Phil Starr

These are crazy good value, I just bought one at £200 and I'm really happy with it at that. The amp actually measures in at just over 700W and essentially has a flat response with the tones set to 12.00. They are really nicely put together too even the fan is reasonably quiet and the eq centres are well chosen, the one knob compressor not too aggressive and so on. I'm tempted by the BQ250 as well, again a crazy price for a very serviceable backup/practice amp

I was looking for a 'version' of Auld Lang Syne and came across Der Toten Hosen, kind of German punk band. Then discovered a whole Christmas album and that they'd changed their name. Lots of easy to copy versions so great for a covers band. "Mit bonus tracks." https://open.spotify.com/album/6fjZocev4hdF6prrHEQeND

I think you may have thrown people by mentioning the Genelecs 😂 There's a reason this sort of thing doesn't really exist. Getting any sort of bass out of a tiny driver means huge excursion even at modest levels and that makes the driver unsuitable for the high notes. That little Celestion speaker is designed to work with a subwoofer and even the low mids are rolled off. If you want a project it might be worth looking around for something used that can be repurposed. An old cassete player (am I allowed to say Ghetto blaster) or mini hi-fi with plastic speaker cabs where you can rehouse the speakers in a better wooden cab. Alternatively when I worked in a recording studio we had a couple of car radio speakers in home made boxes. This is what people used to listen to music through and so we'd check the sound was good through those as well as on our monitors. It's a very long time ago but I think they had a single 7x4" speaker salvaged from a TV.

I've never knocked them off TBH but scuffs come up whiteish surprisingly.

Have you just done a single coat? I normally do three coats but that may be because I've done painting and decorating for a living and three coats are a thing. Primer, undercoat and top coat. my first coat is just to cover and create a primed surface and I apply the paint with a brush which gets into every crevice and leaves a flatter surface. This first coat is usually very thin. Then I apply a second coat where I keep rolling with a fine roller to get as even a coverage as possible. The paint is jelly like and stays open for at least 20mins so you can keep re-working it until there are no large bumps. I coat the whole cab then re-roll the whole cab in one go with even pressure and speed on the roller. Once this is dry I apply a much thicker layer of paint, the texture layer. Usually I use a coarse foam roller for this to give more texture but that is just my taste, I've done it with the smooth foam roller and also tufted rollers just to experiment with finish and it all works. This is where I take my time and care. The final coat needs to be done with a steady hand, a constant roller speed (I go really slowly) and even pressure. If you make a mistake and a panel looks diferent from the rest you can just flatten it with the roller and try again. I find it quite relaxing as the paint is so forgiving and you can vary the texture just by changing the pressure and roller speed. don't knock the nibs off though You'll get white marks!

Tuffcab is designed for a textured finish so a rough surface is to be expected, even a smooth foam roller will give a textured surface, I use them to get a 'linen' like effect. the paint goes touch dry in anything from 20 mins to an hour depending upon temperature and how thick the paint layer is. At this point you can knock the raised bits off but leave it for a day to fully cure and it lives up to its name ,Tuff. A dry roller will allow a smoother finish until it is fully laden with paint. If that isn't what is happening then you hae problems with adhesion to the surface. Most probably dust from the woodworking build. Before painting anything bruch off any dust then wipe the whole surface to be painted with a cloth dampened with whatever solvent the paint uses. In the case of Tuffcab that is water. Tuffcab isn't compatible with some fillers so if you've used filler and then sanded it you will have problems. Try priming your cab with a mix of 1/3 woodworking adhesive to 2/3 water to seal it.

Never say never but the chances of you installing a tweeter that works well is fairly low and changing the driver will change the rest of the sound of the combo and worse is more likely than better. you also have a valuable bit of kit that is going to be easy to sell and will be devalued quite a lot if you start to do surgery on it. To install a tweeter you'll need to design a crossover to manage rolling off the high frequencies as the tweeter takes over and to make sure only the top end goes to the tweeter. You'll also have to match the output of the tweeter to that of the bass driver or one will dominate the sound. Get any of this wrong and you'll introduce all sorts of issues where both the tweeter and woofer are sharing the sound. A generic off the shelf crossover will 'work' in the sense of making a sound but won't be matched to your speakers and will introduce problems with your midrange around the crossover frequency along with the extra zing. If you are handy with a soldering iron, have lots of patience and are willing to fiddle around you might get something you like better but it might be better and cheaper to sell the AMP 1 and try something else. Have you fully explored using eq or fx to get a bit of extra zing? Surgery should only ever be a last resort

