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I heard Fields of the Nephilim almost a decade ago and the bass was a mess, unfortunately. It was a bit sad as I'd missed the band in its heyday. One of the bands that day played with the subs off and sounded great

Once, a small venue insisted it had a "powerful" PA, which turned out to be powerful in terms of a comedy night (its usual output) of 2 100W "PMPO" powered speakers with 8" woofers. I had my PA in the car, though as I was already sceptical.

I was standing in such a location at a gig by a big act from the 1960s (this was about 2010) and you could hear bass (very boomy), vocals, and the guitar during solos but little else. I made some simple suggestions to the sound engineer - shaping the bass better so other things could be heard. It went down like a lead balloon. I left early. It was tragic.

I'm not a big fan of sine wave bass accompanied by sine wave kick drum that vibrates my chest so much it interferes with my breathing

Not intentionally silent, but my first gig 30 years ago was ampless as I didn't have an amp and the promised backline was absent. "We'll put you through the monitors". That didn't actually happen and I heard not a single note that I played. It got recorded, and it was fine. Not an experience I'd want to repeat, though, but I was too inexperienced to complain about the lack of monitors.

I have back issues after a nasty fall on ice when trying to rescue a mouse... The cheap T-amp E-800 is 28 lbs, but it feels so much heavier in the rack sleeve... I could move it to a rack bag and the lightweight contents of that to the sleeve made out of MDF or possibly lead. One of the problems with testing PA amps and speakers is that physical shops don't want you to dime a pair of speakers and play a few tracks, then rinse and repeat for each of half-a-dozen speakers. Buying, hiring a hall, listening, then returning and buying new speakers is costly and slow unless you can afford to buy multiple sets of speakers at once and enough time to wait for all those couriers to pick up the spares. It's either that try to match sound quality at a gig where they are using Alto or Yamaha or whatever to the gear being used in a completely uncontrolled way.

My PA only gets used if there's nothing in the venue and is one of the Thoman 800W RMS amps into two Samson Auro D12s. It's nothing fancy or expensive but does the job and sounds ok. But that amp... It's heavier even than my lead sled bass amps. And into the Samsons it's only developing at most 500W. The resale value on the amp is probably minimal and it's not going to be a lot on the speakers either Do I: 1. Suck it up as it's occasional use only. 2. Replace the amp with something lighter (probably used - occasional use only). 3. Replace all of it with powered speakers - for example Auro TX or TS in 12 inch. TS costs more but has better low end but weighs more. The TX have a similar frequency spectrum to the Auro, which are fine. 3a. Sell the D12s? 3b. Keep the D12s, sell the larger Tech 1x15 that is for bass? The D12s have leaner bass, but are no worse than something like a TC BC208, but they are quite ugly. 3c. Sell my powered monitors which are worth even less but sound less good than the D12, but then I'm looking at a second amp and the weight of the rack with two amps (or a single quad amp) rises and I might gain nothing in terms of ease of load in or out. Hmmm...

My first fretless. I might conceivably ask to be buried with it. It's an 80s Tokai Jazz

I haven't tried this live, but I have a Beringer P something (P2?) - battery powered unit with a belt clip, combi socket in, 3.5mm out and a £100 set of ear buds. But I've found the cheap wireless instrument transmitter and receiver I bought (it was needed for a two gig project only, hence cheap) actually works in terms of turning the set up wireless. At home anyway, it's 2.4GHz and I don't reckon on its chances of being free of contention in a venue.

Add: Desired future back condition Budget for chiropractor Car carrying capacity

Should be 1000W RMS? 4:1 is for PMPO and the like. Some manufacturers quote a sum of power amp for tweeter and woofer. For bass, I'd ignore the tweeter power amp Watts and just look at the LF side, which will be up to 2.5 or 3.5kHz for most PAs. So that 2000W might be 350W RMS for bass, or something like that. So I'd then check speaker efficiency and frequency response. My PA speakers are 95dB sensitivity but a typical 1x15 is 97 and up, especially for Barefaced. 3dB is noticeable.

P.S. I've never had a concern with 121dB or more on tap. It's that 3dB between vanishing in the mix and being present - it's always been an option to add a little more. Not that it should be a loudness war. In theory you could boost in the PA, but good luck getting it in phase. At gigs with two subs sometimes the hot and dead bass zones as you move around are very evident.

Depending on speaker sensitivity, 200W into 2x12 is 123dB max. A TE 115 combo is probably about 118. My old TE rig about 119, my Marshall/TE rig about 122, my current Warwick/Tech about 121, but about half the weight. 119 was JUST enough. 118, for the weight, seems a poor option, although it's good in terms of price. In theory, at the full 200W, a TC BC208 can manage 117dB, but it won't have the same audio spectrum coverage as a TE 715, I expect. If those BC208 had a little better low frequency extension and a piezo, I could be tempted by a pair (broad spectrum 119 dB with my amps, but a boost in the lows). I could test by using my cheap PA cabs which have relatively similar specs on paper, albeit with tweeters. They look at bit ugly for regular bass usage, though.

