Jack

I'll certainly get to a local shop and aim to try the Ampeg stuff. Thanks for the offer Prime, but I'm certainly hoping for 2 smaller cabs rather than one big one. If I have to go the big cab route it's either a NV610 or Barefaced 69er. Thumperbob, I had certainly thought about going with an external pre to use with my current rig, I quite like the ability to be able to 'de-vintage' at the flick of a switch and I do still like the sound and form factor of my GK rig. I had thought about the Darkglass B7K to replace my MXR M80 as lots and lots of my gigs are amp shares where I plug into somebody else's rig and because I practice with the preamp into a mixer and then headphones. Oooooh so many choices. Speaking of Line 6, their heads never a get a mention on here, rubbish or worth considering?

They could sound like liquid Jesus and TC would still be off the list because of their marketing. Oooooooh, an OTB, now there's a trick I've missed. Also, how are we getting on with the Mesa Walkabout stuff now that it's a few years old?

At least you'll be able to re-sell a 'name' brand for more money if you don't like it.

You'll get money for a standard bass and you'll get the money from the parts too. Most people think any upgrades are downgrades and your idea of a upgrade may not suit anyone else's taste. Nothing against you, but standard is always the way to sell. FWIW, My P recently got a new lease of life with a new wiring job, orange drop capacitor (of questionable benefit but I was in there anyway and it was cheap!) and a DiMarzio Will Power pickup. Best precision I've ever played, and now it sounds like it should.

Hey folks, I'm currently running and loving a GK rig consisting of a 1001RB-II head, neo 1x12 and a neo 2x12. But I can't help thinking I want something a bit more traditional sounding, maybe with a hint of overdrive present in the sound naturally. I'm actually leaning towards a pre/power setup (which is something I've been wanting to try for a while) or I'm really interested in the new Ashdown heads. Does anyone have any ideas what would be nice here? I'm all for smaller heads but when compared to a cab even big heads still seem small to me so I'm not really too fussed here. The biggie, cabs. I just don't know what to do at all here. All of the small neo cabs seem geared towards a really deep, full modern tone and that's totally great but just not what I'm shooting for. I know that sometimes there's 'no replacement for displacement' but I really can't find anything smaller than a Bergie NV610 that fits what I'm looking for tonally and that seems totally absurd. With the amount of love that SVTs still get even though they've been obsolete for 20 years it boggles my mind that no one makes a cabinet with a similar tone profile but in a smaller package. I cant even find a pair of small, sealed, 2x10s that sound anywhere close. Does anyone have any advice here either? Alex, I want a 69er cut into two pieces!

Because it's made with newer technology and because people are willing to pay for the smallness premium. Either would be fine, I have a 1001RB-II and love it but if I were to do it all again I'd probably go small and digital.

Nope. 10dB (1B ) is twice as loud, it's a logarithmic scale. You can double the power to get 3dB, and you'll need ten times the power to get an extra 10dB. Most cabs are specced at around a 100dB, I cant think that one cab will really be twice as loud as another unless you're comparing ridiculous things like a massive Fitzmaurice horn against a 6" practice cabinet. Not that it matters, most cabinet specs are outright lies and the ones that aren't are usually meaningless. EG most bass cabinets are specified for sensitivity at 1kHz, I could make a cabinet that does 100dB at 1kHz with a bandsaw and some plywood right now, but you wouldn't want to use it for bass. Use your ears, or at worts the advice of people that have ears you trust, specs are a waste of time IME. People like Alex and Bill rely on the fact that they're cabinets are simply very good and translate that fact into numbers and specs that people like. They don't lie or stretch the truth because they don't have to. Many manufacturers do, and I'm sure all would want you to use your head rather than buy anything based on specs.

If you can find a little bit more money there's the Ibanez K5, specifically mine which will be on the marketplace in a couple of weeks . . . .

In an ideal world, you have an amp thats just big enough for the gig because smaller amps are easier to transport and fir on smaller stages better. Of course, this is never possible. I'd agree that around 500W into a decent amount of speaker area (say, 4 10"s or 2 12"s) is about right for the majority of gigs. A decent 500W head into a 8ohm 4x10" gives you around 300W to play with and room to add another cabinet later on if you really really need to. If you're loud enough to compete with a drum kit on full-bore then you're loud enough full stop because as soon the soundman starts micing the drums they should really be reinforcing the bass as well. If I could do my rig again I'd have bought two 1x12"s rather than the 1x12" and 2x12" I have now. I've never really used both cabs together. But then, I wanna change my setup around anyway.

It sits between the mixer and the amps and puts the high-frequency content (tin whistles, violins and Axel Rose) through the tops and the low-frequency content (tuba, kick drum, Frank Sinatra and a little known and even less appreciated instrument called bass guitar) through the subs.

