Jimbilly

Yes they were! Quite a while ago (25 years?) I bought a used Stewart Audio World 1.6 power amp, that was a pretty early 'lightweight' rack amp, it worked great for PA or bass guitar. It's sitting in a case 'just over there' in case I need it. I haven't used it in a year or two, and for a long time before that

I recently got to use my old small PA: my daughter was singing/playing guitar at a wedding (2 songs, so fun to be able to help! and she sounded great, several attendees told us after that they realized partway through that it wasn't recorded music). My old speakers are Wharfedale Pro LA-15s, which are a lot like all the other stand/pole mounted powered speakers with a 15. I remember talking about them here when I got them, probably 20-25 years ago! I still like how they sound and they are loud enough, but at 60+ pounds each I'm thinking maybe I'm getting a bit old to be hauling them up and down to stairs to my basement. A few days ago I found a near-new pair of Mackie Thump215 for a very good price, I think they will be fine, and they are really light, I realized I was carrying one down my stairs easily with one hand, claimed weight is a bit over 30 pounds each. I was hoping to find QSC or EV, but these Mackies were too good to pass up. Just this afternoon I saw a Behringer powered sub, 15" speaker (b1500 Pro iirc), very clean and tagged at $200, which was a very tempting price, but heavy!, I did not buy. Published weight is about 95 pounds. I don't really need a subwoofer and I certainly don't need a 95 pound subwoofer! It looks like the newer Class D powered subs are also very light, - pretty neat stuff! Are you guys using the newer lightweight powered PA gear?

re Quiet Riot, this is still the best 'mash up' I've ever seen

Initially I meant it regarding how all the rock bands dress nearly alike, a very strict dress code it seems. Baldness/thinning is very rare, I'm sure 'stylists' are far more common than not. But it does hold up in general too

I got to meet him once when manufacturers would send guys like him around to do 'clinics' which involved some performance, gear demo, he was very nice, he may have gotten weirder since then, but I expect he is still really cool in person

(true story) yesterday at church, as part of the sermon, pastor said: "what comes around goes around" My 19yr old daughter leaned over to me and whispered: " I'll tell you why"

everyone wears costumes

I'll be dragging my old Yamaha out with the old small rig to support my daughter singing at a wedding tomorrow, I'm excited! Yamaha is a great choice, - among many. Pawns shops and craigs or facebook marketplace should have something. I would add that you might want 16 claimed channels, because you might need them, and a 16 isn't going to cost much more or be much larger than a 12. Also some built in effects for a little reverb, along with sweepable midrange controls (if you want it to sound good), -sweepable mids would be a 'must have' on my list. I have the old Yamaha Mg16/6fx, those should be $200 ish used. Newer stuff probably have all sorts of awesome features, like bluetooth to send music in from your phone etc.

that's fantastic!

I'm going to guess that the Gosila pictured above has the same electronics as the IYV. I really like that the IYV has a pull-switch on the volume knob that bypasses the preamp, and you don't even need a battery in it to play. I do most of my 'tone shaping' ("groan..." ) in an outboard preamp anyway (bass fly rig), and it is nice to not worry about how fresh your battery is. Most of my active basses have 'always on' preamps and it would be nice to have the passive option. The only bad thing about the IYV is that there is a slight audible "whoosh" in the volume knob when the preamp is engaged, I replaced the volume knob/switch and it's still there, so it's got to be somewhere in the preamp, - but not an issue at all if you use it passive. It seems I have s snip of the ad from when I bought the IYV, - they did used to be even cheaper.

yes, there are some very playable guitars for low cost, I had a Harley Benton HSS that I thought was quite good, I think I paid $110 and sold it for $200. I had a good experience with Eart headless (great neck, primitive body, decent pickups but with kind of low output), sold it to a local gigging jazz guy who bought it for a travel guitar. I have a fan fret multi scale IYV 5 string bass that is really good, I think it was $300 ish. I'd love to try that other 5 string multi scale on Amazon (below), but I have plenty of basses at the moment and I'm mostly playing guitar right now. - If I was bass shopping, I'd certainly give this one a try. https://www.amazon.com/Gosila-String-Headless-Electric-Guitar/dp/B0CZZX9YB9/ref=sr_1_4?crid=CVHWWYAHRAQB&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Q5VXXGMmTULSs-ID9VClEHkeoE0woZiqnUs3J2r_fodYtaPSp0WLS_nkMdLeEErSWwGkV02-HtohYteZcgT06f6bsyVtZGw-UfOn4iiWFY6ETUvkhBi2dymFuvmqgvcdpoMtPUJKT6Qb6nCNcO6nU_P1rE9iLtJ04X0RnMJQqhLp9kBfO-Sn5mNDnbVMUjqElVYTsqfjaCaLSolZJhuvLZBnypQMlQQ1IB2PSlJ34g6nbyumVHWUZcx2geu4wg-0aBCnXqjCZoPkOOM2l6Q1X_jvWPcni2ogBAJ9yHrTZ3U.vloRqNdUxprt8CBbHXTJEfLraB3VO4PA_FonJOwg0EY&dib_tag=se&keywords=headless%2Bbass%2Bguitar&qid=1789574975&sprefix=headless%2Bbass%2Caps%2C358&sr=8-4&th=1

I stopped watching after it seemed like it's just about new production, a few years ago I gathered enough good used to last me well past forever. I think there is still quite a bit of good used out there, but that would require some hunting/legwork. Here's one you don't see every day: Mullard Master Series 10M, rated for 10,000 hours iirc

It has a 3 prong and no death cap, I did that myself with some coaching, - I'd need coaching to do it again! There was another amp in the service shop that has the same look as my Silvertone, but bigger, belongs to Rick who owns Guitar Maniacs. I'm not sure the model, but it looks like it has a 12" speaker. It may be for his collection, or it may be fs in his shop. It looks like Silvertone did a 133x series, there's a couple of 1336 models on Reverb, but priced pretty high Coincidentally, the tech told me he's be converting collectible amps back to 2 prong for guys who want them to be more original! I think I'll hold off on any of that. Here's a 1331 on Reverb for a somewhat reasonable price, they also made one sort of similar in the 60s that don't look nearly as cool, and of course are a bit less $$ https://reverb.com/item/84273534-1956-silvertone-1331-tube-combo-amp-tweed

and then there's the ultimate

the Univox U45 is still a super bargain imo, - when considering the low wattage older amps. My go-to recently has been the Silvertone 1331 (tweed champ ish) I bought just 2 years ago. It has such a great look, this one is a '56, I have no desire for a Fender Champ of any year since I got this. Brent at Solderhaus serviced it a short time ago, he said "it sounds awesome!"