Lozz196

I’ve seen a good few people adopt the cheaper PELI case/foam cut out approach, always looks very professional and more importantly, safe.

Which back then was a huge amount of money. As beer was approx 50p a pint that’s equivalent to 300 pints, same today is well over a grand. My 1st bass cost £50 in 1980, a Kay EB-0 copy, again a large sum of money back then, especially for a 15 year old - I had to work hard for that £50.

Nah Steve, I get that entirely

If a Class D amp is acceptable then I’d recommend the Ashdown RM500, it’s the heftiest Class D amp that I’ve used, nice & light/portable, great sound, 5 band eq, plenty of power and onboard drive & compression.

That would be the full power at 4ohms, so with your two 8ohm cabs connected the amp will be able to deliver its full power. But, and a big but, in order to blow your cabs you`ll either need to be pushing a ridiculous amount of low-end through them or have the amp so loud that your ears will go way before the cabs do. Personally I`m not in favour of having amps that are rated higher than the cabs, but that`s more to protect my gear from my own uselessness, as in reality just using your ears is the way to protect your gear (and ears). But overall I`d say as you really liked the Ashdown I think the best option is to wait until you`re able to get another. They are great amps.

Yup, whilst I’ll never get rid of my US 2015 black/black/maple Precision I’ve gone back to my rosewood roots. Still think the b/b/m is the coolest looking tho.

I have to say that I too prefer the sound of my amp - ABM600 - than pedals, however on the shared rigs circuit it`s rare that I`ll get to use it, so get my sound/eq from my Sansamp so I`ll always sound pretty much the same. I`m quite near to the ABM sound with the Sansamp but agree, much better weight and tone to the sound from just the amp itself.

Yes I found that Markbass cabs seem to have a high-end roll-off, making them much warmer/bassier than equivalent cabs from other manufacturers.

From an interview I saw with Dave Grohl on TV it seems he just loves touring/playing, so whilst I could see the Foos as a studio only band in relation to putting out material I wouldn`t think he would be satisfied with that. But whatever happens it has to be what`s right for the the band, and no-one else, if they feel they can`t go on without Taylor then that has to be their call, similarly if they decide they have to keep going for him.

This would be my suggestion too, these basses perform a lot better than their Mex tag would suggest, as they are on the higher price bracket of the Mex range.

As Sean Connery`s Bond said, as long as the collar & cuffs match

I`m glad about this, not cos I dislike Ed Sheeran because I don`t, it just somehow makes a huge star seem more human, and def will make me feel better the next time I mess something up, I`ll just feel that I`m now in good company.

I reckon you`re all spot on there, DG needs to be up front live but studio-wise he`s probably the best placed to do it.

For someone like myself with a touch of OCD I prefer to have matching amps & cabs, but in the past when I had mismatched rigs it didn’t bother me anywhere near as much as I would have thought.

Probably the best three piece since The Jam

I think the thing with Ashdown is that you have to find your sound rather than it being immediate, so a percentage of players then discount it as not being any good. I’ve found that not being afraid to tweak massively yields great results.

I’m very similar, I just end up fiddling too much when there are all those options

That`s how I found - and stuck with - Ashdown, by a moment of serendipity. My preferred sound had been established by playing through an Ampeg SVT & 810, and no matter what gear I bought I couldn`t get that "slam" to the sound. But at one gig the provided rig was an Ashdown set-up, an ABM head with 2x15 cab. I`d never used Ashdown before so plugged my gear in, got a sound I liked and we started to play. And I developed that inside grin, the one that happens where you just get that wallop in your back from the sound of the bass, a feeling much like that Ampeg stack delivered. So by accident I`d found gear that would do what I wanted. Sure it was bigger & heavier than what I was using at the time (Aguilar Tonehammer & Barefaced Big Twin) but it was still doable.

Agree, no idea why this gets my goat so much but it just does.

Had some more work done by Gary, an electrics issue that I simply had no idea where to start with. Fortunately a spin round the M25/A10 solved everything, cheers Gary.

8 til 9

I’ve actually got nothing planned for any live bands now. Went to see SLF last night and it was great so am gonna have to start scouring the gigs for ones to go to.

Foos live in Austin currently on Sky Arts, reaffirming what a good band they are live and what a great drummer Taylor was.

For me it’s not the songs it’s the production, I find their recorded material to be a bit “sterile” sounding compared to their live versions. Live I think they’re great, more than happy to watch a live gig on TV.

I’ve recently realised, after buying/selling pedals (which has been fun btw) that I’m just a preamp/DI & tuner guy. So I follow the same principle as Doddy, no pedalboard and just take whichever I’ll be using for whichever band.