tauzero

[quote name='radansey' post='104524' date='Dec 14 2007, 09:47 PM']Looks and sounds great. I need to sort out the castors - not sure whether to screw directly into the bottom of the cab or make a 'skateboard' to wheel it around from A to B. Any suggestions/advice??[/quote]
Yes, get a folding sack truck instead. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160189342261"]Like this.[/url] It has the advantage of forward compatibility with whatever heavyweight you get in the future, and your amp won't run away when you play on a sloping stage...

[quote name='ARGH' post='104745' date='Dec 15 2007, 07:51 PM']So where do all the Washburn Status's go Dave?[/quote]
There was one in PMT a few weeks ago. I picked it up and played a couple of notes and put it straight back down. I've never encountered a bass with no sustain whatsoever before, not even with ten-year-old strings on. Were they all that bad?

+ 9

= 156

Grrrr. It's a Trace 1115, which is the 150W 1x15" combo decombofied. Have emailed him to tell him it's not a 500W - wouldn't have bid for it had I known it was the 150. I await his response...

The Aria Rhino seems like a nice budget bass, though I haven't yet plugged it in. Does need strings and a little setting up. Bolt-on, maple neck which feels like the sort of profile I like, lacquer over what could well be a maple body.

[quote name='Davetbass' post='104091' date='Dec 13 2007, 09:25 PM']Was gassing for a natural finish maple spector and tracked down the only supplier in Edinburgh (sound control). Phoned the shop and was greeted by an enthusiastic young dude who told me to ask for him personally and he`d take me through all the basses they had. Good so far! When I got to the shop the next day he was really friendly and showed me all the stuff in my price range £800. Problem for me was...EVERY single bass was horrifically set up and sounded crap as a result! This didn`t inspire me to buy anything so I left empty handed and a bit deflated. Another shock was an £800 Spector doesn`t come with a hardcase![/quote]
Sound Control in Brum was similar - the Spectors were dreadfully set up. I know that Joe the tech who has the shop next door (I think it's all part of the Sound Control empire) is pretty busy but even if he was too busy to do the setup, anyone with the ability to use some pretty basic tools could have set up the basses a lot better than they were. Maybe I should offer to do their setups for them for a fiver a bass...

OTOH, it does say something to me about Spectors - that they can't even get a good approximation of a setup at the factory. One or two of them felt as if they were pretty good basses under the setup, but none of them gave me any sort of buzz.

[quote name='nick' post='104267' date='Dec 14 2007, 12:37 PM']After watching this now a few times, I have to concede (IMO) it as being genius.
Infinitely more entertaining than watching a seven string bass rendition of some Bach, or some jazz wig-out etc....
Brilliant![/quote]
For extra entertainment, reading the comments by 173 berks who didn't realise that it was theatre is a must. Wonder what they'd say about Alice Cooper's guillotining? That he deserved it, or what a miracle it was that he'd come back to life afterwards?

[quote name='metaltime' post='99857' date='Dec 5 2007, 09:24 PM']For this band i have needed to adopt a three finger plucking technique and i think that might be a factor.[/quote]
Right, first question - which arm (knowing you're left-handed)?

Second question - why do you need the three-finger plucking?

It has had a mention [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344951"]on Talkbass.[/url]

[quote name='jammie17' post='104039' date='Dec 13 2007, 08:01 PM']Ahh..thank you Bill...I did mis-state. Let me re-state. 300 watt amp with multipal taps on it. 2, 4, 8. Amplifier is claimed to deliver 300 watts into evey load, however, if you hook up the same load, say, 4 ohms, to the different taps, you get three different volume levels. Why? Three different Voltages delivered at those different outputs.

Voltage = volume...so in the ohms law it would be best to have more voltage with less current....but then speaker control would suffer.[/quote]
Um, no. Valve output stages use transformers, unlike SS ones which are direct. When you're powering something via a transformer, you get maximum power transfer when the impedance of the transformer is equal to that of the load (if the load impedance was higher, the amount of current flowing in the circuit would decrease, and if the load impedance was lower, it would have a reduced proportion of the voltage). So if you hook up a 2 ohm load to the 2 ohm tap, you'll get the same volume as if you hook up an 8 ohm load to the 8 ohm tap (assuming speakers of identical efficiency).

An SS output stage is different - it is delivering a voltage swing which can be up to 0.6V away from the power supply rail voltage. The internal resistance of the amp is as low as possible, the voltage is a constant, so the lower the load impedance, the more volume you'll get. Due to the fact the amp does have some internal impedance, the available output voltage is split between the internal resistance and the load, so the lower the impedance of the load, the smaller the proportion of output voltage it will get, which is why an SS amp will deliver, say, 250W into 8 ohms and 350W into 4 ohms, rather than the 500W you might expect.

[quote name='largo' post='104110' date='Dec 13 2007, 10:06 PM']I can see the point of a backup bass but other than that it's all just GAS ! Don't be too proud to admit it.[/quote]
We lose enough momentum with the audience as it is when the singer asks if anyone's got a birthday and so on. Defretting a bass between numbers is really going to slow things down. Especially with the refret three songs later.

[quote name='Musky' post='104139' date='Dec 13 2007, 11:33 PM']Cracking buy! What was the bass by the way, or do you not know (or even care!) yet?[/quote]
It's an Aria Rhino:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260185842563"]Original Aria Rhino auction[/url]

Couldn't find out much about it except that the switches are (IIRC) active/passive and alternative combinations of the two humbucker coils. I'm quite surprised that Arias in general don't seem to be exactly setting the world on fire on ebay. Or maybe instrument sales generally are slowing down a lot, even in the mid-range area of Arias and Westones.

