Jack

Just as with everything from craft beer to god, some people are happy to let you be and some people want to convert you. As much I usually dislike people making their posts too personal and therefore not applicable to others, I think in this particular thread it's important. If you don't want to see me blather on about myself for two paragraphs then feel free to move on. Personally, I'm on my third modelling solution and second set of FRFR cabs. Just like with proper amps it takes a while to see what works. For me, my bands have good pa support so I don't need much stage volume. Secondly I sing backing vocals so I'd ideally have a monitor anyway. Then, I own a decent mixer rack so having a nice set of pa cabs allows me to have my own pa system. Lastly (that I can think of for the moment anyway) having pa cabs allows me to use my skinny guitar, electric drums and girlfriend's keys/synth collection equally well on stage if I ever needed to. Ok, I'm NEVER playing drums on a gig but I have played a few on guitar. The guy who occasionally deps for me in one of my bands (the previous bass player, he lasted one gig) plays bass and that's it. He shows up with a Sire Jazz, a clip on tuner and a sweet 1x12" Markbass combo. For him, having a bass rig is certainly a smaller and easier solution than using an FRFR type solution. On the other hand I'm a full time member and so I'm supposed to be making some kind of effort to get the sounds/effects right for the covers, hump my part of the PA (mixer rack), sing backing vocals and run sound during a show. I could bring a bass, effects board, amp and vocal monitor. And then all the cables! Oh the cables! But for me, in my particular band, helix>wedge is smaller and neater. That one wedge does bass and vocals for the stage, and seeing as I'm bringing a mixer and being the soundguy anyway I can make sure I sound good out front.

FWIW I just bought a paor on Sunday from Turnpike. £670 each and they come with the free tote bag. I agree that specs don't tell the whole story. Some speakers are just better than others at handling bass, something that the vast majority of them aren't designed to do. Some of the bigger speakers (RCF 745 springs to mind) are designed to actually handle low bass, most aren't. I think if you're the kind of person who uses loads of stage volume or who often has to carry the room from stage gear then you either need to specd big bucks on the FRFR or just cart a mini pa everywhere just for you. That's not really their use case though, most people using FRFR for bass (including me) have decent pa support and we're just using the FRFR for stage sound. And in that case you don't want a lot of lows.

On the contrary, I really appreciate the way that the balanced tension sets (at least the D'Addario ones that I use) go a long way remedying the 'floppy E string' that you get, especially when playing with a pick. For the first few years of my bass playing this bothered me, it wasn't until discovering the internet and bass forums I heard about what might the solution. It worked for me.

I have the 3 knob, 3 band version and love it. Really helps remove the yawning chasm in the mids you get with the 2-band whilst still sounding like a 2 band. I do believe that the 4 knob version is the same circuitry, just different controls, so it will voice your bass slightly differently as there's a little difference between the stock EBMM 2 band and 3 band, with the MMSR deigned to sound more like the 2 band.

Again, that very much depends. Plenty of people gigging with a single 1x10". Plenty of people gigging with no speakers, I do that all the time. Well, before, you know, the world ended. You've talked the instruments in your band which is certainly one factor but that leaves out so much other information. What's the PA situation? Genre? Volume? Size of venues? What amps are the other instruments using? Could mean 'Death metal in large clubs: 100W Peavey through two 4x12" cabs, 22-piece Ludwig, double kick drum' or it could mean 'low volume jazz in wine bars and hotel lobbies: acoustic guitar through a Schertler combo and a 5-piece kit played with brushes'. I'm afraid mine are all from scratch, but they're up on custom tone.

I've done both the Fractal and Helix racks into some bass-specific FRFR and found it overkill. I'm Stomp > QSC K12.2 these days and couldn't be happier. That DXR is an amazing little speaker by all accounts. Whilst I'm sure that, if any 10" speaker solution is up to the task it'll be that one, there are limits to what one small speaker can do for a bass guitar signal. If you're a reggae band, need huge walloping low end and rarely have PA then no, it'll not be enough. If you're in an indie rock band, playing with a pick, rounds and some grind to your sound and normally through the PA then it'll almost certainly be enough.

