coasterbass

1. Yes, we own one (although its currently in the classifieds on this very site). 2. 4kw. JBL Full range 2x15's. Celestion Subs 2x15's. Peavey foldback, behringer outboard, soundcraft desk. 3. Due to not being famous or rich we shift(ed) it in a hire transit van. 4. Nope, self-engineered. And I bet penny to a pound that for most of those saying the same, the bass player does the sound(?!?) 5. Yes. We gave up the using our PA a couple of years ago and now hire every time. Reasons? Multiple. Transport: hiring a van costs £100. No one wants to drive it/take it back the next day etc. Weight: I tore my sciatic nerve lifting a cab in the back of the van. Storage: We're london based so garages come at a premium (especially to store 7foot stacks) Insurance: The PA is the thing most likely to 'interact badly' with the audience/venue and so thats his problem : ) Cost: Its an ever-depreciating item, like a car. Sound: No doubt about it, it sounds better when someone else in the room can control the sound, and take requests from the audience Monitoring: We operate with zero-backline (all DI'd) so foldback is king, usually with 4 mixes. You just can't self-engineer that, and quality monitoring to do that costs. Repairs/Maintenence: If it breaks on the day then you have someone else to look at. 6. Its regional, but generally we pay £300-£375 for a 3-6kw Martin/Turbosound/Funktion1 PA with engineer. It usually includes 8x parcans. We'd pay extra for fancy lighting if it was wanted/there was room to do it justice. 7. After doing this a few years you know have a feel for the prices, and so we charge a 1-off price to the client and then pay the PA guy ourselves. We find this works best because otherwise you get "£350 for a PA!?!?!; Nah mate, my cousins got something you can use". ALWAYS retain control of what PA gets hired. Good thread. Interesting stuff.

I've found that if you keep hold of them for long enough then you experience a 'cyclical' relationship through the collection. I used nothing but my Stingray live for years, then just took out my jazz one time and loved it. Now I'm moving back to the Stingray... I think this accounts for why there exists 'posthumous GAS' ie. the desire to repurchase the same gear after you've sold it, thinking that you don't use it enough. Certainly being a lefty you have to consider your purchases a bit more carefully and there's hardly ever any instant GAS as no one ever sells any (apart from that lovely GB and the Sei a couple of weeks ago...) But... +1 to the idea that a Stingray and Jazz can cover most eventualities. (and a 5 on the side for special occasions)

As a man who's currently trading in his gigging rig for a pre/power rack I can offer the following: Eden most definitely do offer a preamp. Its the WLP-100. And it kicks ass. Its very flexible and has a compressor built in. I'm attempting to pick up the Ampeg SVP preamp as well. Ampeg have offered a number of preamps over the years although most are only 2nd hand these days. Sticking my neck out there's: SVP-Pro - preamp section of the SVT-II, III, IV SVP-IIP - Preamp section of SVT-II SVP-Classic - Preamp section of the SVT-Classic SVP-BS - Billy Sheehan signature No on-board compressor though.

Sounds like the same kind of thing that we do. Take a look at our setlists on our webby thing www.coaster.org.uk

Its a shame - this used to be a great venue. I'm glad you didn't have too many problems there. I had my fingers crossed when I saw your posting on Friday!!

Yep - quite fancy that.

Technical question, and I bow down to anyone who knows anything about batteries, but i thought there was a minor difference between Duracell and 'other' batteries that might make a difference. Trouble i can't remember which way around it is... I'm thinking that Duracell have a greater ability to discharge large amounts of power in one go, but if you want a continuous flow then you should choouse another brand... or the other way around. I guess this would be volts vs. amps? Does this ring any bells or make any sense?

Another favourite gig of mine was a wedding we did a few years back. We turned up to find the venue was in the back garden of a large private house, in a marquee. No problem there you might think, until we asked where the power was... "What power?" was the answer. They had 1x 4way trailing the 25m out from the house that was running the lights. Apparently the notion that the band they had hired might have electrical equipment hadn't entered the planning process. Ever resourceful, our plucky PA hire guy (who had 'studied electrics') volunteers a solution. He ended up disconnecting the power from the kitchen oven (cos its a higher power rating) and running a tail across the lawn to the marquee. About 2hrs work i believe. Needless to say the caterers were not happy.

