Muzz

Yup: I had a brief dalliance with NYXLs, (didn't hate them, but didn't love them, either, in the longer term) and back to Elixirs. Tho, as you say, a tenner's a tenner, especially when you've more than one bass to restring...

Well, I'm a committed Elixir fanboi, but I've just ordered a set of LongEvo Steels, so I'll be interested to see how they sound and feel in the short term...though longevity might be harder to determine in these no-gigging days... 😕

This...but with more than 3. Nevertheless, my basses and amps have always been funded from gigging earnings, and there won't be much of that coming in for a long time, so my GAS has been, for the medium term, suppressed. 😕

Those bridges are hard to adjust properly, there's no individual string height movement, and the saddles (and adjusting screws) fall out the minute the string tension is released. A terrible piece of engineering. The Hipshot Supertone and Babicz versions bolt straight into the mounting holes and are night and day better. The original Thunderbird bridges still had no individual string height adjustment, but at least, being an upscale of the Les Paul-type bridge, they were a two-piece where the saddles didn't fall out... For my money, (tho I've never had a Babicz bridge, they look well-engineered*), the best is the Schaller 3D. They suit me because I rest the side of my right hand on the bridge a lot and they're very sleek, but they also have string spacing adjustment... * I keep thinking I might try one on my Fenderbird and move the Supertone on...

To be honest, I'm not surprised the neck dives with the bridge so far forward; it's like the old Warmoth T-bird bodies...it's the price for upper fret access... My Fenderbird doesn't dive, but then it's had a fair bit done to it...

I'm always surprised that people still copy that godawful bridge...OK, a Gotoh-type might not be exactly vintage-looking, but there's enough changes to that bass overall to allow for it...

Dingwalls do feel like an evolution, with the fan frets, the composite neck profile, the banjo frets, the lightness, and mine is the most resonant, alive bass I've ever picked up. I put a P-Tone pickup in it for the option of a less modern sound, and I also put a John East EQ in there, as I do with all my basses, because I love the way they sound. I've had a lot of Fenders, but don't have one any more - between the Dingwall and my Shukers I have everything covered...I've got a Shuker Precision (a JJB Signature) on the way, which, while looking very like a P, is very different.

I was using a 4 ohm load, but this could be an example of the amp voicing and the cab(s) not gelling...

I'd say the amp is only half the story in a rig providing what we're looking for (and that can be many different things), some amps work better with some cabs, and vice versa. I've had a lot of amps and cabs (probably 20 amps, and maybe a dozen cabs), and settled on what I like. I loved the Magellan through three Berg 112s, but they totalled 96lbs, which wasn't practical for me, and I've ended up with very efficient, light cabs (BF, and I've had a few of those, too), and I've also ended up with a Walkabout, because I like the sound it makes. As far as volume is concerned, again, the cabs are a huge part of that; the Walkabout's nominally 300w (possibly 400 into 2.67 ohms), and through one or two BF cabs it's deafeningly loud - I used it in an ear-bleedingly loud (yes, I have ACS earplugs) rock band (2 x 100w Marshall 412 guitarists) into one 4 ohm BF cab (a Super Twin), and it never broke a sweat. When we played bigger clubs, I took two cabs along, but it was just overkill, because the PA did all the heavy lifting anyway. It looked good, though... FWIW, I've had Class ABs that I thought didn't thud properly at high volumes, and Class Ds, too (oddly, the Tonehammer 500 I thought was really anaemic, though it's a very popular amp), but then again I've used in-ears which didn't half thud, and they're tiiiiny... 😁 And of course the steel-spined valve amp chaps are rolling their eyes at this hair-splitting between AB and D, because of course nothing beats tubes... 😉

Did I have a good long look at that, thinking about converting it to a four string? Mayyybeeeeee... 😕😁

You only have to listen to the isolated bass tracks of famous songs to hear how different the bass is isolated to how it sounds in a mix. I'd pay more attention to my solo'd bass sound if I ever played bass solo through my rig, but I don't, and won't. For me, bass isn't an isolated instrument, it needs to sit within a band sound, and in a live mix, the cab is part of that sound. I've had to train my ears to get to a bass tone that I know will sound well with a particular band, and it's not an intuitive thing at all. Those small diagonal-baffled Schroeder cabs were a case in point; for all their technical weaknesses, they sounded really good in a band mix, but really quite barky and boxy on their own.

