JTUK

I think it is ok to have a say about a product if that product came straight out of the makers showroom. The fact that it may have been a demo bass should not really come into it, as far as I can see. It is a walking advert for the product, and at shows, I would expect it to get seen and heard by a LOT of people ..not least a lot of people with influence in the industry.. I just don't get how you can let anything like that pass off as a premium product with your name on it. I only know what I have read..and seen, on here, but that sounds like a massive hole in foot job to me..??? Demo bass... and discount price is one thing... but people need to know that and company records should record that. I understand how hard that would be one one man bands...!!!! but I also think it is very hard to get a premo reputation and how easy it is to loose it. Virul is just a few clicks away, these days...

Reading through this and other threads, I'd say there are too many niggles in a product that has been going what..?? a few years now and plenty of time to get this sort of stuff sorted..?? What are we talking about...?? corners not flush, feet falling off, strap handles etc etc ..?? IIRC. I don't mind cheap..and then I expect these things, but if you are paying a premium for percieved quallity and...bear in mind, there are no distributor costs/% in the mark-up..it all goes to the maker otherwise you might be talking 35% plus on top..??? , then it might be normal for a few raised eyebrows.as to where the money is spent..? Quality, premium and QC should..at least in my book, spread right through the company and product. Just as well, the buyers are willing put up with the niggles for their own reasons, but I don't know many who would for the price.

This is why I am against budget lines as such...certainly if you have painstakingly built a name of premium products. I can understand why the accountants do it... but then it is hardly the same company then...is it..? The only time this seems to happen is when the founder sells out to a corporate company..?? and it is a good thing..?? SWR=Fender..?? Fender=CBS MM=EB..????

[quote name='fumps' timestamp='1376471262' post='2174258'] +1 I'd either slows this down or run a mile [/quote] sounds like that to me as well. 2 rehearsals a week...???? what for..?? what do you achieve...? Where are the gigs that require this..?? Everyone needs a minimum commit, I agree, but this all sounds pretty excessive for no returns on the horizon..?? Pretty soon, you will need a band meet...to determine what level of commitment everyone CAN and is WILLINg to give. With your workload, I'd be looking to get this sorted asap...

I also don't agree about taking what the audience enjoys as any sort of reference, apart from being pleased about that. If I have a good, bad or great gig, then I'll know and my opinion will colour it more than anyone elses. I am not saying that you don't seek to please, but if you can do something 'well' it is also your duty to educate others or give them the benefit of your experience..that you have spent so long aquiring. A simple instance of that might be..that you mates are impressed with/like your band...so they ask you if there are any others that you can point them to.. They therefore trust your judgement in these matters. I find this quite a nice aside... when they come back and say thanks, they were great etc etc ..buy the CD's etc ..follow gigs...

If it were me who had built a stellar reputation on build QC, finish etc etc ... then even as a one man show, there must be standards that are kept to. Below that standard..for whatever reason, you cannot allow a sub standard bass..or anything else to carry your name as the proper article. It is hard to track what others may or may not do to the product, but we aren't talking about a bitza Fender here. All these types of basses, should have a audit log, or service type history thing.....lots of admin, I know, but it can protect a HARD won name. At the very least, if the unstrument was known to have flaws, he should have either written it off or stamped in some way as B stock, etc etc ... Easier said than done, but we are taking TOP name and product here hopefully. I was also concerned about wrongly applied/wonky blocks etc .. AUIU ..?? so that paints a less falttering picture. The thing with basses of this ilk...is that that just cannot be an acceptable factor.. I am talking generally here as I haven't gone looking for the pics of the bass concerned, just pointing out that min standards on a premium product have to be very high, still. IMO. Otherwise, what is the name worth..?? ........... Opps..just seen some pictures ... !!! As for one-ma show..??? does the finishes as well..??? That is a LOT of a skill set to master...!! I know one finisher who handles quite a few names and he is good... I can't even see what he is looking at, let alone rejecting..!!! But then he ain't cheap either, so you pay that money as the product warrants it.

