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I watch the prices of Bongos on Reverb quite closely (I'd like to rebuild my Bongo stable) and, in the US, they're still $2k-plus most of the time, if you want one that was made in the last 10 years. You do get the odd older one, before they started using the lightweight hardware, going for less, but not all that many. I'm after two 6-strings - fretted and fretless, and fretless Bonge sixers are as rare as rocking horse s**t. Considering they get made fun of quite regularly, you might think they're not desirable or in demand, but the people that know, know. They're keepers. Plus, they've had some good visibility in recent years from the likes of John Myung, The Omnific, Nothing More and various others who have gravitated towards them.

Friday was with The Bonnevilles at the Gate in Sutton Coldfield. It's a pub on two levels - last time I played there we were at bar level, this time (as a few times before) we were at front door level which is a metre or so lower. It's OK for space. All went well, most of the punters stayed there and there were a few dancers in the tiny area available. Fortunately the singer (with the PA) and I managed to get parking close to the door, it's not a great place for access. Sei Flamboyant 5 headless -> Lekato wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212. Caravelle memory foam trainers with socks. Saturday was with Dirty Roses at the Wheatsheaf in Atherstone. There is a reasonable amount of space there (though I should have got them to put the pool table at the side rather than the back). Load in and out is crap, you have to find somewhere close by on the street to leave the car and then get the gear through a narrow passageway leading to the rear of the pub. Gig itself went OK - did seem a bit fraught at one point as two big blokes (I only came up to their shoulders) seemed to be squaring up right in front of us, but someone cooled them down a bit and separated them, and they were back to being besties an hour later. It's one of those transient pubs where people move on, and by the end of the night the audience had dwindled from about 50 to about 20. And I forgot to take my glasses and my phone - fortunately the only small writing I have to make out is MIDI IN and OUT and I could manage that, the other small (and faint) writing is "Transmitter" and "Receiver" on the wireless and that's now labelled with a big "Tx" and "Rx" that I have no problem making out. Same gear and footwear as last night. No phone so no photo from me. David Bailey quality photo from the drummer.

And UK made.

I don’t know much about Led Zep to be fair, but the point still stands. The 1977 EB I just sold is far and away the best Stingray I’ve ever played. But I reckon they could replicate it easily enough (if they wanted to).

Richard III. Supergrass

Interestingly Ashdown have updated their product range, and the ABM Evo V is no more. In its place is a new ABM Evo IV with an all-metal chassis. I think it looks fantastic, and it will continue to look fantastic right up to the first time you take it out the house . https://ashdownmusic.com/products/uk-abm-600-evo-iv

What they did to SWR is a lesson in how to completely waste a valuable, much-loved brand. I really hope they don't do the same with G&L. Although I am curious to see how they would sell a bass with L-series electronics - if they put them into a Fender-branded bass, would it be a P or a J, or something else? Would they continue to use the G&L brand at all? Personally, I think they'd have been a much better fit with EBMM, alongside their other "post-Fender" designs. Apparently there's a hell of a lot of SWR DNA in the current range of Fender bass amps - from what I understand, the Rumble series' electronics are largely based on the SWR Workingman electronics, which were a Steve Rabe design. The brand itself was considered innovative, desirable and high quality by bass players everywhere, even post-Fender takeover and shuttering it was a bit misstep for Fender. I think Marshall had a similar issue when they acquired Eden - they wanted a separate "bass division" but didn't bother putting much effort into it. And it's not like Marshall have had any presence in the bass amp market since, where the designs could have lived on. I think G4M currently own Eden, and have done precisely nothing with it since their takeover.

All the D'Addario's I've bought from Amazon have been legit. At the moment, a 5 string set of Pro Steels is actually cheaper than the equivalent 4 string set. Go figure.

Maintenance on a vintage instrument (replacing parts/ rewinding pickups) devalue the originality and the value which is why I doubt they’d use them unless they were just better. Otherwise they’d sit in a case.

The APT drivers were changed years ago from a proprietary non-standard attachment to a standard 1 3/8" screw on. The horn in your picture looks like the old design. A picture of your driver would confirm if it's the new design.

Cancelled.

If anything I’d drop to D if the guitarist is finding Eb awkward, as agree upping to E makes it sound a lot lighter.

When you turn your spare room to a drying/curing room using an eBay clothes rack and some hooks lol

I’ve done the meths soak and it’s works even better than I hoped. It’s quite remarkable. I prefer them to new strings. All the zing and is back but they feel better than new! Brilliant! I wish I knew this years ago.

She’s a rainbow - Rolling Stones

Bought a pedal off of Aaron. Great communication and very quick delivery. Deal with confidence!

Sound on Sound has reviewed a lot of active PA cabs over the years. If you look up the equipment reviews on their website, there's a lot of useful info. In your position, I'd keep the XR 18. It's a decent unit (especially for the money) and Improving on it significantly is going to eat a fair chunk of your £5k. Unless you need more channels, I'd stick with it. I agree with you that subs are essential if you want a solid kick sound from the PA. The weight saved on passive cabs isn't great, when you factor in carrying power amps and the additional speaker cabling. The average class D module adds a kilo or so of weight to a PA cab, which isn't a lot, so I'd look at active cabs. It's possible to get great sound with compact kit, but you won't do it cheaply (the formula is light, powerful/high quality, cheap - pick two). The best combination of sound and portability I've heard came from a pair of Nexo 10 top boxes plus one of their bandpass subs. It was amazing for its size and super clean and powerful. However, Nexo don't make active cabs so you'd need quality power amps, which would put their stuff well over your budget. The same applies to many of the compact but powerful and high quality rigs from companies such as DB, Fohhn (which I use), etc. RCF have a lot of fans - deservedly - on here for capable, but not crazy expensive PA gear. Ditto Yamaha (which bought out Nexo a few years back, acquired its tech' and incorporated it into their own products). Their DXR PA cabs and DXS subs are very good. QSC, which cost about the same as Yamaha, are also worth a look. A pair of DXR12 or DXR10 top boxes and DXS15 subs would come in at around £3.5k. If you're running subs, it's a waste putting anything larger than 12s on poles above them, when low frequencies are being dealt with by the subs. Quality 10s will be fine in all but the largest venues, which will save a bit of weight and bulk. Spend some of the change from your £5k on some quality mic's. If you're using SM58s or similar, you can do a lot better. It can be difficult to audition/try PA gear, but it's worth doing so if at all possible.