WalMan

Did a stand in once at a do preceded by a meal. Was assured that it was chord charts not fly sh*t (as my sight reading is really not great) and of course got there & it was pages of fly do. Mind you that was not the problem the organisers had omitted to say they wanted some music to eat by. So we get up & busk our way through stuff with the keyboard player calling changes from one of those ring bound buskers books & to the sound of clanking cutlery. Did a couple of tunes to no response at all, then the keyboard player picked a number from the book & started us off only to find a page is missing when we are off & running. It sounded like the worst form of freeform jazz you have [i][b][u]EVER[/u][/b][/i] heard, but we struggle to some form of conclusion & guess what......all the cutlery went down & we got applause for it!!! As to mistakes generally well just do it again with conviction next time around & say you meant to do it

[b]Ebay [/b]- I have used Auctionsniper for a for items where I didn't want to jump in early & get bid up. Decide & set your maximum bid & set it then let the Sniper get on with it. [list] [*]If the price runs away early you get an email warning & can take a view whether you really want to pay a bit more. [*]If it runs away in the last half hour - often the way it seems - well again you can jump back in if you have time, but you had decided on your limit so no great loss really. [*]You might be lucky & win, but for a bit less than you might have - which is where I could clearly be a bit galling for the seller [/list] Then there is [b]PayPal [/b] - 3 claims in all my years using eBay, 0 closed in my favour by PP. [list=1] [*] - The only good result when PP would do nothing & I managed to get the money back via the visa that funded PP, which led to a bleating email saying I should have used the Resolution Centre, ignoring the fact that I had and had basically been told to get stuffed. [*] - Resolved amicably with the buyer when Royal Mail took over a month to deliver a properly addressed 1st class post package. In trying to do the right thing & make the refund I managed to go about it the wrong way & incur further PP charges. Then thankfully the parcel arrived & my refund & the additional charges all got repaid, but if it had been lost I should have been stiffed double PP charges [*] - Last one was my fault making a purchase late on a Friday evening with beer goggles on from an auction that I should have guessed stunk, but there you go. Subsequently got an email for eBay saying that I may have made a purchase from an account that had been "compromised" & I should try to stop any payment. Too late for that as PP had sent the funds. Initiated a claim (the wrong thing it transpires) assuming that nothing would arrive. Sadly a few weeks later some cheap imitation cr@p turned up, but by then I was on the wrong resolution path (did not arrive) instead of (not as advertised) and you can only a single resolution claim on an item and not correct it if the facts change later. This one I have had to write off to experience [/list] I suppose it [i]could [/i]be worse though!!

[quote name='paul, the' post='11057' date='Jun 2 2007, 03:24 PM']Oh, quick question for anyone: What's the lower limit on importing outside the EU? A set of strings costing £29 (that's with postage) from America, would they charge duty/customs/whatever? Cheers, Paul.[/quote] Have a look [url="http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_001454&propertyType=document"]here[/url] for more details. No Customs Duty if its less than £7, but you do have to pay Import VAT @ 17.5% if the value of the item is more than £18 - and that includes second hand stuff as well. So a £20 declared value package will cost you £3.50 VAT. What is worse is the sting from the dear old Post Office / Parcelforce for paying the VAT on your behalf. That's £13.50 for Express Parcels & £8.00 for other parcels. So your £20 exchange rate bargain from the US could suddenly have cost you £37.00 if it was expressed. Now you know why everyone fills in those Custom declaration slips as "Gift" or values the item at $2. Trouble with that is Customs can check items & if it is clearly not a gift, or has been undervalued, can confiscate the item. Anyway - Strings - Elixir Nanoweb's are the dogs knackers IMO. Shame I couldn't find [i]ANYONE [/i]selling them at the Guitar Show this year. I picked up something supposed to be similar to try out from the MarkBass stand (can't remember what now as they are on & the box has gone) but they do not seem as good. And Nate all I can say to you re [quote name='Nate']Fortunately I have a deal with Elixir...[/quote] is "[i][color="#2E8B57"]You lucky lucky b@st@rd!!![/color][/i]" mind you well deserved looking at the YouTube clip

One can only hope that a bass version becomes available soon!!! [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190135645973&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=009"][color="#FF0000"][b]Careful now[/b][/color][/url] there is a danger of being overawed by its majesty

I have been toying with EZD since a cut down version came with #2 sons Korg PadKontrol. There is a cut down Free version that you can download & try from [url="http://www.toontrack.com/ezplayer_free.asp"]HERE[/url], but it is a long way off the full version. It looks like it might be a quick way to get down a basic track to work too and then tweak to your hearts content later and certainly with the free version it does seem to drop the chosen clip in at the BPM I have set in Tracktion regardless of what it was set at originally. Currently purchasing the full version is on the backburner as I am also looking at upgrading to Tracktion 3 through the "Ultimate Bundle" route which has a load of extras / plugins including Submersible Music DrumCore. Just seems worth the Ultimate : Project for an extra £40 from DV247 That said if I stayed with Tracktion 2 EZD does look really good from the demoes - but then I suppose it would wouldn't it!? Sorry that's no help really is it.

