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So you can do it quickly silently at a gig. There's nothing more irritating or amateur than the tuning song.

I always liked the sound of my bass through a PA anyway, in fact bass straight into the desk is probably my favourite bass tone! Pros and cons of swapping an amp out for an FRFR (for me anyway) are as follows: Pros - Can carry the entire thing with one hand. - Loads of better placement options on stage especially if you're tall, points at your head and can be put anywhere down to small size. - Sounds similar to what the audience hear, a clear representation of my bass. - Works very well with existing DI/EQ pedals and pedalboards. - Was £100 better off after selling my bass amp. - Takes up much less space in the house. - Set up in a couple of minutes. Cons - Doesn't look as nice as my old Markbass rig. I can't emphasize the placement part enough, I've always struggled with hearing myself due to being tall which was corrected when I got the MarkBass Club cabs as they tilt back. However that posed a new problem as I either had to find space where I could have 3ft of bass cabs on the floor or have one on top of the other in a wedge position. The small size of the QSC completely eliminates this, it fits in between the legs of our lights stand so even on a tiny stage there is always room for it, I can have it at the front of stage pointing back and it doesn't look out of place too. Worth noting that my amp is purely for stage monitoring, we have a decent RCF PA which does all the donkey work and I was using compact DI/EQ boxes like the Fishman and MXR M80 to DI directly without any amp sims. Swapping my amp out for an FRFR was the logical step for me, should have done it years ago.

Gorgeous looking bass, haven't tried one for sound though. Here's mine ;-)

Bristol, 2011 The last audition I had was for a band that the drummer who was in my jazz band had joined about six months previously. The band had regular gigs but didn't have a bass player up to that point as there 'wasn't enough money to pay a fourth person'. Anyway, they wanted a double bass player and the drummer wanted me in the band so he booked a local rehearsal space and the singer/guitarist drove the 60 miles from his home to Bristol for the occasion (which he moaned about all the way through the audition). I'd learnt the songs from the album the band had just recorded - it was pretty easy as there was no bass on the album, so I could just do what I wanted and it was all Johnny Cash style G/C/D stuff. Easy peasy. The singer/frontman bailed out of the session half an hour before it was due to start as he'd forgotten he was supposed to be playing football. No problem says drummer, the guitarist can sing the other guys parts. The audition got underway and everything seemed good to me. The drummer was mostly playing along with the guitar as that's the sound they had evolved without a bass player, but the drummer and I had been playing jazz together for the past three years so I wasn't bothered about having to play along to a non-standard drum part. The guitarist wasn't happy though..... when the drummer asked him how he felt it was going, all he could say was 'I dunno - it's not what I was expecting'. Further questioning from the drummer revealed that he actually didn't know what to expect as he'd only ever done solo stuff and had never played in an actual band before this one and had never played with a bass player before. No problem says the drummer, we'll have a proper rehearsal next week, before the next gig with singer/frontman and we'll see how much better it is. Fast forward to next weeks rehearsal, the frontman/singer bails again because he has a hangover... so we go ahead anyway and rehearse the set. Drummer is happy, I'm reasonably happy but guitarist still doesn't know if I sound like he thinks he wants it to sound, even though he can't explain to me what that sound is. He's also demonstrating an alarming tendency to be unable to remember which key the songs should be in. Drummer reckons we're all sorted for the gig next week. I'm less convinced. Alarm bells should be ringing - I've not yet met this flaky singer/frontman who I'll meet for the first time at the gig next week and the guitarist is still being very non-committal about whether I'm in the band or not. it's only my faith in the drummer and his insistence that 'everything will be cool' that I'm not walking away - but it's not looking good from my perspective The gig comes round and I meet the singer/frontman for the first time. He's actually a pretty cool bloke and apologises for not being at the audition/rehearsal, but admits that as he's never been in a band with a bass player before, he would have no idea if I was any good or not and therefore would have no meaningful input to make. Fair enough really. The gig goes pretty well, the band's fans say they love the addition of bass, so I'm in if I want it..... 7 years later I'm still in this band. we do 60+ gigs a year and have released four albums. Not all auditions from hell end up staying in hell. The original guitarist is gone though - he whinged one too many times about having to drive to Bristol for 2 gigs and two rehearsals a year.

I think a lot of people are thinking these FRFR cabs are just like the crappy old tops they've got lying around.

