machinehead

Would you have given me £200 for a perfect Wal Mk1 in 1990? I forgot about that and now the pain is back. Frank.

The tiny one10 sounds good with every amp I've tried it with but I particularly enjoy the Quilter BB800. It's a bit dark sounding though so maybe not to everyones liking but great for smaller gigs. Frank.

Haha. I've experienced something similar. But it's better over-packaged than under-packaged and then damaged. Frank.

All the Squier basses are good instruments and well priced. An even cheaper and (subjectively) as good as the Squiers is the Ibanez Talman range at around £150 new, even cheaper used. I bought one recently and have been gigging it quite a bit. They are a little known bargain. The little Fender Rumble amps are perfect for home practice too. I bought a used for for £20 a few years ago so maybe £50 would get you a used V2 one now? Taking advice from an experienced player is good advice too. Frank.

Al bought a pair of jazz bass pickups from me. We agreed a price and Al paid right away. All messages were friendly and the whole transaction went smoothly. You can deal in full confidence. Frank.

These are great amps. I had the 750 and foolishly sold it because it was physically too wide for my new cabs. But I would say it was an absolutely superb amp. My favourite class D so far. More power than I would ever need and great sounding too. Clean or grit available as desired. The 502 is probably all you'll ever need. I hope you're enjoying it. Frank.

One of my expensive mistakes was buying a very expensive Avalon acoustic guitar. I didn't need it, already had a good acoustic (bought new in 1979), didn't play it and ended up giving it to my brother who was looking to upgrade his acoustic guitar. So 100% loss there then. 😀 Frank.

Have a read here: https://www.bassplayer.com/gear/flat-world-a-roundup-of-flatwound-strings Frank.

Lee Sklar says he gets paid for the travelling and being away from home and all the other downsides of touring, but he plays for free. Now that's a great attitude. Frank.

I've bought from both and the official Barefaced one is better having padding where the Roqsolid one, whilst not at all bad, is not padded at all on the basic version. It just depends how much protection you think you need. I move my own gear in my own car so the unpadded one would do okay for me. You might need more protection in a band van etc. I love my BB2 Dave and I was really surprised that you didn't get along with your first one. It's the one cab I get regular positive comments on from other musos and punters alike. I won't be parting with mine. Paired with my Thunderfunk 550 is when the most compliments come, but with other heads as well, people seem to notice and like the sound. Frank.

For me, a higher powered amp (200 to 250 watts) would be more useful, as you could also gig with it as well as record. I used to gig with a GK MB200 and it coped very well, even into a single 8 ohm cab. Frank.

Okay. Thanks for the reply. I just got the impression that you'd bought a Barefaced cab and were complaining about the customer support. Frank.

Interesting...did you use the glue sucessfully? I've got a couple of Barefaced cabs but I haven't seen that label. Did it come with that label on there? Thankfully, none of mine are peeling like that. (Although, I've experienced it with several guitar and bass cabs over the years.) How do you find the cab for sound? Frank.

I also have a BB2 and Super Midget. I’ll only sell them if I really need the money. I’d say keep your SM. 😄 Frank.

I’ve no problems using a pair of one10s in medium sized venues without PA. Drummers have commented on how solid they sound. With PA I think they would handle most gigs including outdoors. Frank.

Belfast N. Ireland is a small place and word gets around pretty quickly here too. As a reliable bass player I've nothing to worry about. Frank.

I see the PJB D400 head isn't listed any longer. It was a bargain at £350 and I was very tempted even though I don't need another amp. I just saved myself £350 by my dithering. Frank.

Fair enough Stew. When I gigged my Markbass Traveller 15" cab it was about 2005/6 - maybe they improved them? I know for certain they changed the cabinet size and volume?) to better match the Traveller 210 physically around that time. All I can say is that when I got my Barefaced Compact 15" G1, the difference to me was amazing. Deeper, louder - all-round a very noticeable improvement. But, we all hear and like different things so it's all good. Frank.

You're right there... I'll be hanging on to my American Standard Jaguar. (PJ and active or passive, and they work in passive mode with a flat battery.) I think they were only made for a year, maybe two years. Frank.

G1 or G2 Barefaced Compact. Uses the best 15" speaker available at the time. (and perhaps still the best available?) Often sold for £300 or less, lightweight but heavy sounding. Beats the Markbass 15" by a country mile - I've owned both. Frank.

There's a Barefaced Super Twin G3 for sale on here now. 😁 Frank.

When my MB200 fried (it was used as a gig back up and home practice amp) I bought a Peavey miniMax for £282 brand-new delivered. To replace the MB200 would have been more expensive. The miniMax is bigger than the MB200 and twice the weight, but still only weighs 5lbs. On the plus side, apart from being amazing value for money, it's a truely brilliant little amp. It's very loud, very flexible tone-wise, built like a tank, looks cool and comes in a little gig bag. (The gig bag is very basic but OK.) I've gigged the miniMax a lot and it copes extremely well. It's as good, or maybe even better in some ways, as amp costing several hundred pounds more that I've owned. Frank.

I agree with the others. I'm retired and book holidays to take account of gigs already committed to. In an extreme or unforeseen case, (they sometimes happen!) I'll organise a suitable dep and I see arranging a dep as MY responsibility not the rest of the band. Frank.

You're so right stewblack. Even a new set of exactly the same strings can have a massive effect on a bass. It's a thing that's often overlooked by beginners and even by some more experienced players too. I discovered a while ago that my American Standard Jaguar (PJ) is a very different sounding instrument with Ti flats than round wounds. Perhaps that's not really surprising but what did surprise me was just how much richer and ballsier it became. A good post. Frank.