mike257

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1355049557' post='1893255'] Same for me, Mike. I figure I used to spend between £300 & £400 a month on booze, so a bass/amp/cab - which I can sell on as well - every now and then isn`t a huge spend in comparison. [/quote] Exactly, and its much better for you too!

Oh, and on the slight topical swerve, I don't tend to go out drinking, don't smoke and generally don't spend dosh on stuff for me so music is my one vice and indulgence!

I've always seen my music gear as a long term investment and try to avoid offloading it if I can. All my big purchases were made before I had kids and most of them were second hand deals anyway, but I'm reluctant to move any of it on. I did sell a lovely T-40 that took me ages to find when I had some bills to pay, and I still get pangs of guilt now. Having said that, its a bit easier to justify if you're earning from gigs - got to have the right kit for the job!

I've mentioned it when its come up in conversation, see no reason not too. Worked out ok as I found out another guy in the office has a little three piece doing pubs so I've depped for them a bit!

A regular Big Muff will make a load of your low end disappear. Bass Big Muffs can be had for as little as £35 second hand and will do a much better job for you. Joyo stuff is ace for the price as mentioned - I'm yet to try them on bass but I've got three of their pedals on my guitar board and gig them regularly with no issues.

No pics handy but I use a tiny Shuttle 6.0 on top of my enormous Ampeg SVT610HLF - looks daft, sounds awesome!

I'm in favour of the old Marketplace too - partly for the often insightful and useful discussion and partly as I mainly access BC from my mobile. I'd agree with those who've pointed out that the Marketplace is a huge driver for traffic and new members and making this less accessible will only impact negatively on the growth required to sustain a site like this. I'd say a price-per-ad is a good way to go and would suggest keeping the price of entry as low as is feasible for you guys. Every bit dearer it gets, the chance of take up lessens. Toasted's maths a couple of pages back were a great example of how much revenue you could generate like this. The yearly subscription is a nice idea and one that I'd happily go for, but you'll notice that.most people endorsing this are long time BC members who are invested in the community already - somebody just discovering the site for the first time would be much much harder to convince. You guys do great work here and I, like everyone else here, am grateful for this wonderful free resource. It should be able to generate enough revenue to be self sustaining and profitable, but not at the cost of jeopardising the future growth and membership of the site - a tricky balancing act indeed!

I guess I experienced the "relegated for sucking at guitar" but we were a bunch of 14 year olds mucking about in school and I'd been playing guitar for about 5 minutes so it barely counts. Been a bass player ever since, although I sorted out my guitar playing too - mainly for songwriting until I accidentally joined a function band as a lead guitarist early this year! I very much agree with BRX in that the more you can learn about different instruments, how they work in their own right and with each other, the better a musician you will become. I consider myself a bassist first, but a guitarist too, a half-decent drummer and can play enough keys to get by when I've needed too. It's all one big learning curve!

Cheers JTUK, thought you might have dropped by! We're currently using awful cheap and nasty 'Class D' branded subs and tops, they're just disgusting. It's amazing how many bands skimp on PA gear when the vocals should be top of the priorities in terms of sound. I'd be happy to drop a couple of gigs worth of cash on a great rig but everyone else is less prepared to miss out on the paydays - I'm trying to convince them of the long-term value of upgrading our whole FOH sound but I think I'm going to have to meet them midway. Carry/load-in isn't the biggest problem - there's 5 of us and we travel in my big splitter van so can move gear around easily enough. Only reason I was considering using the tops only is because the subs this guy is selling are giant 2x18 monstrosities that (whilst I'd love 'em) are way too much for the majority of the work we do. Have looked for Martin stuff on eBay but rarely seems to be any around. We've just had the opportunity to grab this JBL stuff from somebody local, and potentially at a bargain price, so was interested to get opinions on it. Thinking it might get nearer to the performance I want but stay closer to the budget the band wants!

