Owen

I bought Blue in a 2nd hand LA recrod shop for 25c in 1982. I chose well.

I am about to launch a 'cellist into bass guitar world. She is 14 and at Grade 7 standard so is a very competent player. I am sorely tempted to tune a bass guitar like a 'cello (CGDA). This would mean that she has an extended range instrument from the off and she would be reading without having to adjust. I am aware that a lot of stuff we play is pattern based and a lot of those patterns lend themselves to 4th tuning, but if she is at Grade 7 then I am not worried about her dexterity and shifting. I am open to arguments against this concept. Am I missing anything?

Possibly, if the system is one of those mini tower jobbies. Otherwise, no.

You can never have too many channels, but you can NEVER have too many aux sends. There has not been too much talk of mixers on this thread, but FWIW I cannot think of a single reason to not buy a decent digital wireless desk. With the right system, everyone can be dealing with their own monitor feed which is a huge weight off whoever gets landed with running things. All the sends are saved, you get consistency from gig to gig. There are so many reasons to do it from the beginning of the buying process. People will whinge endlessly, saying "it's not the same". But if you can banish backline then what the audience hears is SOOOOOOO much better. Obv, this is several steps down the line, but getting a capable digital desk from the outset makes that an easy option. I believe RCF ones even have amp plugins on specific channels. I can get quite passionate about this stuff. And less chance of hearing damage.

If I was going out to buy a PA system for a band, I would be going IEM for monitors. You can spend gazillions and it will sound lush, but you will also get properly workable solutions with a pair of hard wired multidriver non moulded jobs earphones with a Behringer headphone amp. This means that each member can carry their own foldback. Shifting wedges around just adds to the schlepp factor and is really not great. It also means that you can limit stage volume so that your FOH just has to fight Guitarmaggedon rather than overcoming the combined output of 2 or wedges as well as backline. It is a MUCH better outcome for the audience.

Whatever I was playing at the time. It was that or an ACME 1x12. Completely excessive, but what a sound.

Yep. Straight in. No preamp needed to buffer the piezo. Really easy. I ran it through a Bergantino 6x10 which could be seen as excessive, but what a sound!

My experience of piezo pickups is that unless it is under quite a lot of pressure, you are not going to get the result you are hoping for.

I am 89% certain this is the high powered one. I used to run one and it was a lovely piece of kit.

I bought an ACME 1x12 a long time ago. The cab was appreciably bigger than the "standard" 1x12. For me, the box "breathed" all the way down to bottom B and it was joyful. Is there any milage in making a bigger box? While I am asking speaker questions, the RCF 745 cabs get a lot of love. I believe that they have the mother of all compression drivers and cross over at 600hz to a 15". Obviously, bi-amping is going to help and that turns it into a whole different thing. Would it be something which would work with a passive crossover? I have NO plans to do anything of the sort, it is just a question I have been pondering.

It is not going to happen to me in the near future, but I can feel the gravitational pull.

Makes it look very lush more like.

To be fair, the ones who are doing the business in those situations will have been doing at the very least 2 hours a day for several years before conservetoire o'clock. Add that into the several hours per week they will have been doing youth orchestra stuff and sitting in with their local Uni orchestra and summer courses. They will have put a LOT of hours in. Of course there are exceptions which prove the rule. But I watch videos of "the latest thing" and they are playing at technique levels which are everyday for any number of 16 year old Grade 8 classical players. Am I saying that classical is better than pop/rock/jazz/whatever? In no way, shape or form. I am saying that dedicated and focussed long term practice makes you better than not dedicated and long term practice. I am living proof of that. But not in a good way. I was around plenty of monster players when I was younger but I had zero interest in putting the work in that they were. Lots of good practice makes you way better. 10K hours? Who knows? Lots more than most of us do? Absolutely.

There goes a solid 66% of my repertoire.

That should keep you busy.

The CLF L2500 750 in Tangerine Metallic is the bomb!

I am now away and cannot weigh my bass, but I am certain that when I did it was sub 9lbs. I recall 8lbs 8ozs, but I recall many things which turn out to be hazy. What I do know is that it is properly nice and I am very pleased with it. I might even look into 3D printing a cream pickup cover. One day.

It is Fender USA J5 which I have had painted in a mildly reliced CAR.

I use a QSC 10.2 with a Sadowsky pedal in front of it. But there are a gazillion preamp pedals out there.

In fact, I am certain that I am

It is possible that I am wrong about the wood.