Indeed. When I read the op I was sure it said G10. Seeing what I expected to see probably. I've successfully used the G30, G50 and G55 with active basses.

The issue is that the bug uses a trs jack to check if it's in a guitar or charging cradle and some active preamps (not pickups) send a whine down the ring connection. This can be alleviated by using an extension lead.

My apologies, mine was an 'LT XL'

I had the Warwick Rockbass LT, bought it from Thomann when they were ~£30. Loved it, worked great, one of the few batteries that can play and charge at the same time (handy if it ever died on a gig, which mine didn't) but unfortunately the hateful, hurtful, stupid invention that is the micro usb connector came out of its socket along with the cable after about six months. Great at what it does, needs to be handled with kid gloves. #whyisn'teverythingusbc?

Hmmm, turns out I had the 4 and 5 switches set incorrectly in the global menu. Thanks for your help, carry on everyone.

Quick question for Stomp users: is it possible to get the Stomp to default to 'stomp mode' when you turn it on? I have forgotten to switch it several times and panicked mid-song when buttons weren't where I though they would be.

Hmmmm, that sounds a little quieter than us. Two bands, both are 2 guitars, me, drums. One is lighter indie rock using 2x RCF 312 and a 7005ii as PA, the other is harder biker rock with an Alto TS115A and TSSub18 per side. In both bands we use my Behringer XR18. In the past I've used a GK Fusion with either a BF Compact or 2x Midget stack, and then I made the move to a FR800 (or two....) neither rig ever had to work hard. We're fairly quiet for rock bands, I'm in charge of the PA and because of that I'm happy to high pass the wedge or whatever. I guess I'm looking for 'stage volume plus', we play some very large biker rallies and outdoor festivals where the PA is provided but I certainly need to be heard on a loudish stage with a full drummer. I often just play straight into the pa and don't need to bring any of my own amp, but 'often' isn't 'always'. Whilst I'm still very much in love with rock n roll itself I'm done with the trappings! If we play pubs we have our own pa (ranging from the acceptable Alto to the quite good RCF outlined above) and if it's more than about 100 people we tend to have a proper pa company. It's just that I don't want to spend quite a lot of money on a solution that may be small, portable and a great match for my pedalboard, but ultimately not loud enough. I might just either get a pair of the QSC, a bigger cabinet like the RCF 745 or even something like a QSC for most gigs and then a Peavey halfstack or whatever for outdoor gigs....

May I ask what kind of gigs those are please? Other instruments and volume wise? I'm trying to get a feeling of what I might need and a K12.2 is top of my list.

Fwiw I'm afraid I'm going to disagree with the right honourable Mr. Krow here. I tried a 712 for a gig once (when we had really good pa support) and I found it farty and distorted to the point where I was worried about damage at gig volume and I had to run it too quietly instead. I've also previously spent a lot of time with both of those speakers in a rehearsal room. I know everyone has wildly different volume requirements but it really didn't work for me. That's a gig that one of my old Barefaced FR800s regularly breezed through whilst practically idling. Now, a 732 or above on the other hand would be a different beastie. Here's me having words with my 712. I have to say, it's a brilliant PA top, but it leaves a bit to be desired as a bass amp.

Girlfriend uses the Etymotic ones when I'm practicing.

I took the easy way out and bought the Phil Jones Bass ones, they sound great for about £70.

Are they still going? SoundOnSound seems to suggest it's over £350, which does seem like a lot...

Gk Plex hits 2 and 3 nicely. I loved mine.

Then I thoroughly recommend either the Orchid Electronics or the Countryman 85. My 85 has been to pretty much every gig I've done for almost 20 years now.

Like the stuck record that I am, I was going to recommend these but it seems I've been beaten to it. Oh well then, consider this a plus one. M81 has also been mentioned and is also great. Lastly I know hartke make a nice one but I've never used it so can't comment further.

Yeah the nano has a different case to every other PT board. As mentioned above you're supposed to run the two loops of strap around a gig bag.

How do you find them generally? I've long fetishised Adam Audio but they've never had a product in that price bracket before. I wondered if they were a bargain as a big player develops a great smaller speaker or if they were a cash in on the name and not actually very good..