So, I've been desperately trying to get my function band to put hands in pockets and replace the god-awful cheapo PA gear we're currently using with something more befitting an act charging wedding prices, and it's been an uphill struggle to educate them in the importance of decent PA gear. I've got the opportunity to pick up some JBL MRX500 series kit and wondering if anybody here has any experience of using these cabs before I take the punt. Been offered a pair of MXR525 2x15 full range tops and the matching MRX528s 2x18 subs. I think that whole system would be massive overkill for what we do and that we might even get away with just the MXR525 pair as a full range setup. We're a 5 piece function band with drums, bass, elec and acoustic guitar, keys and three vox. Currently we stick vox, keys and acoustic gtr through the PA and run the guitars/bass from backline only. So yeah, just wondering if anyone has any experience of using the MXR500 stuff and any opinion on its suitability for our needs.... Thanks guys, Mike

I love playing the drums, but rarely get the chance. I've got a halfway decent grasp of it (reckon with regular practice I could pass for a drummer ) although I can't quite nail keeping a steady hi-hat foot going on the beat at the same time as playing everything else, so I'll never be Jimmy Chamberlain. Hopefully heading into the rehearsal room with my brother and a few mates for a jam soon as he's not played his new guitar in anger yet, so I've bagsied the drum stool for that! More fun than going the gym too, it's my favourite way to work out!

Proud owner of a California JM-4 (now called a VM-4 I think) and its stunningly good. Came to me second hand so can't vouch for the custom service but the build and component quality are tremendous. It's very versatile and whilst there's a specific tone my Stingray gives that I'll always grab for certain gigs, for virtually every gig the Sandberg is the first bass I reach for. Short version: Do it. It's a bass for life.

Got to weigh in behind the esteemed Doctor here. I'd always played in originals bands and merrily joined in with the Mustang Sally bashing on here. That was until I joined a function band that have it in the set and realised it is a guaranteed winner every time we play it. People sing, dance and have fun to that song without fail at every event we play - why wouldn't we play it? I write and play original material that expresses (hopefully) the things I want to do musically but when I turn out for a function gig I'm there for one purpose - to entertain those people as best I can for the two hours I'm playing in front of them. Not to challenge them or educate them. I've never seen anybody walk off the floor or out of the room because we've played that tune, and even if one disgruntled muso did it doesn't change anything about the room full of people loving it.

[quote name='jonnpip' timestamp='1352107339' post='1858645'] what would be a ideal tuner to go with the 9.2 ? [/quote] Any tuner you want really, doesn't matter which amp you're using - if you're looking for rackmount there's a few threads (probably in the 'Miscellaneous Equipment' forum) on the options available to you. I think there's concerns around the Behringer one being able to track the low notes well. The Korg DTR series get good feedback but I've got a feeling they've been discontinued. Used to have a DTR-1000 when I had a rackmount setup and it did the job just fine. If you're not going rackmount, you've got all the usual options for pedal tuners, plenty of threads on them too. The usual suspects are Boss TU-2/TU-3, Korg Pitchblack, TC Polytune. If you've got loads of money the Peterson tuners are very highly thought of too. I've always used a Boss TU-2 and found it to be solid and dependable.

I've not had to configure one myself, just seen them in house rigs that I've worked on. The consensus from what I've read is that they are useful tools, but really only as good as the person operating it - have you got any sound engineer mates that could do some initial setup and give you a schooling on it? Mike

[quote name='risk1' timestamp='1351935818'] Hi Mike I have ABM500EVOII connected to ABM610 (just arrived few days ago) and I play Sandberg JJ-4 California and all I can say is: That's my dream and heaven.... it took me a while to get all that stuff together but it's worth.... It is very loud and powerful system and ABM610 do a great job... [URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/809/abm500evoiiabm6101.jpg/][IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img809/674/abm500evoiiabm6101.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/267/sandbergjj4california.jpg/][IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img267/2460/sandbergjj4california.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [/quote] Wow, great setup! I was using a Cali JM4 so we were probably hearing the same kind of thing, it seemed to be a great combination. I love my Ampeg and the Shuttle is wonderful and so easy to get about, but seriously thinking about making the switch. Transport isn't a problem for me so the big cabs are fine, although I'd probably need a smaller one too just in case.... aaargh, first GAS attack in ages, and I was doing so well

Is the Yamaha F310 still around? That was always a good go-to cheap acoustic and is around your budget if memory serves me well.

That, and the fact that we're holding a bass.

Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't had the front off, I was just carelessly assuming that it was a sealed design like the "other" 8x10. I just know I liked the sound!

