Conan

How much publicity do you do? Do you leave it up to the venue, or do you put the word out yourselves?

Jonny does hang around service stations a lot doesn't he? Last night it was on the A19, where he and I traded amps - his GK MB800 for my Aguilar TH500. Top bloke and a great deal, arranged quickly and smoothly. Shame i didn't bother to check about the road closure and extensive diversion on the way back... Highly recommended! (Jonny that is, not the A19 roadworks...).

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1430139285' post='2758282'] TB says FMIC MIJ RIP? BS IMO, but YMMV. [/quote] Excellent!

[quote name='Modman' timestamp='1430125339' post='2758081'] Definitely won't need anything else for long time to come. [/quote] Ha! We've all said [b][i]that[/i][/b] before...

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1430066081' post='2757654'] A pair of TKS 112s. I doubt you'll get better for the money.... [/quote] That's about £700 though, and the OP's budget is around £500... Quite a big difference for us bassists on a budget

[quote name='Merton' timestamp='1430040168' post='2757260'] I thought bass and treble on 2 (8 o'clock) and mids on full was flat? [/quote] Yep. And to boost the mids further you can cut bass and/or treble and raise volume... which is also odd!

Yes to Barefaced (but not all of them, some of them are not designed to be "transparent"!). Amp-wise, the Hartke LH series (500 and 1000) are very clean and clear, and definitely not too mid-biased. Cheap as chips and loud as hell too!

Great post. Top advice!

GAS is a terrible thing...

[quote name='FuNkShUi' timestamp='1429800448' post='2755099'] I found MarkBass to be very clean sounding. Have you tried much of their kit? [/quote] Only one - an F1. I wasn't hugely impressed, to be honest. I'm not ruling them out though, if one comes along at the right price

[quote name='MOSCOWBASS' timestamp='1429796505' post='2755048'] Try a GK MB800 before you do anything with the BIG ONE. At least you can rule it out. [/quote] It's on my shopping list!

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1429788317' post='2754947'] Sell the cab, get one that works with what you have :lol; That is if you like the amp.. I think it will be easier to cab match the amp than vice versa..??? Again, [/quote] You may have a point there... Problem is that the used market is pretty depressed at the moment. It is a good time to buy but a poor time to sell. If I tried to sell my Big One (which I don't want to do!) I would be lucky to get £450 for it - and £375-400 would probably be more realistic. That wouldn't give me much buying power on the used cab market... I settled on the Big One after trying quite a number of cabs over the years. For me, it gives the perfect compromise in size, weight, tone and dispersion. Also, I don't have a large budget for music gear as my band is not regularly gigging and therefore not bringing in any money. So my bass purchases come out of the "family" pot - which means I would need a very good reason to invest an extra few hundred quid. Currently I can't justify that, and have no intention of trying. A pair of TKS 112s would no doubt fit the bill very nicely - but I can't stretch to buying them new right now So, on balance, it is a far wiser idea to look for another amp

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1429786231' post='2754892'] If you really want flat, then maybe you need no tone controls at all... but not many players will be able to cope with that, IMO... so it means that you need to choose and find where your 'colour' actually is... [/quote]I never said that I wanted "flat"! Quite the opposite in fact - I want to be able to add mids as and when required (I don't need them [i][b]all[/b][/i] of the time) without having an amp that distorts at modest volumes!

[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1429694402' post='2753941'] I might hold off from buying a tonehammer 500... [/quote]

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1429778521' post='2754762']The TH500 tone certainly isn't modern or super clean by any stretch of the imagination. It's very old school, and very warm and I can see how some people might think it's clipping or just not right for them as the bass frequencies are VERY pronounced! Have you got any amps in mind Conan? I always thought the TC Electronic heads were ridiculously clean, same with Hartke, if thats any help! [/quote] I don't find the TH500 particularly "bassy" - but then again I leave the bass control on flat or slightly cut. It certainly has the capability to do huge amounts of bass boost, but that is not what is causing the distortion in my case. Amp-wise, I'm pretty much looking exclusively at second-hand. Ironically I started with a Hartke LH500 and the only reason I moved it on was that I couldn't get enough mids out of it! It was definitely clean and loud enough! Next amp I tried was a TC RH750. I sounded pretty good, but it was too complex for my (simple) needs, with too many features that I wouldn't need and just found distracting. [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1429778716' post='2754766']I don't know what your end goals really are regards sound Unless you are used to studio monitors for bass, I don't really see why you go for that, tbh... The TH500 is a good amp and works with many cabs..IMO. it depends how expensive it will be to go thru a load of amps to find one which does what you have in your head. [/quote] I have never used studio monitors for bass! For years I used Trace Elliot, them moved via Ampeg and Ashdown to Hartke and Barefaced. I was happy with that for several years too - but always wanted to get more midrange from my tone. The Big One could reproduce it, but only if the bass and amp were putting it out. As I mainly use Jazz basses with both pickups on full, obviously the bass is not chucking out a whole lot of mids! The Hartke's tone stack is notoriously mid-shy and the combination of the two was frustrating me. I tried various outboard graphics and EQ pedals - and even a Marcus Miller J bass with onboard J-retro preamp, but wanted an amp that could do it. Hence this frustrating quest to find an amp that is simple, powerful, clean, mid-capable and (most importantly) within my budget! I never thought of my tone as being particularly pure or clean, but maybe it is. I like to think of it as the sound of my bass(es), but maybe a lot of other bass players like to hear a bit of "warmth" or "grit" or "hair" around that sound too. That's not for me. I guess my ideal would be something along the lines of the LH500, but with sweepable or 2/3 band mids. Does such an amp exist for around £450 used? I have my eye on an old Fender 800 pro on here, but I know nothing about Fender amplification. At least it should have the power on tap to drive the Big One more efficiently... I have also been looking at two Ashdown heads with 12 band graphics - the MK500 and the JJB500. Again, I have no experience of either - but they are available at good prices and seem (from what I have read) to offer a clean tone with plenty of tone-shaping capability. I would love to like the TH500. It's lightness and looks are fantastic! It has a range of great sounds that, with a different cab, I would be able to use. But I just can't live with it in the real world

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1356499917' post='1910553'] Sometimes it's not surprising there are lowball offers. Fenix Jazz bass out at £800 , 75 RI CIJ Jazz valued at £800, Warwick out at £800 when the last one of that model went for £475. I won't pay more than £600, but I won't lowball the chap. [/quote] I have no problem in PMing someone and (politely) letting them know how much I think their item is worth (and explaining where I have got that valuation from). Whether they choose to use this information is, of course, up to them - but it has brought positive results in a number of cases (i.e. they get a sale and I, or someone else, gets the item at a decent price). I usually find that negotiation is fairly painless, as long as you don't open up with "you want [i][b]how[/b][/i] much?!?!"

[quote name='Jenny_Innie' timestamp='1429773836' post='2754690'] It's just business. Nothing else. No emotion involved. Say yes. Say no. Or say maybe. That's all. [/quote] In theory, yes - but some people [b][i]do[/i][/b] develop an emotional attachment to certain items of gear. I've even done it myself at times... Then it can be difficult when some one is trying to tell you how much your pride and joy is really worth...

Pretty much exactly as the OP describes it! Youtube is not usually my first port of call, but if I am struggling to pick out a part then I often find it helpful. There are some bloody awful videos out there mind...