Bleat

Some further good suggestions and info, thanks! It's certainly giving me plenty to think about and consider.

My previous cabs were 18kg and just manageable for me. I didn't think the extra 3kg in the current ones would be too bad but actually feels like quite a difference. The thought of me, now into my 50's potentially lugging this lot up and downstairs on a weekly basis to then do a 50 mile round trip to a rehearsal space after doing a week of physical work (I'm self employed so I can't afford to do my back in) then to be lugging around to gigs which the band has been doing a lot of has really started to lose its appeal, hence partly the decision to go acoustic and downsized in the amp department.

What I really need is to not live one floor up with an awkward flight of stairs to navigate with a heavy cab to get to a trolley to put it on!

A fair few answers there, much appreciated. I will check out the suggestions mentioned. As always it's a question of available funds. If I could afford it I would just buy one of everything ! 😆 My current amp will do about 300 watts into one of the 2x10 cabs, 600 into both cabs, however each one weighs 21kg which is the downside to it. My fitnmess is currently ok but I'm not getting any younger, and am built like Mr Bean, so really just trying to make things a bit lighter, more compact and manageable for me to lug around when it comes to it. Both my electric and the acoustic do sound great through the current rig though and have found the room eq/ hi/low pass/notch section on the amp to be a genuinely useful feature. I am intending on this being a 3 piece, 4 at most, no full drum kit, more percussion/cajon so nothing too intense. Gig wise small-medium pub size venues will be the aim initially.

Hi all, After a receiving a recent offer to join a full on rock covers band, sadly all the mileage involved in just getting to and from rehearsals never mind to all the gigs after that is just not feasable for me, neither energy wise nor fuel cost wise, however this has helped me to re-focus on what I would like to do as a bass player. I have always wanted to try a more acoustic approach in a small rock/pop covers band, so am currently looking to get something together more locally, with potential for live gigs. I am looking at acoustic guitar, vocals, percussion, and me on electro acoustic bass to give an idea. The rig I have is perfect for loud rock bands, but just way too much in power and weight for this sort of thing so have been looking around at getting a smaller, more suitable setup. As I have little to no experience in this side of live music, I'm really not sure what would be ideal size/ power wise for small/medium maybe some outside gigs potentially. Obviously I will be able to use less power and to give an idea I have been considering A TC BQ250 plus a couple of 2x8 cabs as the price is in the ball park of what I'm working with financially, the compact size and light weight looks good, however I'm not sure if it will really cover all potential future needs? There can be only one amp setup and really needs top be the right one. Any suggestions from those experienced or currently playing in acoustic bands for me to consider would be greatly appreciated! Cheers, James.

...And to think I was annoyed to find that my favourite "extra-super-ultra-uber-lightweight-barely visible to the human eye" 30-85 Rotosounds have now gone up to 26 quid on Amazon.

I use an old copy of Razzle Magazine on top of a "Learn Slap-Bass-In-A-Day" book to hide the ramp.

Gruv Gear Fret Wrap. After many years of playing rock music and succesfully using my right palm to mute notes or even lightly touching string next to fretted notes on the very odd and rare occassion, I suddenly decided that I really OUGHT to get a fret wrap because... well I had seen the actual cool people on Basschat and Youtube etc using them and I needed to try and be a cool guy too. I fell in love with the naturally more expensive cool Dekade version as it looked the coolest thing I had seen that week so promptly ordered. After using it for about 2 mins, I realised what an utter waste of time it was, and I would never really be one of the actual cool people, and maybe I should just carry on using the techniques I had already been using for years. What a Tw@t. Anyway if anyone wants it I'll gladly post it to you as Im sick and tired of seeing the damn thing. In fact I feel rage just thinking about it. I hope this counts as an "ought to get" thing.

Yeah, the bass is on a grab stand! Here is the actual headstock.. It does have a wonderful neck which is only spoiled by that hand shaped nut. 😆

My Laney Nexus went and has recently been replaced with this big lump of pure Rock 'n' Roll... (or should that be Tuck-'n'-Roll)? The sound and build quality is way beyond what I expected. The head has absolutley everything you need and nothing you don't.😎

Have you got a Sidewinder speaker in there? 😎

Not had a problem with mine at all, holds a 9.5lbs bass just fine, and has done for a few years now. ! Maybe you just got unlucky with a bad one? I had a chrome version of that Stagg stand a few years ago and to be fair it was a very nice little stand and really well made. I prefer a grab stand personally. 😎

I have an Ultimate GS-1000 pro. Great stand Ultimate GS 1000 Pro

Sorry, but I own the ULTIMATE guitar stand. It even has a sticker telling me so.

I bought some Grover machine heads recently from Thomann. No problems. I had the usual service from them. Picked, packed, sent and received within 4 days. Maybe you were just unlucky on this occasion?

Just to let everyone know that I'm not a member of MENSA but I don't like to brag about it. Actually I'm barely a member of Basschat come to think of it. 😆

Tell him you have checked and had it confirmed it's pronounced "Flongeur" in a French accent.

The Laney Digbeth Preamp has all the features you require, and should give you the tones that you're after also. 😎 https://www.laney.co.uk/amps/bass/digbeth/db-pre

I grew up there. It always had a good music scene. I was never short of bands to join/ people to play with, and there were plenty of music venues in the town and wider area at the time. I moved to near Wales in about 2002 and it pretty much finished off my live playing days!

Going on how much this bit of bling costs, I can see most sales going to fat, bored 50+ year old blokes with a healthy amount of disposable income to waste.

It would be nice to see some input from some young female bass players. 5 pages in and all I see is grumpy men arguing. 😆