Marvin

I had an Ampeg B410hlf and replaced the castors. I just got a set of generic ones from ebay. However, I've had a search on eBay and they don't seem to be available anymore. You could try a set of Fender castors. The ones that fitted my Ampeg cab were identical to the castors I had on my previous Fender cab. They stock them at Thomann. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_rollen_fuer_verstaerker.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/fender_rollen_fuer_verstaerker.htm[/url] They should fit.

[quote name='funkle' timestamp='1431969611' post='2776764'] Is it too inflammatory to say that, after years of researching and trying out gear, I still think the player makes the most difference to the sound in the room? [/quote] Yes, it is completely off to say it's the player...it makes the whole thread pointless Great couple of posts.

Seems a bit strange to move it to off topic...BB King was a hugely influential musician not just an influence for guitarists

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1431431519' post='2771208'] Also bassists and keyboardists, violinists, trumpeters, saxophonists, hurdy-gurdyists etc. etc. loads of bassists I've played with actually, really loads [/quote] Hence I don't do bands at the moment ☺

I've only been in a band with one singer that I would describe as a musician. She'd clearly practice between rehearsals, learnt all the words, didn't use a music stand ever and learnt guitar parts...and she had a cracking voice. All the others have turned up to practices with words printed off the Internet and blag their way through the session. Between practices no effort is made to exercise the voice or learn material. singers are the worst offenders but there are plenty of guitarists and drummers who do the same

My gear lives in the dining room. Two basses, both cased stand in one corner at the end of the side board thingy. My Fender combo, box of leads and effects pedal sit next to the blanket box near the end of the stairs. It takes up very little space so not an issue There are a couple of small combos under the stairs which I'm trying to get rid of (the combos not the stairs)

I drive an old Mondeo to practice and gigs, think I'm automatically excluded. And I don't own a p bass. And neither do I wear sports stuff

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1430915629' post='2765859'] So what, in your opinion, did that particular pro say that was incorrect? [/quote] So does high cone excursion result in poor transient response, as implied by the 'pro' and said not to be the case by Alex Claber and Bill Fitzmaurice. Which is correct? [quote name='stevie' timestamp='1430915629' post='2765859'] The people who have actually made a difference to the gear we are using are the ones who design and make the modern drive units and power amps. The names you have quoted are all niche market box stuffers using web forums to flog their wares. They are doing exactly what the major players are doing - only on a much smaller scale. [/quote] The niche players are definitely driving the major players into different attitudes, and in that niche I'd include Vanderkley, Bergantino etc. The internet and forums such as this and Talkbass have made people aware of these niche players. By major players I'm talking about the companies that are in pretty much every music store you go in. Back when I started playing 5years ago what they had to offer, maybe bar MarkBass, was frankly quite poor

Everyone's got ears and tonal goals are entirely subjective and down to preference. Everybody's hearing is actually unique and what someone will find harsh and middy others will find to be the tone they want. Stick your gear in the 'real world' and the engineering and science will explain why you are hearing what you are hearing. There's nothing wrong with picking up a pro, or anyone else for that matter, for making statements that are for all intense and purposes incorrect. I found the statement made to be very similar to someone arguing that you shouldn't learn theory because it'll stifle your creativity. What the likes of TKS, Barefaced, Roger Baer, Bill Fiztmaurice and Greenboy, to name a few, have done in the past few years is to make it more difficult for the major players to do what they did for a long time and just stick a driver in a cabinet and say x,y and z all based on spurious nonsense.

Science explains what your ears are trusting. Your 'ears' and science don't live in different worlds. I've personally learnt a lot from the contributions of Alex Claber and Bill Fitzmaurice on the forum.

He's got feel by the shed load

I've never had a problem volume or tone wise gigging a 210. In fact i've gone back to a 210 set up (yet to gig it, but I'm more than confident it'll cut it). The only reason I ever bought a 410 was because I was in a band with a neanderthal for a drummer. I refuse to be in a band anymore where the drummer, or anyone else for that matter, has only two settings - mute or ear splitting. I saw a guy play a gig in a medium sized pub the other night use a little Peavey 112 combo (one of the new ones). He was loud enough and sounded fine to me...the audience enjoyed the gig.

Flat it does sound good. The eq controls are very similar to my previous amp. On the V2's the mids were semi parametric. I forgot to add that it's not a noisy amp. I can here it's on but you have to make a point of listening to hear it. But most noticeable is how quiet the tweeter is.