I thought I'd read something but I've just never tried it

If you want to use both bass and guitar into the same source then you only have two options really: use emulations to get the tone and FRFR of some sort to bring that up to practice levels or something like the amps you suggest and be prepared to compromise either the bass sound or the guitar sound, or both for something in the middle. Only you can judge if a nice but compromised tone is going to let you happily get on with all the things you need to get out of practice, after all no-one else is going to be listening. If you decide to go the emulation route then using your home computer and a DAW to do the sound processing opens up a huge universe of possibilities, though I'd use a set of monitor speakers rather than a home hi-fi. (I came to BC today to look for monitor speaker recommendations) Hi fi speakers and unprocessed bass dynamics can be a problem. Great shout from @chyc Alternatively you don't have to go full Helix or whatever for emulations. The Zoom B1-four or G1-four both give a huge no of emulations and fx to play with and it is possible to get good bass sounds out of the G1 and good guitar out of the B1. At £65ea you could go for both. Then a small PA speaker could take that up to practice levels or even a bass amp. In my duo we tried the G1 through my Warwick Gnome and bass speaker and it sounded good. Other combinations are available.

Youll need something which takes an XLR (microphone lead) and has a headphone output with some way of adjusting volume. Sitting here I have a small mixer which does the job when I'm practicing. I've also got an audio interface which I use for recording and a Behringer Micromon which will do the job. The only problem you have then is that these will probably have to sit on the floor without a belt pack so you'll need a long lead to your headphones. That's not ideal So, XLR in, volume control, headphone out. long headphone lead If you are depping they should have a beltpack for the regular bassist. No one would want to lend you something that shares earwax but the beltpack ought to not be a problem for them to lend.

The only time I imagine I'll use the pair is at small beer festivals which are pretty common down here in the summer. Not all of them are equally well run PA support can be a bit iffy so I'll just stack them and not worry. I've tried them like that and it's all good. Better than my playing anyway!

OK I'll confess it's a vanity project, GAS or inertia depending upon your point of view. I've been giving the same advice for several years that one good 12 would be loud enough for almost everything and two would cover every possible eventuality. I decided to take my own advice and go for two 1x12's For years I've been taking all sorts of half complete prototypes to gigs and the band were beginning to get more functions so I wanted to up my game by having a consistent and good looking rig. I was going to build two BassChat Mk3's and ordered the crossover components from @stevie He wanted me to trial the Silverstones which use the same drivers so we did a deal to use the drivers I already had and he would build me the case and crossover . I've also sold my old passive PA and have no passive speakers but retain the amps so I have top hat mounts in my Silverstones so they can double as a PA if I ever have problems. Ironically the band have now moved to in-ears and may be losing the backline altogether so no bass amp might become my normal. I'm convincing myself that any working bassist needs a decent amp and speakers 'just in case'

If you want to keep cost down then using a simple mixer might be a solution https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_xenyx_1002.htm You could pan the two instruments left and right and send them separately to the PA and then use the mono aux send to connect to your amp.

They've already got bass players

I prefer Nathalie Imbruglia but I WANT THAT BASS

You say we but how many band members are there? Have you spoken to them, what do they think? Do they have your back? Sounds like there are at least two of you from the original band and the new drummer who may be keeping out of it or just wondering what is going on. It seems to me your decision is already made though, you can't work with this guy and he won't change, none of us fancy working with him either however good he is. Most of us have been there before, most of have tried both routes, stick or twist. Sticking doesn't really work, all the band politics creeps in and sooner or later the unsaid things are said and it is over anyway. Check the rest of the band are with you first but start looking for another singer. Maybe look for deps so you can hang on to your gigs.

I think that's right, by and large bass gear if it is coloured (most of it is) has a smiley face/loudness contour which just sounds kind of 'normal' to us and which our brain processes really well. Guitar amps and speakers often have an upper mid boost if they are designed for electric guitar. I spent ages persuading my duo partner to switch from his horrible sounding guitar amp to using the floor monitors for his acoustic.

Just an interesting aside really. I ordered a second Silverstone as I'd decided two 1x12"s were my dream rig. Stevie delivered it this week and we had a bit of a session with all things bass speaker. He was just leaving and on impulse I unplugged my bass and tried my acoustic guitar and strummed a few chords. I'm no guitarist but the sound was glorious (It's a Takamine with some light Elixirs fitted) lovely warm sound with a really musical top end. I have to say this was as good an acoustic guitar sound as through my RCF PA. I imagine it would do as an all round guitar speaker if you use a modeller with an acoustic amp. The advantage of that really sweet mid-range response.

