Downunderwonder

I know what you mean but I doubt too many others 'speak enough engineer' to get it. If I may comment in simpleton and you can correct as you feel: Getting all the power out of the amp is a fool's errand. Most often ( and surely the OP is in this boat ) the amp will have plenty enough power to drive 'half' the minimum load to where the cab is giving its all. Headroom is the potential to add more power to get more volume. Lowering the impedance by itself is never possible. If you are adding more speakers then you are getting more efficiency. Well and good with any amp so long as impedance limits are respected. Output goes up. Flipping switches to rearrange the cab impedance doesn't do squat when the amp can put out the full power handling either way. Swapping to drivers with half impedance only means it takes half the voltage to move them but the current gets doubled at the same time. Do the sums and it's the same power before they go bang. Fish hook though. The half impedance ones are usually built a bit tougher to cope and that makes them less loud per volt applied. The only reason to be concerned about getting max watts out of your amp is when it's under powered in the first place. Not 800w Mesa's.

Nothing adds up. I guess it doesn't matter but I would seek out another bass and cable to try with the amp just to be sure.

You came here and brought it up bud. All I ever do is help where I can and joke about a bit. Your hearing doesn't qualify you to opine on matters of tone. Sad but true. You refused to.accept that. Too bad. All I said at the start of this was unbalanced hearing loss might well be impacting your stereo definition, and you crack the shizen. That's all you.

I doubt anyone can tell you anything too specific from that photo. It sounds like it must be a modern one? That would narrow it down a bit.

I think you are saying you started with the instrument controls turned off. This is confusing because that should mean there would be no sound at all from the amp. If there was sound from the amp and turning up the instrument controls made no difference then clearly your instrument wiring is fully shagged! Do clarify.

I raised the possibility of more loss in one ear than the other because that could affect your stereo resolution. Understanding can lead to less frustration and a happier KBD. Or not. So you take that as a personal attack. Whatever. I provided a bit of background for the benefit of the locals. I haven't been making fun of you. Perhaps you confuse my general jocularity with taking the pish out of yourself. I am not putting you down. I did draw the line at letting people think your sound qualities of pedal advice was worth a tin of beans. I make no apology for that. Electronic whizzbangery might help your home theatre sound resolution. Dead set. The hearing aid people are all over the TV advertising here with free consultations. Probably same everywhere in the Wealthy West? That hearing test you posted must be 3 years old by now. Have at it, you never know what they might be able to do for you. As to tracking down the crickets for eviction, a cardboard tube is quite a good direction finder. When it is pointed at the invader you get it loudest. Ime of NZ cicadas the little bastards shut up as soon as you get within striking distance. They used to hang in the shrubbery under my bedroom window when I was a kid making it impossible to get to sleep. I had to do about 5 stages of approach, wait stock still until he started singing again, approach, etc until I could locate. Hopefully easier in your house with tube. Suggest triangulation. Either that or pyrethrin.

Iirc a cricket call is specifically tailored to avoid directional location by predators.

https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/binaural-hearing/ I wonder if you could use a customizable processor to increase the delays to the satellites and make surround sound work better for you.

How about if you lower the master volume before playing with the bass knob?

If you had mentioned the hearing loss before posting videos and discussing the finer points of amp overdrive settings things would have gone differently. As I recall all the vids were crazy distorted while your hearing didn't go high enough to hear any of the angry wasps in can noises that dominated. Some of the feedback might have been a bit pointy but I was disappointed you pulled all the vids. They would have been a good place to point youngsters who are buying rigs but and joining bands but haven't bought earplugs yet. Subsequently you were opining on finer points of someone's distortion pedal choices so I piped up that you should be adding an advisory your hearing was shagged.

I suspect you must have rather more hearing loss in one ear than the other.

I didn't know he had got UK distribution going. Usually that would seal the deal. Having a look around they have gone global! The NZ chains have them and Paul has retired to his shed to solder and test by the looks of it. 289NZD retail here. 200 quid sounds like too many layers. That's ~400 NZD. Paul is an old man already already so you better hop to it before he retires to the big stage in the sky.

The MD actually encouraged me to let rip and right note be damned when I joined the band.

If you want Prunes and Custard sounds you want a Prunes & Custard pedal. It's not like they are expensive! Mr Crowther will happily mail you one.

Cab in corner is a massive boost to the low end. I did a small show with my 6'' practice amp in the corner!

I brought my own backline to a festival once not knowing what was to be provided. As it turned out there was no backline provided! Imagine my surprise when my mic'd 210 was completely drowned out by the 215 plus horn monitor on the other side of the drummer! At least it sounded the same, but LOUD! Drummer got that turned down but there was a bunch of other monitors all over and the 'soundcrew' spent the rest of the gig asking me to turn down as the stage bass was ruining the FOH. Tragic.

All good if the monitors are pro but so often they are anything but and the stage rig is your lifeline.

Yep. Hopefully 1 plus 1 equals 2 with regard to the cabs sounding good together. If you get a real bollox of a low end it will be a gross +- polarity difference. Unlikely, but easy fix. The rest is down to serendipity for the mids to match up nicely. When I was running oddball cabs they sounded good enough together. A couple of times I went above and beyond to fully crossover biamp them high low and there was a distinct improvement in fidelity. It wasn't a big enough improvement to justify all the extra gear cartage. The takeaway was phase reproduction differences between cabs is a real thing.

Yuk! Might just be needing a better tube in it at that rate.

All good.

Cranking stuff always loses me. No need to crank it though. If the good stuff comes on nice and gradual and moderating the plucking goes from just warmed to a bit growly then it's a keeper.

A soundman that refuses to audition the send from a Helix is not a soundman. If he insists on going bass to DI first then all is lost unless you want to 'kick up a fuss' by insisting on them having a listen.

Do you ''tune'' it a bit flat and bend like mad or put up with ET when it's a bit sharp?

Anything that isn't a highbrow jazz concert then?

This. I suspect a lack of heft with the MB is a case of VLE filter application fail. Get a HPF instead.