Dan Dare

Forgot to add earlier. Look for used, rather than new. eBay and similar are stuffed with used Pacificas, Squiers and the like at bargain prices.

People often buy a guitar, for themselves or a youngster, intending to learn. After finding out it ain't as easy as they imagined, the instrument goes in the cupboard, until one day they decide to sell it. Either that, or they (or the youngster) make good progress and decide to upgrade relatively quickly. 

In both cases, you get to pick up a used instrument in good shape, ungigged (how many beginners gig?) for not much money. If you look after it, you can move it on for not much less than you paid for it when the time comes for you to upgrade.

A repairer friend often picks up such guitars for silly money from eBay, gives them a clean, set-up and new strings and sells them on at a profit.

Yammy Pacificas are always a sound choice Can't go far wrong with Squier, either and they sell easily used when you want to upgrade.

If an item was discounted, I wouldn't worry about a few marks. If I liked it, I'd probably try to get a few quid back and keep it.

It's a practice/starter combo. As it's from MB, it's going to be decent, because they have a reputation to protect. Whether it will be enough for you to gig with is something only you can determine. 

Practice amps don't usually offer a simple upgrade path (for example, by allowing you to run additional cabs), so when/if they are not sufficient to do the job, you have to sell and start again. The market for used practice combos is limited because fewer want them.

The new price of the MB is not far short of what you would pay for a more capable used combo. It won't be a bad choice by any means, but it may be a limited one in terms of what you can do with it. I'd advise trying one - plenty of shops carry them. Don't buy on spec' or on the basis of reviews/recommendations.

If you're looking to save weight, modular - several smaller, lighter boxes, rather than one large heavy one - is the way to go. 

I love it when people who plainly know nowt about something come up with tripe to boost it - "Whether you're a seasoned musician or a beginner, this Music Man style bass guitar is sure to meet all your needs"... Yeah, right. I wasn't going to buy it, but, having read that, how could I not do so?

On 16/12/2023 at 15:59, Andyjr1515 said:

Yes - as the others say, the bottom of each slot should be level with the fretboard.

I'd say a smidge above. I converted a fretted to fretless and filed the slots to be slightly above the board. If you like a lot of relief in the neck, you may get away with level. A DB may have them level with the board, but remember its action is much higher than an electric. Best to experiment, rather than file them right down from the off.

On 15/12/2023 at 12:50, JPJ said:

I have been tempted by the JBL JRX mentioned previously as a single box per side, but the size/weight puts me off. It does make me think that with the advancement in loudspeaker components (a good 12" now beating an older 15 etc) whether one of our intrepid loudspeaker cabinet designers couldn't come up with a passive solution using a combination of say 8" and 12" cones in a box that is physically large enough to impress the ladies, whilst providing a much better single box-per-side solution (yes I know the subs should be centred, and having tried this, I know that this works so much better but doesn't work in the average pub setting).

You don't need to centre subs, but it is best to place them together. Frequencies become less directional the lower they get. Depending on room acoustics, it can be better to place them at one side to take advantage of boundary reinforcement, floor coupling, etc. One good sub will easily outperform two average ones

The problem with large, one box cab's is that they can be a bit precarious when put on poles, which you have to do to get the best coverage/dispersion of higher frequencies. If a drunk punter crashes into a stand whilst dancing a bit too enthusiastically, things can go pretty pear shaped. It's better to have compact top boxes on poles and keep the sub(s) on the floor, from both performance and safety standpoints.

Closed back cans are better because ambient noise can't cause problems. You generally get a better bass response from them, too, which is handy. I have an ancient set of Beyer 770s that do the job for me.

Aguilar Tone Hammer?

As you don't play yourself, I'd be wary of buying something expensive on spec'.  It's difficult to get it right when buying something for someone's interest that you have little knowledge of. As it's not a main present, I'd keep it simple. Programmable strobe tuners  are all very nice, but are a bit expensive/overkill for a young guy with his first instrument and amp. The TC clip on tuner at a quarter the price would be fine and you could add a decent strap and gig bag and still spend less than the the cost of the Peterson suggested above. 

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I'm not sure that's the case... 

I lived in a shared house once where one guy's girlfriend was a screamer. While the performance may have been great for those in the room, the rest of us in the house trying to sleep wished for, at the very least, a full isolation booth for the pair of 'em! 

Now that's one occasion where a round of applause when they'd finished would have been in order...

42 minutes ago, ricksterphil said:

Some great advice, thanks everyone. I'm probably going to leave it...... probably 

A wise move. Incidentally, when you say you've seen a bass for sale that you owned as a teenager, do you mean the same make and model or the very same instrument? That's intriguing because most teenagers don't own massively desirable instruments (unless mum and dad are minted).

4 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

with that cab I'd probably get up fairly close to one of the drivers only, rather than move out further and risk comb filtering between the different drivers.

Good advice. With multi driver cabs, you should normally mic' one driver only. They should all sound the same, so for the purposes of mic'ing, that's the way to go. It can get a little more complicated - the BF multiple 10" cabs for example, where some drivers are fed a different signal and obviously cab's with tweeters or mid-range drivers. No such issues with the C4. Be aware that with close mic'ing, you are not getting any cabinet sound, but just that of the driver itself.

For live work, I'd agree with Phil and others that DI is the way to go.

