Bassnut62

Yes, I tried the limiter a bit last night; ultra quiet and very effective when needed.

Well I scored this PJB stack https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/227075033581 for what I reckon is a great price. I collected it yesterday before rehearsal with full five-piece band last night. I am SO impressed! It needed both units in action to give full presence that I could feel as well as hear. I could still hear just the combo on its own, but that thump and flood-of-bass from adding the active monitor was just what I was looking for. It can give me a slightly more modern tone if I want it and most importantly still has all the warmth of my old Fender Bassman135 rig. The PJB transparently gave me the exact sound of my old Stingray, which was what I wanted. Almost as importantly, my chiropractor bills will now be greatly reduced! Thank you all for excellent advice and experience shared.

Thank you. That’s alarming and outrageous by Selectron. Sorry for your loss. Will check out that thread too.

Dan and EZ, I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. Thanks.

Great, that’s the scenario I’m seeking. Do the two facing upwards help hear the bass, especially on a small stage, where you might have to stand right in front of and close to the rig.

Good, I’m looking at up to 12 of them and up to 500w….enough to feel it at small gigs?

Hmmm, I am used to feeling the presence through my Bassman 135 rig, as much as hearing those lovely phat tones. Please can any other PJB owners share their experience of ‘feeling’ the bass through multiple 5” neo speakers in a gig situation? thanks

I pretty much felt the same about the 'lack of' need for fret wrap. I've been playing for just over 40 years and good technique has always taken care of unwanted sustain or harmonics; but I do like the different tone you can get from using a mute. Luckily my old Stingray (1979) came with bridge mutes that you can lift on to bottom of string, Jameson style. I find they are great for slap, which I do relatively little of compared to many modern layers, as I prefer the less is more approach of Larry Graham; I also find they sound great for Country style bass. I hope that people using fret wraps so much these days don't get lazy on technique, as this is an important part of sounding good, and sometimes you want the full sustain of not using a mute, so will need that technique then to control the sustain, and for dropping in ghost notes.

Oh, that is rotten luck. The little PJB BG110 I have seems to be incredibly over-engineered and built like a tank, and I imagine it would be much less prone to failure than many other bigger brands. Were you able to get yours fixed?

OK, that's good to know re comparisons of cone sizes, and even better to know how the PJBs compare to other good 1x10s. Think I'm going to take the plunge deeper into PJB land!

Hi ezbass / PJfanboy! Thank you for your share.....I am seriously looking at a more powerful PJ combo for light gigging and adding a powered monitor for bigger gigging. I love the transparent tone, and can barely believe that I am saying that of a solid state amp. The only other solid state bass amp I've ever liked was a huge old Accoustic rig with horns on top and a 1x18 on the bottom, and I think it was 2x12 n the middle.

The best bass speaker known to humanity!!

Yup, humping the Bassman rig around is a bugger. I used to run my 135 with a Bassman vertical 2x15 cab, but it could fart out. I glued & screwed all the seems to full lengths of 1x2 and braced the baffle to the back panel with three lengtts of 2x2; this made a huge difference.... no farting and tone to die for; but it took two to move it! Even my 1x15 and that heavy head is getting a bit much to lump about now; hence the likely move to modern gear, and I probably don't want to even try to recreate that Bassman tone, as I think I will only be disappointed and always be thinking of the Bassman. I really like the hifi transparency of the PJB gear and am amazed so far at how well those little 5" neo speakers can hold the bottom end at home, through my PJB BG110 (2x5 and 20w). Luckily I have two very good basses that produce plenty of natural tone, and happy to just hear that. One Q...isn't 4x5" the equivalent of 1x20" or 2x10"?

HI all, I recently got a Phil Jones BG-110 20w 2x5 combo for practice at home and am SO impressed with it. I am now tempted to get a full Phil Jones rig. Maybe just one of their powered monitors to amplify the BG-110 or maybe a bigger combo. I'd use it for small to medium size gigs and maybe recording too. I am thinking of getting power up to 250w or 500w. I want to know: How well they stand up to fat bass tones (from a '79 MusicMan Stingray or an AVRI62 Jazz Bass)? How well they cut through a mix on stage? Whether they have enough headroom to cope with small-to-medium gigs? What are your thoughts and experiences of Phil Jones gear? Thanks.

These are some of my favourite genres too, and agree that modern gear can do a reasonable version of that old school tone; but to my ears you need an old valve amp to get THAT sound. I use an early silver-face Fender Bassman 135 on a MusicMan HD115 ported cab, loaded with a JBL D140. This rig produces the best bass sound I have ever got by a country mile and a lot of people (incl. audience and other musicians) have said as much. The right bass is an important part of the mix too. You need a Fender P or J or a real MusicMan Stingray (the EB versions don't sound or play as good IMO). For recording I've run a line from the amp and a mic from the cab and blended the two signals to get THAT sound. I don't use any pedals either, as I want to keep the signal from bass to amp to speaker/desk as free of interference as possible. This really does make a huge difference! However good the pedal/s it/they still compromise the signal from the instrument. I sometimes run a Randall bright box on top of this rig too, for extra brightness and definition, and if I want to get the sound a bit phatter and dirtier, I jump the channels to use both sides of the preamp.

Never even heard of that Eich amp, will check it out, thanks

Interesting, I recently got an Aguilar Octamizer and am very impressed with its quality, sound and controls; which has led me to look at their TH500 amp. My current rig is going through a big old ported Music Man 1x15 loaded with a JBL D140, which gives a very clear almost hifi tone in the vintage amp context. Any particular cabs/speakers that you would recommend with it to maintain or get close to that phat, warm, pure vintage tone I am used to?

That sounds interesting, I'll check them out. Thanks.

I have used a 70s Fender Bassman 135 head with an old MusicMan 1x15 cab loaded with a JBL D140 for nearly 30 years now. It absolutely nails the gorgeous valve tone, dynamics and responsiveness I want and pairs extremely well with my 79 Stingray and AVRI 62 Jazz. Over the years I’ve tried a few modern amps, like Mark Bass and Hartke; but none of them do it for me like the Bassman rig. i am now in my 60s and finally accepting that I may soon have to get a rig that is less heavy and bulky. Can anyone recommend a modern light weight rig capable of genuinely delivering the tones, feel and sheer joy of a big old valve amp like my Bassman rig?