BillyBass

After having two heads die on me in rehearsal studios since the first lockdown ended, I am acutely aware of how having a back up head can be a life saver. The more bits I use for a rig, the more bits I'll need in case they die. Power amps and a separate pre can all go wrong. I thought pairing 2 identical amps would be ok as the back up could be a 3rd of the same head. Even better would be a single head and an Elf as back up! Another thing. PA power amps generally come in one size. I want something that will fit on top of cab with no overhang. I'm in no hurry to decide what to get yet, its not as if I'll be gigging anytime soon!

My main head is a MarkBass. Following @Bill Fitzmaurice's post I connected my pedal pre-amp to the return jack on the MarkBass; the master volume worked but the gain didn't. So the gain is in the pre amp, which makes sense, but the master volume control is after the fx loop. This means that should I purchase a 2nd MarkBass head, I would have to adjust the volume on both heads.

If you need to use two 4 ohm cabs, could you pair two (minimum 4 ohm load) heads together through the FX loop, i.e. use a patch cable between the send of one amp to the return of the other? By doing this I assume the first amps' EQ would work for both but the volume controls would be independent and both would have to be adjusted? Or do you have to either use both amps separately in 'stereo' or buy a 2 ohm minimum load head?

Rubber People - Adam & the ants

Master of puppets - Metallica

Up Pompei - Frankie Howard

I loved all the early albums, particularly Hall of the Mountain Grill. I saw them a few times in the early 80s. I left the country in 1984 and didn't come back until 2000, then I saw them again in 2001 or 2002. Brilliant band. I remember seeing quite a few fans wearing white lab coats during the 1980s gigs, anyone know what that was about? I thought they must be some sort of hardcore Hawkwind followers.

Thanks for all the tips gentlemen. I ended up buying a NuX Atlantic delay and reverb with tap tempo, only £85. It works well enough for part 1 of Another brick in the wall.

I'm required to learn Another brick in the wall. There is quite a bit of an echo effect during part 1, I'm guessing the pedal I need to produce this is a delay pedal? If so, has anyone got any tips for a decent but not outrageously priced delay pedal? I don't really know much about delay, reverb and the like.

Fighting in the streets - Cockney Rejects

The OriginAL pre amp does have a valve but its only on the drive section, if you are playing without the drive ('showtime' its called) then there is no valve in the circuit. So its not a valve preamp in the way that a Noble pre amp is.

A song for Ruth Ellis - Adam & the Antz

Beware of the flowers - John Otway

I might try moving mine around too, see if it makes a difference. ...and, I'm looking forward to chapter 2 of @stewblack's compressor journey

From late 1979, when I left school, up to about mid 1981 I went to about 2 gigs a week, sometimes 3, mainly punk and what later became known as 'post punk' gigs. Some of the gigs with established, bigger bands (e.g. the Damned, Ramones, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie) would last an hour or more but most bands were starting out and many hadn't released their first album yet, so a typical set would only last 45-50 minutes perhaps, and they would run out of songs.

Down Down - Status quo

Do you mean the 'Spectradrive'? I'm not aware of the Sectracomp having drive toneprints. I have only gone through about 4 or 5 of the drive toneprints on mine because I don't use the drive part that much but what I have heard hasn't been any better than middling. If you find one you really like let us know.

Train kept a rollin - Tiny Bradshaw

I wasn't being serious. However, I'm quite sure, the OC-2's sound would improve if it was bright yellow😉 You, sir, are a heathen.

I think your pedal board would really be improved by a yellow and a light blue pedal. Whatever you do, don't put an OC-2 on it.

As a headphone amp the Spectradrive works just fine, its better than my Elf and it also has the Aux in, which is very useful if you are learning covers. I bought this during the lockdown, I was at home, practising for several hours per day but wanting to stay on good terms with the neighbours (I thought my Elf's headphone out was faulty and it was about to be sent off for repair). The B1-4 was sold out everywhere, even Thomann ran out and I didn't want to wait a month or more for new stock to arrive so I thought I would buy the spectradrive and possibly make use of its pre-amp/DI facilities too. Both bits of kit are good value but the Zoom does a lot for very little dosh. Glam rock!😀 I suppose @javi_bassist's pedal board is a bit glam rockish, I am guessing Javi doesn't play in a death metal band😀. The colours are really nice though.

I got both. London calling got played once or twice and then I just played the first track, London Calling and removed the stylus. Metal Box got played loads, the only thing I found annoying was getting the 12" discs out of the metal box; I flogged it and bought the 33rpm version when it came out. I bet that Metal Box with the 12" singles is worth a lot now.

Yep, I'd second that. They did 7 nights at the Lyceum, either later 1980 or early 1981. I was tempted but I just assumed they would just be playing all the new cr*p, so I didn't bother. Friends told me the gigs were brilliant and they played lots of old stuff, so I missed out there.🙁

Stand by your man - Dolly Parton

I mainly use mine for its headphone out and aux in and a bit of compression but the overdrive comes in handy sometimes.