I'd agree the vocals were very poorly mixed on the last show

Cheers. I think I might need to get in a band so I can hear it in a 'natural' environment ☺

[b][size=5]FENDER RUMBLE 500 V3 COMBO.[/size][/b] [url="http://s278.photobucket.com/user/hjbryant/media/2370600000v1_hi-dc942006a7c2a0773f7efb4f9c4134ee_zpsgrjmlrpo.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="] [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="][b]FEATURES[/b][/url][list] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Power: 500W (4Ω)/350W (8Ω)[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Speakers: 2x10" Eminence; one compression tweeter[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Single channel[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Controls: Gain, Bright on/off, Contour on/off, Vintage on/off, Drive, Overdrive on/off, Level, Bass, Low-Mid, High-Mid, Treble, Master Volume[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]XLR line out[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Aux. input[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Headphone output[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]FX loop[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Dimensions: 23" x 19" x 14"[/url] [*][url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Weight: 36.5 lb[/url] [/list] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]I had planned on selling a load of gear and taking a break from playing altogether. Well, that was the plan and it was going well as most of my amp gear had left the house. And then I saw this, the Fender Rumble 500 Combo V3. I've previously owned the V2 of this amp. I liked it and very much regretted selling it. I've bought the V3 as it being as small as it is it doesn't get in the way at home and if I do get back into bands I've got a combo that'll do the job.[/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="] [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]I bought the Rumble from Thomann. They're retailing them for around £400, all the UK online retailers have got them at £480. I ordered the combo late Friday afternoon and it arrived Tuesday morning. I was more than a little impressed. [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="] [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]Comparing it to the V2 there are some marked differences and improvements. The V3 is significantly lighter and made from better materials. The V2 was made of chipboard. The V3's styling is much better, the V2 was very workmanlike. The V3 has a lovely vintage look and the layout is very to much to my liking.The driver configuration is now vertical instead of horizontal, dispersion on the V2's could be an issue, hopefully this will resolve some of that. The other major improvement from my point of view is the fact you can now add an extension cab. This was a real weakness for the V2 and may have been why it wasn't that popular.[/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="] [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]How does it sound? Out of the box with no eq adjustment it sounded really nice. It was clean to my ears but also made my Jazz bass sound lovely and woody. Tweak the eq and the changes are clear but also subtle. It can go loud, I've only played it in the house but I made a quite a few ornaments and bits of furniture rattle. Clearly it's not as trouser flapping as my previous Ampeg 410 but it'll definitely do a gig like the old V2's. [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="] [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]The voicing presets are a good feature, particularly the Vintage one, it gives a lovely valvey warm tone. (Bright, that brightens and contour scoops mids). They all adjust the tone in a measured way, it's not a harsh or brutal change. The same goes for the horn. Switch it on, you to get the highs but you don't get that horrible harshness you can get. The overdrive isn't stupid either, it overdrives and doesn't do an impression of some metal distortion pedal.[/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="] [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]It's finished very well. The tolex and grill have got a nice feel, the hardware feels solid. The handle looks alright .[/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="] [/url] [url="http://<a%20%20data-cke-saved-href="]This combo absolutely suits my needs and it sounds great as well.[/url]

Moondance, I loathe the thing to the point I've never made the effort to play a bass line that even remotely resembles the original.

There was a thread on here a few weeks back on here relating to it...I think.

[quote name='stingraybassman' timestamp='1429870185' post='2755729'] Well it seems like its falling on its a*se spectacularly. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie sums up perfectly why; [i][color=#333333]“I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid,”[/color][/i] [i][color=#333333]“There was a wonderful opportunity squandered to highlight what this service would mean for artists who are struggling and to make a plea to people’s hearts and pocketbooks to pay a little more for this service that was going to pay these artists a more reasonable streaming rate. And they didn’t do it. That’s why this thing is going to fail miserably.”[/color][/i] [/quote] Pretty much sums it up for me. Massive PR failure. And all the issues raised in the Guardian article. I'll stick to buying my music and sticking on my iPod. Partly because I can't afford to sign up to a streaming service AND have the mobile phone tariff to enable the data allowance I'd need (I listen to my music all the time, even if it's a 2 minute walk to the shops). AND the mobile phone network coverage is incredibly patchy where I live to almost make it worthless.

For the budget I'd be seriously looking at the Barefaced Retro 210. If you could stretch then maybe a TKS 212?

From what I understand Sire have a fairly strict criteria for pricing and only Thomann could meet that in Europe. Most of the operation for Sire is direct sales.

Until recently I had a B410hlf that was made in China. I couldn't say what year it was but it had that Ampeg was an SLM company on th plate so I'd assume before 2005ish. It was very well made. I had a look inside and saw it was made of good quality ply, well put together, lined with foam and decently braced. It sounded great as well.