Ian Savage

That'd be fair! Shame he's asking £250 more than that

Well, I appreciate THAT the SUBs will probably appreciate in value nicely over the next ten or twenty years, but asking an extra couple of hundred quid at least on top of what a bass was going for new less than ten years ago is taking the piss a smidge...

He'll get nowhere near that. Even good-condition ones go for substantially less than £500 in the current market - IMO they ARE actually worth that, they're great basses, but some of us remember them being sold new for around £400 when they were discontinued...

For rehearsal use only, my preference would just be to get a little mixer and a decent secondhand power amp (as I've said before in threads like this, in the rush to lightweight digital stuff the big ol' heavy-but-full-of-power amplifiers are going for a song) or a mixer-amp and run it into a couple of monitor wedges. I'm amazed at how many rehearsal rooms DON'T take this approach, as it's far closer to what bands are likely to experience onstage at a show and saves the faff of speaker stands, reduces the potential for feedback (if the wedges are well-placed) as well as giving you the option to 'tweak' the mix a bit more to give each member closer to what they need. If you're a fairly quiet band, a few hundred Watts should be enough; something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crown-XLS-202-Professional-PA-Amplifier-200W-/171087337439?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item27d59997df , this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1U-power-amplifier-/130959030385?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item1e7dc43871 or this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/crest-Audio-FA901-/271247995027?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item3f27a3f093 would do the job nicely, then a cheap-and-cheerful little Behringer mixer or something. Otherwise (less expandable, but easier) you could go for a mixer/amp from the likes of Studiomaster, Peavey et al (this'd do: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peavey-XR-600C-Powered-Mixer-/290951751254?pt=UK_Mixers&hash=item43be136656) and run it into a couple of wedges along these lines: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Studiomaster-Px-12-wedge-monitor-/221260738750?pt=UK_ConElec_SpeakersPASystems_RL&hash=item33842af0be - I had some little 8" Peavey wedges that clipped together a a pair which would have been perfect for what you want, can't remember the model number for sh*te now! I might come back to this thread tomorrow when i'm less full of wine...

[quote name='funkgod' timestamp='1375277132' post='2159132'] That leopard skin stool is real man cave stuff, [/quote] Matches the sofa

From one of these: to this: (via a WHOLE bunch of other stuff) in about twelve years. Not bad going.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1375258129' post='2158825'] and then when the producer finally declares 'it's a wrap' , you pull out the secret bacon sandwich [/quote] No it isn't, it's a sandwich

You MIGHT grab a used Musicman SUB for that kinda money, can't be beat for what he wants.

HA, their page views seem to have doubled in the past hour

...found whilst browsing musicians' classifieds for Birmingham...I mean, SERIOUSLY? :

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1374682665' post='2151824'] [url="http://s283.photobucket.com/user/bilbo230763/media/DSCF1032_zps2d044de4.jpg.html"][/url] [/quote] Ah-ha, someone else who realised that those old Ikea 'bedside tables' were the perfect width for rack gear

Well, they joy of doing it the way I've outlined above is that you can insert an active crossover between the desk and the amps. If you set a frequency (say, 80-100Hz or thereabouts) below which the signal goes to the sub and above which it goes to the tops, you keep the bass and kick out of your tops and the vocals etc out of your subs. Works a lot better and more efficiently than just relying on the passive crossovers which most subs have built-in.

[quote name='njr911' timestamp='1374672297' post='2151612'] Damn! Ordered a pair of Behringer b grade 15's yesterday but they are sold out. I'm thinking passive as it will work with our current head untill we can get the money for a powered mixer. So should I go 8ohm speakers so i can add a sub later ? Can you use powered monitors on a powered mixer ? [/quote] Right, my 2p-worth - as everyone's switching to lightweight power amps these days, there's some proper bargains to be had if you don't mind lugging a bit of weight. I'd be going for a 600W+ US-made Peavey or UK-made Studiomaster amp, personally - with 8-ohm 'tops' (12"ers will be fine if it's just for vocals) you'd be pulling at least 200W into each speaker, which should be a massive improvement on what you have at the moment. HOWEVER, if you're seriously looking at adding a sub at a later date, my personal preference would be a more powerful amp (say, 800W minimum), so that when you get your sub if you make it a four-ohm job (a single well-placed sub is often more effective than a spaced pair, for reasons I shan't go into here) you can run your tops from one side of the amp and the sub from the other, with an active crossover unit between amp and desk. This will ensure that you can pull full power from a single amp, and still have 'proper' separation of the frequencies between sub and tops. Another benefit of this is that you can just run a cheap-and-cheerful little mixer (Behringer would fit the bill nicely here) with enough mic inputs for your vocals, then as and when you add a sub and start micing more stuff up you can upgrade your desk as required (and have the option of putting a tidy little rack together, with desk, crossover and amp all in one place). For passive speakers, Peavey again are worth looking at (EuroSys/HiSys go pretty cheap these days), as are EV (pricier, but worth it), JBL (if you're VERY careful not to drive them too hard or let them feed back too much, they tend to have fragile horns) and Studiomaster again - avoid Skytec / Phonic and their ilk, usually under-specced tat. I reckon with some judicious eBaying you'd get a very useable and (equally importantly) upgradable mixer/amp/speakers setup for less than £300, leaving you some spare wedge (pardon the pun) for monitors. To answer your last question, yes, you can use powered/active monitors with a powered head, as long as the head has some kind of aux send or at the very least a 'slave out'. With a 'proper' mixing desk you're almost guaranteed to have a proper pre-fader aux send as well though, means you can get a different on-stage mix to what the punters hear should you desire - another advantage of the 'separates' approach. Phew, I ramble - I'll be back in a bit if you need anything explaining further

Cheap alternative to a Gramma pad is a sheet of ply resting on half-a-dozen chopped-in-half tennis balls. I used to use that as a drum riser/vibration reducer for my electronic drum kit, surprisingly effective.

My little den: Mackie Satellite into a Mac Mini, nice and simple; main thing's the monitors though, HHB Circle 5s which I would actually cry if anything happened to. LOVE these speakers.

[quote name='barryman' timestamp='1374333976' post='2147731'] Just looking to buy a PA amp with which we need to be able to use a monitor speaker. Some amps seem to have just two speaker outputs, while some have slave or line out. Cam anyone explain to a non-techie like me what we need to have in order to get a monitor speaker as well as the normal speakers?[/quote] Three options - if your 'normal' (which I take to mean front-of-house') speakers are eight ohms each, daisy-chaining those together will give you four ohms, which you can then run from one side of the power amp, and run your monitors from the other side. [quote] Am I right in thinking that a "line out" can be passed through another amp to power a monitor speaker?[/quote] OR, if you have two amplifiers, do this. The third and best option, if you have two amplifiers and a mixing desk with a spare auxilliary send, is to run your monitors from that - this way you can have a different mix onstage to what the punters hear out-front if you want to, can make the musicians' job easier. [quote] Also, if an amp has a "slave output", is that the same thing as a line out???[/quote] Yes. [quote] Lastly, what is a DI output for?? [/quote] On a bass amp, it's for feeding your signal directly into the PA system.

I accidentally typed 'Bon Marley' into a FB status the other day, now I want to start a tribute doing hair metal songs reggae-style.

My bass gear's nothing especially esoteric, so I reckon if I show I'd be better dragging a six-string and amp along for jamming purposes.