Dan Dare

Aguilar are excellent (I use an AG700), but I've heard that getting them fixed is not necessarily easy or cheap, either, although I haven't had to find out as yet. For us in the UK, Ashdown are renowned for backup. I'd suggest looking at Laney, too. Another UK based company and their newer bass amps are very good.

Eh? My point was that materials of good but not outstanding quality, used correctly, are what is important, rather than exotic materials. It seems you are trying to pick an argument for the sake of it. As for "tone woods", they matter in an acoustic instrument because the instrument alone produces the sound you hear. The sound you hear from a solid electric instrument is entirely the product of a signal produced by a piece of wire vibrating in a magnetic field, which is then amplified and reproduced by a loudspeaker. It is a purely electrical/electronic process. A pickup is not a microphone. It does not respond to vibrations of air molecules. So by your own logic, the material a solid instrument is constructed from has no bearing on the sound produced.

As a tightwad who views instruments as tools to do a job, I don't understand throwing money at exotic materials, unless there is a performance benefit that makes the cost difference worthwhile. In the case of necks, good old plain maple has been found to do the job perfectly, so why change what ain't broke? Quality of build trumps materials every time. I'd rather have an instrument that has been well made from plain (but suitable, ofc) materials any day. That way, I can afford more toys. Interestingly, Stradivari is reckoned to have used ordinary lumber he bought from local timber merchants to build instruments. If it was good enough for him...

Enough bunny. Now hop it.

If this is the case, might you be overdriving the tube preamp stage, causing it to behave like an overdriven guitar amp? The difference between playing gently and digging in, in terms of the signal you are sending to the amp, is pretty large. There isn't a lot of headroom to play with with 50w, either. 12AX7s are not all the same. If you have a higher gain version, it will increase the likelihood of overdriving. I swapped the 12AX7 in one of my heads for a lower gain version because it got dirty too quickly, with only a small increase in gain. A lower gain version gave a more gradual transition into overdrive. Watford Valves were helpful in helping me choose a suitable tube.

I'd look to cut extreme low frequencies and boost the mids (you'll have to determine which by experiment). Aim for a J bass sound. Andy Fraser used an EB3, but he favoured and played over the bridge pickup He would use thumb as well as fingers, too.

Aaargh. Not "underrated" again. Mods, could we institute a ban on the use of the word, please? If I had a fiver for every time I've heard a musician or band described as "underrated", I'd own a tropical island.

I'm already a dinosaur. It's not so bad. Young people even offer me a seat on crowded trains.

"If you know about these..." followed by a load of tripe.

There is also a Tecamp M212 cab in the Marketplace (not being sold by anyone I know, so not trying to boost a pal's sale)). £340 and 4 ohms, so will make the most of whatever amp you use it with. They are light cabs and quite compact. One should provide all the poke you will ever need for function band and similar work with a suitable head.

Difficult to say whether it's the timber alone. An older instrument has had time to mellow and has been played in. I have a 1975 D35 that sounds fabulous, but it's been played (a lot) for getting on for 50 years. I doubt it was as good when it was new. I bought a nearly new Gibson F5L mandolin in the early 1980s. For a couple of years, it wasn't much to write home about, but it steadily improved and is now a great instrument. A friend bought a Martin D28 that was around 25 years old, but had rarely been played and had spent most of its time in the case. It was pretty ordinary when he got it, but improved out of all recognition after a few years regular playing.

Judging by the force of your reaction/reply, perhaps Mr Boodang touched a nerve, too...

My thoughts: 1. If costs are rising, manufacturers either have to increase their prices or reduce costs, which means economising on materials, etc. So you either get the same quality for more money or lesser quality for the same price. 2. That's because the greatest improvements happened in budget instruments, as automated production, computer aided design and CNC machining enabled manufacturers to give the customer more for the same money. There was less room for improvement for high-end stuff, which was built more for quality than to meet a price point. So the gap in quality between inexpensive and expensive instruments narrowed. I'm 70 this year and my first instruments were terrible. Today's starter instruments blow them out of the water. 3. That is relatively recent. For several decades, people have been able to afford better quality due to improvements in manufacturing techniques, opening of factories in low-wage economies and similar. It couldn't last for ever. We are seeing a period of consolidation at the moment, as equilibrium re-establishes itself.

Absolutely. That's the worst crime of all. Subverting and changing the meaning and intention of the original to make it bland, warm and cuddly, so mum and dad will buy it. Hollywood does the same with film adaptions of books. I don't particularly object to a spot of musical butchery (to each his own, etc), but sugar coating something is beyond the pale.

Fwiw, I'd be looking at upgrading to something that could form the basis of a gigging set-up - something you could augment if/when the need arises that would be satisfying to use at home. I'm assuming, as you have spent good money on your instruments, that your budget allows you to go for something nice. Many of the modern class D heads and compact cabs are very acceptable in a domestic environment, so you wouldn't end up with a monstrosity sitting in your lounge. At the same time, they would out-perform virtually any practice combo. A 500 or even 700w head from one of the usual suspects plus something like a Barefaced 1x10 or even a 1x12 (other cabs are available) would be a great sounding set-up that you could easily add a cab or two to. It would also be easier to sell on for a decent price than a practice combo should you need to.

The trouble with spending large sums on a practice amp is that you could spend the money on improving your main rig. Of course, if money is not an issue, that won't apply, Many practice amps are low powered, with small drivers and cabs, which does limit their ability at lower frequencies in most cases. There are exceptions. The baby PJB combos are excellent, for example, but be prepared to shell out for one, even used. As for what to look for, I'd suggest seeking something that performs similarly to your gigging amp, but on a smaller scale. The boundary between practice and gigging amps is pretty blurred in reality. At what point does something cease to be purely for practice and start being capable of being taken out on jobs? Probably at about 100w, I guess. I'd stick with the Rumble if there's nothing wrong with it, but that's just me. If you switch to something like a larger Rumble, it won't really be much of an improvement, save for being a bit louder. And when you get to that point, you may just as well use your main rig at low volume for practice.

The high end Laney bass amps, such as the big Nexus heads, are well thought of. Their budget offerings, such as the Linebacker you mention, are much the same as similarly priced models from other manufacturers. Laney do have a good reputation for reliability and are based in this country, so their backup is decent, which is another bonus.

It's even more embarrassing when you're caught whistling one of those earworms from a TV advert.

I've never used a capo, but I've started taking out a bass tuned a semitone flat as well as my regular one recently. Our new singer likes Eb and it's useful and even vital to be able to play the low fundamental in numbers like Chic's "Good Times".

There's a "hard life" for us in the West and a "hard life" for those in other parts of the world...

I use a mixing desk for headphone practice. It works well and you can route tracks through it to play along with and mix/balance the whole lot to your liking. Rather than buy new cans, a small, cheap (you don't need dozens of channels, etc) used mixer may be a good idea and will probably cost less than new cans that are as good as your Beyers. If you already have one, job done.

This. Worth or value is predicated by how much people are willing to pay. How much they are willing to pay is governed primarily by desirability. Quality plays a part in determining that, but so do scarcity, the "right" label, appearance and so on.

Good option if weight not an issue. Nearly always a few TEs on the 'Bay, too.

GK MBP cabs are around £400 new. If that is "very expensive" to you, what's your budget? Your current GK combo costs around £600 new, so, if it's in good shape, you may get 50% or a little more (generally, you can reckon on 50% of new price unless something is rare or sought after) of that if you sell it. Realistically, would it be fair to say your budget is around £200 plus whatever you can get from selling the GK combo?