Rehearsal room rigs

[Beedster]

Sometimes you can't be arsed to drag your rig out of the car and walk into a room thinking "I'll use whatever's in there tonight". Last night was such a night, and what a pleasant surprise it was, OK, the lows needed a bit of pulling with some push to the mids and highs, but wow, good old Peavey, and good old Orange 👍

 

 

 

Had a similar surprise with a rehearsal room Ashdown ABM  a few years back, I'll see if I can did that pic out also 👍

[Muzz]

Last time I used a rehearsal room rig it was an ancient Peavey...it was great for the room, but you couldn't have paid me enough to move the thing... 🙂

[Lozz196]

Yeah those old Peavey - think TVX? - 410s were great cabs, but agree with Muzz, I`d never be able to shift one, I had the 115 version about 25 years ago and that was over 90lbs, wasn`t the ideal cab for living in a second floor flat (without lift).

[Chienmortbb]

Our usual hall put up its prices, so I suggested using the rehearsal rooms at Absolute Music. These are well-equipped, but one of the guitarists insisted on taking his amp and the drummer said he did not like playing other kits, so would have to take his own. However, they have good rigs, TC, Orange and Blackstar. The College close by used to hire its music rooms out, and I used that with my previous band. They had Ampeg combos. Not my favourites. 

[Chienmortbb]

32 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Sometimes you can't be arsed to drag your rig out of the car and walk into a room thinking "I'll use whatever's in there tonight". Last night was such a night, and what a pleasant surprise it was, OK, the lows needed a bit of pulling with some push to the mids and highs, but wow, good old Peavey, and good old Orange 👍

 

 

 

Had a similar surprise with a rehearsal room Ashdown ABM  a few years back, I'll see if I can did that pic out also 👍

Nice looking bass, what is it?

[Beedster]

2 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Nice looking bass, what is it?

 

One of my bitsas, increasingly my go to these days, La Bella DTs, baseball neck, just does the job really 👍 

[Lozz196]

At last nights rehearsal Last I used a Hughes & Kettner 300w 1x15 combo of some sort, sounded really nice. Usually the rigs at the rehearsal room are Orange, which are ok, but was nice to have a different one for a change.

[bassbiscuits]

The place we use has a very old Ashdown ABM300 head into a Ashdown Mag 4x10 cab. Turns out it sounds huge! Which is handy as parking in the area is scarce and travelling light is the way to go.  

[Steve Browning]

We have started using River Studios, near Southampton, and ended up using their EBS Session 60. Looked tiny but was perfectly adequate for the size of the room.

[Sean]

21 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

One of my bitsas, increasingly my go to these days, La Bella DTs, baseball neck, just does the job really 👍 

Gorgeous, that. 

[Merton]

My local studio has an original Ashdown King Combo - the ABM900 with an 8x10 cab as an all in one, heavier than the sun, back-breaking monster in a flightcase (ish).

Sounds pretty good too.

 

[Beedster]

16 minutes ago, Merton said:

My local studio has an original Ashdown King Combo - the ABM900 with an 8x10 cab as an all in one, heavier than the sun, back-breaking monster in a flightcase (ish).

Sounds pretty good too.

 

 

That's a hell of a rig for a studio 👍

[Merton]

When they opened up I put them in touch with Ashdown to kit out the rooms with ABM heads and cabs. Mark Gooday did a fantastic upsell and they ended up with this as well 😆

 

Thesedays they have a mix of old heads people have donated them alongside the Ashdown heads. About a month ago one of the donated Markbass heads was nicked by some bastard. I told them to get rid of the light stuff and stick more ABMs back in…

[Lozz196]

Yeah a studio I know has Ampeg heads and 810s at moment, they’re looking to change the amps to TE Elfs. I do wonder how long before someone pilfers one.

[jezzaboy]

We use Berkley in Glasgow and it`s usually an EBS head and Ampeg 8 x 10 and to be honest most of them sound crap. They used to have ABM heads but they never seem to be in the room we are using. But there is 13 or 14 rooms so maybe they are in there somewhere...

[Beedster]

This was the thread about the rehearsal room Ashdown that also surprised me 

 

 

[eude]

1 hour ago, jezzaboy said:

We use Berkley in Glasgow and it`s usually an EBS head and Ampeg 8 x 10 and to be honest most of them sound crap. They used to have ABM heads but they never seem to be in the room we are using. But there is 13 or 14 rooms so maybe they are in there somewhere...

I used to rehearse there back in the late 90s/early 00s.

I'm the reason they had ABMs. They used to have a full Ampeg 8x10 valve stack in each room, and I kept destroying them 😎

I used a lot of effects back then, and th Ampegs couldn't take it.

I suggested they got in some ABMs, and they did. They were brilliant too.

[Dan Dare]

I just take a lightweight head to a rehearsal room and use whatever cabs are there. Never had a problem.

[JPJ]

I once had the pleasure of walking into a rehearsal room to find the provided bass cab was the old Carlsbro ProBass 4x12 with the centre port. Plugged my SM900 into it and it sounded simply awesome. Wouldn’t like to schlep that cab to gigs though 😬

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, JPJ said:

Carlsbro ProBass 4x12 with the centre port. Plugged my SM900 into it and it sounded simply awesome

 

First and last words are not often seen in the same sentence, glad to hear in this case they belonged together  

[Jack]

Jealous. It's all TC Electronic around here. Sounds great and all, just isn't very exciting. 

[Stub Mandrel]

Second time at a small local place last Wednesday. Bass rig is a Warwick Gnome through an Orange 1x12 (I think). Sounds fine, I don’t run it very loud but the Gnome gets a little warm. Fine for civilised practice.

[asingardenof]

On 27/11/2025 at 18:06, Beedster said:

 

That's a hell of a rig for a studio 👍

The one I go to each room has an Ashdown Mag 500 amp and Ashdown 8x10 cab. Each room we normally rehearse in is about 4m square.

[ezbass]

The place we use in Perth has a vintage, Fender Bassman head through, I think, a Fender 6x10. Sounds good, no? Well, in all honesty, it’s just about OK, certainly nothing to get excited about. The space is actually the live room for adjacent studio, control room and not particularly large (but not small or cramped). Back there next Wednesday to shake out the dust and try 5 new songs for a gig, later in the month.