Jakester

It must be great being so amazing that you never make a mistake, eh? Thanks for coming down off your pedestal to let the rest of us know how great you are though. In the grand scheme of things it isn't life or death. It isn't even a particularly expensive item. I am less irritated by this particular occurrence as I am with the general trend of retailers (and in the main it seems to be music retailers) to advertise stuff as 'in stock' when it isn't. Yep, that's how it should be. Anything else is just 'bait and switch' and poor customer service.

I’ll wait for it to arrive first. That said, they’re not a mainstream retailer so not sure what difference it’ll make anyway.

If it included microchips I'd understand, but it doesn't!

Sorry in advance, rant incoming. Why to shops say items are in stock, when they aren't in stock? I ordered something from a well-known UK musical instrument supplier (probably not who you're thinking of though!) last week. The item I ordered was showing as "in stock" on their webpage. I ordered specifically from them because it was marked as "in stock" as I needed it for this coming weekend. Everywhere else had it marked 'to order' or 'back ordered'. It has been five days since I placed the order, so I've just given them a call just to check it will arrive in time. "Oh, it's been delayed coming from our supplier", was the answer. "But your website said you had it 'in stock'?' queried I. "Well, when it arrives with us from our supplier we will have it in stock, won't we?" came the response. "But that doesn't mean it was in stock with you when I placed my order on the basis of it saying 'in stock' on your website, does it?" quoth I. "But it will be when it arrives with us, won't it?" was the further retort. I mean? Whut? If it is not physically in their possession pending delivery, it is not "in stock". It is "on order" or "awaiting delivery" or "backordered". Even more clearly, it is a product which can be 'ordered on request'. It's now too late to get from anywhere else in time so I have to hope it will arrive with them in time to be sent to me. This sort of thing really boils my fosters. IT IS NOT 'IN STOCK' IF YOU HAVE TO ORDER IT FOR THE CUSTOMER!! THE FACT YOU CAN GET IT SUPPOSEDLY WITHIN A DAY DOES NOT MAKE IT 'IN STOCK'. IT IS DEFINITELY NOT IN STOCK IF THE SHIPMENT IS DELAYED FROM YOUR SUPPLIER!!! 😡 I have no problem with retailers not holding stock and ordering on request. In fact, it seems sensible to me. But saying you are in possession of an item when you are not I find really annoying. It seems to be very much particular to the music industry, too. And breathe....

Ooh, cool, I'll try to head down. My jazz jam is on the Thursday before if you're interested? https://www.bathfringe.co.uk/event/jazz-social/

Could you not just apply another veneer to the top, a'la @Andyjr1515?

So I had a bit more of a tinker, rejigged the preset order and had a play with the on/off state in the C4 editor, and it's clearly a DMC setting rather than a C4 one. I think I've seen something that says there's a global on/off setting for preset selection so I'll have another go later on. Almost there though!

You have access to 3 presets via the toggle switch and another via via the alt button. I’m struggling to think of another pedal the covers as much range that doesn’t need at least one hand control as well as pedal switch - I suppose you’re looking up a range at the Helix stuff?

Well, I thought it was interesting… 🤣

Like many others on here, I've been tinkering with various multi fx and controlling them via external pedals. I had a Zoom MS50B a while ago which I was controlling using a Gen2 DMC Micro, but I found I wasn't really using all of the effects on it, and those that I was sounded slightly lacklustre (IMVHO). So I recently found myself with a Source Audio C4, which I love. The editing options are way beyond whatever I can think of, and it covers all of my effects bases, which is squidgy filters, the odd octaver, chorus and some nasty synth bass occasionally. I predominantly got the C4 to use as a filter with additional options (yes, I know the Spectrum is a better 'standalone' filter but I wanted the occasion synth option). However, I've rapidly found myself using it a lot more which meant I was needing to use more than the 6 switchable presets (I mean, I wasn't using them all at once but I wanted to be able to change presets more easily on the fly). Which meant going back to something like the DMC Micro I had with the Zoom. The downside of using the Micro with the C4 was, unlike on the Zoom, there was no display, so the Micro only showed preset number. OR SO I THOUGHT! Looking at the latest version of the DMC Micro, the Pro, it has a new OLED display screen which means it can show present names as well as numbers! Perfect, so I decided to buy one from Andertons. First downside - Andertons don't sell the gHOST USB adaptor. I've bought one from Disaster Area direct in the past, but for a cheap cable dongle it came to about £25 once shipping was included. Plus, that was pre-B-word so I have no idea how that might have affected things. I reasoned that Disaster Area probably wouldn't have manufactured their own USB Host cables, so took a punt on this for the princely sum of £2.95: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DM6EMQ2/ Along with a generic USB-B to USB-mini cable. The last of these arrived this morning, so had a punt at wiring it all up and DISASTER - it wouldn't communicate with the C4! Dangit, thought I - should have splashed out on the DA one instead. Start going back through the manual and I'd overlooked "make sure the MIDI channel on your device is set to 1". Delve into the C4 setup screen, and voila! They're talking. Problem 2 - despite loading in the presets on the C4, the Micro was only showing numbers. More delving in suggests irritatingly the present names don't carry over, so you have to manually edit the names on the Micro to correspond with the names on the C4. Someone suggested online editing on the pedal itself - which frankly sounded like a nightmare to me. Thankfully Disaster Area have a webpage editor, but even that is a little fiddly - you have reconfigure the Micro to USB MIDI to communicate with your computer, and you have a character limit of 8 letters/numbers. However, once it's done, it's done, so (leaving aside the fact I clearly forgot to do present no16) I can now have all the present names displayed on the Micro and cycle through the C4 presets easily. Hurrah! Only downside so far is cycling through switches the preset on - I'm sure there's a setting somewhere so more digging needed. So far it's seeming like a great solution.

