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Sound of the suburbs - The Members

Still, you could always take a chance (someone had to start the ABBA puns).

Don't mention the tinnitus!!

It’s your bass, so go ahead if that’s what you really want to do. Unfortunately, most of the audience and the rest of the band likely won’t give a fizz about it.

I think venues know they can get ameteur bands for free or very cheap but if they want a name to get people in then they have to pay for it. Amateur bands don't attract in a lot of people so can't really ask for much and those at the bottom of the pile who are the support act for amateur bands offer the venue very little value.

The best thing you can do is to not concentrate on it. I can tune mine out a lot of the time. Unfortunately reading this thread has made it obvious again!

Had it for many years (loud motorbikes, not huge bass cabs I'm afraid) and I too have recently noticed it getting significantly worse. I find it harder and harder to pick out a conversation against any sort of background noise, whether that's in real life or when watching a TV program ... I live much of my life with subtitles. 🙄 It's not debilitating, and it hardly compares with the issues that some of my friends and family are dealing with (cancer, heart attack, etc.), but it's bloody irritating and also depressing to find that there is no cure, no treatment (that works), and no real likelihood of one during my lifetime.

I’m a massive fan of oly white with mint guard, so that’s my vote 👍

Yep. Sad to say I have it to varying degrees depending on the setting and background. When I think it’s no longer there I concentrate on it (like they all tell you you shouldn’t), and it pops right back into my consciousness. A real bugger at times.

Mine's gotten worse in the last 6 months. It's always there, and always been there but it's definitely more noticeable. Unfortunately, there's little to be done about it. I was told you can get hearing aids that cancel out the noise you hear, but as you'd expect they're expensive

Im my experience a head makes far less difference than a cab does. I love the BDDI (just brought another), but its often bemused me how its sold as 'just turn up anywhere and still have your sound' I get the statement, but dont think its that simple. If you are looking at the Sansamp, be aware that the Programable doesn't have the mid control. This mid control can be very useful in these situations.

I do like the hybridisation of a traditional body with what appears to me like a fairly extreme fan, pickup angling etc. I dig the sunburst one 🙂 Little touches like how the bottom edge of the J pickup meets the pickguard show the attention to detail (try finding a Jazz where the control plate and pickguard align well... not to be found in my house anyway 😆). They're out of my budget, but I don't think the pricing is crazy. I mean you'll have no trouble dropping upwards of £2k on a traditional P if you're so inclined! And we live in a golden era for cheaper basses. Plenty of strokes for different folks.

Ooh, I wander if tuffcab is any good for cars? Box 2 for the Trace is glued and screwed. Will wait for it to dry then get busy with a flush bit first for nice square corners, then a round over bit for finished shape. If I can get away with no mistakes, I might go for a stained finish to match the Peterson. The new cab is ready for its baffle. Will check exact volume then have another pop at WinISD. Chrome corners and dark brown leather handles on order for both. Will also need to get some better gain & volume knobs!

I'd get @d_g to do a light relic finish so that the bass retains a sense of 'well-played but generally well-maintained '74....', he's somewhere between a scientist and an artist when it comes to finishes 👍

I couldn't agree more, especially the final sentence re the arts. I found myself in exactly that spot a few years back and it was not a happy place. It's why if you go into business you really do need to study the science or principles of going into business beforehand

Your choice to work for free sets an expectation that others will. So your action has an impact, something we can disagree on (politely and collegiately). You’ve drawn a false equivalence in any case. Your choice to play for nothing at a local community event isn’t the same as someone being asked to play for free at a multi-million pound commercial festival. I have done, and continue to do the former but wouldn’t do the latter - and I think musicians who do so devalue their art, talent and value.

I’m in the same camp. Not my favourite colour anyway and enough has been changed on it already that it won’t appeal to collectors.

Just use it as is. I can undertand the ABBA folk doing their best to look right but I would question the need for anyone else. Rutger may have wished his Jazz was the colour of yours (not far removed from his Hagstrom, by the way). His was also a dot neck. Are you changing that? If not, you're not authentic. Personally, play it as it is and save yourself the money (and the time without it). I played in a very good ABBA tribue with a 75 black Jazz with pearl blocks on the maple neck. Up to you, of course, but why bother?

Both my wife and I have gone through this with our own businesses, starting off using mates rates and "I feel guilty someone is paying me to do something I like doing so I will only charge a token amount", then realising that there is enough business coming in to make a proper go of it, but then realising that in order to have a business the fees need to be three times higher than the original mates rates we were charging. This then leads to awkward conversations, but business (and living) costs money, and at the end of the day people (society?) will lose access to expertise if they do not pay enough to maintain it. I think this is a particular issue for the arts (and in this thread luthiers) in that there seems to be a reluctance to adequately cost the (music) services being produced.

... which is fine; you do what you think is right, and we'll do what we think is right. There's no moralising about it, as long as we agree that it's a Free World, in which we shoulder our own responsibilities. I'll not accuse other artists for getting paid; I would expect our choices to be respected in the same way.