MattW

My new RM800 met it's partner in crime for the first time this evening - a Barefaced Big Baby II. Smart little rig and sounds great at home -straight out to a gig tomorrow night for a proper test!

Seems to fluctuate a bit, must be a currency thing - I paid £290 last week! Arrived on Monday - no extra charges. Only thing is that it comes with an EU kettle lead - but they included a free adapter!!

Officially a member of the club now!

Have you considered going direct to Ashdown to get it checked out before returning it? They are really good with that sort of thing!

Yep, I looked at second hand before I ordered mine - but most advertised weren't much less than the MP prices but without warranty, box, postage etc so it didn't make sense. Worth keeping as the perfect back-up amp surely? I never gig without having a spare with me.

Cheers, will give that a go!

Sorry to hijack the thread, but which EQ do you use, and do you mind sharing your settings? Have been considering doing something similar on my HX Effects patches, but haven't got round to trying the EQ's out yet. Would give me a starting point at least. Cheers!

Ha 😀. Made sense to me. I use a Big Twin II for big gigs which is less supposed tonally coloured (more FRFR) than the 10 inch BF models. Guess the PJB's would have similar characteristics in that regard, which is a good thing in my book!

That's interesting - thanks - makes sense of a few other things I've read. Good to have some input from someone who has used both!

Well thanks to @Merton and this thread I have also taken the plunge on an RM800 from MP for my new small pub rig. Just need to find a cab to match with now, thinking BF210, or maybe a PJB C8 (or two C4's). Depends on what I can find reasonably priced second hand!

Mike at Zoot is really good. He's near Witham. He's on here as @cosmicrain

Yep certainly to an extent, although even a few inches width and a few kg's lighter makes all the difference to how easy it is to get through narrow doorways etc, so would like smaller if possible, but that might be the compromise. There's a nice Hartke HD500w combo for £365 on eBay, or a small stack with 2 X 112 and a 500w head for £550 which would also do the job. You and @Merton may have convinced me to relook at Barefaced though, but maybe only one rather than a stack. If I could find a single BF 210S second hand and pair it with a second hand RM500/800, then whilst it would be slightly over budget it would absolutely fit the bill in every other department. Thanks guys!

That's pretty tempting!!

Lovely set up!

Yep getting the 210 cab crossed my mind too. It works on price, power, sound and features, but not on footprint. Might look at an RM500 or 800 head with smaller cabs though.

£332?? Is that right?? They are £849 from Ashdown! The only thing that puts me off is that you'd realy need another cab underneath to get the full 500w out of it, but it's mighty tempting! Good find - and I do love Ashdown...

I really love my Big Twin and ABM, I don't want to change it as it's perfect for my other projects. I have a custom Zoot plus a Stingray that just sound the nuts trough it. I've spent years and thousands of pounds (and not to mention lots of false starts/dead endings with other gear) putting it together and I absolutely love it. This is not the gig for that gear. This is playing small/medium sized pubs with rowdy punters and a lively band in small alcoves! I'm using sub £300 basses that I don't care if they get knocked over, hit into cymbals etc so aside from the practicalities of the Big Twin/ABM and not wanting them to get damaged/nicked there's very little point in using such a high end amp for this gig. I just need a half decent sub £500ish set up that's small and up to the job, and again I don't mind if it gets knocked about. I'll save my other set up for other gigs.

Yep think a couple of smallish 112's and a Class D head might be they way to go. There are some Eden ones that look very compact that have caught my eye.

It's as much that I don't want to take £1.5k+ worth of amp to these gigs tbh. Also the ABM is a rack mount and only just fits on top of the Big Twin, so pretty sure it would be a bit precious on top of a vertical 210.

Actually this is one of the first things I thought too. However I'd rather keep the Big Twin for other gigs and have a cheaper and more expendable amp for this band if possible!

Will have a look at these - may be able to stretch the budget a little 😬