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='36742' date='Jul 25 2007, 09:55 AM']Hi Alan, Good to see you here again! Must try to catch up in Littlehampton sometime. Hope all's well... Nik[/quote] Hi Nik We do keep saying that and we really should!!! Just about surviving encroaching old age & another joint replaced in June Are you going up to the Guildford bash in August? I don't mind driving - I am there every damn day so one more won't hurt - and have a cunning plan to park (oh all right the office car park just round the corner & box any b@st@rd in who shouldn't be there) [i]Steps back and waits for flood of "got any more room?" posts [/i]

[quote name='dr.funk' post='29614' date='Jul 10 2007, 10:12 AM']My first set of Elixirs arrived this morning, can't wait to try them out [/quote] .....and? I have to say I started using Elixirs a couple of years back and though they are expensive they just go on [i][b][size=4][u]forever[/u][/size][/b][/i] are even in tone across the neck and keep that tone pretty much until I realise that they are starting to look a little skanky and need changing. The first set I got were freebies at the Guitar show in Wembley and I was hooked. Next year I bought a box from the Strings Direct stand (or possibly Stringbusters) at a knockdown price. This year no one seemed to be selling the bass strings so I could not stock up again damn them!!! The box by the way has lasted two years of an average gig + rehearsal a week, and its not that I do not change the strings regularly, its that they hold tone for so long even beating them up quite hard with a plectrum. IMHO after too many years playing you can buy cheaper, but it really is a false economy unless you find that elusive string that lasts with the sound you want

[quote name='bassninja' post='35500' date='Jul 22 2007, 11:39 AM']Anybody else play Bognor Rox event over the weekend?[/quote] Hi & welcome from another Newbie. Didn't make Rox this year. The rest of the band were in London to see Spamalot arranged ages ago so it was a bit of a bugger that we were asked this year. Mind your the last two times we almost did it as a band it was either hurling it down (so we ended up doing the gig in an obliging pub on the front) or started hurling it down 2 songs into the set, so our record with the weather as a full band is not good.

[quote name='ped' post='34615' date='Jul 20 2007, 01:10 PM']Hopefully I will be able to come too, having an operation on Monday so may be recovered enough in time. What better to get me back on my feet than a bass fest?[/quote] Want to compare scars!? OK praps not!! New knuckle 14/6/07, replaced shoulder 22/2/05, & that's so far. Might be able to make it. Are we still talking somewhere in Guildford? I couldn't immediately see skipping back through the thread tonight when I should be in my pit

In a similar sort of dilemma. A few years back I went over to using a Bass Pod Pro XT straight to the PA which sound awesome out front and through my IEM, but have had a few mutters re on stage monitoring, despite the foldback strewn about. So I have started carrying round my TE 122H combo and sending a separate feed to that. Trouble is whilst it works OK it doesn't fit in the car easily ([i]what the hell sort of decision making reason is that!!! [/i]) and is a bit big to use for smaller acoustic gigs possibly on the horizon for which I was toying with getting an EUB. I also have to bear in mind the fact that my joints are slowly but surely giving out & being replaced so weight / portability is a factor, as is size in the smallest of gigs. So I have looked at a GK Backline 112, and Markbass CMD121H to date. I have also seen but not tried the Silver series Edens & wondered. I have even considered a s/h TE BLX combo, which certainly seemed a possibility. Lastly there is an EBS 1x12 Drome Either of the first two would fit the car bill & both sounded good in the shop at least. The BLX knocked out the power sufficiently for onstage monitoring, but the two I found in shops looked expensive for the state they were in! EBS I have not had a chance to try yet in the combo version. Eden I merely threw into the pot The GK has the benefit of the kickback & is quite a bit cheaper than the MB, but almost certainly does not have headroom that the MB would. There is of course nothing to stop one using a lump of 2x4, or even the MB fold away stand. The MB combo is [i]incredibly [/i]light but certainly seemed to pump out bass. Is it a one trick pony as I have heard suggested - pass. Chances are if you can find a good tone, which certainly seemed possible, that's enough isn't it? Certainly live with the Bass Pod I really only use 3 main patches with a couple of other for short boosted sections. I really need to take my bass along and stick it through the GK & MB. There was very nearly a "SODIT" moment this morning for the MB, but I have a few weeks off for other band members hols so there is no huge rush just at the mo.

[quote name='overwater#1' post='6121' date='May 24 2007, 10:52 PM']Now thats cool! [/quote] YAY!! I had a couple of those (Shergolds) years back, a black fretless, and a black fretted that got painted with a silver burst and turned into an 8 string They were my first "proper" basses

Other: Wal Pro1 updated to Custom with Hipshot D-Tuner added The headstock zoom was due to someone on another forum saying my name reminded them of WalMart - DOH!

Morning from another Sussex member Al

Well here I am back again. Been playing for more years than I care to mention & slowly being rebuilt by medics as body parts fail, but still not letting it stop me. Play along the South Coast (mainly between Littlehampton & Southampton) in a rock covers band called The Alibi. Prior to that in a band called A Kind of Fury with the same drummer & guitarist but a different vocalist Gear wise a Wal Pro1 uprated to Custom actives, a Line6 BassPod Pro XT straight to the PA and presently looking at a small MarkBass combo for rehearsals & small gigs to replace the Trace Elliot 122H combo