Dan Dare

Can I echo the sentiment of others here and register support for Vail? I can't find the thread the fuss is about, but if it's about difference in power amps (which the above suggests it might be), there most certainly is a difference - funnily enough they seem to improve the more you spend...

Definitely bargains to be had at the moment. Shops need to keep cash flow going post Xmas. You may be surprised if you make them an offer.Good hunting.

Good idea Lozz. Thanks.

That Thomann one looks nice. Not too dear at present exchange rates. I'd be interested to hear what it's like, too.

Yamaha always good and reliable. The best small powered mixers I've used recently were Soundcraft - either the flat/conventional type or the Gigrac, which is an upright box. On board Lexicon fx, good mic pre's and usable eq. Plenty on offer s/h. Used passive speakers can be a lottery. Stick with name stuff - EV, RCF, Peavey, etc. You can get them repaired if need be.

Cream and torty looks delicious.

Would value everyone's thoughts/advice. Recently bought a G&L L2000 Trib as a working instrument, so could give the old Jazz a rest and have wider range of tones, in particular the P bass sound. It's versatile/playable enough - am getting to grips with the wider flatter neck (have had the J for 30 years, so it's almost part of me) - but doesn't really do it for me in the way the old beast does. Leaves me a bit cold. Am looking for a vintage/old skool vibe. Thinking about building a PJ - Warmoth body, Jazz neck, Nordstrands/Fralins,etc. All suggestions/views, experiences of PJs much appreciated. Thanks and happy new year.

Ah, memories. Same as my old head. Loved it, but was a beast to cart around and sold it when old age made it difficult to carry. Never had to run it at much more than half power - clean and pokey and very reliable. Enjoy it.

Remember, the original question was about replacing a 4x10 with two 1x12. I still contend that the best way to do that and retain the 4x10 sound is to go for two 2x10s (it goes without saying that they should not be cheap and nasty, of course). It IS largely down to cone area (assuming material quality, construction, etc is equivalent). You need to move air for low frequencies and there's no escaping that. These mini rigs sound great in the shop, but put them in a large space, with drums, etc and they sound very anaemic. You may get mid and top, but there's no 'heft'. SpL measurements are of little use if they don't take account of frequency.

A bit of defensiveness in the "not raw enough/too sterile comments, methinks. Great musicians. End of.

Absolutely right. There are a lot of great young players and just as many crap old ones (and vice versa). I'm the old boy (61) in my band and the others are great. They even offer to carry my cabs .

Peavey Messenger a budget speaker - around £140 each . May not be worth repairing. Better to put the money towards replacements?

Agree with Fender. Valve amps happy to work into a higher impedance, but less so into lower. Impedance of any speaker is far from fixed - it's frequency dependant and varies a lot (typical 8 ohm cab will vary between something like 6-80).

Anyone else get fed up with unbalanced/poorly matched strings? The tension varies enormously across what a manufacturer sells us as a "set". Bought Thomastik Flat wounds for the Jazz. The A, at.70, was so slack as to be impossible to get the intonation correct at the bridge - the saddle fell off the adjuster screw before it was right. Had to replace with a D'Addario in a heavier gauge. Looking at the tension figures on the D'Addario site, they vary across a set by 25-30% in some cases. Appalling. Is it just me who's unhappy with this?

Justin Case? Sounds like a guest at the Luggage Makers Christmas Ball.

Did someone mention K&M? They make for many others - Beyer, etc. You can also get spares, so don't have to chuck them if something breaks (which is rare - they're well built). I've got 8 - the oldest is getting on for 40 years old. Love 'em. can't go wrong.

I had a TE AH350 head back in the day. Great piece of kit and Trace were excellent when it needed repair. I took it to them, left it with them and had lunch in a local pub and collected it fixed (and for a very reasonable charge - was well outside guarantee) a couple of hours later. Need it for a gig, so had to get it done in a hurry. Using an EBS these days, which reminds me of my old Trace in many ways - clean, pokey and fuss free (and a lot easier to carry...). Hope Trace do well with their new kit.

Cryogenic treatment may or may not be snake oil, but as Mickster says, you have to try valves really (which can be expensive if you try a few sets, to see how they work in your set up). Watford Valves are pretty good, in my experience and their advice is sound. Re 'military' valves being better, they may be tougher, but that won't necessarily make them better at sound reproduction.

Get one that's twisted already? The old telephone cable style is still available. Or wear lead divers boots to stop you jumping around...

Agree with others about EVs, but more important than the speakers is what you drive them with. I've heard EVs driven by El Cheapo stuff sounding really horrible - in fact, the better the speakers, the more they show up any deficiencies at the front end. PAs need to be balanced to work well.

Shop demos can't really give you an idea of how something performs in a live environment. Afraid there isn't a cheap, lightweight solution if you're working with a drummer, unless you can route the bass through a PA. I've tried to find it for years and failed. The physics dictates that you need to move enough air for low frequencies. I've gone the multiple smaller cab's route. Easy to carry individually, but add up to plenty of poke (properly driven, of course). the cheapest way to get the power you need is to buy a used PA power amp and drive it from your combo pre-amp out.

Why not go for two 2x10s? If you like 4x10 sound, but not the weight, that's the way to keep it, but have something easier to handle. 2x12 won't move nearly as much air as 4x10 (226 sq in of cone area, as opposed to 314 sq in). And of course, you can take just a single 2x10 for small jobs. I use 2x10 and 1x15 and find it a good combination.

The problem with playing loud is that, unless the equipment is capable of delivering clean signal at high levels, the distortion can be enormous. Ignore claimed ratings of 900w, etc. An amp processing a simple sine wave may heat an 8 ohm resistor sufficiently for a few milliseconds for the manufacturer to be able to claim that, but a complex real world musical signal is a different matter. It's not the volume alone that is the problem, but all the nasties caused by overdriving the kit. DJs can be the worst offenders. They often have real El Cheapo stuff that they overdrive.