If they don't ship in...why is it left to you? Gtr bleeds are difficult in that they need the gtr to be pretty careful with his sound... as you aren't going to have anyone tweaking the sound. Once you have sound checked ...levels STAY the same... or the mix is pointelss. If gtrs don't have this discipline then they are out of the P.A... IMO..as would anyone else be. Drums have the same issue..as drummers may hit louder as the gig moves on. This is more a problem if you don't have the mix attended throughout.. ie, a sepeerate mix engr on the gig.

Hired in gear tends to get a beating and altho iconic in a lot of ways, Ampeg is probably not the most suitable for the cause... IMO. The only amp you really want to see is the SVT but valve servicing makes it a top $ amp for hire and the rest of the hybrid range is not too spectacular anyway. Not any worse than standard fare but not your dream rig. The cabs get the real pounding though and I guess it depends on the budget that these events have depends what gear you use. Unless you know...or are prepared to wing it... you can always take your own. Which is what you should do if you are anyway picky about these things.

I think you know when it is a great part... but sometimes/often, it isn't your call. You just need to walk out of there knowing they will call you again and there should be enough indictaors that the session was good and that could happen by the time you leave. Being easy to work with and quick is not to be overlooked either

[quote name='Denzel' timestamp='1376332131' post='2172328'] ........................ Regarding the 810 is there really that much difference between 2x410 and 810 in terms of performance? 810 is such a big cab to lug! [/quote] Probably not..if internal dims are the same. I haven't looked into that aspect too deeply. I recall the DB410 is about 98lbs each which is a big lump so the 810....??? For me, it is all about how much I will pay for a cab I'll use a handful of times a year.. Will have to find one for sale and then I'll know ........ha ha

Thought the Jazz sound was great Steve, meant to say that on the day. Not sure where I was getting it all from as was prety close to the stage but a big rig on that stage works best anyway, IMO. The Status was good as well... just my ears go to a great sounding jazz always, these days I asked for bass in my mon but they were a bit shy about that... and I wasnt that concerned as the stage sound was good...once we got the gtr panned over. It caused a few probs without it... ho hum..!!! Hopefully they liked us all to repeat it next year ... Thanks for the 5:15 plug....we had 'fooled again' lined up at the end but didn't have the time. It is one of our best numbers.. I think.

You could advertise here for a NV cab... there are a few around, as they are big cabs. I don't think the bespoke chassis' are THAT special but I am gagging for a DB610...( they don't bl***** make one ) or maybe I'll bite the bullet and get the DB810...if some came about. Think I might ask Barrie if he knows of one F/S

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1376308653' post='2171889'] Why would anyone spend this sort of money on a bass and not look at it first? [/quote] Because some reputations take care of this.... There are one or two luthiers ..well, certainly one, that I trust to get the mechanics and build right, but would I buy blind for that sort of money...?? I think I might, but I would have to be happy that the luthier would not want all his hard work wasted with a sub-standard product. I am very wary of buying blind with the likes of Fender etc etc ... as I have seen some poor basses, ...IMO.. but when you spend £2k plus, you just don't expect those flaws to be anywhere near the equation. It is more about the fit of the bass but at least you can sell it on as the only thing wrong with the bass is that it doesn't suit, not a bad/poor product. I haven't followed the TB thread so I can't comment on the build, but I am shocked it has all come to these .. As said above... if the bass is poor and below the normal standards, then withdraw it and uphold the hard earned reputation....surely..???? What would it cost them in real terms..$3000...?????? Doesn't make sense on the face of it..

