Jack

Just preamps, man. The Behringer ones are about as small and cheap as you'll get. One of my all-time favorite 'amps' was a nice Presonus Studio Channel preamp into a QSC PLX1602 power amp, all in a 3-space rack. You could plug anything into it. Bass, guitar, keys, mp3 player, pedal boards, anything and it would just make it really, really, extremely loud. My pedal board, into that rack, into a Dr Bass 2460 was my frfr rig before I knew what an frfr rig was. It makes sense but it doesn't really matter how you split the signal. If you already have the DI you might as well use that, if not then use what you've got. Gear is great for gear's sake but if this is going to be a one-off then it's best to just use what you've got. Personally I'd be asking exactly what the combo is bringing to this situation. It's not like you'll hear it if it's next to the stack, so you're probably only really using the preamp and tone controls. Do you have any other way of getting those? Preamp pedal? A little mixer? Another amp with an effects loop?

I think Moskey are supposed to be one of the better cheaper brands. I don't know. To me it's like car tires, power supplies are worth doing properly even if they're not exciting. I learned this not from bass pedalboards but from building computers. In that hobby you can have one of these or one of these. And they're the same, right? I had (still have actually) a Thomann own brand one pedal power supply, but then as soon as I 'got in to' pedals properly I went straight for Strymon and now I've got a Cioks DC5. Baffles me that people will have a board with £1000+ worth of pedals on it and they can't spring the extra £75 that would get them a decent power supply instead of their ... current ... one. That's a power supply joke right there. I'm here all night, ladies and gentlemen. Try the fish and tip your waiter.

I walked in to Sound Control in Newcastle years ago and asked if they could order me an Epifani 6x10" cabinet. The man behind the counter told me that they don't make bass cabinets. I told him that's all they make. This went back and forth for some time before we deduced that he'd never heard of Epifani and was too polite to tell me that I was mispronouncing 'Epiphone'.

Yes but all of your other pedals are lower draw and you've got one of the raised pedaltrains. OP, as long as that's stable and it's all working it should be fine. CIOKS are among the best and I'm sure that if your DC7 starts to run too hot or with too higher load it will fail gracefully. Probably just politely turn itself off for a bit until it cools down. Just don't overload one of those £15 ebay special power supplies, yeah?

Hi! Generally speaking, it's considered good practice to start a separate thread. But hey, it's Christmas! How annoying that that combo doesn't have an effects loop, which is really what you need to do this. I think that your DI plan will technically work. But technically is the worst kind of work. I think that, as you have mentioned, you'll run into a problem whereby the DI will output a mic-level signal and the power amp will be expecting a line-level signal. Now, 1200W into 2 large cabs will undoubtedly be pretty loud regardless, but I don't think that you'll be able to drive the amp anywhere near hard enough to achieve full output. You might find you brought all that gear and it's not actually that loud. Some suggestions: Try it before hand, it might be fine. If not, can you DI into the PA as normal, then have the power amp being fed by an aux on the desk? This way you'd essentially be using the amp and cabs as a dedicated, bass-only monitor. If you HAVE to buy something new, several cheap preamps can lift mic level to line level. I've used a Behringer MIC100 (£35 new, less used) and a Rolls MP13 to do just this. Then you'd put the preamp between your DI and power amp.

Probably not as heavy as the head! Awesome rig.

When I had just started out I did, I put my Zoom 506ii in the loop of my 80w Crate combo. There's a loop. For effects. I should put my effects in there. Haven't used one for effects since though, I just don't see the point. As above though I do find them very useful for non-effects things, it's much more apt when they're labelled 'preamp out' and 'power amp in'.

We saw Frog Leap live in Scotland last year. Great show.

Obbm made me one. He still might if you ask really nicely.

I wonder if engaging phantom power is also adding more preamp gain? Not that it would be default, but you could certainly make an amp behave that way if you wanted. I've had a quick look at the manual and the phantom switch is right next to the mic/line switch. Is this the source of some confusion?

Ah, I think this is a big part of your issue. What sounds good solo does not always sound good in a mix, especially a dense rock mix. The opposite is also very much true.

Ooooh, where?

That's helpful. The other thing to think about is that most passive basses are slightly darker than most active basses just in general, so between that and rolling the tone back to half on the P it's probably just a sound that's too dark for you. Tone full, steel strings, play with a pick. It's punk rock man, Greg K didn't record that line with a subtly-finger-picked, fretless jazz bass with flatwounds did he?

How can we be on 3.0 already and still not have the Hartke 4x10"?

They do a few different sizes I think. Get in quick before politics gets in the way!

Not yet, but then I've only had them for a few gigs given that it's been lockdown all year. I am a little worried about the 5 or so biker rallies we play every year in big outdoor tents like the picture of the BF rig above, but in theory the (professionally provided) pa can handle those. I do maybe see a situation where I've got one wedge in front of me like normal and then another behind me being effectively a bass amp, but I haven't needed that yet. I'm very fortunate that both bands I play in have great PA systems (that I am the soundman of) and aren't overly loud. I mean, it's earplugs-required on both stages, but it's not like death metal loud. There's some weird forced perspective in that shot that make the speaker look huge but it's the same size as the stand. The stand itself is Thomann's rip off own brand version of the Auralex Gramma pad. My whole house is just raw floorboards and so having the wedge on an isolator really helps. In fact a christmas holiday project of mine is to redo the acoustic treatment in my office.

Don't think I ever posted my new rig in here actually. Same as the old rig in concept, just a lot smaller and easier to work with, which is very important given my incredible laziness. Out with the old full-fat Helix and Barefaced FR800s, in with the Stomp and (a pair of, if needed) QSC K12.2. I don't actually run the Stomp straight into the wedge normally (although it works fine for that), it usually goes to the XR18 we use as a desk so that I can add vocals, a hpf and any other eq the venue needs. So it's not a 'rig' so much as it's a picture of my pedalboard and stage monitor, but whatever.

Sorry if it wasn't obvious from the post (there was a smiley!) but I was being flippant, those cabs would be more than sufficient for any head I'm sure.

You know, some people complain that those WA heads are quiet. I don't suppose you've found that problem?

Those are not ports, those are holes. 😊

In sure with access to either photos or the original pedal James at Brightonion would be able to make a matching one. Every time I've spoken to him about custom work he's always game.

Look at it from the sides. Its the bottom box, the top box and the wedge triangle bit.

I LOVE Studiospares, I created the preamp thread and I have loads of their gear but it is definitely budget gear. How good are the speakers? Do you have any of the usual bc suspects to compare it to?

For rock music you'll want an SVT, although Ashdown will also work.