JTUK

I am surprised at the lack of mid punch description... Adding the 15 would add oomph, but not punch by my definition. I'd sell them both and get a Markbass 410

Friend of mine does 4x45 and 1x1hr in the U.S..................... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The reason why we stick to 2x1hrs is so we can do parties or a wedding... if we like the money. Pubs serve to get those gigs

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1357599057' post='1925309'] How do you achieve that? I've played on stages where I couldn't hear one guitar except through the monitors. [/quote] We have a good mix re the intruments, and we have people who know their parts and dovetail properly with good use of dynamics. I can't recall the last gig where I couldn't hear any one of the instruments. We always hear, that is the whole point. We are a 5 piece band with gtr, acoustic and keys plus bass and drums. Lead vox and 4 BV's. Hearing what people are doing is not a problem and we are not a quiet band...

I've skimmed this but any half decent vocalist is going to want as good as monitoring system as the FOH.... and I broadly agree as they will want to hear themselves as well as poss so as to produce the best signal to go outfront. You can't do much with a bad signal...so best start with the best you can provide. This, of course, applies to all signals. So, for me..I start with something like RCF 10A or 12A's.... These are very pokey and directional so will be able to cut the vox's head off..but at least there is not the danger of not being able to hear them. If the monitor is poor or underpowered, the vox sings harder and strains the voice... which is not good by the end of the set..and it is certainly not good for the vocal chords over a period of time. You could go In-ears but that depends on how many mixes you have.... Most desks will give you at least two mixes... but you have to decide how to divide the sounds you want to hear. We send main vox to his monitoring and give him full control of that mix... the other mix is BV's and slight bleeds, but mostly our backline is good enough to take care of that anyway...so instruments stays out on the monitors on our standard P.A. Our backline is designed to be heard all over the stage

Sorry to read this, All the best.

2x1hr max... and we vary to set a little to accomodate different pay rates. You can charge what you like as long as someone is buying often enough.

I wouldn't want to tell them that but I regard drummers as the second most important component of a band

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1357481411' post='1923148'] Brilliant - I'm going to try that line on someone and see what reaction I get Just sold a massive, and ancient, Marshal cab for £80. Would have loved to stick a £500 price tag on it because it had more wood in the construction! [/quote] King Salesman... keep going with those Foderas

[quote name='stoker' timestamp='1357411525' post='1922369'] So it's all about networking then? [/quote] yep... and being able to take the chance if offered

Lots of things shape a sound and style. For a start. a lot of bass players have too much bass to get a tone and the character is missing right from the off. And once you are in that place tonally, you never might see or hear the need to refine your techinique to speak or articulate any differenty. Depends if you ask yourself what is missing... Some people do and some people don't..or even want to. If you spend your life listening to one genre and type of players, you probably wont get much exposure or influence from elsewhere.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Martin-Ict-300-Passive-Pa-Speakers-with-amp-flightcase-/120917255601?nma=true&si=fZpkQaoOkbkVsj8EbHkM8du8AKc%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Martin-Ict-300-Passive-Pa-Speakers-with-amp-flightcase-/120917255601?nma=true&si=fZpkQaoOkbkVsj8EbHkM8du8AKc%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557[/url] Ok, they've sold, but this sort of thing would be a STEAL Pickep up some 500's with controller ...which is always desirable for the BEST results. for under your budget and we have spent £2k replacing them ...and come up short IMO.

Assume that budget is for active..?? That is a tough ask, IMO. If you are serious about the Mackies, get a demo to see whether they have clarity with your mixer. My problem with a lot of companies making the cheaper end is where have they cut to the bone. Ask about replacement horn parts... and what is the warranty like.

You will have to hear them, but I'd steer clear for a lot of reasons... Clairty over volume is required IMO..as you can always add more volume. We used a bass bin and outed it as quickly as we could... They don't have the name they used to. If you want decent P.A vox, the minimum standard ..IMO should be RCF.