Here's Rhino Edwards using his set along side Jim Kirkpatrick's at the Shepherds Bush Empire in January: Rhino's Revenge. They were guests of King King. Plenty of photos of Alan Nimmo using his Smooth Hound wireless here. There's many more professionals using the set all over the world on big stages and small.

The sound through the on stage monitor may not be identical to the sound out front but provided it’s of comparable quality to the rest of your PA it’ll get you much closer than the typical coloured bass cab will. As with most things you tend to get what you pay for, so there’s no use expecting a dirt cheap monitor to match up sound-wise to a multi-thousand pound PA projecting out front, or vice versa. And of course, even if your on stage monitor is the same make and model as your PA tops, the characteristics of the room will affect the sound out front to some degree. If you’re playing at a smaller venue then the tone coming out of your monitor (now serving as backline) is what the audience is also hearing. Simples Granted, using “house” stage monitors and PA might throw a spanner in the works as you’re at the mercy of whatever they give you. For me I guess it’s just about eliminating variables. I’ve always preferred to have all my tone shaping from my basses and pedals. In that sense, me and the rest of the converts in this thread are certainly in the minority of bassists as a whole. However, I will say that since more and more pro bassists and pro guitarists (the kind who play truly massive venues and do national/international tours) are running amp modellers into FRFR monitors or in ears that there’s probably some method to our madness. Consistency of sound from venue to venue, ease of setup/tear down, cleaning up of the stage space and making the sound guy/gal’s job easier out front. Very few of us in this thread are at that level of gigging but clearly we still feel the advantages even though we’re only playing in our bedrooms or down at the Dog & Duck. Also, bear in mind that everyone here who is now happily living the FRFR life has had experience owning and playing through traditional amps and cabs, and having compared the two experiences are finding the monitor route to be better for them. I’d say that it’s easy to be a skeptic from afar with no meaningful experience of the very thing being criticised. You just have to try both to be able to form a balanced argument on the matter. @stingrayPete1977‘s comments above are totally accurate. These RCFs will stand toe to toe with bass rigs of the same driver size and win every time for both volume and heft. I’d challenge you, @Al Krow, to see about trialling one as a replacement for your backline. Use it for a couple of rehearsals and a couple of gigs (giving you a little time to dial in the kind of sound you like) and then come back here and share how you feel. You may still prefer the look of a “proper bass amp” sitting behind you but I can bet money that you’ll have changed your tune with regards to their performance. p.s. Oh, and since you have a Zoom MS-60b and B3n you can even emulate your current Markbass sound and get rid of some of the subjectivity of the tone argument! It’ll be a test purely of volume, heft and dispersion. p.p.s. And convenience, of course.

If I was playing in a band like that I'd have light-weight fold-flat Ampeg SVT and Fridge façade to go in front of my FRFR.

I spent 28yrs of a 30yr playing career with no pedals. Recently I have been using them. They are fun to have but not essential. They do sound good though. The best improvement to your sound is practice though.

Voice coil size is just one way of seeing through the exaggerated claims made by manufacturers of audio gear. As the technology currently stands, a 2" coil should handle up to 200W, a 2.5" coil up to 300W and a 3" coil between 350 and 500W. There are other factors involved apart from voice coil diameter, but I wouldn't be confident using anything smaller than 2.5" (unless it's in multiples) for bass backline. Your TKS 112 has a 2.5" coil, by the way, Funkshui. (I'm talking bass drivers here, not compression drivers)

Small one for my usual shop but can downsize to a basket if I'm just nipping in for a few minutes.

And then worked with George Martin who DID study music. The 'music theory stunts your creativity ' argument is a justification. Any knowledge empowers you. A lack of knowledge will not improve creativity, it will be irrelevant to it.

Wow! Not many folk can say that about their bass - what a lovely part of its story.

Oh that looks nice

Finished!! Well not quite, I haven’t installed the electrics or wired it up yet, but everything is together now and it’s looking awesome! I’ll replace the temporary strap buttons with Schaller strap locks, put on the string retainer and the tug bar once it’s strung. It’s the lightest Precision bass (or any bass for that matter) I’ve ever played. At just 6.5 lb it’s 3 whole lb lighter than my Fender Jazz, my shoulder says ‘yay!’ Looking forward to getting some flatwounds on it and seeing how it sounds!! Very pleased 🍊

I am truly gutted that I had nothing to offer this thread. Not had any experience even close to any of these so just a big thank you to all the contributors. This is pure gold .................