Some people spent their childhood pulling things apart and re-building them, can remember buying their first hammer and socket set and have GAS for machine tools. Others spent their time in their bedrooms learning to play Dsus4 in four positions on a guitar neck and Clapton solos from all his recorded works. We forget those long hours acquiring all those skills. My youth was miss-spent on all things mechanical and electrical and I didn't start playing music until well into middle age. I find playing some music daunting and what skills I have on bass have felt like climbing mountains but I'd happily rebuild a house or a car engine. For many musicians anything mechanical looks as scary and impossible as reading music does to me. Instruments are really simple technology in the main and an electric bass or guitar at the simple end of that. You could probably improve all of your friends 20ish basses, trade that skill for some help with the bass playing and both of you will grow. Seems like you have another new hobby

Isn’t it just about whatever works? There can’t be any doubt that looking at a screen means not looking at the audience but is that different from looking at the frets? Is it better to read music and play note perfect or play ‘loose’ and engage? Is there a correct answer to that? Are all classical musicians poor because they have the dots to look at? Personally I hate the look of music stands with a pub band though, I kind of think what we do is simple and about entertainment not art, I also want band members to do a bit of personal practice. This is just prejudice though, I’ve no idea if the offender is a dep doing a favour, someone with dementia or just a s##t memory. I’m lucky in having a good memory but it results in me being utterly reliant on it. I play most songs parrot fashion with no idea of which note I’m playing whilst prompting the singer. Is that art or am I just a monkey with a bass? In the end it takes all sorts to make a team so play to your strengths and don’t worry about it so long as the audience have a good time.

That's a lovely gesture, there are good people around.

It's not new, I grew up mixing when the first thing you had to do was build the speakers. We used stereo even back then at open air gigs. It really helped to separate instruments in space with what were really quite crude systems and sounded more natural if you could match the sound stage with the actual stage, though we did have a tendency to spread the drumkit the whole way from stage left to right or even to pan them from side to side You could specify whether you wanted your record in mono or stereo for a short while and recordings really played with stereo effects at the time.

Shutting out the drums is the best bit of in-ears, if you can get a good seal they work as well as good ear plugs. I had three channels of drum mic on Sat but only really passed the kick through to the PA and my monitors. It was a very shallow alcove in the pub and you just couldn't keep the drums out of the vocal mics. Next project is to work with the drummer to get a better drum sound through the mics but they really weren't needed in that pub. I'm not expecting problems with the guitarist, he uses modellers anyway and I built his guitar speaker so he pretty much trusts me on the tech. We'll just sort it in the rehearsal room first then introduce it at gigs. I prefer to play a long game and trying to sort everything in one go just gives me more to do on gig day. Ideally I wouldn't touch the PA but needs must I guess. I'm always the first to arrive and the last to leave.

Just thought I'd do an update on where we've got to in the hope that it might be helpful to others making the same journey. Over the last two gigs we've made the transition from floor monitors with myself and the singer using in-ears to the whole band using in-ears with the floor monitors in place but muted. Last night was finally a complete success on the monitoring front. Three of us are using ZS10's (the drummer brings his own kit) and we are using a mixture of Behringer P2's and my ancient Trantec wireless connection. The mixer is an RCF M18 with six aux outs and the band use their phones and the RCF app to do their own mixes. Our guitarist looks after himself, he only needed showing at a rehearsal and given a low cost solution that he controls and he won't be returning that control to anyone again. Our singer struggles with the tech a bit, I have to persuade her to spend a bit more time in finding buds that fit and to stop trying to adjust the guitar and drums down when the earplugs come loose rather than just pushing them back in her ears. Solved last night because she had to share my mix so she could share my wireless system and was banned from using her phone to re balance. Last night we had the best monitor sound ever and from reluctance to use or trust the in-ears we've reached the point where they are telling me I'm wasting time bringing the floor monitors. We've agreed to leave them in the van next time. The other effect is on our front of house sound. We had a lot of compliments on how we sounded last night, "best sound we've ever had here" was the best, probably alcohol fueled but better than "you were shite" Just the reduction of on stage sound levels makes a huge difference and singing in tune helps, but you can do that if you can pick out your own vocals. Next task is to persuade the guitarist to turn down his amp as he is listening to it through headphones and the audience are listening to the PA. He does mic the speaker to be fair so needs something to mic but even a few db would take a lot of mess out of the vocal mic, particularly his. Hopefully the drummer will let me turn down my bass equally. Give us two or three more successful gigs and I think we will be completely adapted to in-ears, monitoring is absolutely better than anything to date already but a bit of tweaking is going to make it even better. The problems have been largely people based, It's about trust and patience and being prepared to demonstrate the system. Crucial though is the choice of mixer and i think it would be difficult without a digital mixer. Anything analogue with 6 or even 4 aux busses tends to have a lot of other things as well and is just too big and complex for a pub band. Maybe this belongs on another thread where people aren't already converts

Ha ha, I won't be taking that bet I genuinely think you'll be good but little amps do get quite hot, My Warwick Gnome runs pleasantly warm but this summer at an outdoor gig it was 37 in the shade and the amp did get too hot to rest your hand on it. The BQ250 is a bigger amp than the Gnome though, the heatsinking in the Gnome is a diminutive lump of Aluminium and it really needs its fan. Have Fun