Mudpup

Soundcheck without them in then put them in. That's what i do. Once the soundcheck is done you just need to trust you've done it right and don't worry too much about the sound during the gig. But you have to do a decent job on the soundcheck.

This.....

No - you'll only be putting out about 300w thru the 8 ohm cab. You'll be pushing very hard to keep up imho. You'll need 2 x 8 ohm cabs or a single 4 ohm to grab some headroom back and get the full output.

I personally haven't found any regular class D mini amp that will hang with my loud rock covers band. Same as the OP, they sound great at home and have brilliant features on them and i love them until i take them to a noisy gig and they get buried by the drums and twin guitars. I can get by with them but i haven't found THE ONE yet. I always seem to go back to my Gallien RB700 and i've come to the conclusion that i'm just not a class D guy. I've tried loads of them and the only one that comes close to keeping the punch and slam and not just flattening out when you turn it up is a Quilter BB800 - i've had it for a few years whilst others come and go but you have to get used to its quirky layout. Had a Mesa D800 earlier in the year, got a Magellan 800 now that i've gigged about 4 times and will be moving on soon. I've had a Markbass Evo, GK Fusion500, a Genz Shuttle over the years. I'm thinking of giving it one last go and trying a Darkglass M900. The newer breed of class D are much better than the old ones to be fair. Maybe i'll just order a Handbox R400 and hope its not just a niche trend that new amps become on here sometimes - that's probably a more sensible option and sounds more likely to be the right thing for me but the Darkglass looks fun. If i had £1000 to spend and didn't want a Gallien i think i would grab an Ashdown series 4 ABM600 (a great rock amp with tons of slam and much more versatile than you may think) and a decent 2x12 or a couple of 1x12 cabs from the classifieds on here. Maybe a Barefaced or Bergantino cab for £400/700 or a Fender Rumble cab of some sort. Ashdown are selling hand made ABM600's for £550 direct at the moment or they come up fairly regularly on here for £400ish. They're a friendly mob on here, pretty wise in general and you wont lose your shirt if it turns out the gear doesn't quite work for you.

This one is good if you like the no talking and no showing off style of presentation https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0m9-OMDR4oAegQfVRkeVWQ

Tis luvverly....ordered it yet????

Just had an email from a good regular gig that the brewery (Youngs) have told them to cancel all music up to December.

Too many knobs and switches for active and passive for an absolute beginner - your words not mine. 'The result is a new line of Marcus Miller bass models that have a fantastic sound and look, and are high quality but with an extraordinarily low price. We are ecstatic that SIRE Marcus Miller basses are now available to everyone with a new hope that more people from beginners to professionals will be able to play and enjoy the music they love' - straight off a Sire page I clearly seem to be not agreeing with your point of suitability - It's not difficult to grasp it. But i don't have to agree with it. You've had a few of them - that's good as you are qualified to have a more valid opinion than i first thought. But it remains an opinion as does mine. You just appear to believe it's more valid than mine. I could sit and respond all day but in the interest of keeping the thread on track rather than descending into a bunfight i'll bail out now. And i'm not your mate.......

Because it just happens to come with it. You said i could only have a passive bass, not me. It has a single switch to turn the actives off. That shouldn't be too difficult to understand. The fact remains that it's a very good quality and easy playing bass at a great price. Which would probably be the top 3 requirements on the spec sheet for a first bass. Oh and it was designed and marketed to provide a bass of quality that was easy to play for beginners. The initial question was 'what's a good first bass for an adult?' It fits the bill in my opinion but obviously i am completely wrong. I'll give Marcus Miller a ring and tell him he got it wrong too and he should contact the 1000's of beginners that have bought it to apologise for confusing them with all the knobs. Just BTW - have you got one? Or have you played one.

It is a passive jazz if you want it to be! Just don't touch the other knobs if you don't want to. It's better to have the option and not use it than not have it in the first place. It's just an extra bass, treble and mid control on the bass - he'll have that on the amp. Or should he just have a volume knob on that? In case he gets confused...... And the most suitable thing for a beginner is something which is easy to play. Like a Sire. I've got one. It's probably the easiest and most instantly playable bass i've had. It's remarkably cheap. And it's so easy to play i keep picking it up for a noodle which has to be a good thing for a beginner. Plenty of people have had Porsches for first cars and manage perfectly well in them. You can potter about in it or drive it like you stole it because it's capable of both in the first instance. Like a Sire.

