Jack

I don't know if it was actually the smallest but we played the Durham International Brass Festival a few years back. A proper, outdoor, festival-sized arena. The hotdog stands at the back must have been half a mile from the stage. And they got front row seats. Seriously, there must have been 30 people there in an area the size of a football stadium. Certainly felt like the smallest audience I've ever done. Largest may have been the Sage or maybe the 02. I'd guess about 1000 maybe. The best are always the stripper bars or the university parties. For the same reasons actually.

You would, alternatively a cable straight from your bass to the mixer would work as well. Mixers? My first thought was a Soundcraft Compact 4 but it seems they don't make them anymore. Soundcraft seemed to have replaced it with the Notepad series, but they also appear discontinued. Actually, [url="http://cpc.farnell.com/soundcraft/notepad-102/mixing-console-6-channel/dp/DP31374"]CPC have one for £40.[/url] Otherwise, always remember the golden rule of gear shopping: [b]Behringer = bad[/b]. Try looking at Mackie, Peavey, Soundcraft and maybe Alesis? In answer to your backing track question, pretty much any small-frame mixer will have a stereo channel or a main input. A stereo channel you play a backing track into and you can play about with it just like any other channel on the mixer wheras with a main insert you have to all the eq and volume from your source (mp3 player, pc, etc). Personal, biased advice to follow: That Soundcraft Notepad 102 looks to be a cracking mixer, and for £40 it's half the price of anywhere else. EDIT - As an example my Compact sits on a shelf in a cupboard next to my pc. The bass goes into an MXR M80 DI which is powered by the mixer itself. The pc has a line out into one of the stereo channels and there are headphones plugged into the headphone port. That way I plug a bass in, cue up a track on my pc and I'm playing in less than 10 seconds after deciding I want to. Is there an easier way to do it? The DI box is optional, plugging your bass straight into the mixer will work just as well for a headphone jam.

Well, I'd argue that mileage is specifically the distance a car has been, you don;t really say the mileage between two points is such and such. Hmmmmm, maybe I guess. Anyways, now we're splitting hairs and I started it, so I'm sorry. I know it's a nominal impedance across the range of frequencies, but we still talk about a 4 ohm cab as having an impedance of 4 ohms. The impedance of the load when two cabs connected is therefore 2 ohms. I suppose to me or you they could be interchangeable but there seem to be (and I don't mean to offend) a few people in here with less of a technical understanding, and I'd hate for them to pick up bad habits or not understand what a word means. There's nothing to connect the word impedance to anything in this discussion if you saw it written on the internet. Personally I've always used magic smoke too.

Hey Neil, A headphone amp has a socket to plug your bass in and a socket to plug headphones in, no speakers involved. Something like [url="http://www.pocketrockit.com/Page.php?id=0022"]this[/url]. (Not an endorsement, I have never used those amps). My dad (guitarist) loves his [url="http://www.korg.com/PX4D"]Pandora[/url], but I don't know of any similar products for bass. I guess the closest I can think of is I own a cheapo Zoom 506II that can be used with headphones, and you get the bonus of it being a multieffect unit to play about with too. Personally I'd still be tempted by either a mixer or a tiny practice amp with a headphone socket as well as the above suggestions. Basically, a gadget that does something else and can ALSO be used with headphones. I guess spending money on a dedicated headphone amp just sounds like a waste to me.

I have a preety similar rig, and there's certainly not a headphones socket. Can't use the DI either. Either try a separate headphone amp or a small mixer is always good.

Whilst we're being educational, the word is 'impedance', not 'ohmage' or anything else of the like. You don't say 'kilometreage', you say 'distance'. One is the measurement and one is the unit. (I guess for some reason we do say 'footage' when measuring distance or area but I digress.)

If you want really clean and clear (and be sure you really do) then look at some studio channel strips. I really, really love the Presonus Eureka for 'my' sound but unfortunately I find it too clean for rock bands. Have a look at somewhere like KMR or Thomann and see what takes your fancy.

The passive ones just have passive bass and treble controls.

They do rotate colours around. I remember the naturals being replaces with chrome red just before I got mine.

I've lost track of how many times my MXR M80 has saved me from situations like these. Most amps will have at least a workable power section and any speaker is better than none. Run the preamp into the effects return of the amp and have DI straight to the board so at least the audience get a good sound. Actually, the MXR and pedals like it are just generally useful to have. Last weekend we used it as 'flat' DI for the acoustic guitar in the opening act, then turned it on and used the unaffected out for the first band's rig, then the effected out for my rig, didn't have to unplug a cable once. Sooooooooooo many uses for a tone shaper, DI, output split, distortion pedal . . . . . . .

Klinghoffer is decent guitarist, but it has to be scary jumping into a band like the chilis AND replacing one of the greats of our time. Give him time to mature and settle in. Song is good but not great IMO, hope that it's not the best from the album as it's 'lead single' status would suggest.

I think if you're buying new a solid instrument can be had for £500. And by that I mean well put together, great sound and generally unhindered by any inherent faults.

I have owned and loved an SRX500, and I really, really like the K5s. In fact if you made me buy another 5er tomorrow it'd be a K5.