Hi All, Been playing in bands for years, always as a guitarist and have just joined a new band in Nottingham playing Bass and love it. I've also joined this forum as I have a Head and Cab of my friends to sell, sadly he recently lost a battle with cancer, so please check it out in the Amps for Sale section.

A Sad Lovers And Giants track came up on my Spotify recommended for me playlist today!

I fear you may have hit the nail on the head here.

A lot of PA cabs are designed to cross over to subs. A bass cab will often go lower than a PA cab, because it's designed not to be crossed over. If you want low end then this is a good thing. Some of the nicer PA cabs discussed in this thread are designed to go lower and run without subs. This means you get a DSP controlled bottom end (more controlled than your bass cab) and the high mids/highs are coming out of a much nicer driver too compared to your Bass cab

@TheGreek This is how I recorded my video. I set up my audio recording. I used a bass amp with a microphone set up in front of the amp at a distance to get the desired sound. But you can plug your bass in an interface then into the laptop. Or record both with microphone and interface (direct input). I put my digital camera on tripod and pointed it in the area where I stood. I made sure that the camera captured what I wanted the viewers to see.i.e. the instrument and part of me. Once I was happy with the video and audio set up I pressed record on the camera, and pressed record in DAW. To make editing easier at a later stage I would count to 4 or tap hand on the guitar body then wait a few seconds before playing. If you're playing to a background song and the sound is picked up via camera and DAW you don't have to count etc. Once you're happy with the recording you can mix and master your audio then export it in a suitable audio file like mp3. You then need a movie maker programme. Open movie maker and import your video then audio of tge same recording. Sync video and audio, here is when counting or tapping hand allows you for an accurate sync. Once it's synced, mute the sound on the video and adjust volume on audio. Save your video and now you're ready to upload in you tube then paste the link in basschat thread. Or you can upload the audio only to SoundCloud. A good digital camera and even i pad, android phones pick up a good quality sound too, so you can use it as a starting point. To record audio separately you can buy a fairly cheap interface that comes with free DAW. They start at around £30.

That's it mate - you're soooo screwed

I really dont need another tuner, but the black does look nice, so i thought why not. I got it for £42 inc delivery so really not much more than the cut down one. No matter how careful i am with my tuners it seems i always have to hunt for one when im in a hurry. I like the idea of using tape to attach it to the back of the headstock. Might give that a go. I will have one for each bass now. Cheers Ped.

Cab (barefaced S12T) and cables/amp/pedals suitcase (travel trolley) have wheels, bass has backpack straps. One travel with all my gear. Drummer is thinking about getting a ROCKnROLLER cart from thomann for his drum kit and when we need to take our PA to a venue. They're very tough and versatile on multiple surfaces. https://www.thomann.de/gb/rocknroller_r6_mini.htm

I was looking for something similar,so.. THANK YOU MAN,YOU ARE THE BEST!!

Fleetwood Mac without Lindsey Buckingham is not Fleetwood Mac imho , thats like the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger

What's with this obsession with tuners? Don't you trust your ears?

You're no doubt right Si, but a combination of rampant GAS and curiosity (but mostly GAS) has got the better of me on this one As it happens the sub I'm demo-ing arrived yesterday afternoon. Haven't had chance to properly set it up yet, but as an initial test I've placed it between my main monitors (up against the front wall) and just to one side, to avoid the centre room mode. So far I've only set the gain by ear, but I took a quick frequency measurement and to be honest it looks surprisingly promising... observations: It's helped to fill in much of the gnarly dip I had around 70Hz (by +5-6 dB, possibly more) It’s showing a very useful response down to 30Hz, where it then tails off (but still giving me around +10-15 dB at 20Hz compared to what I had previously... not that I can actually hear it!) Above 70Hz the frequency response is pretty much identical to that produced by my main monitors alone (I currently have the crossover set at 60Hz). There's a noticeable boost in the low end, as you'd expect, but I could level that out with DSP software. No signs of comb filtering that I could spot from the frequency graph; but I need to take some proper measurements and also check decay times, etc. So hmmm...definitely not helping my GAS! But the initial signs are that a sub may actually be of benefit in my room. Especially because I don't have capacity to install main monitors any larger than those I currently have. I'm hoping to do some proper tests at the weekend and will report back, in case the info is useful to anyone here who might also suffer from sub GAS at some point.

