Lozz196

That would be my first port of call too, for that reason.

Yep ABM all the way - in pub sized venues you might not notice too much of a difference but on a bigger stage at higher volumes the ABM shines through. Plus all ABM amps from what I understand are built so that they can be fixed/serviced by Ashdown, who are here in the UK, and who offer excellent customer service. I should add after that that I`m not affiliated with Ashdown in any way other than using their excellent products.

I`ve had the LMT and the LMIII - the tube in the LMT doesn`t seem to do anything until you turn it off, at which point you get a much flatter, less lively dynamic sound. Grit/drive it isn`t, it`s more like a shimmer around the sound. I must admit though, if I were looking at Markbass amps now I`d be checking the Little Marcus which imo has much better frequencies for bass than their other amps.

Out of the two amps listed I`d go for the ABM 600 EVO IV - it`s an amazing amp, incredibly flexible eq, very loud with a good presence. Re cabs, well I`m all about the easy life and I find one relatively heavy ABM 410 with good castors on it is pretty easy to move about.

I`ve quit a few bands over the years, a couple because playing gigs was getting on the way of me being able to go to the pub with my mates, and a couple because I`d just gotton to the point where I was no longer enjoying it. One I quit was due to we`d been a regularly gigging band that rehearsed all the time, and went to 4 gigs a year with 2 practices before each gig. As such we were a poor tribute of ourselves imo, so I quit, so did the singer, and from that we formed the band we`re currently in. With regards to telling the bands, well the beauty of e-mail is that you can tell everyone at much the same time, and deliver the same message so that it doesn`t get twisted into a he-said-she-said scenario. But before those days, well I just told the person in the band that I considered to be the band leader, and left it to them to tell the others.

For me personally, no, wouldn`t matter what the song was, or what context, the answer is no. Though Skank does raise a good point above, about Olivers Army, I`ve loved that song for years and until he mentioned it I`d forgotten about the use of that word in that song.

Yeah, because it was so unique sounding I didn`t want to base my sound on an instrument that if it got cattled, as per JJs, or stolen/whatever I`d never be able to recreate the sound again, so moved it on. A practical move but I do sometimes miss that bass.

The fretboard colour doesn`t make me play any differently but I do find that the colour of the bass itself influences my stage performance - with my black basses I`m more subdued, but when playing the white ones I tend to move about a bit more. Of course at 52 that really means shuffle around more on the same spot, but mentally I`m leaping and running around when the white bass is on.

I know what you mean, Paul. I had a 78 Precision that sounded pretty much unlike any other I`ve ever had, I named it Ian Paisley as it just barked at you, was really aggressive sounding. Sometimes you get one that just has a different voice, for no specific reason.

Interesting short list. I reckon Duff is def in the offing, but Airbournes bassist, Justin Street certainly fits the bill. But when all is said & done, keeping it in the family seems to be an AC/DC thing, so I`d reckon that`s where they`ll end up.

Mine was a Kay EB-0 copy. Action about a half-inch, strung with flats, though I wasn`t aware they were flats til I broke a string, bought a replacement and said replacement turned out to be a roundwound. As I`d learned to play on flats wasn`t too keen on this new roundwound string, how times change eh. The high action was a bonus in my view as it gave me a good grounding in playing a not so easy instrument to play. Once I got onto decent instruments, well the world was my lobster. No idea what happened to it, up until a few years back I wasn`t sentimental about anything, now I`d pretty much like to have that bass back though that`ll never happen.

That`s why I went back to a heavier amp, WOT, on a bigger stage the difference is easily noticed in my experience. In pubs etc, where you`re all close up together not so much but on those big stages, with the amp pushed louder, well that`s when they stand up and get noticed.

They do in the RM range, I had the separate cabs in that formation - with the RM500 head - and they sounded very good together.

Agree Chris, never leave a door/tail-gate open unattended. I also do similar, the stuff I need goes in last/out first, and it`s that way for the rest of the load/unload.

8 years, wow, where did that time go? Great shame, only spoke to Si a few times on here but his contributions to threads were always good.

Def not US, truss-rod at headstock, no hi-mass bridge. Was a bit of a marketing mix-up imo, Standards were MIM, US Standards were, well rather obviously US. The new Player Series has taken over from Standards, so now we have Player (MIM) and Professional (US). Makes it a tad easier now.

Yeah I was hoping to get as near to it as possible but I don`t look at it as a bad thing, it just shows that I`ve already got the right kit. I`m just surprised that given how flexible the Para Driver is, there aren`t more bassists using them. Still, I never said I was normal.....

Nice one, cheers v much. We`re in Edinburgh on Sat 25 Aug but have found Scotland gigs a bit sparse so that`s great.

I was, only at about 9 o`clock though. I think in reality it`s not that I didn`t like the dUg, it`s just that the Para Driver is so spot-on perfect for me that anything else just doesn`t seem right. The dUg would have made flying gigs much easier due to less weight and less cables etc, but carrying 2 pedals and 3 leads isn`t exactly a chore so I`m sticking with Trusty PD.

I use an Ashdown ABM 600, into an Ashdown ABM 410, so probably getting 350/375 watts. The majority of my gigs are on big stages with everything going through the PA, it`s plenty for those stages never had to push volume, but in pubs etc this set-up is more than enough on its own without PA assistance. For reference I play in a punk band, so we`re not quiet. That Ashdown 900 head and the 410 will be plenty for the gigs you describe and being Ashdown the gear itself is pretty indestructible, and they offer excellent customer service too - they`re on here.

Aside from my 410 speaker cab I`m pretty much the same, even when staying overnight at hotels it all comes in with me.

Agreed Ben, I love all the Tech 21 pedals I`ve tried but my ultimate fave is the Para Driver, it just "goes to 11" for want of a better phrase

I must say I`m surprised by the comments of lots of low-end. In order to replicate the sound of my Para Driver, where I have the bass on about 2 o`clock I`ve had to have the bass on the dUg on full, and even then it doesn`t seem to have the same "muscle" to it. Could be frequency difference I suppose. Not taking a pop at the pedal though, it`s a nifty little guy but ultimately I just prefer the Para Driver so dUg is taking a trip back to the shop.

In terms of your gear @Fingers McGee, a 900 watt head at 4 ohms will put 450 watts into each 8ohm cab. So in theory the 410 will be fine, the 115 less so. But in practice if you`re running that rig to the point where the 115 blows, your ear-drums will more than likely have bled dry by that point, so you should be fine with it. That said I`d be more likely to get two of the 410s, or a 410 and 210. If they`re from the same brand & range they`ll more than likely be voiced similarly, whereas a 115 will probably be voiced differently, meaning your sound will be made of two different sounding cabs, so you`ll always need the two to get it. The benefit of 2 x 410 or a 410 & 210 is that for smaller gigs/practices you can use just the 410 and only bring out the other cab for the bigger gigs. And, moving on from that, I have a 600 watt amp with 410 & 210 cabs and have never actually needed the 210. You may well find that the 900 watt head into the 650 watt 410 will be plenty enough.

Yeah, oops, meant to put £14