabs to get the most from them. Tickling them lost a lot of the quality of the tone. FWIW dave_bass5, our sound guy says he preferred the tone from my old Schroeder 410L as opposed to the Compact.

Just sold Clarky my Barefaced Compact. Great guy to deal with, the payment was very quick and let me know via email when the cab had arrived. Cannae say fairer than that!

I moved from an Ashdown ABM 500 II amp to the Markbass SA450 (like to have the mid control if I need it) and it's a great sounding amp, very light and importantly for me very reliable. However. I still hanker after that Ashdown sound and would suggest you try to change the cabs first. I've got the Barefaced Compact and it's an amazing sounding cab and very light. However, if your swapping from 2 large cabs I'd go with the Super Twelve option.

Have you thought about Jon Shuker's Artist range?

Yes, how did you know that? Ernie something or other was his name....

Yeah, me too.

First things first, I hope everyone realised my last post was a wind up ! Although, it's not much different to a lot of the stuff I've read on here about why various products are better than others. Could it simply be that the bass has been photgraphed with the strings loosened, so aren't sitting straight against the board and have therefore been pulled on to the pickups as well?

It's all to do with the ergonomics of the fretting hand vs the plucking hand. There was an article somewhere (probably some medical journal) that said by creating an offset between the top & bottom strings on a fretboard it reduces the risk of RSI and Carpal Tunnel in Bass players. It was also scientifically proven that you could play faster & longer with your bass setup this way. A little bit like Dingwall with their fanned fret system. It might not look nice, but scientifically Lakland's make you a better bass player whereas Sadowsky's do the opposite. I guess nobody's forcing anybody to buy these, but the facts speak for themselves.

A few years back we had to stop mid-song when a wasp decided to join the drummer for a duet. There was a flurry of drums and then silence as the drummer (female I should add) ran around the stage waving her arms in the air trying to get rid of the culprit.

I wasted 2 sets of these on a headed 5 string where the string would unwind on the B string. I know it's a different problem but I reckon the same cause, i.e. The round cores as opposed to hex.

If I didn't buy expensive gear, my wife would buy expensive shoes.

I can't argue with much of the above, I still have a Shuker Jazz 5-string that Jon built for me and I have also owned and sold a number of Sei Basses that were custom built for me too. Here's my opinions.... The Shuker is my day-to-day gigging bass. I never visited the Shuker workshop and made all my choices via email and telephone calls with Jon. He was happy to try and design a bass around my ideas, so it's a "set-neck" Jazz 5-string as opposed to thru-neck or bolt-on but with a heel like you see on Fodera basses. I wanted the body chambered to reduce the weight, I wanted a sparkle finish with red-block inlays on the neck and he was happy to advise and accomodate. What was even better was, when I received the bass and I didn't like the neck profile he took it back and reshaped and refinished it, as well as changing the red blocks to white as they also didn't look quite right. All free of charge! It's now the bass that I was exactly after. The Sei's were also brilliant basses and, dare I say it more like pieces of furniture. In my opinion, they were more precisely built than the Shukers and that's not knocking Jon Shuker's work as it's off the highest standard. However, I did think Martin stuck more to standard design, so he wouldn't make a set-neck for example or a slighlty smaller style body than his template Jazz basses. They were definitely more delicate basses and required the neck to be adjusted more often (that was all 3 or 4 of them) than my Shuker. I think Shuker put graphite bars in the neck to keep them more stable. As for resale, I always thought I'd keep my first Sei and quickly realised that it's the build that's the drug not the bass itself. If you can afford it, it's definitely worth it but it's a learning curve too so all your choices might not be what you expected and you may in a year or two's time want to try again. I guess that's the big difference between buying a pre-built bass and ordering a custom. You'll probably lose more money on resale than you would if you bought a new bass, but I'd say don;t let that put you off. My best advice would be, get your first bass built and learn from that experience if you're planning on getting a second one already. Anyway, hope some of that helps.

This thread is why I love forums

I'll open a can of worms here but, if you follow the rules of evolution then a new bass should always be better than an old bass. I'll reinforce my argument by saying that these basses should be comparable, so a 1962 Jazz isn't comparable to even a US Jazz anymore. I'd argue that an early Fender bass was actually a custom-shop build using the latest state of the art techniques. So, comparable to let's say a Sadowsky in real terms, i.e. the way it was designed, built, comparable cost etc.

What is it with Ashdown, I actually found mine to be great. An ABM 500 RC II and it was anything but woolly. Not that expensive either, considering. I'd take one back anytime. Are we saying that all the Ashdown endorsees, only play use Ashdown because they get them for free? I can't believe that for a minute.

I think 6 month sounds more realistic, he used to quote 6 weeks ! Sounds like some bass and I promise you won't be disappointed with Jon's work.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1212332' date='Apr 27 2011, 09:22 AM']Relax - mine's done loads, and it's fine. [/quote] OK, that's an easy one then. Swap your new amp for Dave's for the next 3 gigs

or the other option, lojo is to get a tall, light stack. Oh no, infinite loop coming on ........

Now I'm curious, but wonder if it's the Fender Precision "boys" who prefer the sound of these amps?

superb, I didn't think about disco lights to prop up the cab. You, my man are a genius

Hello all, I'm more than grateful for all the posts but I don't want this turning into a bun fight. So that everyone is aware, I am more than happy with the sound & tone I get out of my setup, and similar to JTUK it's that 5% of gigs that are the problem, well maybe nearer 10%. The dilemma only comes about where the band are stuck for space. Essentially standing a foot or so from my cab that's only 25" high I feel the sound passes me by. One solution I like, suggested by Alex on one of his posts is to put my amp underneath the cab and tilt it slightly too. It's a rackmounted amp and the Compact, I think is light enough not to crush things underneath. Would the frequencies cause any problems to the amp components, i.e shake something loose? JTUK, sorry but I have to disagree with your comment that 15's are no good for definition. I've owned 4x10's 2x12's, 2x10's etc and this 1x15 is as defined as it it gets. In fact, I'll go as far to say that the Barefaced Compact is the best sounding cab I've owned to date. I'm more than happy with everyone's reponses and it's probably best to put this thread to bed now. Thanks everyone, again.

Thanks for all the replies.... OK, the 212 cabs are a good height, but go above the weight of a one-man carry in my opinion. They would also take more floor space and I'm looking for narrow & wide as opposed to wide & wide. More speaker than I would ever need as well. Standing a couple of feet from a cab that barely reaches your knees, does mean in my opinion that the sound passes you by and you hear reflection more than the cab itself. The GK 112 looks good and is 23.5" high, so 2 stacked on their side are 47" same as the 121H I thought about, so I would definitely hear that. Not up for the tilt I'm afraid, I think my amp would slide off unless I think about vlecro and all sorts. Same goes for the stand. Thanks again for your suggestions.

Not after buying anything in a hurry but looking for some advice at the moment. The majority of my gigs I have to stand so close to my amp/cab that hearing the bass isn't always the best, so what are my options? Playing in a function band means space is a premium so the obvious is to go up & not out. I guess what I'm looking for is some lightweight (less than 18kg) stackable cabs that also give some height. Only option at the moment I can think of is the Markbass 121H and stack 2 on their ends. However, any other suggestions would be welcome.