Kiwi

is that your band? You have a pretty formidible underground presence in London. I see you being promoted all over the place and I thought "hmm, I wonder if there are any architects in that band?"

Not many of them around according to David Beasley.

[quote name='OldGit' post='391760' date='Jan 26 2009, 01:57 PM']Will you be wearing the headgear in your Avatar, Zaphod? [/quote] Only if we do gigs in Cardiff. Thanks for your help OBBM and Crez, that info was just the ticket. Have either of you used IEM live? Did you find your ability to lock in with the drummer was affected in any way without a seismic thump for them to feel?

I'm considering the IEM option and had a wee chat with my local audiologist who is just around the corner from my office. They can take the molds for me to get a set of custom fitted earphones but I don't know what happens after I have the molds. I remember we had some discussion about this on Bassworld but I can't remember the process. Do I send the molds away to a specialist manufacturer? What do they produce? A set of earphones or a set of plugs that can take ear phones? Do I need a special set of earphones designed for IEM?

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='324721' date='Nov 8 2008, 11:05 AM']I bet no one would say that to Jon Shuker if he were to post.[/quote] I bet you're wrong.

Don't bother with Mackie. We've had no end of problems with our sub woofers and wedges burning out. Luckily they've been covered by guarantee but we were being fobbed off by Wembley PA Centre until we started bearing our internet teeth.

[quote name='crez5150' post='391441' date='Jan 26 2009, 09:24 AM']Obviously in the world of Bass equipment it's a much more niche market so I guess the manufacturers are more likely to offer direct pricing. I know that for instance the restructure of pricing for Status Graphite means that those in the US get a better deal at present.[/quote] So is this one example of a UK manufacturer who prices better for an overseas market but not their own domestic market? (Essentially the reverse of the US examples above). Or is this a result of the exchange rate? [quote name='thepurpleblob' post='391443' date='Jan 26 2009, 09:25 AM']Runaway discounting is a double-edged sword. It's great for the customer until low margins become unsustainable for the manufacturers and retailers and then shops close and brands disappear.[/quote] Absolutely, its not easy for retailers who have significant overheads to stay competitive. Badly managed retailers even more so. I know for sure that some retailers feel like they're being treated as testing centres for online purchase decisions. Maybe the way forward is to become wholly internet based to reduce overheads but offer walk in testing facilities in a cheap location (is this an option for you vmaxblues?) Or alternatively take advantage of Basschat's Bass Bashes, which are essentially self funded at the moment.

[quote name='crez5150' post='391427' date='Jan 26 2009, 08:41 AM']I think it depends on the manufacturer..... You have to remember that a lot of them have European hubs nowadays which means that UK retailers will be buying in Euro's. Even large american companies such as Harman work this way.[/quote] Some of the US companies seem to have a direct from manufacturer price and then outside the US, there's another price which includes a margin for distributors. If a US based company has a European manufacturing base, then I hope they're prepared to offer a European direct price too. I suspect this isn't the case, however.

[quote name='crez5150' post='391411' date='Jan 26 2009, 07:52 AM']Plus the fact that Manufacturers are putting the clamps on e-tailers which stops product being sold way below street pricing.[/quote] If that is happening, surely that would be anti-competitive in the EU at least? I know a number of US based companies do it, such as Ernie Ball and to me it looks like brand loyalty from its customer base is what allows them to get away with it. If Lakland started offering substantial discounts online I wonder what might happen to EB then? Would they become entrenched and risk losing a greater share of new customers or would they try to compete?

Ebay also traversed geographical barriers too. Before ebay, it was a lot harder to find out if there was something of interest outside your town unless you accessed a store's website. Having said that, Ebay has been feeling the pain for a number of years. I've noticed a gradual decline in both the quality and quantity of instruments and gear available. I suspect this is mainly because of Ebay's pricing strategy. They've become more expensive over the years for any sellers who haven't signed up as power sellers.

Ray! Wow! Bernard Purdie? That's amazing. Did you get any souvenir snaps? How did you find locking in with him? Did he flatter your playing? I've just had a listen of your bands myspace and love what you do Nice track with Noel McKoy too. Following a late night post-gig party and getting to bed at 3am, we had a midday start for a journey up to Huddersfield for a 30th brithday party of a young teacher. Her family ran a asphalt contracting business so the venue was this godforsaken ridge running between Huddersfield and Mirfield on the site of their contractors compound (which was next to two houses they'd built themselves.) Stunning views but the ice cold wind that blasted across that ridge stripped the heat from anyone who wasn't wrapped up in thermal gear. Anyways, bit of a ho hum type affair. The client didn't make any attempt to warm to us. It became apparent that we were there just as the entertainment so we came, we got paid, we played and we left. Food wasn't that great (quiche and some chilli), the applause was minimal after the first set, slightly less minimal after the second set and finally, after most of them had consumed their weight in booze, they started to warm up a little. We were flagging too from the late night on Friday and I kept being on the verge of pulling a muscle in my shoulder which involved me moving awkwardly as I attempted to shift the weight of the spector sufficient to avoid pulling the muscle. Luckily one of the singers gave me a near murdeous massage that beat 11 shades of crap out of that muscle and left me feeling like I was walking on air afterwards... at least until the other shoulder started to pull. Meh. Good job the gig was a new fee record for us or we might have thought it wasn't worth the hassle of getting there. We stayed overnight and then I came back this morning so I could go straight into work to sort out a client issue that I couldn't do on Friday because of the London gig. This was after a 2.5 hour drive and 5 hours of sleep too. Where did my weekend go? Still, we got two confirmed gigs out of the show we put on Friday though. Good times!