Was going to ask a question about a pedal, but then went for a good deal on something else instead!

Recently did a gig where someone else was using my amp (combo and ext cab). Horrible farting noise coming from the combo, ‘crap, it’s blown the speaker’ we think, unplug that and just use the ext, ‘oh no, awful farting sound still, head is knackered, what can we do?’ Turns out the guy just hadn’t properly pushed his jack into his bass. Second set after someone else had used it, first chap back again - ‘oh no, no sound, head is fecked, check all the connections, it’s borked’ - he hadn’t pushed the amp end of the jack properly into the amp. 🙄

Just bought and absolute minter of Lakland 55-02 off Les/Dusty. He was hugely helpful in arranging handover and is a lovely chap to boot. The bass was/is mintier than an extra strong polo. Highly recommended!

Could you not get someone to rewire the pots on the Sire onto a custom control plate? So replace the single pots with stacked pots and put those into a new custom control plate, such as you can get here: https://www.dragonfireguitars.com/Custom-Designed-Jazz-Bass-Control-Plate-Build-Your-Own-Plate-10408.htm Or are they all fixed onto the preamp board?

One of the 90's/early 00's Yamaha 5-strings would be my suggestion, like the BBN5. There's always a couple buzzing around on FB or in the classifieds here.

I would be massively surprised if the pickups had 'gone'. Having had a few Yamaha basses in my time, I do know some of them use pickups which are of an unusual impedance and therefore don't play nicely with aftermarket preamps without a buffer to bring the impedance to the level the preamp is expecting. See this thread on Talkbass for example: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/help-obp-3-in-a-yamaha-bb5na.179659/ I don't know whether or not that is the same with your daughter's RBX 760a; I haven't been able to find a spec for the pups, but from photos I've seen it looks like they could be the same as other Yamaha pups which might suggest that could be the problem. Can you put the original pre-amp back in with the new jack socket and see if that works? If so, that could be the issue.

Our local rehearsal room studio outfitted their rooms with the HH stuff (mixers and speakers). Three months later it was all replaced as it had all failed. Possibly cheap but for a good reason?

I recently picked up an SE Electronics X1D and it's great for low frequency stuff where a kick drum mic EQ might be too 'preshaped'. Properly cheap as chips too. I also have some SE1As and their sound belies their price tag, though probably not a large diaphragm you need for some of the uses you mentioned. Good for acoustic guitar though.

Pedantic, and your interpretation is wrong in my view. I think it would probably be fair to consider each of the members of a band either in a partnership, or if genuinely hired by a band leader they would be self-employed contractors. In such circumstances where they are supplying their own equipment the onus would not be on the 'band leader' but each respective contractor. I think this takes it too far. If you consider a building site where there are many trades coming in as self-employed contractors; if you placed an onus on the main contractor to ensure safety of all of its subbies' own equipment, nothing would get done. Where equipment is provided then absolutely, but if a sub-contractor is providing his own equipment then it is that subbie's responsibility.

Speaking as someone who used to advise insurers on claims, if a venue required you (as the insured party) to supply evidence that equipment had been PAT tested and you bought stickers pretending they had been, and then one of your untested electrical items caught fire, I'd be looking at the least to decline your claim on the basis you failed to take reasonable steps to prevent loss or damage; or potentially on grounds of fraud or moral hazard (i.e. you procured the engagement on the basis of false representations to the venue). At best, your insurers may potentially pay the third party claim and come after you; at worst, they could look to avoid your policy and leave you to deal with the claim. Similarly, if you weren't insured and represented to the venue that your equipment had been tested when it hadn't, I would fully expect the venue's insurers to come after you to try and recoup some of the cost of any damage caused. If you had had your gear tested, and it passed, at the least you could say you acted reasonably and were not therefore negligent. Putting PAT stickers on untested equipment is the worst of both worlds - it shows you are aware of a potential need to have your equipment tested, but have deliberately chosen not to. If you haven't had it done or don't want to, don't fake it as it could make things much, much worse. And as noted above, the only legal requirement as regards PAT testing is on employers to supply equipment which is 'safe' to employees; one way of demonstrating it is safe is to have it PAT tested. If you are not an employer you have no legal obligation to have your equipment PAT tested. However, a venue may make it a requirement for access that you have your gear PAT tested. It's worth noting that there's no specific qualification required to carry out PAT testing; you just need to be a 'competent person'. I'm considering going on a PAT testing course and buying a tester so I can do my own gear, but not sure whether economically that makes sense, as I have someone that does it for £40 for up to 40 items; it looks like a basic tester is around £200, plus the cost of the course. If you had more items, or perhaps ran a studio it might be more cost-effective.

Pfft, I just dived straight in, no experience at all. My view is the only way I'll learn is by doing. Get stuck in! What's the worst that could happen? So you play a few bum notes? I did my first DB gig the weekend before last; a mix of popular tunes in which I stood and was amplified, and orchestral stuff in which I sat with another DB player. It's fair to say the latter showed I have a lot to work on - I reckon I probably got 1 of every 3 notes right (😉, at one point the endpin started slipping on the floor so I was chasing the bass, and I'm pretty sure I played one piece with all F naturals instead of Fsharp, but you know what? Everyone (even the other DB player) complimented me on my playing. To quote a well-known cobbler, 'just do it!"