The Last Bass Outpost

Here, I made it better.

I actually kind of like it, but only in a "I'd pay $500 for an Epiphone version" kind of way.

Yeah it has extra room, but less so than the absurdly large (possibly acoustic?) bag Gibson provided for the DC Jr, which I had loaned to her meanwhile.
And, it has storage for notebooks and instruction books, which the Gibson bag had none of, just a tiny pouch that might fit a pack of strings.

Good news: the Protec semi-hollow guitar bag works well for shorties.
It's supposedly 43" total interior length. Nice backpack straps, good storage compartments, thicker padding than most budget bags. It was an xmas gift to my daughter, and here it is with her Gretsch G2220 Electromatic junior jet, which hasn't fit anything else I tried so far.

I might get another one for my Gibson DC Jr!

https://www.protecstyle.com/SEMI-HOLLOW-BODY-ELECTRIC-GUITAR-GIG-BAG-GOLD-SERIES

I have a decent HSC for when I want that - the (used) Gretsch Electromatic G2220. came shipped in a Roadrunner case that's about 43" long externally - tight fit but decent case.  The desire for gig bags is more for backpacking around the city, which is how my kid and I both are most of the time.

A couple that I've tried and sent back already yesterday:

• Ibanez Powerpad IGB540 - too short for both the Gibson DC jr and the Gretsch G2220.
• Henry Heller HGB-E2 - I tried this because someone on Reddit swore it worked for his G2220. But not the one I got. The Gibson DC jr could fit in the bag, just barely, with a bit of squeezing; but the Gretsch couldn't fully clear the zipper over the headstock no matter what I did. Too bad, I really liked this case.
  

While researching this, I heard folks with Jaguar / Jazzmaster guitars have similar challenges, and some have landed on using gig bags that are designed for hollowbody guitars, as those seem to run long too. I have a Protec hollowbody gig bag on the way, will let you know how that works out.

Also on a tangent for 34"-scale basses - when I ordered the Henry Heller bag, I also got a matching HGB-B2 one sized for 34" basses, and that one's a keeper. It'll replace the similarly priced Gator GB-4G I was using. The HH gig bag fits all my 34" scale basses - except notably not a Greco Thunderbird. Compared to the Gator, it has similar padding, more storage compartments, an internal foam neck support attached with velcro, and MUCH better backpack strap placement, plus a couple other nice handles and hooks the Gator lacks. Whoever designed those Gator bags never tried to actually wear it with the backpack straps. It sits VERY high. The headstock is about seven feet in the air and will not clear any doorway. Walking around with that bag is an exercise in "how much do my old knees need to bend to avoid breaking my bass or knocking myself over?". Every tree limb or sign post is suddenly a hazard. Mine is up for sale on Reverb now.

I love the "110, 112 or both" approach and that's what I've been doing a while now.
I never had the ambition to lug around a 410 (and never found one that sounded right to my liking), but some cabs I've sold off include a 68-pound Eden 210XLT; an old Ampeg 212 cab with two heavy Eminence drivers that probably weighed close to that; a 2008-era Schroeder 1212 (not neodymium) that wasn't light either.

Eventually I landed on an EA CXL-112L and CXL-110L, and as per previous posts I love the sound of that pair.
They're not as light as more modern cabs though; I was thinking I might consider replacing the 112 especially, which weighs about 47 lbs.

Then recently the woofer on my EA CXL 110 died, and after a bunch of research and writing to Eminence I was able to find a current Eminence neodymium coaxial driver that works great in that cab with the existing crossover and tweeter. That little cab now weighs a mere 23 pounds, down from about 29.

So now I'm thinking I might swap out the woofer in the 112 too.  The Eminence coaxial neodymium woofers aren't cheap, but it might be worth it if I can keep this rig sounding great with less weight, and it's cheaper than buying a whole new cab.

My DC Tribute bass came with a not particularly great gig bag.
I'm looking for something a bit better to carry it around. With backpack straps.
Some guitar gig bags ALMOST fit - I have a Fender electric guitar bag that is about an inch too short, and a great Henry Heller EGB is even shorter.

I'd also love something to fit my daughter's Gretsch Junior Jet II, which is about another inch longer than the Gibson - maybe 41.5" long (1060 cm).
Anybody recommend a good solution?
Something like an Ibanez IGB541 could possibly fit the Gibson but seems right on the edge for the Gretsch, and I've not seen one in person.

I don't want a bottom-of-the-barrel gig bag, but nor do I want to splurge over $100 US.

Allparts meaning they will be distributing them for you? Nice!

That's a great AC/DC performance. Agreed on the drumming.

I don't know my AC/DC history, was it unusual for them to have an Orange backline? I don't think I've seen them in front of anything but a wall of Marshalls and SVTs.