I've hated the HK stuff too, but I guess it must be popular for some reason. At uni it was in a few of the rooms that my band used to play in and that we hosted plays in with the drama society. I've sat on both sides of those rigs and not liked it, but they might just be sub-par installs. I love that you want to put more and more things through the PA, and that is certainly the professional way to do things, but you have to wonder if hat's really the correct solution. In smaller rooms, I would have said to go with a mixer (maybe a powered one) and some smallish tops for just the vocals but you guys have keys which means that unless the keyboard player has a suitable amp you're really going to need to bring subs to every gig. Hiring might be easier, and it's certainly going to have you sounding better. The pros to having your own include consistent sound, you personally needing a smaller bass rig and having the equipment whenever you want it and not at the mercy of someone else's timetable. I mean, tell me you wouldn't use it for house parties if you had it in the garage. On that note, I'd say you're looking at two tops, two subs (ideally, though one would do in smaller rooms), a mixer, crossover and either one (mono) or two (stereo) amps. Stereo is really, really over-rated for live PA systems and usually just means that half the bar wont hear half of your stuff, IME go mono. Buy an amp that can handle two tops on one side and two subs on the other. That way you can add another later for more headroom with no worries. If I had 3k, I would go with 2x Electro Voice ELX 112 tops and 2x EV ELX 118 subs. The EV stuff gets fantastic, fantastic reviews and IME can't be beaten at this price point. I've never mixed on it but a local guy we work with has a little rig with this stuff and it's pretty amazing.* That's about £1500, £500 will net you two big power amps such as the Peavey PVi 3000. £300 or so for a decent mixer, of which there are many good models from Allen and Heath, Yamaha, Soundcraft and even Peavey. Crossovers. If you're at all technically-minded, might I suggest a processor rather than a straight forward xover? Something like a DBX Driverack will let you eq your whole rig, crossover correctly, run low/high pass filters on the top and bottom of the sound to get rid of unnecessary crap in the signal, and very importantly delay your pa by a few milliseconds to the align it to the band's backline. This is the #1 reason why small-band, self-run PAs sound like ass, trust me. It's complicated an expensive (you're looking at like £400 for a new one) but if you can fathom an ipod or a laptop it would be really, really, worth it and would save you buying and carrying a massive rack to do all that stuff for you. At the least, £200 would net you something like a DBX stereo, 2 way crossover easily. Less on ebay. At this point we've got maybe £300 left which isn't a lot but it will do. Ideally you'll have bought some stuff used or on special offer and have more like £500+ for this accessories section but you can always buy more mics and such later on. This money has to buy you a decent 6-8 space rack (room to grow!), speaker stands, good quality cables to wire everything up, a few mics (Shure SM57s and 58s are a godsend and can pretty much do everything reasonably well between them) and covers for your speakers if you're feeling really fancy. I'd also love to suggest £50 or so to pay a buddy or local tech to check everything out and make sure it's set up right and as much as you can justify on a decent usb soundcard for your laptop so that you can record a simple mono mix of everything your band does to listen to and critique later on. You didn't mention monitors. If you don't have a spare amp channel (I gave you 4, so you do if you really want) the easiest thing to do here is buy some tops that can be laid down to act like monitors and run them parallel to the mains. It's not pretty and you don't get a separate monitor mix but you will be able to hear each other and isn't that really the point? Otherwise buy some powered monitors and run them off an aux output on your mixer. * Which leads me on to a very good point. He's a good soundman. The more YOU learn the better your band will sound, for free. Some very basic but useful tricks and traps to google or search for on prosoundweb.com: 'Power alleys' 'aux-fed subs' 'backline delay' 'how to mic a drum kit'. EDIT - Maths was messed up, didn't include the tops in the total.

Essentially if you were right then no one would buy expensive basses and the companies would go bust.

[quote name='Alex Spencer' timestamp='1330824267' post='1563579'] I cannot wait until I get to add an addition to this thread. What I wouldn't give for a Stringray... [/quote] They're expensive sure. But considering the sheer amount of bass you can get for around £700 delivered to your door (second hand prices here atm) they're actually extremely good value!

There's some better stuff in the second video for a bit. But isn't faster better?

I love mine, I find it's most useful as clean preamp and using the channel switches to move between flat and scooped sounds. This is actually my practice rig into a Soundcraft mixer hooked up to my pc then headphones. I'm not the world's biggest fan of the distortion either, but as has been said it sounds much better loud and with a band then it does in the music shop.

Hey I'll take the GK for the same £60.

The Ibanez ATK models are very, very Stingrayesque and all-round good quality basses. The 200 and 300 can be had for £200-£400. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ibanez-ATK300-active-Bass-Guitar-Natural-/251005666478?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a711a84ae"]I have no affiliation to this ebay auction.[/url]

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1329426120' post='1542433'] Will try but for something so real, it lacks little 'real' proof. Throw a few names in a few graphs and anyone will believe anything, like climate change. [/quote] You don't believe in climate change? OT: big fan of the Slinkys, might try these when I next need a set.

Something like a TNT might be an upgrade, but the real question here is: why do you want a new amp? Or more accurately: what do you want your new amp to do that your current one can't?

I'll agree that they are variable. I'd buy a Stingray (for example) unplayed. In fact I have, twice. But if I was after a Fender I'd go to a shop, find one that I liked and walk out the door with that exact one. You just can't assume that two identical models will be the same. As an aside, wood is wood and an organic, flexible, variable material. Why should they be identical even if they are made the same?