Jack

It's cheaper than an SVT head. It can sound like an SVT head. It's lighter than an SVT head. It must do a decent impression of, what, £250,000 of gear if you added up all of the models. Any of it in infinitely variable in any order. To answer your original question, I've used a Peterson Rack Tuner and a Presonus Studio Pre before (which has a great compressor built in), both of which I would highly recommend.

The MXR Micro Amp is the standard. Personally I always used my trusty old GEB-7, leave the eq flat and just use the volume. But that's just because I already had one.

Certainly solves the tracking issue with pedals down low.

Dibs on anything 2TSB and maple...

You saw those for £200 around 10 years ago. They do seem to £400+ these days. Wish I'd bought some way back when!

If it's anything like their PB-50 it'll be very, very far from sh*te.

We just left Sveti Vlas in June and I'd been before 2 years ago, you have a beautiful country. I've been fortunate enough to have travelled all over and Bulgaria is one of the very few places that I could see myself living other than Northumberland. It's up there with Kissimmee and Amsterdam.

Looks like an OLP or possibly an aliexpress special. Where are you? You're welcome to borrow one.

Is the google archive still up?? The link looks broken.

Dont let your bass playing plateau during uni and your early twenties. You'll regret it when you hit 30, you've been playing for 20 years and you're still rubbish. You really should keep that Ibanez, it's worth more than the money. New Years Eve 2012/2013 will change your life, enjoy it while you can. That science job is not your dream job, don't take it. Every time you don't buy a MM SUB for ~£200 because the paint finish is weird is a time you were an idiot.

Interesting. I didn't know they'd changed their power amps like that but I was going to chip in with the fact that every time I hear another bassist use an MB amp or there's one in a shop that I try a bass through or whatever I'm always left with the feeling that the old amps sound better than the new amps, I wonder if this is something to with it? I fully believe that a class D amp can be as good as a class A/B, I've used class D for years now. But just because they can doesnt mean that all of them are.

There's always a TC Combo for sale somewhere. I loved my 208, which may not be loud enough, but there were 12s and 15s too.

I have two of the Alto TX10s, I use one of them for home practice sometimes and I have very occasionally used one on a gig but that's purely to point right at my face for personal monitoring only. You'd have to have a really nice 8" or 10" frfr cab to hang with a band, the cheaper ones won't do it IME.

It looks as though there's a consensus forming here. Thanks all.

I ran a QSC PLX1602 for years and there are many times I wish I hadn't gotten rid of it. Actually that's every time I do a backline provided gig and I have to use an amp! Look for something with a low input sensitivity (around 0.7V would be ideal) so that you can drive it properly. Thomann have some good deals on at the moment if you're buying new. There are also loads on ebay for a steal. I think for the same reasons: everyone in the PA world is moving to powered cabs and so fewer and fewer people want the amps. Good for bassists!

Hey all, I've been using a Mono 'Betty' Strap for a bit and tbh we're not getting along. I find that it's starting to look very tatty very quickly and the adjustment slips quite a bit, to the point that my bass gets noticeably lower during a set. What other straps do people recommend? Just looking at Bass Direct I'm rather tempted by the Neotech Mega and the Comfort Strapp. What do people recommend out there that's nicer than an EBMM seatbelt and not a billion pounds' worth of handmade leather? I like mine about 125cm long Grippy or smooth is fine, but the one thing I don't like are the super-grippy suede backs you get on some leather ones. Preference for black Input and ideas appreciated 🙂

Well when you play with modelling andd FRFR it's not really playing is it? You'll notice that's in my living room, I just didn't see the point in actually taking it to the gig, rock and roll is dead anyway.

I killed rock and roll a little last night.

There's plenty of really good stuff happening now. It's the same as old basses, old cars, old actors and old novelists: there's always a high ratio of dross:great but over time we discard the dross and only keep listening to the greats. I'm sorry, but old cars were rubbish. It's easy to look back on classic Astons and Jags and think old cars were great, but the truth is just that those are the only ones worth remembering. Very few people bothered to preserve the Datsun, Austin, British Leyland, etc misery mobiles. Says the man with a vintage Land Rover. Walk Off The Earth Red Fang Dorje Vulfpeck

Sorry man, I just googled an image so you knew what I was talking about. That's an LDS cab that sold second hand on the american forum. I've had an LDS cab before, but mine was the standard 2x12" (2460) and not that airhead pictured. There are plenty of custom cab builders in the UK, but I'm afraid I've never commissioned one. Zilla, PCH Audio, Tricky Audio and I'm sure others may be able to accommodate you.

It's a more expensive option (well, not always) but if you can't find what you want most small cab builders will be happy to build you what's commonly called an 'airhead'.

Thanks everyone! With regards to the above comments especially, it looks as though there may be better options in that kind of budget. This would all be easier if I hadn't sold my BC Nanyo....

Cheers man. What actually 'sets' the impedance then? I'm aware the transformer is a passive step down device, so what sets the impedance in the system? The output of the bass? The input of the console? Yes, I tried to keep everything low impedance on the testing. I have tried playing the DI with a passive bass and it sounds ok with two caveats. Firslty, both of my passive basses have flats, so there's already a reduction in HF content. Secondly, I've only got a couple of short XLR cables in my music room. I don't have anything longer than 10m up here so I can't really fairly say how the DI would react on a normal passive bass driving hundreds of metres of cable.