Get your name about as a good player..and better than most, and then you'll get tracked down and asked. You need to be in the swim of the players who are already in and do the same sort of dates and a few of those dates will be sessions if they rate you. Leaving your name with a studio will achieve nothing on its own... it will get filled along with all the others. If your work is not known, they will get a guy whose work they do. You need to be recommended

They may well do, but they are in bigger environments... the stage is easily bigger than most pubs and is not so enclosed. A wall of cabs is great imagery..see those pics, but no one would be using them all. The side fills will do all that work..the amp will get the initial sound and be mapped thru the pedal board..and then the signal go to the desks and that is the sound we all hear. There are amps and rigs and then there are stage rigs. Some amps are too much in small spaces... IMO.. of course, you can turn some down but you don't need to lug 412's around for the pub

2x210 @8ohms is a good way to go but expensive. Modular and loses nothing unless the cab dims are different. I use prs all the time but then I almost always carry them as prs..I don't leave one cab behind. The gain is the lighter carry ...

There are Marshalls and Marshalls...IMO One of the best players round here has a sweet 50w... which is still very loud, but he used to use 100's which is just plain silly if the sound can't dissipate Thankfully, most deps use way smaller and/or power-soaks The point about turning up a Marshall is true... I don't think the controls do anything but gain...!!!! Mostly all the gain is done by about a qtr of the way up.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1357197916' post='1918874'] I think the hardest part of getting that good stage sound is trying to convince the guitarist that he doesn't need to be cranked to 11. Once he realises he doesn't have to drown out the snare & crash, then getting everything else to sound good on stage is a much easier job. Ideally, all the SE should need to do is amplify the band's sound. If the band doesn't have a good stage sound then I think the term "polishing a jobby" would apply. [/quote] Yep, it all starts with individual sounds..and always will do, IME. We try and give the engr as good a signal as poss... and by that I mean we give him the same as we would do in smaller venue. and we have layered our sounds as well as we can do within the confirms of the sounds we want to use. This does take compromise on the lead instruments and that means the gtr has to keep his sounds from overlapping everyone else. We are lucky he initiated this...and it is his good form that helps us with a band sound. He will not play a wall of sound gtr unless the track needs it... and he will drop out of verses completely...for example. The helps the sound breathe and gives us a sense of dynamics. It also means we aren't 150% in people ears all the time as well. Anyway, the upshot of all this is that basically our sound checks pretty much come down to levels rather than EQ and this makes them easier and quicker. It translates up to Engr P.A as well. It falls down if you are constrantly chasing sounds and people get into fights about hearing themselves over everyone else. To me, a failed mix is when I can't hear the keys play subtle parts and I lose hearing any single instrument. If we are going to lose it...it will be right at the end of the show... but we try and maintain the level from start to finish...which takes constant discipline and talking to keep it in check. I like to think we have a decent reputation for live sound either via backline or FOH but it takes all the guys to buy into it...and stick with it. The last part is not so easy ... and we can get LOUD.... but I HATE it if/when we lose the mix.

