Dan Dare

All fair points. It does irritate me that manufacturers bandy the tern FRFR, with the implication that anything labelled as such is somehow superior to "coloured" bass/guitar amps. Some players talk of not using eq/running their amps "flat", which is not actually "flat" at all - it merely means one is hearing the preferences of the preamp designer. Leaving aside the obvious point that any piece of equipment will colour the sound to a greater or lesser extent, the colouration is often desirable. An electric bass or guitar has no sound or "tone" of its own. It is essentially a piece of timber, coil and magnet that senses the vibration of a length of wire in a magnetic field. It produces a purely electrical signal (unless the pickups are ancient and have become microphonic). It needs the character and colouration added by the amplification/eq to sound good to our ears. It may be preferable for vocals, brass, wind and acoustic stringed instruments - things that have a sound of their own - to be reproduced "flat", but not that length of vibrating wire. Given that modelling of amp and speaker sounds aims to copy the sound produced by "coloured" amps, speakers, etc, why not just use them in the first place and forget about trying to create a facsimile with a computer? As far as no hi-fi system ever convincing anyone that they are listening to live sound goes, the best can get pretty close. Few people have heard what is possible - not surprising, given the cost. I'm not talking about the systems most of us own that probably cost a few thousand, but stuff that would cause people to say "How much? You can buy a new car for that". The results can be jaw dropping. I own a pair of typical mid-range domestic hi-fi speakers. My Fohhn PA blows them out of the water. Mind you, it should, when you take price into account. Real pro audio is a different (and much more expensive) world.

The term FRFR has to be about the most misused in the world of sound reinforcement. Full range? Between which frequencies? At what distance? At what volume? Flat response? Where/in what room or space? Even massive PA speakers and ludicrously expensive studio monitors will only produce a "flat response" in the conditions under which they were developed and measured (probably using an anechoic chamber). Even then, frequency range and the volume at which the allegedly "flat response" is produced will be tightly defined. Add room acoustics to the equation and everything changes. No plastic box speaker costing a few hundred quid can realistically be claimed to be FRFR. Rant over. I feel better now.

Given that the recording is a mega-bucks production, made in a very pricey studio operated by expensive people at the top of their game, the answer is "heaven knows, but you aren't likely to get it with the average gigging amp and a stomp box".

Always found them helpful and friendly and the staff are all players and enthusiasts.

If the budget is limited and you're looking to upgrade in the not too distant, buy used. I have to say that it's hard to combine budget, light and loud (you say you need to cover a lot with the bass in a power trio). Budget, loud and heavy? Can do. Ditto light, loud and expensive. If weight is an issue, use several smaller cabs, rather than one large one. I've not heard of reliability issues with Ashdown and their backup is very good. Of course, if one is regularly pushing gear beyond its capabilities, all bets are off. I'd try some stuff and not decide on the basis of recommendation alone.

You do realise that Aus and NZ are not one and the same? They are 2.5k miles apart.

"We"? You're in NZ. I thought that expression was coined by the Aussies. As far as whinging goes, both of your countries have taken it to new heights over the plague recently, so beware throwing stones from that glass house you're living in.

My '72 sunburst was similarly battered, although not as bad as that. I stripped it back in the 90s. Fortunately, the grain wasn't bad, so I oiled it and left it bare. Wish I hadn't, now roadworn is 'in', but there we are.

Sorry to be boring and add this to yet another thread, but if you use wire wool, cover the pickups thoroughly with masking tape to prevent fragments from coating them in a fine fur that is very difficult to remove.

Tbf, life in a Clash tribute band is more risky for a P bass...

Go and try them. Then you can make up your own mind, free of "fanboying" ☺️

Using an add-on power amp to drive one of the cabs would be a safe option, assuming your head has a pre-out.

This is interesting (and this is not a political point). There are 650 parliamentary seats in the UK. There are quite a few safe seats (of all colours), but many- even those that are not out and out swing seats - are quite finely balanced in terms of voting. Nationally, this tends to be the case - have a look at total numbers of votes cast for the various parties, particularly the big two, and you will see this. It takes surprisingly small numbers of people to change their vote to produce marked changes in results. Well under a million votes cast one way or the other - which is only around 2% of total registered voters - can produce large swings. The first past the post electoral system tends to amplify this effect.

But is it any good for metal?