You're contradicting yourself. You stated that 'a jazz will give much great variety of sounds' and then saying that having too many controls to create those sounds is a bad thing. Why do you need to have a musical background or knowledge to appreciate a nice bit of kit? So set everything flat until you understand it then. And it isn't complicated - In passive mode you have a volume, tone and balance knob - exactly the same as any basic bass. You are assuming that the OP is incapable of operating or understanding what a couple of knobs just because they are a beginner. It is a great potential first bass because it is so easy to play and is actually pretty difficult to get a bad sound out of it. And it has the potential to grow as the player does. I wish they had been around when i got my first bass!

Just moved in a few weeks ago :-) The top picture is with nicer new knobs.....

Sire V7 and a headphone amp.

Interesting and ambitous advert here Some missing knobs??? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-AH250-Bass-Amp-Head/133445303166?hash=item1f11f5bb7e%3Ag%3AU~wAAOSwtABe79SX&LH_Auction=1

i think the change from a P to a V prefix may have been due to Fender getting grumpy about the whole P bass thing. Heard it somewhere on the web so it must be true.... Don't know about the shape change though. I had an old PM4 and remember thinking i wasn't too keen on the new shape when they came out but i've got used to them now and think they're ok. Sandy's in general are lovely anyway, fabulous basses and great quality. I'd cheerfully have another one in any flavour :-)

It could be a PM5 or a VM5. They changed from a P to a V before the body shape changed i believe.

Yep its the Sire

Yep 7! Gotta be the knobbiest bass around....Hours of fun :-)

Here it is without the pickguard - looks pretty tidy i think :-)

Pretty sure you need a 3/8" one - mainly based on quite a few posts on the American site in the Sire club saying they bought the 1/2" ones by mistake :-)

Sorry, just cant stand tort...... I must be weird ☺️

Lockdown boredom finally got to me.....after far too many hours cruising around on this site I kept returning to the Bass Centre Betsy thread and decided i wanted one. I read all the reviews i could find and watched Guys Lockdown Licks avidly. I've owned quite a few basses but never a 'proper' Jazz (I had a Blacktop Jazz a few years ago but apart from the body shape and the neck there was nothing jazzy about it), it was my birthday, i sold my bike and the missus gave me the ok. The scene was set, credit card poised and off i trotted to the Bass Centre website. This is where it goes a bit wonky....none available until the end of July. Dangnabbit! And i'm not very patient either 😂 During my research I'd spotted a Sire V7 version 2 in a similar colour and it was a bit cheaper. Great reviews in general for them and tbh i've always seemed to end up with active basses so having the preamp kind of appealed to me. Andertons didn't have any left in the colour/fretboard that I wanted and they weren't sure if they could get anymore but a quick look at Thomann secured my new toy. Three days later and it's sat in my front room. It's a difficult colour to photograph and i wasn't sure i would like the pearly scratchplate so i had popped a mint one in the basket along with some nicer metal knobs to potentially (see what i did there) replace the plastic ones. I'm totally blown away with how they deliver this bass for £400. I've been lucky enough to have a lot of good basses over the last few years - a Spector Euro, various Musicmen, a couple of Fenders, a Sandberg, a G&L (which i've just put in the classifieds as a result) and I still have a Zon. This little £400 bass stands up with all of them. I can't find any issues at all with it and it was perfectly set up and in tune when i took it out of the box. The neck is so easy to play (rolled edges are great) with a lovely ebony board (even with a busted finger!), the preamp is a work of art - it sounds great passive anyway (and what i think a decent jazz should sound like) - but when you kick the preamp in the bass really comes alive. Huge bass, sparkling treble and a sweepable mid makes it seem like you can do anything with it. The tuners seem fine. The bridge looks a bit cheap so that may get a little upgrade down the line but it's just a vanity thing and i need to pop a Detuner on. I've had the bass a week and can't stop picking it up 🙂 The metal knobs made a nice final difference and i haven't decided which scratchplate i like best so i've done a poll. I still really fancy a Betsy though.....