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1375009087' post='2155628'] nothing but bum notes from me!! good job it was a beer festival so nobody hardly cared one single jot but always nice to see quite a few peeps up and shaking their groove thang about FOH guys even commented on how good the overall sound was (one of them a bass player too) - FOH excellent desk and sound (ASTRA i think it was to give them a plug) [/quote] I know you had problems, Steve but out front the sound was good. I did think at one point we had under-specced the P.A... as they were going to bring down twice that rig..so 16kw, but only for the seperation. Your sound was much better than the night before so maybe you just had better sounds to work with... or you paid the crew in beer. I am getting good feedback about the festival so your struggles were worth it.

The DB cabs work very very well... as you'd expect I use 2xDB210 at 4 ohms but I would like to get a DB410 I could run underneath at 2 ohms for a large stage. I think the power and oomph from a 750 is close to running the 700w 2xDB210 pretty close to a limit but of course, most of the time you will not need that volume. It depends how careful you can be with your on stage monitoring. They say the GS cabs are great with the amp as well... but I prefer the DB cabs. If only Aguilar made a DB610....????? maybe the Berg NV610 is a good bet as well.

I have 2 sets of decent ( premium) cabs and have gigged both for a couple of years. I've had them in covers from the start and they are still as new. If either of these types of cabs had any sort of issues whatsover, I would not be impressed and any design faults would need to be recitied FOC by the maker. I don't think a handle going is the biggest thing in the world but if it does..and this isn't a one-off, then that is a design flaw in my book. I don't think handles are a good solution anyway and would normally avoid them but one set of cabs uses them with no issues at all... and these cabs go out in a car..never the best of loads, every week. I wouldn't dream of there being a problem and nor should there be. I can see Toasted's POV, and would expect any maker to get stick for this.

Depends how much you can spend and what you plan to do with it. Assuming it is required to be a good quality Vox P.A only and you can augment up later you may want to decide what size tops you can start with. I'd stay quality active10's are a good start and you may find they sit with Subs better at a later stage. If you aren't going to do that, then 12's would be the place to start. You can go with Yamaha and Mackie ..but I wouldn't stick with PV for very long. Personally, I would miss them altogether, but ...?? They may be cheap but they may have had a hard life and the horns get a real beating. This applies to a lot of P.A as well, and the horns are the weakest part, in terms of that is where the sound loses it, IMO. I would try B stock or nearly new RCF active 10 or 12's... as the benchmark and mimimum quality and then that leads you to QSC which is very good but almost twice as much in price. HK also ok. So, that is your cabs sorted... then you need to look out for 16 ch mixer, leads and mic etc etc.. All of that stuff can be pretty robust, but great care and money should go towards the cabs, IMO Spend well there and you should have cabs that will stay with you for a long time. I would say you would need a budget of £12-1500 for a 600w vox P.A and you may be able to get a few mini vox monitors as well. If you buy cheap and not so good quality, you will likely upgrade not too far down the line. Don't ask who chips in the most for this...i.e the singer..?? as that is a whole new can of worms

Shouldn't be a problem if you set the bass up for this when you soundcheck... You should be able to cut throw during quite powerful passages with the whole band playing. Compression might work but I've found it not always required. The thing is, you don't want to find this out right at the last minute during the song. If that part of the bass sound is important to you, you need to set the whole bass sound up for it...

I don't find it practical for smaller pubs.... it makes the drummer sick........plus it is as heavy as hell. I run a 550-B for those gigs, but despite all that, it is a must have amp, IMO. It just has sheer beans in the sound.. the bass does everything else, the amp just AMPS it.

That track is all about what not to play.. Gtrs like it as they get to be busy and the bass can't be...

Best thread for ages....

Time put in is very important but some people just have 'IT' and there is nothing some people can do to get to that level.

But your hand isn't resting ON something..it is hanging whilst trying to peform fast movement.

The 750 is brilliant right out of the box.... but not suited to chasing a sound. In this regard it is like the 400 and SVT...but better than both, IMO. If your basses sound good, the 750 will work but if you want a powerful EQ stage, then look elsewhere. The 750 is not complicated sound-wise but then it doesn't need to be, IMO