Graham

Went there last week, Mark was very obliging, let me try pretty much anything I wanted and kept bringing me new basses to try, determined by what I told him I liked in a bass. It was a great experience, I worked out the next day I'd played £15680.00 of basses in the couple of hours I was there and it turned out the one I liked best was the first one I'd tried and was the second cheapest!

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1377626655' post='2189634'] Also, the Fafner is a great amp! [/quote] Oh aye, best amp I ever owned - had to move it on and go lightweight/compact due to space in our current house. I'd have one again in a flash if we had the space though.

on a metal front, Rex Brown from Pantera/Down has a great sense of groove, very underated player who gave up a jazz scholarship to go on tour with Pantera

It's a bass in a shop in France that they've listed on Ebay.fr - there's a buy it now or best offer option and the buy it now is a bit more than I can afford, I've made two (lowball) offers to try my luck which have been automatically rejected, I'll put in my final best offer tomorrow after I can drop a little more money off at the bank.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1377690423' post='2190364'] Voici les textes concernés... [url="http://economie.fgov.be/fr/consommateurs/Pratiques_commerce/Ventes_distance/"]http://economie.fgov...entes_distance/[/url] ...à consulter. Bon courage. In essence, protection is very much the same as in the UK. There's a 14-day retraction period, goods should be as described, and if they're not, the contract is not applicable. Hope this helps... [/quote] Thanks Dad, I was hoping you were going to weigh in. That link tallies with the returns terms in the Ebay add, just got to hope they accept my third offer which is as high as I can go.

Sorry if this has been covered before, but just to put my mind at ease, distance selling regulationa cover the whole EU don't they? I'm about to put an offer on a bass in a French shop and want to make sure I'm covered before I pull the trigger.

Our eldest likes Hey How You Doing by Little Mix, which is an awful song but has a great basslin I had a go at playing it and found it quite challenging.

[quote name='Phil Adams' timestamp='1377634244' post='2189777'] +1 to the generally held view that it is largely mass produced and (expecting fully to be shot down) characterless to lovers of more serious music. Metal to me seems more about hair, tapping and selling albums than about expressing music beliefs. Awaits barrage of abuse from 14 year old headbangers............. [/quote] Well I'm twice that age, and don't plan on sending a barrage of abuse, but apart from a small selection of avant garde music that statement could be applied to any genre of music. In addition, there are plenty of smaller metal acts with no illusions of selling records and are simply doing it for the love of playing music and I think you'd be hard pressed to suggest that bands like Neurosis, Cave In, Akercocke or Sikth to give a few examples aren't interested in musical expression.

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1377616378' post='2189435'] It is the same venue. It is called Audio now though the general set up of the venue has changed a fair bit now. There isn't an EBS backline now but there certainly could have been EBS backline at Rockers before it went under. I never entered Rockers after 2007, though I can't remember any house backline being there when I was playing there prior to that (though I can remember trying to carry my old battered Trace Elliot combo to and from said venue!). [/quote] This would have been January 2010 when my old metal band toured up there, I remember bringinf my rack-mount Fafner head in and being surprised by there being almost the same amp on stage already. Not a bad little venue, shame we didn't fill it more tbh, but then we were trying to punch above our weight in the touring stakes.

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1377600237' post='2189154'] Can you recall what venue that was? I have never seen an EBS rig the as house backline at a local venue. There are a few HD350s in a local rehearsal studio, but not many Proline or Neoline cabs about. I actually only know one bassist who owns such an EBS rig of EBS amp and cabs. It might have been his rig! [/quote] I think it was called Rockers, had lots of band t-shirts on the walls, Audio is a possibile name too, but I think it was Rockers.

[quote name='redbandit599' timestamp='1377597879' post='2189110'] A bit off topic but Sam Dunn's film 'Metal - A Headbangers Journey' is pretty good and worth a look for either metal fans or anyone with an interest in music (pop or otherwise ) [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal:_A_Headbanger"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal:_A_Headbanger's_Journey[/url] [/quote] That is a great film, Mayhem are hilarious in it.

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1377558646' post='2188900'] Being in the EU it is fairly easy to source (ie buy) most kind of amps. Being in Scotland though, I don't see many of the boutique brands like Bergantino, Genz Benz or even much EBS stuff. Lots of Ashdown, Ampeg, Hartke, second hand Trace Elliot. Fair amount of Aguilar too. [/quote] That's interesting, I played at a small venue in Glasgow where the house amp was an EBS - TD650 and Proline cabs if memory serves, from that I assumed they had a fairly good presence north of the border.

As with most genres of music there's popular stuff that tends to appeal to younger or more casual listeners - radio metal is the term I use to think of it: Lamb Of God, Devildriver, Machine Head, Soil, Ill Nino, Killswitch Engage, almost any band on Roadrunner Records who you see proping up the first and second stage at Download. Then if you're willing to dig a bit deeper there are some phenomenal bands out there at the moment, particularly in the doom, grind and black metal genres, though obviously these more abrasive styles require a bit more of the listener and tend to put off tourists (apart from the hipster types who just want to say they listen to the most brutal things going). Anaal Nathrakh, Witchsorrow, Dillinger Escape Plan and Terror are the first names to jump to mind doing great things at the moment and Napalm Death are still releasing brilliant albums 30 years down the line: Utilitarian was a cracking record. So horses for courses really, if you want the more Metal Hammer/Kerrang friendly metal it's out there (I was enjoying a bit of Lamb Of God myself the other day), or if you want something heavier, more artistic, more interesting and dare I say it, better it's there too, but to suggest modern metal is irrelevant and lacking in quality is just daft.

I think a simpler solution would be something like a Radial Bassbone which allows you to switch between instruments and correct the output if they're at different volumes. http://www.tonebone.com/tb-bassbone.htm If those MXR pedals are what I'm thinking of, then you won't have much clean headroom on them before they start to break up.

Well, you'll kill the re-sale value, but if it's the one you've always kept and probably always will, does that matter?

A mate of mine has started working for them recently, he said there's a re-launch coming soon.

I was there today, spotted that but forgot to ask Mark for a go on it, played some other great basses though.

This video has it all: power metal, leather, studs, pointy guitars.............curling........... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAtBVRFD_Zg

It's not putting me off getting one, I'm strongly leaning towards trading in my Duck Dunn for an American Standard, but I think I'd go used from the '08-'11 era and possibly change the pickup for a Fralin/BK/Nordstrand....etc

I haven't played an '08 model Fender, but played a couple of '12 model Precisions recently and was in 2 minds about them, on one hand I loved the neck, really comfortable and I think the 1.625" nut width is just right for me, they were also unbelievably light. On the other hand, and to your point, I wasn't so impressed with the tone, very good, but not too Stellar - far more low end than was useable, particularly on the rosewood model, and this was with fresh strings in the shop.