Sounds good. I still miss the sound (but not the weight) of my old SC 24-4-2 mixer. They are very solidly built, the preamps are excellent and the eq is subtle and very useable. Does it use an external power supply? Some smaller SC mixers do. As long as you remember not to power up the PA until the mixer is on (and power the PA down before unplugging the mixer), you shouldn't have issues with the fact that it doesn't have an on/off switch.

Do you, having grown up "using gay as a pejorative word", whilst being "in the closet, and deeply ashamed" feel you must compensate for that by trying to police the language and conduct of others?

Eh? We're six days, SIX DAYS, into 2022 and someone is declared to be the "Sound of 2022". So whatever extraordinary music is made (or not, of course) during the remaining 359 days of the year, it won't qualify. I suppose the fact that the winner is a good looking woman with big eyes didn't hurt her chances... Beam me up Scotty.

Ditto. Why sell it for that reason? Makes no sense. If the assertion is true and the smell was so offensive to him, it could have been left to air for a few weeks, or even kept closed and not used. The description is just a bit too fulsome to be credible, imho (I know. I'm a nasty, suspicious old git). And why the need for all the talk of "You can trust me. I'm a retired teacher", etc? Sounds more like a retired double glazing salesman to me. I'd steer clear, but that's just me. It's no bargain at the price he's asking, either. Caveat emptor.

I have a Fusion, which is heavy for a gig bag, but gives very good protection. Not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for.

Another PJB fanboy here. I used to have a Flightcase, which I ran with a power amp and a couple of C4 cabs when I needed to make more noise. The Flightcase was great on its own for lower volume applications and adding the C4s plus power amp to it gave more of the same. Great sounding set up, but a little inconvenient onstage as I could not stack it neatly. I eventually sold the Flightcase, but kept the C4s and acquired a couple of 4Bs, which I use with an Aguilar head (with as many cabs as I need plus a power amp if necessary). I found the cabs are responsible for much of the sound and that any high quality, clean sounding head will give very similar results with them.

Good advice. I find a playing to a metronome/click a bit dull, so I set up simple drum patterns on the computer to practice with. Ii makes it more interesting. As far as avoiding discomfort is concerned, the aim is to find a posture that makes playing with the least physical effort possible. I would have a look at the various teaching videos, copy them to start with and then adapt what they recommend to suit your physique. We are all built differently. If, for example, you have shorter arms, you may need to have the instrument closer to vertical in order to reach the lower end of the neck. Finger length/hand size will determine whether and how you need to make position shifts with the left hand (assuming you are a righty). And so on. Don't be too bound by what is stated to be "correct" technique. You refer to keeping the thumb in line with the middle finger, for example. I find that uncomfortable - it causes tension in my left hand - so have the thumb in line with or even slightly behind the first finger. Different strokes for different folks.

I picked up my AH quite cheaply used on eBay. They and SC mixers come up quite frequently. If you want new, the Soundcraft Signature 10 has 2 auxes plus fx and is available for around £240 at the moment. Looks ideal for your needs.

The only way to know whether it would be an improvement is to try, which could, of course, get expensive if you try several. If you use a neck p/u, it will be slightly narrower, which may cause the pole piece spacing to be out of kilter with the string positioning. It may not be by a lot, but you can't know without trying. One thought that occurs is that you could see if the Squier plastic housing (which will be the right size for your bass) will accommodate the replacement p/u. On my J bass, the pickups are not a tight fit in the housing and can be removed easily. It won't work with pickups that are epoxy potted into the plastic cover, but might with those that aren't. Armstrong pickups are good, not expensive and the company is very helpful. May be worth an enquiry to them.

Aw, go on Bill. It will be entertaining. I've heard and used cabs using drivers of all sizes that I've liked. I do seem to have had a preference for those that used 12s, but that's probably because they were of better quality or better designed. Currently, I use and like 5s.

It's become a bit of a cliché that old school = weight/depth of sound and class D = thin, etc. I had an interesting experience recently when I used an old school Ampeg rig. It was at a gig where the other bassist already had his gear set up and he suggested I used it to save dragging things around during the changeover. Decent of him. I thanked him and thought "Great. Looking forward to this". To tell the truth, I was a bit underwhelmed. Sure, it sounded big, but no matter what I did, it was soft and unfocussed, compared to my PJB cabs and AG700. How much of the belief that old school = depth, etc is due to nostalgia, I wonder?