Kiwi

I just watched their DVD of the final concert in Japan last week and started liking them more than ever. Some of their stuff has really stood the test of time. Whats with Eric Martin's Mod hair though? Has he been watching 60's videos of Roger Daltrey with The Who?

[quote name='funkypenguin' post='480535' date='May 5 2009, 11:35 PM']Active EQ gives you more options IMO, by allowing greater manipulation of your bass sound.[/quote] Well that's the thing for me, I don't think it does! Most onboard eq's aren't sophisticated enough to compensate for stage acoustics. They were first used before tweeters were built into cabs and back line was pretty lo-fi by comparison to todays equipment. So back in the 70's it did make a difference to have that extra boost at either end of the frequency spectrum. But with brands like the Hartke, Behringer and Peavey being so affordable, is there any need for it? If you use it to help emulate the sounds of other basses most of them are passive anyway and dependent more on pickup design and placement than what kind of eq is onboard. If you have to use it to get your bass to sound right before you start playing then you've got the wrong tool for the job and even if you choose to use it mid set because you can't hear yourself then it buggers up the levels on the FOH desk.

thanks Nick, S_u_y_

FWIW, I'm going off the idea of active electronics and especially EMG pickups. I've had a load of active eqs in my instruments over the years and none of them could compensate very well for crappy stage acoustics or poor wood selection by the luthier. I'm rapidly reaching the conclusion that all the eq-ing should be taken care of by the amp anyway, not the bass. If the bass sounds crap then change the bass or maybe change the amp but there's no point in making a silk purse out of a sows ear. After having EMG's in my Spector(s) I'm going off the idea of their colouring too. They're [i]practical[/i] pickups but coloured and they suck some of the dynamics out of the instrument.

cetera would be the man to ask

unloading and setting up the PA and sound checking used to take 2 hours minimum for my former band which was a 9 piece

Interesting! Seems to be a bit of lag though. How good at tracking is it on bass I wonder, too? (His voice sounds like its on autotune, its very disconcerting)

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='479014' date='May 4 2009, 02:40 PM']Surely you mean 'down'?[/quote] If they're your tits Howard, you can have them sunny side down if you prefer. Just don't call me Shirley. Johnnylager - yes, pile her in, if she's house trained, she can keep an eye on things. I hope the other eye doesn't get bored though, its a 10-12 week journey. BTW, how many cubic metres will she occupy and what is her replacement value at destination for insurance purposes?

Sharay Reed. There's also this thread if its of interest? [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=729"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=729[/url]

Hi Don, fair point and one that has been in the back of my mind. Having said that, I think the NZ property market has been following the UK market pretty closely to date so based on that I'm not sure about how pronounced the lag is. I've also been in contact with people there already who I know and they seem fairly optimistic. However even if things go tits up, I still have immediate family to fall back on and cheaper retraining options than in the UK. For example, Christchurch has one of the cheapest commercial pilot training centres in the Commonwealth so I could potentially consider that as an option (cue: flying kiwi jokes ) So strategically and logically NZ is still the safer option for me.

[quote name='rodl2005' post='478785' date='May 4 2009, 09:57 AM']There's DEF. a market for FUNKY DANCE style stuff.... LOTSA islanders there who LOVE their funk!! As long as it's got Sooouuul!!!! Good luck Man!![/quote] Really? Definitely got to be an Auckland thing then given the largest population of pacific lslanders live there (more than in the islands!)

Walman - thanks [quote name='Kirky' post='478752' date='May 4 2009, 07:36 AM']Good luck mate. When I left NZ in the late 80s it was because I though it was a cultural desert. I think it's much less isolated these days. I almost yearn for those beaches again...almost... Martin[/quote] Martin, you're right. Musically, kiwi's like their music to have a bit of an edge to it so indie, rock and metal are all very popular along with sort of finn brothers/bic runga/conchords folky-pop type stuff. Whether there's a market for the funky, dancy kind of stuff I'm into, I don't know. I'm going to have to check that out I think.

wizbat, Born 2B Mild, silverfoxnik, benwhiteuk, grumble - thanks guys Spartacus, if I hadn't signed the contract last week I would have been extremely interested. I've gone with Doree Bonner who were the lowest on both shipping and insurance. Gnn. Nevermind, eh? MB1 - Welcome To Royston Kiwi, you can never leave. Nick - it wasn't planned this way as you well know.

Hell yes! I'll be starved of decent company out there for a while.

i had a similiar experience with a warwick cl combo and it turns out that it was over heating because it hadn't been fitted with a thermostat when it left the factory.

I tried a 5502 in the gallery yesterday. Superb instrument, looks to me like they're another company who have the wood specification spot on in terms of growl. [u]Positives: [/u] Versatility Growl warmth build quality Jazz bass sound was great weight - relatively light for what it is [u]Negatives:[/u] string spacing a little too wide (for me) neck a little too wide at nut (for me) MM pickup wasn't as grunty as a real MM (but punters probably wouldn't care, to be honest)

all sorted

Skank, Rich, Lee, Simon and Ray - thanks chaps [quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='477729' date='May 2 2009, 02:41 PM']Maybe you need to change your avatar name to [b]The Nightshift[/b] ? Hope to visit NZ one day, and maybe say hello in person. BTW, what happened to your CrazyKiwi basses you were designing/building?[/quote] Hey B2B, that would great. I'm on the verge of registering a trade mark for the brand name and I hope what I've chosen will be cooler than Crazykiwi! The design is on hold, partially because I've had to divert the funds into paying for the shipping of my stuff to NZ instead. Also, Jon has a fairly sizable order book and doesn't have the time to build the bodies at the moment with all the custom work coming in so I've decided to let things take a back seat until my situation is a little more stable and I know how much I can put into the venture. Jon will keep the necks I have in the meantime and will do the bodies if/when he has a quiet period. I suspect that might be a while yet though. The other suppliers I can sort out as/when I have the funding as the lead in times are relatively short. I will look into sourcing some decorative NZ native woods while I'm there and perhaps send some tops back to Jon so the instruments will look genuinely unique. There's even a small chance I could lay my hands on some 30,000 year old acrylised swamp kauri if I find a source. And maybe we can do a small inlay out of NZ paua shell too if I find some that isn't too wormy. I dunno, I'll have a scrounge around and see what kind of interesting stuff I can discover. It might be an idea for the basses to have random collections of scrounged pieces of wood, bone and shell, if I can weave a story behind them. I'll also be taking a couple of necks over with me and experimenting with bodies out of NZ wood too.

why make it out of wood? how about some honeycomb aluminium sheeting?

thanks guys