Ah, beyond just 'guitar amps'. 140W of 'ferocious power'.

I used to use 130W into a 2x10 (Trace Elliot BLX130SM plus extension) and for around 120 capacity it was only just cutting it. I changed out to a different cab (4 ohm Marshall 2x10) and 350W (AH350SM) and that was somewhat better. The 715 is only actually pushing 100W into that speaker. So with the 715 you should factor in (space, weight, cost) another 15" cab. That should get it to something like the same loudness as 350W and a 4 ohm 2x10. With a single 15" on stage, positioning is going to be key if you want to hear yourself. Directly on the floor on a small pub stage you aren't going to hear yourself well unless you stand on your head. It might even be worth considering a 1x10 and a power attenuator and sitting that on top and aiming it at your head. It'll drop the main output to 75W, but that's not much different to 100W. The attenuator will allow you to trim the loudness aimed at your head. Alternatively, you can get a little powered cube speaker and run it off the line out and mount it on a speaker stand (which I've done - don't expect a lot of bass). I always use 2x10s vertically so I can hear something.

Doesn't seem to be on the Positive Grid website any longer.

Since guitarists like (or claim to like) power tube compression, then if it's a design that will run on reduced power amp tubes meaning for a given loudness there's more tube compression, they might actually eventually thank you.

Plenty loud, but more compact and lightweight options are now available. The Trace Elliot sound is seemingly Marmite, but unlike Marmite, I like it.

Yes, if all you ever do are intimate jazz gigs with a quiet drummer, maybe. I was looking at the BC208 cabs and wondering if the maximum SPL of 114dB was what I'd want to top out at, or 117dB with two. I can go quieter, no never louder. If the Spark could get close for a stack of two, then I might be interested, but I'd still want to test. I'm not sure a shop is going to want me to go in with a looper, an EQ pedal, a mic stand, tape measure and SPL meter to try to measure one after 30 minutes of the same loop running continuously. But it's what I'd need to do to be sure without a good returns policy.

Dirt is fine, if I'm intentionally adding it.

It's only a 3dB difference, depending on voicing, which is just about noticeable but not a huge difference in and of itself. In a mix, 3dB can be make or break but in amp terms is only an issue if dimimg the 280W is just too little. If everyone else turned down a notch you'd hear the bass again and the audience wouldn't notice the overall volume difference.

This is why a bassist should study the specifications of the guitarist tube amp so they know which tubes they can remove to make it quieter but still functional. Or invest in some of those power tube substitutes which only have 1W output :).

I'd look at dB not Watts. My current rig (300W amp into a 4 ohm 1x15 of nominal 97dB sensitivity with pretty flat EQ) seems to do the job for a pub without any issues. That's nominally about 120dB maximum at 1m, not that I've tested what it is delivering during a gig, but presumably less. Boosting the bass sucks power, so avoid all the low notes if you can't be heard From experience, being just around 3dB too quiet can mean you vanish from the mix. In theory, getting other musicians to turn down can help provided you aren't required to play at levels that will permanently damage the hearing of the audience, but isn't always easy to persuade others of the virtue of. When I did sound for bands the comment I tended to get was that the mix was great but too quiet...

I was looking at this as something roughly FRFR would be quite flexible for multiple instruments, but it looks a lot less ugly than using a Headrush or Alto TS series. But 85dB or even 95dB maximum isn't much good for live work. I was doing some frequency sweep testing of my gear in the living room and hitting 95dB. My current single cabinet rig (Warwick Profet 3.3 into a Tech 1x15) theoretically tops out at about 120dB (I've never tested it that loud with the SPL meter) and that seems about right for small to medium gigs without PA support for bass. The Spark would be more FRFR than my ancient Trace Elliot 60W Boxer with a 12" speaker I have for jam sessions, but quieter. I haven't tested my tiny Kinsman amp for acoustic guitar with an SPL meter. It would mean the Spark might only be of use for stage monitoring and given the increasing prevalence of IEMs, would it be of use there? If it could manage ~100 to 110 dB each I might consider a pair. But thanks, I'll pass as for quiet gigs that 85dB might work for, 54dB of idle noise would then be a deal breaker. I'm at a PA/bass decision point as my PA amp is an 800W RMS lead sled that is heavy, much more so than the Warwick bass amps, although I also have an Ashdown class D but I'm very used to the sound of the Warwicks. I could either swap that out for class D or get something like a pair of Alto TS or TX. But I'd get pennies for the existing passive speakers. But I tried those for bass and acoustic guitar with the Warwick and they sound pretty good. So in theory, I could replace the 1x15 cabs with the PA speakers (similar weight, slightly bass response and SPL, but could be lived with) but PA speakers look ugly! The resale value of the bass cabs is better. New year, new ideas, etc.