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1351690858' post='1854201'] A local venue used to use an ashdown mag 600 through an ashdown mag 4x10 and the sound was pants (farting speakers). They changed the cab to a ampeg SVT classic 4x10 and now the sound is fantastic. So my advice is to get an ashdown amp but if you already have a decent ampeg 6x10 stick with it and see if you like the sound before you spend money on an ashdown 4x10 because an ashdown amp and ampeg speakers are a good combination. [/quote] To be honest I think the sound of the cab had a lot to do with the results I got on Saturday - the big sealed fridge design had more presence in the mids than my SVT610, which is ported and more heavy on the low lows. I do love the 610, but I think the sound I got from the Ashdown rig might just suit me better. I'll have to take it out again with my Stingray to be sure, but it sounded so warm and punchy with the Sandberg, I was in tone heaven!

[quote name='BluRay' timestamp='1351698326' post='1854351'] To go with my ABM 500, I've used an ABM 810 (borrowed at rehearsals), and own a ABM 410 and 2x ABM 210s. I now use the 2x210 for gigs - works a treat! Although I'd have an 810 if I could carry one, to be honest I cant say I've noticed a tone difference between that and its smaller siblings. Seems to be much the same sound out of different sized boxes!. The 2x210 combination works especially well cos it stands high up and runs at 4Ohm - so gets the most out of the amp. The 410 on its own is noticeably quieter - but still plenty loud enough. Its a heavy bugger tho! [/quote] The ABM810 is really tempting - I own a big Transit van so moving it is no problem, it's just totally over the top for my needs at the moment! Two 2x10s sounds a lot more manageable, do you stack them tallways then?

Had a run in with (probably) the same person a few weeks ago over an advert for a Gibbo Les Paul Traditional. Seller contacted me via an internet SMS with no phone number attached, quoting an email address to use for communicaion. I was suspicious and googled the email address which turned up a forum thread. Turns out this person has had all kinds advertised, not just music gear, and had rinsed a number of people for hundreds of quid after reeling off crap excuses for not meeting in person and asking payment through UKASH. I've had a fair few good experiences on Gumtree, including buying stuff via Paypal and getting it delivered. The scammers are usually easy to spot and ignore so long as you've got your wits about you.

Borrowed my mate's big Ashdown rig for a dep last weekend as amp is out of action and absolutely fell in love with the tone! I've never owned any Ashdown gear and had mixed experiences using it on shared/house backline gigs, but this rig was stunning. It was total overkill for the litle pub gig I was playing but the sound when I cranked it up was perfect, so much punch in the mids. It's tempting me to change up my current set up for something simlar - the EVOIII heads seem to go for a reasonable price, but I was wondering if anybody who has experience of the ABM810 and 410 cabs could give me a clue if the smaller cab comes close to delivering the same punch as the 'big rig'. Had grand plans of going small and lightweight but this tone was just perfect, a definite plan-changer. Don't know if I can justify owning a big 810 for the small amount of bass gigging I'm doing at the moment. Looks nice in the living room though.

I played my first gig on bass in just under two years last night!. Depped for a guy at work whose bassist never turns up, pub gig with lots of the usual indie pub singalongs in there. Which I've never played. Picked up my bass at about midday and learnt 24 songs in three hours, had a half a song soundcheck at the pub and then went for it. A couple of hairy moments but on the whole it went great, they offered me the full time job after the first set! Had to decline as the function band I'm playing g****r for have got a pretty full diary already, but I was made up to dust off the bass! I've missed it, was good to be home. Oh, and I'd borrowed my mates ridiculously over the top Ashdown rig (ABM900 and 810) as my Ampeg has a blown driver - sounded incredible. I think I'm converted, I might not let him have it back. No wooliness in sight, it just growled with my Sandberg.

Love that LP - I've been eyeballing second hand ones for months, narrowly avoided brushes with a couple of Gumtree scammers in the process. I went out at lunchtime today for a sandwich and came back with this.... [attachment=121999:TeleDlx.jpg] Fender Telecaster Deluxe '72 Reissue - the Arctic White finish was a limited run too, so I'm made up. I'll be sticking the original bridge pickup back in and swapping the 250k pots for 500k ones to open the top end up and she'll be lovely! It's sat behind me at my desk right now, so tempting to stop working and start riffing!