What a marvellous coincidence:

[attachment=4125:coincide...ick_4003.jpg]

[quote name='bremen' post='103886' date='Dec 13 2007, 02:37 PM']It'd have to sound mighty fine, and play itself, to compensate for the way it looks. IMHO.[/quote]
It looks a bit like the bastard lovechild of a Streamer and a Bongo, with a Rick somewhere in the family tree, and with Steve Wishnevsky roped in to do the control plate.

I thought for that price it would be rude not to have it...

[quote name='TimmyC' post='100785' date='Dec 7 2007, 11:34 AM']Going out there and looking for effects for the sake of effects is a dangerous and expensive world.[/quote]
Just trying them out can be very expensive - I went to try out a Boss octaver twenty years ago and finished up with a Warwick Thumb (and £900 in those days was, well, £900). Never did get an octaver, though there's one in my BP-200. Still got the Warwick though. So to keep your spending under control, either take your own bass or use a crappy one to try out the effects...

+1 to the multifx, anyway - I've had a Boss ME-6B and now have a Digitech BP-200 (TBH, I was in two minds as to which to keep). Cheaper multifx (and some dearer ones) have the rather less convenient up/down patch switching system. Ones like the ME-6B and its successors have direct bank/patch selection by footswitch. I'm probably sticking with the multifx for the time being rather than going to separates anyway.

[quote name='s_u_y_*' post='101092' date='Dec 7 2007, 07:42 PM']All I read was "leather over carbon fibre"... I knew it was pointless reading the rest. My wallet jumped away from me.[/quote]
All I read was "Loading...". CBA with Flash sites, life's too short.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='103696' date='Dec 13 2007, 07:48 AM']There is a genuine reason to have private bidding though. When I sold regularly on eBay (not usually bass related items they were multitools and Leathermans) I got emails from potential buyers (who had bids on my items) that they had been contacted by other ebayers offering identical items for either less money or they guaranteed to sell for less than xy or z amount. In the end I bowed to the pressure and I started to make my listings private, funnily enough one of the guiltiest sellers of this sniping, started making all of his listings BIN.[/quote]
Perhaps the answer is to have bidders' IDs shown publicly in the bidding history after the auction has closed. Still not ideal, admittedly.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='103623' date='Dec 12 2007, 11:28 PM']'Oooch dearie me' did I say that he would get at least £711

And the second highest bid from someone who kept bidding up in small increments was... £711[/quote]
Whoever it was (Bidder 1) didn't keep bidding up in small increments, they were the first bidder and put in a £711 bid on 6th Dec. The rest of the bidding was on 12th Dec. It does look somewhat fishy - if Bidder 1 is morkeal, it downright stinks (a good reason for bids not to be anonymous).

Covers band:

1 bass in hard case
1 GK 200MB combo (may be replaced by rackmount head and 1x10" cab in the future)
1 aluminininium box with leads, wireless gear, and cheat notes for "Music"
1 stool
1 guitar stand

Ceilidh band:

1 electric upright bass in case
1 bass in hard case
1 Crate powerbrick
2 Skylab 150W PA speakers (these and the powerbrick are for foldback)
1 bag of leads
1 top hat
1 straw hat
1 guitar stand

Open mic night:

1 bass in hard case
1 book of chords for things people have played in the past

Oh, and I have sufficient tuners to have one per instrument in the case (well, that's the theory, I need another couple of tuners)

It's easiest to do if you've got more than two hands. You need to keep the peg pressed down (doesn't have to be terribly hard) while keeping some tension on the string by pulling it up or to one side (this can all be done with one hand) while turning the tuner and trying to guide the string onto the tuner shaft (this is the bit that really could do with two hands, making a grand total of three).

Guitar - a few months before joining a school band playing Glenn Miller covers to play rhythm guitar.

Bass - started playing bass after we put the band together at university and I was voted bass player. Played for a few months, did a practice gig and then the hall of residence end of year do (and got paid too!) and then dropped out of university and didn't play bass again for a few years.

My house. Well, my house without the bitch-spawn from hell in it anyway.

My experience may well be coloured by the fact that I've been going to Musical Exchange (as it was then) in Brum since it was in Broad Street, which was mid-70s. Since then it's moved halfway across town, and more recently, changed to being a Sound Control. Obviously, over the years, I've got to know the staff a little bit, and as I occasionally spend money in there, they'll humour me.

PMT in Brum is AFAIK run by Gary, who is a former Musical Exchange man (I think he owned it), and there seems to be the old ethos of Musical Exchange to the place, helpful enough and also not pushy.

What I miss is the second-hand instruments. Musical Exchange used to be mainly second-hand instruments (or "pre-enjoyed" if they're something like Parker Flys). Now it's all new, with a little corner for slightly injured or unloved instruments. Hmmm, I feel another visit to Bob at Stirchley Musical Exchange (which is a second-hand shop) coming on.

I've been a multiple bass owner for much of my bass playing life - nowadays I tend to restrict myself to one bass per category, so I would have to have a particular reason to buy either a 4- or 5-string fretted, or a 4-string fretless, as I have now got the best of each of those categories that I have encountered. I still have to make a decision on the 5-string fretless Tsai but will probably be keeping it, and the 7-string will be staying too. I don't want to burn bridges by going to 5 strings to the exclusion of 4s, hence I will have at least three and probably at least five basses for the foreseeable future. Wouldn't mind a 5-string headless like an XZ-25 too, for entirely practical reasons.

[quote name='Dazzlovski' post='99243' date='Dec 4 2007, 10:16 PM']All that remains is to pick the right unit. Tascam or Pandora?, CD or Mp3 ? [/quote]
Digitech BP-200, Aiwa combined CD/MP3 player (as long as you've got a CD burner to burn MP3s to CD)