Sweet looking bass. Well done!

A doctor once told me I was suffering from auto-correction syndrome, but I didn't even know I was I'll.

A-man, you're blessed with the psyche of marathon runner...anything would weigh a ton or look enormous for you! I, on the other hand...

I'm not saying long-established foodstuff manufacturers shouldn't still be making food but I look at multinational corporations like Heinz who are churning out the same baked beans they first made in 1901 and wonder why they are.

... till next month?

Reserve judgement until you have heard someone else demo it, all his demos sound the same!

Well, I've enquired. Let's see where this goes...

I see that view expressed often, but never by audio engineers. You know, the people who invented music reproduction. What is important to music reproduction is well known and has been for quite some time. What we can measure exceeds what we're able to hear by at least two magnitudes of order. It's not our knowledge that's limited, it's the dissemination of that knowledge to the masses. For outfits like Wilson that's a good thing, otherwise they'd never sell a single piece.

I'll cover the basic method I use and then a couple of variations. Like always, I just will outline 'this is how I do it - and it consistently works for me - but I'm not saying this is how it should be done!' It's very simple. For a basic stained finish, non grain-filled, I do the following: I sand down to 250 grit. If it is a bought body, I take care that there is no releasing oil or similar on it and that I'm down to clean wood I vacuum the body with a brush attachment to make sure all the dust is out of the grain I apply the ink, straight out of the bottle, using a piece of old t-shirt or similar, bunched up and soaked in ink using a circular motion, making sure that the ink has properly gone into the grain. Latex or nitrile gloves are essential unless you want very brightly coloured hands for a few days.... I let it dry and repeat if necessary. 2-3 coats is usually fine. Remember that each coat will darken the end result The colour when the ink is first applied and still wet is the best indication of what the finished, varnished, colour will be. When the ink dries, it will look completely different - don't panic! I let it dry fully I finish it with Tru-oil or polyurethane varnish If I need to fill cracks or grain, I use one of two methods. Basically, the water-based ink will absorb differently on different woods and surfaces so, for example, if you sanding sealed it or used many types of filler, the ink colour would not absorb in those areas Grain Fill - Method one. Stainable Timbermate I use the dark stainable one This veneer had multiple deep fissures. The Metolux Timbermate will mix with water stains and - to an extent - absorb stain once dry. For best results I do both I mix some ink into the Timbermate Then prefill the gaps, then when the timbermate is dry and sanded, apply the stain in the normal way If I had just filled with the Timbermate out of the tub, the filled areas would have shown up as lighter shades. If I'd used the 'light stainable' Timbermate, even premixing ink into it, the same would happen. Using 'dark, stainable' Timbermate, premixed, the filled areas end up the same shade or slightly darker, both of which look fine on the finished result Grainfill - Method two. Tru-oil slurry and buff This is a method I've never seen other people do. Generally, it is said that you can't slurry and buff a stained surface because you will sand the stain away. Actually, if you are careful, you can. This is how I do it: I stain in the normal way I apply a coat of tru-oil and let it fully dry I apply a second coat of tru-oil, applied with 800 or 1000 grit wet and dry (you can also use micro-web) slurrying VERY gently. The slurry WILL take up some of the stain but the trick is not to go deep enough to expose unstained wood. Basically you are trying to slurry the first tru-oil coat, not the stained wood The slurry will fill grain perfectly well. While still wet (within 10 mins) very gently wipe the slurry off Let it dry, then repeat the slurry and wipe Repeat once more then leave as is (hand buffing to satin smoothness once it's properly dry) or add more tru-oil coats for a greater gloss or over-coat with varnish, whichever preferred. If you don't add the top gloss coats over the slurry and buffed finish, surely the ink will come off on your hands when you play? Well - it doesn't seem to. In fact, because I like satin necks, this is how I do all my stained necks nowadays - even for very, very regular players - so far they assure me they've never been caught red handed. Hope this helps Andy

It's such a nice colour, has this quality where it's a soft orange and then in your face at the same time! Love it!

Here's some of my Fenders, all US Standards.