You should experiment to find the sweet spot on cabs that have no tweeter. On cone drivers, if you point the mic' directly at the centre of the cone, the sound will be brighter. It's often better to point it more towards the edge of the cone.

If you're mic'ing a cab in a live situation, you want to get the mic' as close as you can to minimise spill from other instruments, drums, etc. Using a hypercardioid mic' helps. They pick up in a narrower/tighter arc and are better at rejecting sounds from the sides and back.

It's also important to aim the axis of the mic' at what you want to pick up. In other words, ensure that the capsule diaphragm is flat/180 deg. to the sound source.

22 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

OK two questions. Brands like Yamaha, RCF and more recently QSC have speakers i their ranges that cater for different price points. Has anyone compared the mid-priced speakers with the higher end offerings from these brands?

 

Taking about some of the other brands, do their top end speakers compete with the lower priced offerings from the market leaders? I would love to hear an HH TRE against a Yamaha DBR. A Wharfedale Typhon against an RCF ART 7 series. Of course, not all brands have the same sizes, IN some the smallest is a 10 whereas in another it is an 8.

It wouldn't make much sense for brands to make their budget offerings too good and take sales from their higher priced lines. Often, companies will own other brands that cater for different price points - Yamaha owns Nexo, which is a pro' audio PA brand, for example.

There's a clip of the new cab up on the BF YouTube channel. No sound, just someone showing how easy it is to lift it.

Surely it's a practice tool. Handy if one lives in a flat, where even the sound of sticks hitting pads can be annoying to neighbours or flatmates.

9 minutes ago, neepheid said:

You're free to disagree. Just as I'm free to disagree with you. But it's not ok for you to cast aspersions about band chemistry in bands you know nothing about based upon a few words on a web forum. I think you've taken that too far.

 

Also, in my crappy amateurish world, we're the ones paying for studio time and we'll use it as we see fit.

 

Feel free to disagree, of course.

Took the words out of my mouth. If I'm paying, it's my business and I'll do as I see fit. As for the "someone's paying" point in a pro' situation, I've been there, too. We didn't expect everyone else to be in the control room, hooting, hollering, high-fiving and "engaging" during tracking/overdubs. It would have been pretty naff, actually.

1 hour ago, chris_b said:

I heard several LFSys cabs at the SE Bass Bash. IMO they are worth investigating.

 

There is no "lack of bottom end". There is plenty of bass but it is tightly controlled which eliminates much of the boom and woolliness you get on many gigs.

Yep. That massive low end may sound good in isolation and at low/practice/studio volumes, but use it in a live situation and it's usually mud city. 

I'd rather poke out my eyes with sharp sticks.

17 minutes ago, zrbass said:

And ..'that's why he's messing it up cause you look like you could'nt care less. It was always the case tho not nessecarily easy to sit there..head up and taking an interest in what the other band members were doing....Absolutely nothing worse in a control room than a band member demonstrating little interest in what everyones doing as they either read or mess about doing something else.

Depends on the individual. I prefer to be left alone to work on something without half a dozen pairs of eyes watching my every move. You can't generalise..

7 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Only if one is bothered by it. If it's a nice instrument and worth paying to asking price, what difference does it make, unless it's for investment purposes, and needs to pander to a collector's market..? Whether it's the 'real deal' or not is only of interest to those looking at financial value, rather than (subjective...) quality for the Buyer. Either a thing is worth its price or it's not. 

Fair points, but the truth is that, unless one has unlimited funds, resale value has to be a consideration for ordinary mortals like me. I know people say things like "this is the instrument I'll never sell", but who knows what life may bring? Something even nicer may come along and the funds from selling the previous "forever instrument" will be needed or come in handy.

Worse case, one might need funds due to some disaster that crops up and be forced to offload something(s) to raise the money. At my age (70), I recognise that the time could come when I am no longer able to play (or lose the desire to do so). If that combines with a need for funds - to cover care costs, for example - I'll have to sell some instruments since, next to my house. they are the most valuable things I own.

If I've spent a lot of money on a bitsa, even a superior one, it's likely be less easy to sell for a good price. I was in this dilemma some years ago. I decided to spend quite a large sum on the mandolin I'd always wanted (an F5). I spoke with custom builders and was very impressed by some of their instruments, but decided in the end not to commission one but to get a Gibson because it would hold its resale value.

14 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Limelight at least put their own serial in sharpie on the  back of the headstock. I can see the day someone refinishes the back of the headstock and fakes an authentic looking Fender serial and pawns it as Fender Customshop.

If you're buying a bass for the sort of money custom shop instruments go for, you'd be foolish not to do an online lookup of the serial number before handing over the cash.

5 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

My favourite was a Rick copy that looked authentic, but up close the truss rod cover read "RonnieBarker".

I bought a decal for my bitsa that says Findus Sea Bass. haven't got round to putting it on yet as I'm rather fond of the Dinky Toys decal that's on there already.

As far as the OP's question - why is putting Fender decals on bitsas allowed in the first place? - who's going to prevent it? Somehow, I can't see Fender or anyone else knocking on doors at 2 am and the Old Bill certainly wouldn't be interested. "We have reason to believe you have a fake decal on your bass. You're nicked, sunshine".

Caveat emptor as always. It's not hard to spot a fake, unless it's so well done it's better than the "real" thing. Nobody moans about high quality copies from the likes of Limelight.