Willl

Your drummer must be a special one and very different to mine... ABM would appear to be the pick of the bunch. Will you get a chance to try playing the Ashdown through the Yamaha 2x10 as (if it sounds good to you) it would appear to be a good compromise for portability and gigability. Willl

We (four piece rocky covers band prepared to travel up to 40 miles each way) get asked back (yes really!!) after charging £500 for weddings and parties, and see pub gigs largely as business generation, although a few quid each and free beer for the night is a bonus

Appreciate the suggestions - thank you Mottlefeeder. I have been looking at the MarkBass gear and all the positive commentary on the forum, I guess something like a CMD102P could be just the ticket - I'd certainly like to hear one. I hadn't considered self build but that could certainly be an alternative. bass ferret. An Epifani rig would also be fantastic although I would certainly need to clear some of the current gear out to make some space and budget available! I guess one of my concerns with the lightweight gear is over it's ability to be properly ballsy. We're a covers band playing rowdy gigs at 40ths and pub parties (and some rough weddings) with at times a pretty loud and rocky / punky set. We have a vocals only pa, so it's down to me to make my own noise. I recognise I'm probably old school with the Trace-head-plus-big-cabs-mindset but I get a decent and big sound out of it so have some reluctance to make radical changes without some research, hence the request for ideas. As I said in my first post, to some extent this is me trying to find a logic to justify a bout of GAS, if I analyse too closely there are certainly holes in my thinking .... Now if I could just find that great value 700w lightweight thunderous combo/ rig that we all know we need

I'm currently dragging around an AH300-12 Trace Elliot Head and combinations of 2 Warwick 4x10 and/or TE 1x18 cabs for gigs and (because logistics mean I can't transport the cabs during the week) have a Roland Cube 100 I'm currently using for rehearsals which just isn't man enough for being heard over an enthusiastic drummer and Marshall stack touting guitarist. SO - probably in an effort to mask GAS as a logical need to change gear I'm thinking about clearing out and getting myself a decently powerful combo plus extension cab. The combo I'm homing in on is something like a Gallien Krueger RB1001 which is sufficiently compact to fit on the front seat of my car during the week and man enough to drive some air for weekends. I'd welcome thoughts and comments.... and offers of any dusty GKs or similar looking for a new home Will

I have a AH300-12 which for the moment is just fine - other than a missing slider cover, which I fancied replacing. I went looking for Gavin at GM Audio who had previously provided a great service, only to find they appear to have gone south. Does anyone know what happened? Has Gavin reappeared anywhere else, or failing that is there any other outfit holding spares and doing repairs on older Trace gear?

Great idea - on the basis I'd be keen to use any tools which would help me improve my playing. For Groove Library newbies like myself, I suspect there may be value in an idiots guide to getting started - What gear's needed, how to go about using, then ultimately creating anything that might be of value to anyone else here....? Anyone up for that?

Before you spend your hard earned, I'd suggest there's a significant difference from the entry level budget models and just the next level up. The practical differences are range and how robust they're made for the rigours of gigging. Of course for the purist there would be noticable sound quality differences in back to back testing, but in a live environment which is afterall the only place you'd be using a wireless setup, you can compensate for most minor differences in repsonse by tweaking your amp. We have a selection of Sure, Sennheiser and Samsontech wireless gear in our band. All perform well enough. For my money, there are a set of equivalent models across the Sure and Sennheiser ranges for you to choose from. Mine is a Sennheiser ew 172 G2 [url="http://www.sennheiser.co.uk/uk/icm.nsf/root/21404"]http://www.sennheiser.co.uk/uk/icm.nsf/root/21404 [/url] it came with a decent case, so I don't destroy it as is gets thrown in and out of the car with the rest of the gear. I'd say your best bet is to watch the forums here for some unwanted / upgraded gear on a budget... and much better value for money!!

Any pictures of the Ampeg Dan Armstrong? There's a shot of it on Dolphin but it really doesn't give much away! Willl

If GHS boomers are good enough for Flea, they're good enough for me although I didn't enjoy them on the Modulus so now they're on my ibanez Elixirs on the Modulus right now... can't say I'm settled yet.

Willl, previously Willl on BT and BW. Great to see a good level of support and activity here. I'm a born again bass player having played at school then forgot all about it at the advent of cars and girls... so here I am 20 something years and four children later.... recently been having a ball for the last year or so playing in a covers band and with enough money to buy the gear I always just dreamt of having last time round. I have more enthusiasm than skill and keep promising myself to knuckle down and get some lessons... soon. We play probably every other weekend at typically 30ths and 40ths, wedding receptions, fundraisers and some pub gigs Managed to accumulate some gear over the years, some new, some original including a Peavey foundation 4 US made probably a mid 80s bass which other than a limited range of tonal possibilities (just the one) is still good to play, more recently picked up Gwylim's Yahama TRB5P and Beedie's Modulus Sonic Hammer and an Ibanez SR1200. The Sonic Hammer is the mainstay which comes out every time. Amps incldue an old pratice peavey TKO80 US built which must find a new home soon to make space for a Roland CubeBass100 coming down from Nottswarwick. The gig gear is Trace Elliot AH300-12 on top of either 2 Warwick 411Pros or one of those and an 18inch Trace cab. Been playing around with a sennheiser wireless set up which is great, so I don't trip over my wires... Haven't ever quite sorted what I wanted from effects so ended up buying a coverall Boss GT6B, and in spite of it having a million and one effects I find I use only two or three. It's got to be close to leaving soon. The biggest kick I get from playing is to see a crowd really enjoying themselves, regardless of whether I think I'm playing something worthy or fancy.