[quote name='tonybassplayer' post='390260' date='Jan 24 2009, 10:48 AM']We are meeting tonight to discuss it and just to make sure we are on the same wavelength I am compiling a list of surefire dance floor fillers. Songs that are guaranteed to hit the spot every time. As long as the songs get people on the dance floor then anything is allowed, pop, rock, cheese, soul, funk etc etc Songs like these Raining Men I Want You Back Disco Inferno Mamma Mia Hope you can add me another twenty today..........[/quote] They'll definitely hit the spot at a civil partnership. Nothing wrong with that, but I think you need to understand who your audience are going to be. Disco works well with 30's and above, plus any crowds that aren't too self conscious. Motown works with nearly everyone, no class divides or associations there. We tend to do a mix of both with some cool top 40 stuff thrown in too. In an ideal world my band would have a set dedicated to each, once we'd seen from the first set what the punters liked the most.

I've played the bass version and didn't like it at all. I really don't understand why they even bothered putting it into production. As has already been mentioned, the body shape is very uncomfortable, the whole instrument feels stiff rather than rigid and the sound was full but extremely clattery and unforgiving. I found the neck profile was too flat as well, my hand cramped up after a few minutes. I would have needed to put it through a compressor or valve amp to cut back the transients a little, I think. Seems to me they just decided to make a bass version of the guitar and didn't think it through properly. BTW I was looking at getting a Parker P42 guitar at one point but got put off by reports that the wooden necks sometimes warped on them.

We played our first public gig to mostly clients, friends and family last night at the Kings Head in Crouch End. Awesome gig, nothing quite like playing to a room of people who are rootin' for ya. The venue was too small though, people couldn't really dance because they were so tightly packed in. I had a situation where half way throught the first set, one of the girls must have trodden on my EBS Microbass pedal because I played the start of the next song and no sound! I couldn't waste seconds trying to find out the cause so just yanked the output cable from the Microbass into my bass and got on with it. Made a bit of a racket through the PA unfortunately and it took a while for me to get back into the pocket afterwards. The number of people in the room surrounding the band acted like an acoustic trap for mids, I couldn't hear the upper three strings of my Euro 6, played the bass breakdown in Le Freak not being able to tell whether I'd hit the open A or the D string! Just had to go by sight alone (which isn't easy on a 6 when it lies so flat against me). The girls interacted really well with the crowd too. We'd had email conversations before the gig about the girls and the guys interacting more on stage and there were mixed opinions. Some (like me) were up for it, others didn't want the limelight. Pris and I interacted a fair bit on stage which was cool, hopefully we'll be able to work on that when we have a bigger stage. I might even start using wireless again (given I've got three of the buggers, which I don't use at the moment). We had an agent come along who got really excited about promoting us to his corporate clients so it will be interesting to see if anything comes out of that. I wouldn't mind the occasional trip out to Tuscany to play on a boat for Tiffany like Crez5150 Mewsie showed up with some friends of hers, one of which had flown down from Dundee especially to come see us!

At the moment, none, I need to stay on top of other priorities.

I heard it was Homer.

the one question in my mind is whether I'd be able to sell it for what I paid for it.

Hang in there Al. Keep the faith! Wanna come dep for me? I'm taking a lot of May off, they've booked a load of Friday gigs south of London that I'll never make.

[quote name='ARGH' post='386536' date='Jan 20 2009, 06:44 PM']Ive gone the other way regarding GAS and gear...I just want one instrument to create MY sound,Ive tried,making different sounds for different bands,and found it....for me..a waste of time..[/quote] I think there's a lot of wisdom in that approach. Using one instrument helps develop muscle memory and I've found that also allows me to think less about adjusting to the instrument and more about choosing how to play it. I just need one that can cover a wide number of basses.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='386329' date='Jan 20 2009, 04:12 PM']The thing is, if you're thinking about your gear when you're playing music then you should really be playing better music![/quote] [quote name='benwhiteuk' post='386366' date='Jan 20 2009, 04:33 PM']amen[/quote] COUGHCOUGHCOUGHmulti-taskingCOUGHCOUGH

For me it started off as the belief that better gear could make me a better player. In comparing a Westone Spectrum II to a Jaydee Supernatural MK S2, there was some validity in that. Later on it became more about having the right sound for the song and then also an interest in the design of basses. So I had two aspects to my collection, one side for sounds and the other side because I liked having instruments that represented milestones in the evolution of bass guitar design. Also, band have asked me to use one bass to avoid lengthy switch overs. So the other instruments I have only tend to get used for recording which I'm not doing a lot of at the moment anyway... ...rig wise, its mostly been about being caught between liking the powerful sound of valve amps and needing a more neutral sound for live work while I was swapping instruments... plus being too lazy to carry the valve amps to gigs

I believe Birdy may have been looking into a trade for one as well...?

[quote name='ped' post='385418' date='Jan 19 2009, 09:17 PM']Kiwi I looked at active monitors but their performance at low volume is quite variable and they can be expensive for a decent active set...[/quote] My yammie HS50s are good and people speak highly of Tannoy too. I'm sure they'll be flatter in response at low volumes than a pair of Hartke cabs and a cheap stereo power amp! You'll be able to lift a pair of studio monitors without screwing your back up too!

How about getting a pair of cheapish active studio monitors?

I agree! All the players for JTQ have been monsters, Andrew, Gary and Ian King. Ian was a member here for a short time until he had a negative expereince via PM in regard to a bass he was trying to sell.