Dan Dare

Why not build a Bitsa P? Mine cost me around £250 - bought a used Squier cheap and upgraded pickups, tuners, bridge and wiring. I agree with others that nothing does P bass like a P bass.

Agreed. Dave's a great musician and an all round sound chap. Where's his gong?

Confirmation bias, anyone? I'll tell you what I use if you ask, but I won't recommend gear (have a look at my other posts if you don't believe me) because what suits me won't be for everyone and because drinking/buying by the label is a sure-fire recipe for disappointment. If you don't accept that, have a look in the market place, on eBay, etc and see how much expensive and highly regarded kit is for sale. A lot of that will have been bought by people on the strength of reviews, rather than a proper trial. After a short while, they find it's not giving them what they wanted and sell it on.

I do this, too. Re. the original question, I'd stick with what you have if it's working. As far as comments about variations in local power supplies are concerned, most good quality kit has universal power supplies these days (my AG700 does), which will adapt to most, if not all, circumstances.

I think Ringo's got his gong for being an all round good geezer, not for being a a drummer, singer or whatever. I'm fine with that. He certainly deserves it a hell of a lot more than Clegg, Brady and all those political a r s e kissers.

Interesting video above. I do feel it confirms what I found. If I couldn't see that he was playing a J bass, I'd be hard pressed to tell that was the case from the sound alone (I appreciate it's a Squier, rather than a full fat one).

I don't think that would work at all well. You would be feeding a full range signal to the Ashdown. Ideally, you need a crossover to remove the higher frequency content from the signal to the sub/bass cab and the low bass from the tops. Most important, you need to power a sub with its own amp. Even if they have an aux speaker output, those powered PA cabs you refer to will not drive it adequately (and you'd have to daisy chain it from one of them - you couldn't use both). I see from your later post that you have a PA already and agree with Dad that what you are proposing to replace it with would be a sideways move, not an improvement. If you are looking to reduce the amount of kit you carry, dispense with backline and put the bass through the PA, I'd agree that you should keep your existing PA and suggest you add a powered sub (but see my previous comments about getting a decent one). Dad's right that what you have would probably be adequate for bar gigs, but it won't cope at the weddings you refer to.

A Bass V in a shop in Middlesbrough about 30 years back. Expensive but affordable. High C rather than low B. Stupidly rare now.

Dig his feedback. 1 positive (from a seller - probably the bloke he bought the thing from).

I had an East J-Retro in my Jazz and went back to passive after a while. The East is excellent, but I felt the active preamp robbed the instrument of that essential Jazz Bass character and made it sound a bit more generic, if that makes sense. I was initially impressed (and the East is very well made and clean sounding), but grew tired of it, so replaced it with new pots, cap and wiring and sold it on.

Honours? Yeah, right. This is a bloody disgrace - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/new-years-honours-list-grenfell-tower-fire-heroes-manchester-terror-attack-london-a8133811.html

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. Other cabs are available...

Agreed. Re. the original question, a pair of those cabs plus a good quality powered sub might be just about OK, but avoid the subs that are aimed at the cheaper end of the disco market and that claim ridiculous power outputs, etc. They may make a fair amount of noise, but it's all boom and no notes and the sound falls apart when you push them (they often achieve volume via over-zealous porting to give a false impression of power). As with our bass rigs, clean, plentiful low end costs money.

They are all budget PA speakers. Not bad for vocals, but if you are intending to dispense with an onstage bass amp and run through the PA, I don't think budget PA cabs with 10" or 12" bass drivers will cut it in anything other than low volume situations. OK for the bars, but less so for weddings, etc.

There are powered and unpowered versions. I have the unpowered one, which I picked up mint for £150 on the Bay. See http://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/pa12/. The PA12 CP is the powered one.

You're more likely to damage a speaker by driving it with an amplifier that is not powerful enough and is constantly clipping. Remember that your head will only be delivering its maximum rated power for a few milliseconds and that most decent drive units will happily tolerate short peaks of around twice their continuous rating. Also, amp manufacturers tend to inflate maximum power outputs for more showroom appeal. So I reckon you'll be fine. PS. Could we have a moratorium on telling everyone who asks a question about cabs to buy a Barefaced, please? Other speaker cabs are available...

You can also power some active basses via 9v phantom, but do check whether yours will accept this before switching it in. EBS heads have a similar option.

You could even use a sound to light converter - the type DJs use - and have the colours change and pulse with the music. How cool would that be?

I played one of these some years ago at The Gallery in Camden. Didn't like the neck or sound. The similarly priced Lakland Skyline 5 I tried was much nicer. I do think it's genuine, though.

If they have been around for a while (as all those you quote have), they will have dozens, perhaps hundreds, of numbers, some of which they may not have played for years. They may well be using add-on/session players (brass, etc), too. And of course, memory deteriorates with age...

Exactly. I dep in a function band. Even the regular players read on gigs. They have to. The chart book is several inches thick. There's a world of difference between that and a band of weekend warriors playing 30 or 40 simple pop songs with 3 or 4 changes.

It's one thing to learn 40 or so relatively straightforward songs and quite another to have 500 - with complex arrangements - ready for instant recall.

Ah, the delights of two strokes, which oil up the plug after 50 miles or so...