I am set up and ready to go in the time it takes to do that second trip to the car and back.
Yeah, but there's no 24 second shot clock here, and unless you're the last one in the band to be setup and ready to go, it's completely immaterial. Also, there are carts/dollies/etc...
I did feel it was necessary to go out and buy a Bag End S15D or whatever it is so I can play bass in my office or anywhere else I care to plug in my trusty early and modded SWR SM400.
Nice. Also, nice EX5 (I have one too).
the seller of the Bag End did rather sanctimoniously tell me when I bought it that with front of house PAs and new technologies that there was no reason to own such a speaker.
What a weird sales strategy.
Anyway, I think a lot of this comes down to people being trendy followers and addicted to novelty. Like, the ELF is not a BETTER amp than the earlier Trace stuff, but everyone wants one just because it's new and tiny, while the old stuff is hard to sell. Although I just sold a surplus Peavey era AH 500-7 a few weeks ago and the guy wrote VERY enthusiastically about how it sounded, and that was the "budget" amp in the line. But I would definitely take that amp (I still have an AH 600-12, which is a more full featured, better sounding amp) over pretty much any MB500, PF500, LM500, etc... type of amp, even with the 25 lb or so weight difference. That 10+ year old 30+ lb Trace just had a liveliness and immediacy that I just haven't really heard from more modern heads. I do really like my ShuttleMax, but that's like using a hybrid McLaren to defend the performance of a Prius. It could also just be that the class D examples above just have really generic and uninspiring preamps and it's not really about the power section and/or they've been plugged into lackluster cabs when I've tried them in a GC or whatnot.
But I plug in my 600-12 or my GBE 750 and I'm like "oh, this is fun". They just have a sparkle to them, especially through something like my Goliath III (which sadly I'll have to part with due to space and financial concerns). I mean, those are world class heads and cabs. They don't become not that just because something lighter comes along. Less convenient maybe. Cheaper, definitely. With the 600-12 I feel like I got a ZR1 for like Grand Prix prices. The 750 is more like a really nice diesel pickup of brute force and a little rougher around the edges.
SWR stuff may not be for everybody these days, BUT, it is extremely usable for basically any style or purpose, and if you're after a certain sort of studio bass sound, or various flavors of funk, fusion, rock, etc... it's fantastic. The cabs are going to depend on what head you pair with them. And vice versa. My Bass 350 (which is sadly out of commission, but only due to physical damage of the power socket that I haven't had a chance to have replaced yet) through a GIII is like Chuck Rainey died and went to Steely Dan heaven. It's got that clean and open hifi tube sound that's not harsh or dark, it's warm and open and invites dynamic playing. So that stuff isn't "obsolete" as long as tasteful playing with great tone is still in demand anywhere. Not "in style", sure. Not that convenient (zomg, the Bass 350 weighs 16 whole pounds! or not quite as much as a MM5 in a hardshell case).
The stuff that's obsolete would be like the cheesy early SS stuff where they had no idea what they were doing, so the engineering department was in the wilderness while the marketing department was lost in the sauce and the design department was high out of their gourds. This is for guitar, but I remember a friend had a "720" combo (Univox?), and it was NOT good. The distortion was like "why would you even put that in there?" (about the same quality as the one on the Roland JC120 which is the ONLY failing of an otherwise GREAT amp).
But stuff that sounded great will always sound great as long as those sounds are applicable to something that someone wants to do. And you can also just use it differently than it was back then. Like everyone in the 80s bought a DX7 and just used it for the stupid doogie howser electric piano sound, but FM synths can actually do some pretty wild soundscapes and all kinds of other stuff and are starting to come back now (Yamaha recently made FM a big part of their flagship Montage workstation). So you strip away the cheesey 8 bit gated reverb and cheesy chorus, and dig into the programming and it becomes like a new instrument, or at least a completely recontextualized one.
Anyway, I always come back to the same thing in these types of threads, if you're averse to gear that weighs more than a few pounds, you really picked the wrong instrument. If you went to play with a new drummer and he showed up with an inflatable kit because he was worried about weight and size, be honest, you would not take him very seriously. I know as a sound guy, what makes me happiest when the night's band is coming in, is seeing clearly well curated gear that's appropriate for the style and the setting. It doesn't necessarily guarantee they'll use it to best effect, but it's like the brown m&ms, it shows they're at least paying attention and making an effort. Whereas if a guy shows up with a $100 behringer craigslist special and a 1x10 to a club gig, now I have to create the bass from scratch in the PA, and depending on the place, MAYBE I don't relaly have the firepower to do that. So if you want to make the sound guy happy, show up with the best quality gear you can afford that can carry the room if necessary, and if it's not necessary, DON'T TRY TO CARRY THE ROOM. It's like the joke about a gentleman is a man who can play the accordion, but doesn't. So don't be lazy, research your gear, choose it well (a 200w class D amp and a neo 1x10 might be enough for what you do, but make sure that's really the case and it's not just because you don't want to carry any more), and then use it appropriately. If you do that, almost no gear could ever be obsolete, if it fits the role it's supposed to.