Yeah we did it. The audience were plastered and kept tripping over stuff. In the end I think we just had the monitors on and no FOH !! Despite the fact that we'd cut our fee as it was a charity gig they announced at the end that they'd actually made no money for charity because everyone had drunk too much free booze. Delightful.

I got thinking about this following a comment by davebass on another thread. Have you ever turned up for a gig and immediately thought 'we really shouldn't be doing this gig', or to put it more accurately, 'how do you expect a band to play in there??' I'll start with one: A couple of years ago we were hired to play a gig up north which was billed as a charity ball. The venue address was given as 'The Barn', on xxxxx Farm. We're travelling up from London so there was no chance to check the venue beforehand. We were also told that there was a chance of more gigs if we put on a good show. So... I called up a local PA company and requested a rig, suitable of playing a venue called 'The Barn'. I believe I also mentioned that it was a 'showcase' for our band in the area and that we'd be rebooking the PA company if things went well. We turned up on the day to find the PA company already unloading, and looking slightly andry/bemused. It very quickly transpired that the description of 'The Barn' was a pseudo-middle-class description of someone's conservatory on the back of their house. It measured approx 10m x 5m at best, and contained everything you'd expect in someone's front room. The PA company had gone slightly overboard and had turned up with the rig used the night before at Nottingham Rock City. It was a 30kw Martin Rig with 4x 12foot towers. The Midas Desk they had brought with them was approx 12ft in itself!! Needless to say, most of the kit got left in the truck, but some was unavoidable including the 20" diameter cable snakes : ) The Midas Desk they had brought with them was approx 12ft in itself!! So, the moral of that story is to always ask for dimensions before you book the PA!!

Well for my twopeneth, I've got the 410HLF and I really rate it. Its the only 410 that can deal with the power levels you're talking about. I run it solo with an SVT4 and it copes fine. I think I'm right in saying that the SWR is only slit ported, whereas the Ampeg has some fairly cavernous holes in it. Thats quite a difference. Curiously the Ampeg is only 5lb lighter that the SWR - they are built like tanks. I know what you mean about the look of the SWR, but I echo the points of other posters when I say it IS all about the sound, and lets face it, you aren't going to lose too much streetcred with an Ampeg logo behind you!?!? In my experience the HLF cabs have attracted some interested parties themselves - generally from bassists/guitarists who can't believe you're getting that much sound from a single (heavy) cab. Its all about the partnership with the head that you've got. Go demoing, its fun. (and by the way I've got my SVT rig for sale at the mo if you're interested) [shameless plug! ]

Hi I didn't cut it myself - mine are 2nd hand and came pre-cut. However IMO the foam was cut specially for each bass. These pics show the case for my lefthanded Thumb bass, which is a unique design and it fits perfectly. My other is for a Jazz. I think its a case (no pun intended) of getting your bread knife out and sawing out the shape you want. As for the previous question about the weight, they are fairly substantial. The 1750 clocks in at 11kg. I'm glad its got wheels!!!

Afternoon flightcase fans! I checked the Pelican and mine are 1750's. Photos are below. The foam works as follows. There's a bottom layer - the full size of the case, and then another layer which can be cut to surround the bass. I also attached a photo of the air-valve. Any questions or queries?

This is also a glowing endorsement, and quite fun to watch: [url="http://www.peliproducts.co.uk/videos.html"]http://www.peliproducts.co.uk/videos.html[/url] They really are the mutts nuts and I'll get my photos up tomorrow. As for retail, all mine came from the ebay.com - they came with the guitars I bought, or i bought them separately. You can get the 1750 series (which is guitar sized) for BIN $150-175, or the same as a Hiscox case, and at least you know it won't get destroyed by USPS on the way over. www.peliproducts.co.uk must have a list of uk retailers though. Geez I should get commission...

Will do then. Should get some pics up by tomorrow afternoon, hangover allowing.

Happy to post pictures of my Pelican 'gun' case, and the internal foam stuff if anyone's interested/wants a break from looking at pretty bass guitars and interesting stuff (??)