That was great!

He lost me at "Pickups are microphones, amplifying the acoustic tone of the guitar."

I like this a lot. It looks like it was meant to be that way.

Last week I got to play live with my band at an outdoor gig where rental backline was provided by the organizers...
an email was sent around to band members listing the gear.  "Ampeg heritage B15N".

I've never played through one live; have recorded through a vintage B15 once or twice, at very low volume.
I was VERY concerned about the mere 30 watt rating - outdoors at that!
Even allowing for the "toobz is louder" thing, surely this wouldn't do.

I looked up the "heritage" model - limited edition?? 50 units?? And apparently Sweetwater sold them for $3000 US when they had stock.
So I was sure the email was in error...  what rental company would send around a rare, $3000 30 watt amp for an outdoor gig, to bake in the blazing sun all day?  Surely the email was in error, and we'd more likely get one of the many much cheaper, more modern ampeg combos with more conventional amounts of power??

I was skeptical, so even though I needed to travel light, as a plan B i brought my Genz Benz shuttle 6.0 and EA CXL110 - not an outdoor rig on its own either, but I figured it would make a good supplement if the backline was too weak.

At the gig it turned out to be the real deal! Ampeg B15N heritage.

I was very pleasantly surprised. SHOCKED by how much volume it put out. As a stage monitor, it was more than enough to hear myself over the drums and two guitars (both playing through cranked fender deluxes).
I was a bit mystified by the two channels labeled 1964 and 1966 ... briefly tried both and found that with controls at noon the 1966 was more to my liking. The two-band EQ was surprisingly effective and very easy to get good sound out of.
The tone was a delight.  My Gibson LPB1 was very well suited to it.
I never even plugged in the Genz / EA rig.

I did walk out in front of the band before the sound person got the DI connected, and was not entirely surprised to hear that I was pretty much inaudible out front ... as good as it sounded up close, it's just not built to project low end in the open air like that. 
We plugged the "external amp" output on the rear into the DI and that quickly solved that.
The PA was decent too, for once... QSC powered speakers and sub, and the guy running the board was better than most.

I suspect I'll never see one of these on a gig again, but I sure would be happy if I did.

I went to Sam Ash (Manhattan) last week, hoping to score some discounted cables.
Looks like I should have gone earlier! It was a sad sight. Barely anything left. Not a single instrument cable in the whole store!
No pedals either.  Not even one six-string acoustic guitar in the place.

This was once a wall of guitars and amps:


Not much in the bass section, though if one were inclined to buy this headless greenish monster, a $400 dollar discount might tempt.
Not me!  But I couldn't resist picking it up to play it a little; something like that would be locked up high on the wall at a Guitar Center so nobody can breathe on it without permission.  Here, nobody cared. I don't even own a fiver, and have never played a multiscale before, so I was curious to give it a try. No cables to hear it plugged in though. It felt... Interesting? Different? Not immediately obvious what the appeal of multiscale is, but it was surprisingly not as difficult to play as I would assume.


It's too bad I'm not in the market for an Ampeg fridge cabinet. Half price!  There were good deals on some Hartke gear too, but none of it was anything I needed.


I did find a soft case (for guitar) to replace an old battered one, and a few random things from the mostly empty parts bin on one unattended counter (two gold Hipshot Ultralight tuners for $10 apiece; if they fit on anything I have I will have to pay a lot more than that for two more!)

Overall it had the feeling of a flea market after hours just before the cops sweep through to clear out the riffraff. Sad.

It's all nothing new, but it's funny how it's a continuum.  Canned tracks doing things that the musicians onstage simply can't goes at least back to the Who's Next tour of 1971. Reportedly Townshend wanted an (offstage?) keyboardist for the following Quadrophenia tour but couldn't get Daltrey to agree, so they played the very complex Quadrophenia arrangements with lots more backing tapes with sometimes problematic results - there were some famous incidents of tape malfunction and also of Keith Moon malfunction.

Maybe it's an arbitrary distinction, but somehow having the lead vocalist lip syncing feels like crossing a line - but to me it depends on who they are and how the represent themselves to the public.  I'm not surprised and don't care if an "entertainer" is dancing with pyrotechnics and needs some help from autotune or tracks because they're too busy with choreography. If I went to a show like that I'd be expecting a visual spectacle.

But if I'm shelling out the big bucks to see an aging rocker who recorded "classic" tracks, I'd rather hear them struggle to hit the notes and hear what they sound like today, even if their voice is shot, and if they can't be bothered to expose that, then I'd rather they and me both stay home.
But that's just me. If other folks want to watch Don Henley or Billy Gibbons or whoever stand at a microphone and do nothing, that's fine.  I'd rather it not be a secret though.  I don't want to show up expecting one thing and get the other.