From the new options listed I’d go for the Markbass 102P, purely down to it being two speaker cones so moving more air. All of the brands mentioned are good but I think this one would handle being a standalone cab better.
I had one of the Ampeg 210AV cabs and whilst it sounded great, due to its very small size I wouldn’t have wanted to gig it on its own.
Same for me, and happened on this by accident. As above at a sound check got a great onstage sound, went out front and was confronted by the boomy mush, so adjusted eq with bass down/mids up, sounded pretty rotten onstage, sounded excellent out front. This was in a covers band where backline covered the whole venue, so no FOH.
Yeah, last time we were at Rebellion I spent more time talking to people & socialising backstage than I did watching bands. And when I did watch bands it was usually from side stage rather than out front as I found the sound to be better there.
Same as the OP, probably as I also got into music as a kid in the 70s but a big mahoosive 70s Fender or Rickenbacker headstock just looked the biz to me.
A guitarist mate of mine who’s about 5’6” or 5’7” played bass on a gig when the bassist was unavailable and played an Epiphone Thunderbird. He said it felt like he was trying to do the Waltz all the way through the gig.
I’ve not got on if these but did have an SVT 3-PRO which advised the same, master on full, gain for volume.
I’ll admit it did sound great if I was pushing it but I found that depending on how big the room/loud I had it the sound changed, so I went to the set input gain then use master for volume which evened this out.
Many years ago the band I was in were filmed for a TV programme. We all had a few drinks beforehand to chill and because we played better that way anyway.
The show was never broadcast, and when I saw, but more importantly heard the tape I immediately knew why, we were appalling.
Where we thought drink loosened us up and made us play better what it did was loosen us up so all the timing and precision was lost.
Lesson learned for me, though I have to say to my shame I still played gigs drunk afterwards in both that and the next band.
In my last band (fast forward some time from the above, and to where I no longer drink alcohol) the other guys might have one drink beforehand but we always worked on the thought that people were paying to see us so we should provide the best performance possible, playing drunk would be short changing them.
I’ve had two of the VM77s and I’d say they are fantastic basses, really feel good to play and sound it too. Not too heavy either. I changed the pickups on one to Fender 74s and that was a nice improvement but other than changing the bridge baseplate to one with grooves in I left the rest stock, no real need to make any changes.
Not done that exactly, but did arrange to buy a very nice 1978 Precision from our recording studio, so turned up, handed over the dosh, then did a day long recording session on it.
Fender JMJ Mustang Bass
New band does a lot of car share gigs so aside from the benefits of reduced weight & size to me personally as the player it will be a lot easier to fit in an already quite chock full motor.
Not for me. At our last gig one of the bassists was playing a Fender Mustang bass and for one it sounded great, plus secondly on gigs where we all go in one car I can really see the practicality of them. I like the look of the JMJ one and can see me buckling under pressure (of GAS) at some point.
After years of putting up with Levi’s I’ve found that Next do the best jeans for me. So a win situation as they’re about a third of the price. But it wouldn’t have bothered me if they were twice the price, they just fit so much better.