Muzz

A bowl might have helped - the bigger problem is it's just a flat space with huge slab-sided stands around it, mostly. I've been there before and don't recall major sound problems, but as you say, it was a lot different. I believe last night they were going for 50,000, though from the number of empty seats, the space on the pitch and the hordes of desperate touts outside, they fell rather short...

The venue managed the impressive trick of making the sound barkingly, harshly loud and also muddily indistinct at the same time...clever stuff...

As I say, more venue related - the issues were the shape of the place, reflections, the PA placing, etc - I have a good friend who went to Sunderland on Monday and said the sound there was much better. Yeah, not the biggest fan here, but they played pretty flawlessly, etc - typical enormo-gig performance.

I've seen them four times, including on Glasgow Green outdoors, but this was something else sound-wise. More venue related than anything, I'm sure.

Went to see the Foo Fighters last night at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground - that place is about as suited to gigs as the Apollo would be to a game of cricket... It was Godawful - the worst sound I've ever heard in a 'stadium' - and that's saying something - the swirling wind didn't help, but God Almighty, it was poor. No bass other than a dull thud, harsh barky mids and fizzy treble. Sound bouncing off the stands around the field itself and satellite speakers producing some horrible out of phase sounds, too. And some commercial genius decided concession stands are perfectly fine situated in the crowd - sight lines massively obstructed. A really poor atmosphere, too. I think they were banking on people drinking enough to pay to watch Dave G on TV and not notice how poor the whole experience was. We lasted an hour before sacking it and going home. I can only offer the advice not to bother going if you've any interest in decent sound (or sight, other than the TV screens) for a band. On the other hand, if you fancy standing 150 yards from the stage, holding your phone in the air, knock yourselves out...

...and an 18, too - Jorg's mental...in a good way...

I quite like the music, more the bass than anything, but as soon as whathisface opens his mouth...nope... We do Hysteria sometimes, it's a good line: very...busy...

I'm probably in a huge minority, but visually I just can't be arsed with them. That much more than the tones (and there are plenty in there, I agree) puts me off completely.

P. Boom.

I used to angle my cab up, and put my head on there sitting on that black bobbly stuff they sell for holding things on car dashboards. Never had a problem, tho I also used to put the front two feet of the amp over the front lip of the cab if I was going very loud. That's with the smaller heads like LMIIs, Streamliners, RH450s, etc.

Almost all my basses will do a P-sound, pretty convincingly (well, convincingly enough for live work) - it's my default tone, and what I always look for in a bass. I don't have any actual P-Basses any more, and I have no real GAS for one, I had a few, but visually they don't do much for me. So, kind of a split GAS: sound, yeah; looks, no...

I think with a big enough amp, time and space will move around it...

Basses, yes - you'd have a long walk (even on here) to find anyone shallower than me on that basis, but the boxes that sit behind me, sometimes wedged in between the kit and the guitar amps? Not so much - sound and weight are much, much more important.

Wide open all the time. Use fingers/hands to control the volume.

Been gigging BF cabs for a good while now (maybe 50-75 gigs?) along with other cabs, and no issues with construction or durability. Perhaps because they're very easy to move and place they don't get bashed about like heavier stuff... On the schlepping front, yeah, we all pitch in from van to venue and vice versa, but I don't get picked up by the van, or get dropped off, so I load meself from home to car and vice versa, and that's where the weight is priceless, especially, as Lozz says, at 2am in the rain. We changed PA from huuuuge Mackies to some RCF tops and subs, and that was a relief, too. The easier the load-in and out, the more time for soundchecking and the important stuff. We had the teenage son of a friend offer to roadie for us recently...he lasted one gig... :/

I had a black/white ZZB Custom back in the day (and I'd love another, just for nostalgia's sake...) and that had the micro-tuning bridge. Didn't do a lot, IIRC...