I've had a lot of the cabs discussed above (including MB 12s and 10s and 15s, Ashdown, Bergs and a few different BF), and it's worth mentioning that the 12" BF cabs are IMO less coloured than a lot of other cabs, so a touch of EQ-ing may be needed: if you've got the sound you like through an Ampeg 410, the same amp settings might well sound verrrry different through a 12"-based BF cab - and others, too. I've run a few heads through my Super Twin, and they sound like, well, different heads. I settled on my Walkabout, because I like the sound of the amp, and the cab produces that. Oh, and on the wattage, the sensitivity of the Super Twin means my 300w Walkabout is more than loud enough for even the loudest of the bands I play in - you might extend the useable life of the TC head, because it should go loud through a 4 ohm ST... Oh, and it's 40lbs, and it's got wheels, too...but then I'm a glass-backed old crock who has to hump his own gear around...YMMV, and all that... 😁

Mesa, you say? Walkabout/Super Twin = plennnnnnty loud, and sounds fantastic 👍

My hat into the ring: Previously BB300 Red Metallic BB450 Black BB3000A VW (should never have sold it) BB1024X Sunburst Current BB414 VW Future? BB3000A in VW, or BB2024 in VW

That's a point - I forgot to mention in my earlier post - that replacement pickup I had put into one of my Shukers and the subsequent preamp tweaking; I hadn't bought the bass from Jon, I got it secondhand (on here, IIRC)...

There might be people out there who don't mind spending £2k+ and not being completely happy, but £2k is an awful lot of money to me, and I'd simply feel mugged if it wasn't completely right. Especially when the vendor spoke to me like that...

I've had a few BF cabs, and I've never felt the Super Twin (which is where I ended up) wasn't loud enough with a 300w Walkabout. True, the Walkabout gets gnarly and a bit squishy when breathing hard, but I like that. I found the MB amps got less pleasantly strained when pushed hard. It isn't the cab. Plus, if I need drummer-crushing, guitard-intimidating stacktasticness, I just pop it onto the Compact I have, and it goes louder than I'll ever need...and that's up against two 412&Marshall guitards and a right old shedbuilder behind the kit. And that's with 300w...well, a chunk more into 2.67 ohms, but less than 500. Sensitivity is the thing... As Chris says, 2 x SCs is the sensible thing to do...unless you're a numpty like me with the self-restraint of a magpie in a Swarovski shop; I'd take both with me all the time, 'just in case'. I had 3 Berg AE112s at one point for the Ultimate Modular Setup...did I take all three to most gigs? Yup... 😕

Audience less than 30 people? No singing along? That's about a third of our regular venues back to normal , then... 😕😁

I had an issue with a replacement pickup I had fitted to a Shuker (by Jon), it turned out that the pickup was verrrrrry bright paired with the active circuit in the bass. When I couldn't live with it, I took it back to Jon, he changed a couple of caps for me in the circuit, job done. The issue was clearly because I'd asked for a different pickup to be fitted, and I'm sure there are people in this thread who might have rolled their eyes and said 'Durrrrr', but Jon just sorted it, no charge. That's customer service: the extra mile. I have four Shukers now, and those two facts aren't unrelated. I ordered a different pickup for my Dingwall (a P-Tone), as it turned out they sent me the wrong one by accident. Sheldon's (immediate) response? 'Really sorry, we've shipped you the correct one, you can keep the other one.' And those pots? They haven't been specced correctly. End of. The excuse of 'Oh, that's just what they do' doesn't wash. I played a Maruszczyk once, it was a nice PJ copy. I wouldn't buy one new, though; too many unhappy customers for the price bracket. Oh, and if anyone who'd sold me something new for £2k+ said 'You find something good or is it only stinky poo?', they'd be getting it back by return post.

I'd been playing Rush's 'Limelight' on and off in bands for a decade, completely oblivious to its time signatures before some biff buttonholed me at a gig to waffle on about the mastery of the interplay between 4/4, 7/4 and 6/4, and how tricky it must be to switch between them. I said 'I dunno, it's just a good song.'

I had a Midget (not the Super Midget, mind) and I found it very (too) barky. Might have just been me, tho... We do/did Uptown Funk, and I thought the ST was plenty for it...

I like the form factor of the Super Twin more for louder stages - the BB2 was very capable (I played an RAF gig with it once, in a hangar with a 900w amp and no PA support, and it more than coped), but on smaller (still loud) stages I felt most of the sound was flying past my knees. For the record, I should say I'm not a fan of tweeters in general - for my needs, the 4k top end of the ST has more than enough zing - and I like an aggressive, pick tone a lot of the time. I'm no slapper, mind... 😁

Just to add to the anecdotal tales of more than one of these cabs, I've never owned any of the Tens, but I moved my BB2 on for a Super Twin, and I'm glad I did...the only, only thing I'd change it for is a pair of SCs, just for the options for smaller load-ins for smaller gigs...

Oh, and an update on the 4th July brouhaha...my other half has found out she is in fact on shift that evening. It's not going to be pretty...

The root of the problem is this 'should' wording in the Government publications; they're trying to have their cake and eat it - it would be very, very simple to replace the 'should's with 'it will be illegal to', but they just don't want to do it (for whatever reason, but that's far too political for here) and their lack of commitment means that an awful lot of people will take the 'should' as an option. Especially when senior Government advisors have been seen to flout the strongest Government rules without censure of any sort. As I mentioned before, the bit about no loud background music is complete nonsense...