lemmywinks

That's not how any of that works.

Warwick > Spector though.........

Hahaha I never noticed that! There's some superficially nice looking basses on AliExpress but you don't know what horrors await when you try and play the thing. Check out this Warwick Infinette knockoff, one F-hole appears to have been lined with newspaper and the other has had loads of old wiring shoved in it:

Yeah I have no doubt it would be awful, they will copy anything though. There's Alembic, Ken Smith, Mayones - even Lemmy's custom Rick with all the engraving!

Yeah sure! https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Top-Quality-Natural-Wood-Color-5-Strings-Bass-Guitar-Golden-Hardware-Guitar-Maple-Fretboard-Free-Shipping/32953570895.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.82.73402147RxgfBl&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10065_10068_10130_10547_319_317_10548_10696_10192_10190_453_10084_454_10083_10618_431_10307_10820_10301_10821_10303_537_536_10059_10884_10887_100031_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_53,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=97731b41-449d-4014-8517-e69771d8e847-13&algo_pvid=97731b41-449d-4014-8517-e69771d8e847

They cost that much because people will pay it, even though they look a bit gash.

With the shop I went it it sounded like they didn't have much choice - either display non-competitive prices and risk customers walking out to buy online or don't display any and risk customers walking out anyway. The manager of this store basically said they had an enforced minimum price to sell items at, it's a very good shop with extremely nice staff too.

Does it say in the manual? Alternatively a spectrum analyser phone app will probably be sufficient.

I had a conversation in a music shop a few years ago where the policy was also "ask at the till", the manager said it was because of enforced price fixing which he wasn't too happy with.

The tailpiece/string anchor is going to mercilessly destroy any gigbag you put the bass in:

Just the one which involves not spending a small fortune to replace already extremely nice equipment! Only bad news is the enhance LED no longer works on mine, should be easy enough to replace and the effect is still audible.

Thinking about potential preamps made me remember I had an old Joe Meek VC3 knocking around which for some reason I haven't thought about in ages, anyway plugged it into the QSC and it sounds absolutely killer. Very clear and lively with beautiful compression so I think I might take that to our next gig. It's only small (about the size of a big DI box) so won't take up much space. I have no idea when that circuit was designed but it still does the trick.

Thanks, the main interest for me is being able to try different preamps which would be an improvement on what I have now without the associated astronomical costs, hopefully in a package that is convenient to gig with - ie a smallish floor unit. For years now I've basically left the amp controls alone and used instrument specific preamps as my favourite sounds have always been bass straight to the desk and I wanted to recreate that. Just a little bit of eq and compression is all I use. I've never used any modelling units before (aside from early Line 6 guitar stuff which I didn't like) so I have no idea how they actually work. I assumed you'd be able to download/share profiles or is it a bit more regulated than that? Obviously I'm not expecting a Helix to be able to model them directly itself, I just thought there would be a plethora of preamp and compressor profiles to go through and pick what I liked.

Does it have profiles modelling specific high end studio preamps though? Because the profiling ability of the Kemper sounds great (basically nicking the capability of expensive hardware and keeping it on flash storage!) but that's not very practical for me. The new Helix Stomp is a much more affordable and practical option but the attraction for me is the capability to try a ton of high end preamps. EDIT- That was replying to Bridgehouse about the Helix btw.

I'm still using the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ which is a do everything pedal, can't fault it really. I did briefly look at the GK Plex and came close to buying it but the controls look a little convoluted for me, on the Fishman everything has its own knob and it doesn't have any extraneous features for me. I go bass - Fishman - QSC. Dead easy! I think if I was to look for anything else then something like EBS suggested above which can model different studio preamps would be the way to go. Does the Helix have these profiles available or is it just mainly guitar/bass amp modelling?

A few on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142787292402 If any BB2 owners fancy getting the hacksaw out now is your chance!

Apparently 30% off as they're being discontinued, wonder how much they are or what Alex will replace them with. Would be interesting to see someone retrofit one into a BB2!

Incidentally what is the power amp used in the FR800, is this it? https://www.hypex.nl/product/psc2-400d/67

Barefaced detractors usually feel compelled to voice their opinions after a healthy dose of BF evangelism from other posters, that's definitely the case here. This has been a gear thread free from brand fanboys for over 40 pages which is great, hopefully it can continue. FWIW my opinions: Barefaced - very good Rickenbackers - horrible things Keytars - everybody should own and gig one ACS - no opinion Bros - bloody love 'em

The main issue is that bassman seems to think Alex had this amazing idea of a powered bass cab when in reality he just wanted a slice of the PA pie. Makes sense as there's more money to be made there than in the boutique bass cab market. There was no visionary concept of powered bass cabs, just basically copying what established manufacturers have been doing for decades, making it look a bit homemade and passing it off as new. Personally I think for the FR800 he should have changed the aesthetic design rather than sticking with the DIY cab look, I don't think their appearance will steer many people away from what is already out there.

I think the idea was to step into the powered PA cab market, not further fragment an already niche existing audience. It wasn't ever conceived as a bass cab, I can remember when it was in development and the purpose was always for PA. Don't believe me? Ask Alex! About four years ago we used the original Big Baby T cabs as a PA system and everyone who heard it was blown away by the clarity, depth and tone - they couldn't believe such a massive sound was coming from two small cabs. The all-new FR800 represents the logical conclusion of that concept - a true full-range active PA loudspeaker. What is this for? Accurate high SPL sound reproduction! Two FR800s on stands can replace a typical dual tops plus sub PA system, with better sound quality and vastly reduced size and weight. Ideal for any bands who bring their own PA and don't want to compromise on sound. Is this only designed to be used as a PA speaker? No! The FR800 is able to reproduce any audio signal (within its design bandwidth) with extreme accuracy at punishing sound pressure level. It is far too powerful for home hi-fi use and does not go deep enough for cinema subwoofer purposes but it will do almost anything else. Suggested alternate uses: Keyboards Bass guitar Double bass Acoustic instruments PA subwoofer Large format studio monitor

Tell me about it, we do two gigs with steep outdoor stairs which aren't safe to carry big heavy boxes up, especially in Winter. A while ago I saw one of the big Peli trolley cases in Crack Converters which was brand new (foam intact etc, not a cheap thing to buy) for £80 which would have taken all our cables as well as lighting cables, guy in the shop was sick of it being in the way so would have got it cheaper. Made the suggestion "why don't we..." but it fell on deaf ears. A week later we were huffing the rack up fire escape stairs in the pouring rain, not enough room to take it up with one person on each side so one carried it from the top and the other supported it from the bottom. Had to take all the drawers out to make it borderline safe. Where do you get those female singers which carry equipment? Ours have always been reluctant to pick a mic up if they don't have to. Then again the male ones were the same.

I had two Markbass Club 112 cabs which had a kickback feature were great but I sold them and bought a QSC K10.2.

I've been trying to convince the rest of the band to ditch our big rack, it's essentially a Mackie DL32R in a huge case with a load of drawers for cables underneath. Made sense when we had the 16 channel Mackie as we needed the lid to come off and cables were routed to a front panel but the 32 channel version can basically slide in a normal rack unit (which we already have sat there doing nothing!) and means we would have one less 2 man lift to carry up stairs. The guitarist put it together and is really proud of it so it looks like it's staying.

Looks like the Markbass Marcus Miller range all have an optional wedge design, he's done the odd tour over the years! Even the 4x10 can be angled up, I can imagine that takes up a lot of space on stage. Their standard 121HR also has this feature.