Depends on stage size, IMO. Sealed 810 aren't typically boomy so a good choice from that POV. I am sure 810's look the part...as would a row of them, but maybe they only run 1. If you are going to have your own foldback and wedges etc..you might as well have your own stack/rig as you sort out your sound with familiar kit. The monitor man will soon tell you if your running into his mix. I posted another thread about a 3k backline... and can't see anyone actually running that no matter what is on stage. For the venues we do, I always ask what mix I can have prior to the gig and if I can have my own mix, I am still sceptical even if they say 4 , 8 mixes. so I take a small 2x210 rig capable of filling the stage, that way monitors become less of an issue for me and as long as I get everyone else in the mix, I am happy. Depends on the lenght of the soundcheck and how long you get. If I could find a nice 610, I'd use that...but I don't do enough gigs to warrant that I wouldn't approach gigs with just enough theoretical power... I will want more in hand. Funnily enough, I find bass players on the same gig seem to struggle with their combos and small rigs as they have to wind them up so much... it is such a compromise sound. Of course, the FOH handles it outfront but they have such a painful stage sound as far as I can hear... If the monitors can take the load that is ok...but the thing that is giving them the problem with their combo is going to be the thing that will upset the monitors. Basically, some people need too much bass in their sound or they can't play... All a recipe for disaster in a variable room, IMO. I don't think I would want to do 2-300 people with just vox, tbh.... gtr and keys goes thru the P.A for pubs as a minimum. If I did more of these large stage gigs, I would have the stage size and rig type ratio more off pat... Off the top of my head, an 810 would be required to 'fill' a 100m sq stage with full monitoring. If the monitoring was top notch and you had a stage mon mix, maybe you could rethink the fridge idea. ..but by this time the fridge idea has run away with you In an ideal world, you would 'rehearse' your kit or you rely on the hire co to bring you their backline... which brings us back round to the 810 as that is what they use and know well.

er...no, not in a million. But a friend of mine always takes his on the plane as it is a very easy carry in a gig bag and is ultra stable. That and a Sansamp and he is gigging... Still wouldn't make me get one tho.

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1357147737' post='1918194'] And this is the answer to those 'why do you guys need 3kW+ rigs?' questions that we get every week. That, and some people chase the fundamental. [/quote] Who uses 3k rigs..?

Looks a nice deal on the face of it.. If I were close, I'd check it out.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1357139687' post='1917972'] I think the most versatile bass I've used is the G&L L2000. And it doesn't really have any downright useless sounds in there either, so it manages to be versatile and easy to use at the same time, quite a nifty feat. I wish they weren't so plain looking though. [/quote] With you on that.... fugly, and how they manage to do that from such a clasic startpoint, I'll never know. Not a fan of humbuckers on basses.... but as long as you can switch them out.

I am a fan of the BIg valve type amps like Ampeg and Mesa...even though I don't especially like their other kit but the amps work, IMO. But, I can not or do not wish to justify the hassle of owing, sevicing and carrying an SVT or 400, IMO I also think the the DB750 is a very worthwhile alternative that loses nothing in the sound compared to the SVT's and Mesa'... It still has the very hefty output stage ..and consequently weight which I put at around 60lbs cased up. and even if I had 'crew' I'd still pick the DB750. Just about the best amp, I've come across, and I've been delighted to use SVT and Mesa previously. The one common thing..apart from weight.. is that you just plug in and go...and if they work on that basis, then great. If they don't, you'll soon use something else. They aren't amps that go in for a lot of EQ/tone shaping but if your bass is good, so will your sound be, IMO. For chasing sounds, the best set-up I've found has been a 4 band semi parametric stage on a hybrid type. Eden, SWR and TF tend to use this route and it is good for notching EQ in poor rooms, IMO. I tend not to be so hung up on valve pre stages these days as well and I can do without the grind factor.

If you had a groove gig and just wanted to sit in there all night, then look no further than a P-bass. Possibly, you'd beef it up a little by adding a J pickup at the bridge and that would do most gigs. It would certainly cover things that a Jazz couldn't as nothing sits like a P-Bass... I think their forte is live stage work with a proper mix. As soon as you need the solo element, the J comes to the fore and the P-Bass loses ground. MM has such a distinct sound it can't be universal and classic...altho it does have its own version of classic. Everything else is a variation with a twist...IMO. Smith, Alembic etc etc.. They can all do a handful of gigs but it pretty much comes back to Fender or people's upgrades on Fenders. And then you'll get some people telling you want you are going to HAVE to play to get the gig. Recently had someone do that... basically came from the P-bass and Valve camp to the exclusion of all else. Never got to hear him play bass tho....the gtr work was funny tho... I put it down to the drink on the day.