lozbass

I'd frankly be amazed if you ran out of power with this - it's probably loud enough for a decent sized club without PA support

This is class gear and if it's not been hammered - and you can carry it - I'd go for it at £300 (in fact, for the quality, £300 is cheap). They're very loud, punchy, versatile and robust combos and as others have said, this is real pro-quality kit.

I doubt this will be helpful, but if I find any, I put the stone, back, cross the road, or sneak out while they're at the bar sorting fluff from coppers. After a 15 year career (if you could call it that), I'd had quite enough of musicians.

I have just one neo cab - an Epi ul112 - and after years of conventional cabs (4x10, 12s, 15s, 18s, folded horns, exponential horns - you name it...), I'd say the principal benefit is weight reduction. Beyond this however, cabinet and speaker design has come on a long way and I find the ul112 to be very tight, articulate, airy, focused and even reasonably loud and punchy when it needs to be. I can't offer a definitive answer but I'd suspect that if you took out the neo driver from a modern cab and dropped in a high quality conventional speaker, you wouldn't notice a great deal of difference (other than weight). Maybe somebody's tried this and can confirm/contradict?

I got turned on to Gibsons around '74 listening to Patrick Djivas playing a Ripper with PFM - glorious clanging row (I just checked - put PFM Celebration into youtube and you'll get a version from OGWT) - stunning! I bought a Ripper in '79 - first proper bass. I still have it but it's heavily modded (and still beautiful!) Patrick Djivas is still with PFM and now plays (among other things) a 32" scale built by Prometeus here on BC. I really need to order one. Check out Gibbos - much underrated and well cool.

Excellent - you have a very understanding partner! Every room in my house - bar one - is a bass room (a situation that is remarked upon frequently by my partner...but she doesn't mind - wow!)

I've had dead spots on every bass I've owned bar three (and I've lost count). There is an extended thread on the issue - it's the first 'pinned' thread in 'Repairs and Technical Issues'. I've tried all manner of remedies with varying degrees of success (depending on the bass) but I've never fully eliminated a dead spot. To be honest, I now just see dead spots as part and parcel of bass-playing. It's irritating, but as long as the spot is not too bad, I just try to work around it and don't obsess (and to the OP, I doubt your bass is particularly defective - compare it with a few more Jazzers). I've found Jazz designs to be particularly vulnerable to dead-spots, and graphite basses relatively dead-spot free.

I'm not sure I'd ever want to go back to it - in my experience, playing bass is a tough way to eke a living

And I'll agree with sixstringbassist - Alembics aside, Sei for me are just beautiful in every respect (I've had loads and still have two) - ergonomics, aesthetics, build quality, playability - and Martin is such a good guy to deal with.

Alembic by some distance (do they count as custom...I suppose they do)

Thanks for the update and I'm pleased to hear that you sorted the problem - I may try a set of medium length d'Addarios on one of my short-scales

This is a difficult one - there are so many variables. I'd start by setting all the eq controls on the bass to flat (i.e., centre them if they're cut/boost type). Then I'd use the eq on my amp to try to get something that's reasonably satisfactory (according to playing style as indicated above). From there, I'd tweak the active controls on the bass - gently - to see if I could find an improvement. The reverse is possible - set the eq on the amp to flat and gently tweak the eq on the bass to find something pleasing. Then experiment with further adjustment of the eq on the amp. A lot depends on playing style, more too on environment - are you practising at home or playing in a band situation? Room/space/volume will have a big impact. I sometimes find that good results are possible using a fairly flat eq on the bass and amp whilst experimenting with the pick-up pan (i.e., balance between the mix of pickups) if you have one. In fact, I often control tone in this way primarily. Other things you could try are a good set-up and new or different strings, or adjustment of the pick-up height. I'm not sure this helps much but good luck.

There's a Trace Elliot Mk V 4x10 combo for £250 in the ads section - you could do a lot worse. It'll be heavy and fairly big but it should compete easily with a couple of guitarists and a drummer. I'd have it myself (just to have it aournd) if I had the space.