Downunderwonder

Fun fact. The Elf 2x8 drivers are long excursion and supposed to put out like regular 10 inchers. Other fun fact. At a less than proper rowdy gig a 210 is enough ime.

Beware bedroom tone. All too easy to have rubbish band tone. What sounds best with band can sound brash and in your face at home. I sometimes go from jazz rehearsal to rock band and then back next week. The jazz rehearsal space is heavenly bass resonant so I have to gut the bass to not be overbearing. Then of course it is very thin and I find a bit more mids required for a bit of bite to rock out. Back to jazz and it's wtf is that racket? retune time. Crazy thing is my rock tone isn't actually all that different to my jazz tone as it sits within the band continuum.

I was a barely competent cricketer growing up in NZ. When I started playing in the after work league in Nth London I was surprised. All I had to do to bowl out the opposition was keep it straight. Runs were easy to pick off. I was the top bowler and batsman. Beats me how the UK puts up a competitive international team. In the same kind of after work league in a provincial NZ city I was nothing special at all. Loose balls got smacked and good ones defended. Bowlers had to use some craft to get guys out.

I think you are the buyer and the particular buyer that pushes up the price of dealing with shops and makes it worthwhile giving the work of selling to shops is you.

If I was doing it I would probably be wanting a less heavy lift. Being that the combo is hardly worth anything in the UK it would be tempting to do surgery. Also a good excuse to buy one of those oscillating waggle saw gizmos. Circular saw would do as good of job. Whip the top case off. Slap a new bottom on the three sides for the amp. Paint the exposed top of the cab. Job done. It would match nicer than anything you could make to go on top of speaker with window feature.

The one I don't have to carry.

^ There ya go @Len_derby, I would be less generous with the strap slot in favour of a bit more rigidity and wrap all exposed edges for beer puddle proofness.

DIY a cardboard fantastic covered in black duct tape. It doubles as a cab stand so you can hear the wee fella.

Don't talk us semi pro <cough> smarter than the average village dweller amp toters down! We're all carrying thankfully lighter amps until we pack it in. On that note I packed out my Trace 1518 for a lark recently. Burger me, I hope it was the lingering after effect of a run in with the lurg but damn I don't remember it being that heavy to pick up. My newer wagon has quite a higher boot lid than the one I had when I last used it.

Yeah, maybe a little harsh. OP. Someone always is telling you where 1 is in your band however you are doing the tune and how ever badly the band or even that individual who was on point might mess it up a little or a lot. At that instant your 1 becomes THE one that everyone else either goes "praise that bass player" or "wtaf is going on here". Big shoes. Different tunes different scenarios it's the same rule for everyone. Don't play anything if you aren't sure it's going to mesh. An old pro told me he was once left playing solo in front of his 5 piece band because nobody knew what had just happened and where to kick back in at that moment in time. In the case of your Eagles tune it's going to be the drummer leading the intro and the presumed singer rhythm guitar doing the pickup into 1 that hopefully confirms the flow of the drums...and "Running" is on the 1 as someone already said. 1 failing on 8 as you describe is very odd. I am not sure if that's your band or some odd recording. Someone could be doing something hinky, which is impossible to predict from the other end of the internet, so I have to guess that the singer isn't picking up what the drummer is laying down as well as you are and so it becomes a three way conflict over where 1 falls, aka trainwreck intro, and the drummer catches up to the singer before you do. Or drummer is sloppy so guitar man wings it in to rescue the drummer, which is where you join on his 1. Or maybe it's all you. They key point is you need to know if it's someone else "improvising" and what to do about it in the moment.

Without going to check myself, be absolutely sure it's two amplifiers in one head. I have seen a lot of people think two speakons at the back = stereo. They might even have dual preamp channels that switch and blend but only one volume knob = mono amp.

If you're going to carry on in this industry you better learn where the 1 is because 99/100 everyone in the band and audience is expecting you to hit it. There's a clue there in how to know where it is 99/100. Take it Easy is not the 100th time btw.

My Dad had a couple of albums of a basically nobody jazz singer. My brother was busking in a mall and Dad recognized the singer coming by. The mention of his name sent him scurrying for the exit. Felt sorry for him not being able to go out in public.

@dove All figured out yet? Techspeak that couldn't be substituted easily can be explained if you are still confused.

For my money a length of HD PVC pipe with screw on cap fitted on one end would do the job for less than any sports case. Why does a case for a bass cost so much more than almost identical case for a ski set? You'd think there exists enough competition to drive sourcing them from the same maker at roughly the same retail price.

Valiant efforts with parametric filters could only succeed in amping it up to a level that wasn't really enough for the band to hear me let alone play to the room. I will have to give the f stoppers a whirl.

I didn't know what a vb99 was so I looked it up. That thing looks like it could land SpaceX while practicing modes. I didn't look up the spec but if it can't function as a preamp you bought a pup.

Generally you'd be right but you could find some little 8 ohm drivers in two little cabs and a big old 4 ohm 15 cab and you'd be wrong. It pays to be specific on generalization.

Jeebers. While I broadly agree with the rest, this is way off base. Pump up a genuine 4ohm 200w cab with a 500w amp and you're probably going to the whole 200w into it if you're trying. Even if it's a 400w cab. So the solution is not going to be more power. If we're talking in general, the solution to more volume is almost always a straight line to more cab, not more power. Two efficient 8ohm cabs will walk all over one inefficient 4 ohm cab every single time. It takes a DOUBLING of power, AND the ability to handle all that power, to make up for a 3dB sensitivity deficit. You can pick up an extra 3dB sensitivity from adding a second cab. You get something along the way to another 3dB if the same amp makes more power into 4 ohms instead of 8 ohm. Those are whole numbers.

Back up the bus. You said the amp is rated as 550w 4 ohm. That usually means you can only hook up one 4 ohm cab or one 8 ohm cab, or two 8 ohm cabs. With parallel cabs 4 ohms plus 4 ohms makes 2 ohms which is an illegal load unless the amp comes with a 2 ohm rating. Less impedance with the same voltage lets more power come out of the amp. Too little impedance makes too much power and the amp cooks itself with its own enthusiasm. On paper you should be toasting your 4 ohm 12" cab. I guess the amp is really not all that powerful. There really is no comparison between 2x5" cab and anything else that calls itself a bass cab. Impedance is the last thing you need to consider. To make significant gains in volume the easiest route would be get a more efficient 4 ohm cab/ pair of 8 ohm cabs/ loud 8 ohm cab. You might need a new amp but leave that for another day.

If the £100 Ashdown combo is working well it's a good prospect. By rights it should take an extension cab, you would have to check up on that, also that it has the original speaker which must be an 8 ohm. Some old combos only took extension cabs by plugging in another in series as opposed to the usual parallel. This let them away with using a 4 ohm driver to "get all the watts" but it was an own goal because the extension lowered the output power when the 2nd cab plugged in taking away a lot of the usual extension cab benefit.

£200 is well used territory but you could bring the thunder if you shop very well. There was a Trace combo that went for £150 I think in the end. Add extension cab later and stand well back. It can be done.

OP is extra cheap so probably looking at old iron which was made when watts were harder to come by, expensive but real, and now proper cheap mostly thanks to being 14kg or more.

An old Trace Elliot with 250w will keep up with any drummer outdoors given enough cab. Two or three in the classifieds at the moment. 500w is the Class D 'standard' only because so many puff up the ratings with burst power that won't put out more than a couple of milliseconds.

Speaking softly didn't work so you figuratively bashed her skull in with your big stick. Life is so fair sometimes.