fretmeister

1. Do you prefer buying from a music shop or online shop? Depends on the product. Pedals etc online. Basses over £1000 - in person, under £1000 I'll take a punt if the shop's reputation about returns is solid 2. Do you prefer to try before you buy? Sometimes. 3. In your experience what is missing from most music stores you have visited? Educated staff and range of choice 4. How far would you travel to go to music shop Chain - no more than an hour Specialist - 2 hours. 5. What would attract you to a music shop ie range, price etc Actually putting accurate weights for every instrument. But in summary - don't do it. You can't compete with Thomann and Andertons and the like. Andertons stock a million quid's worth of just Gibson to get bulk discounts. You won't beat them on Gibson and Fender prices. You have even less hope on the "price is all that matters" products like strings and pedals - you are competing with Amazon as well as the online music giants for that. Unless you can specialise to a massive degree (like Bass Direct for example) the day of the independent music shop, at least in modern electric instruments, is over. You might also want to look up stats on first year retail bankruptcies.

Worked well? Reputation wise maybe. Not financially. They are 1 unexpectedly large heating bill away from collapsing.

You are absolutely right about the appeal of the good old Fender bass, and that many producers will say "have you bought your Fender?" when turning up to a studio. But that's also because the producer / engineer is damn lazy and hasn't found out how to record other basses. Steve Swallow's anecdotes about that very problem are quite revealing. He only plays his Harvey Citron bass and nothing else. He's booked because of his "sound" and yet every time "Where's your Fender...?" I'm not convinced much holds it value anymore - a quick look at the classifieds or ebay shows that, but a US Standard is one that suffers less soul crushing depreciation than others. But that doesn't seem to be true of the Vintage range or of the Mex range. Other brands have it worse, but only in comparison to the US Standards and not the others. But despite all that the main thing is - Fender claim things are new when they are not. They haven't done anything innovative in the world of bass guitar since they designed the jazz bass. For that reason spec changes (not upgrades) reek of money for old rope and price gouging. Fender churn them out on highly efficient CNC machines and the used market is saturated. A US Fender doesn't hold it's value as much as it used to and until Fender reduce production numbers to just meet demand rather than just running the CNC machines at full throttle all the time the depreciation will increase. The entire point of the Vintage models is to go back in time to the glory days. Of course they look lovely and no doubt some prefer those older designs. But to charge more for a demonstrably poorer design is taking the fosters. Either that or bassists (me included because I really want a relic'd jazz like Bobby Vega's!!) are gullible nobbers.

That's my thought. I'll have a 50s Mex any day.

I like solo bass. But I like buskers to play songs that I recognise more.

Geddy Lee and Marcus Miller models have been around for years.

Is it in the wrong place? I thought it looked ok. But I've never owned a 70s either.

Thick end of 2k for a mass produced precision is taking the fosters. and what is going on with the mismatched lacquer on the 70s jazz?

Roland Bass Cube 30. Superb amp in every way.

I think the shortest time from 1st rehearsal to gig for me was about 3 weeks, But we'd all done the cover band thing before and we made a set up of tunes we already knew just to get going quickly. Other bands have taken months.

I think I read that the NG2 now has a slightly slimmer neck too - front to back. That would get me in trouble as well!

That's quite interesting. But at the same time if I can get away with a 10 pence dish cleaning sponge then I'll probably stick to that. I could see the mechanical version being very useful if there were many changes in a set though.

I’ve got pink foam! On a cream white bass! Looks hideous!

I’ve been experimenting with strings lately on my P-Ray 5. I got a set of La Bella Low Tension Flats which I love. But for my current gig I need good thuddy noises for half the tunes and a bit of zing and dirt for the rest. I do not want to take 2 Basses. i have no idea why I haven’t tried it before but I put my favourite Prosteels on this evening and then stuck a load of foam under the strings and knocked the tone control down a bit. It’s not identical to the flat sound of course, but damn it’s close! And I can whip the foam out halfway through the set. i feel a bit thick for not trying it before!

Yes please. 2 of each!

VR rig for my PC probably.

2 options I can see. 1: He thinks because it will be a rosewood board the value will go up. 2: He doesn't want to sell but he wants his wife to think that he is trying to sell it. This is a useful tactic. Ahem.

Helix and a power amp.

I've had regular white nylons and really liked them. Seemed to have a harder surface than the black nylons, and were smoother to the touch.

The tension on the La Bella low tension flats is only a little higher than the TI. They are very close. If you like your La Bella FLs you might want to just try a lighter gauge of them instead

Lovely on my P-Ray 5.

I like old steels. The ones on my Marleaux have been on for about 4 year and they are great. My P-Ray has La Bella Low Tension Flats. I really like them, but they are a bit crap for modern rock. Old steels would suit better but it’s a bright bass and it would take years to bed in a set properly.

Crisco is a solid veg oil. Veg lard really.