Kiwi

[quote name='Alpha-Dave' post='41929' date='Aug 6 2007, 01:01 PM']Still no one has mentioned my other point: will this make second hand Seis more expensive? I think it may for the fancy-wood 4/5 strings but I suspect it's remain steady for the basic jazzes, and odd-ball instruments (headless, 6+ strings, buck-eye burl etc.) will always have either a high or low value depending on desirability.[/quote]
Sei basses don't seem to hold their secondhand value any better than any other UK luthier from what I can see - apart from Wal perhaps. I think that's as much as desirability and (as mentioned earlier) perception of value as anything else.

[quote name='therealting' post='41759' date='Aug 6 2007, 12:57 AM']Well, if you assume a typical £2500 profit per instrument, and multiply that by 20 instruments, that's £50,000 per year. 30 instruments makes it £75,000. Again, not a bad wage, but not as high as the typical earnings of the top achievers in most other fields / industries.[/quote]
Don't forget that this income is supplemented by sales of instruments in the shop and also from repair work.

I was reminded of a mellower version of Skin...


...maybe its just the shaved head.

Some MTD's can be exceptionally light. There are some very light sadowskies that I've tried also, not to mention Status Stealths/Electros and semi hollow Moduus Quantums if that's your thing.

Also you could consider a custom bass with chambering in the body perhaps?

[quote name='OldGit' post='41239' date='Aug 4 2007, 12:14 PM']Started Midnight Hour intro with a big fat C chord instead of a big fat F chord last night .. My band gave me a bad time over the mics about converting to a 5 string at my advanced age ..
As I pointed out to them (also on mic), I'd counted the notes I'd played at the gig up to that point and there were 5764 correct ones. I play ONE wrong note and they give me hell ...

The audience were well into our humour by then and were rolling about laughing with us ...[/quote]
LMAO! Inspirational!

Warwick gradually pushed up the prices of their popular ranges over the years - if you can, check out the cost of a thumb in 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005. I'd put money on them outstripping the rate of inflation by a significant amount over a 10 year period.

What its about at the end of the day is PERCIEVED value and the influence of [i]branding[/i] on a consumers purchase decision.

Its not about margins on top of costs.

[quote name='therealting' post='41549' date='Aug 5 2007, 12:20 PM']May I also point out that someone like Martin (a WORLD class luthier) probably spends many many hours working on a bass. Once you subtract the overheads and materials costs, and then divide the remainder of the price by the number of hours he spends building, he probably doesn't get a much money per hour. Probably less than an average Joe gigging bassist.[/quote]
He's spent a shedload on expanding the shop and I have no reason to believe that he isn't otherwise doing very nicely for himself at the moment.

[quote name='kjb' post='41555' date='Aug 5 2007, 12:23 PM']It's about 100 hours or so per instrument.[/quote]
So the cost of materials and parts is likely to be somewhere between £500 and £700 perhaps? Take that away from the cost of the bass and you'll be left with the labour. Divide that by 100 and you'll have an approximate hourly rate. In the construction industry the general rule of thumb is you charge double your costs. For the sake of interest, any Sei owners care to stick some numbers in that and see what works out?

[quote name='kjb' post='41551' date='Aug 5 2007, 12:21 PM']He did tell me last year how many he makes a year, I think it was 20 or 30, I can't really remember.[/quote]
Then multiply the figure by 20 or 30

If I thought he would respond, I'd email Herbie a link to this thread. Although he gave me his gmail address I've never had a reply.

its now working

[quote name='Nate' post='41514' date='Aug 5 2007, 11:02 AM']He came into work not long ago.

Go to www.showmehowtoplay.com and watch him playin "straight no chaser". Hes on a Live session thing at the bottom of the page.
(Me on drums btw)


His bass played nicely - he had tape strings on. It's the only bass hes ever owned. It's a fuzz switch on the bass but he said it was a bit sh*te. Mr Fender's signature on there though - can't be bad.[/quote]
Were the pots still loose when you played it?

Nice drum playing BTW!

Sometimes price rises can be as much about increasing percieved desirability - does anyone know how many he's selling a year? Perhaps Martin is trying to market to a different niche? Maybe he's pushing towards Fodera territory?

BTW, the link doesn't work for me

[quote name='Alpha-Dave' post='41505' date='Aug 5 2007, 10:29 AM']British Luthiers are getting the respect they deserve.

Stunning bass![/quote]

+1 Its great that they all get so much support from you guys especially. The bass sounds great - very deep and robust and it sits in the mix very nicely.

Love the 4 bar chord progression in Naughty Girl BTW, any chance you could let me know the chords are? I have problems working out inversions.

I came close at one point after talking to the guitarist and not getting any form of apology, showed him to be a bit self obsessed. He's a nice bloke on the surface but he was crap at organisation and then he tried to bullshit his way out of it which I have no tolerance for at all. But I realised that, however late it was going to be, we were now in for the haul and although I didn't give a flying sh*t about the boyfriend, my loyalty was to our singer who is lovely in every way possible. We were and always were doing it for her.

After the gig, the guitarist got approached by some stoner with dreads who was passing out CD copies of stuff he'd done and was talking utter bollocks to the guitarist about how they could work together in the future and he was bragging about this studio gear and stuff. The guitarist was like completely digging everything this guy was saying and responding with breathtaking disingenuity and insincerity.

The rest of us just watched the exchange with amused smiles. I swear there were clouds of pot smoke coming from that BMW 1 series as the stoner pulled away too...

I had a doozy on Thursday after agreeing to support one of our singers at a Talent night with her guitarist boyfriend.

We turn up to rehearsal after having learned the 4 songs and her boyfriend starts rewriting them. After we spent an hour on the first one, the drummer and I suggested that we probably weren't going to be able to relearn all of the songs in 2 hours. So we spend 20mins on learning the whole of the second song which we were told we'd only be coming in at the end for anyway (so we just learned the last choruses). Anyways, we do the last two songs in the 10 minutes we had left of studio time coz we played them in our regular band anyway.

So fast forward to the gig, we agree to show up at 7pm for a 7:30pm soundcheck but the boyfriend is bringing the PA and his stuff in 2 car loads and it took him an hour to get back home load up etc. for the second. I offered to go back with our singer and load up her car while he sorted the PA out but he didn't want to do that. So we wait about an hour for them to load up and come back - in rush hour traffic.

By the time he's ready to sound check its 9pm and the bar manager is coming over to him and asking whether we've finished yet because the place is supposed to open at 9 he needs to put the background music on for the customers. The venue has the acoustics of an echo chamber and has a massive hump at 415hz as well as letting the mids and highs bounce around the place like chimps high on E-colours. We finish sound checking at 9:30pm at which point I ask our singer when we're performing and she says she doesn't know because its up to the promoter. I'm like "what?!!". She explains that the live acts don't go on until there's enough people in the room, but its not likely to be later than 11pm. OK, its a little late but I can pack the bass away quickly and make it back to the tube in time for the last train home.

However 11pm comes and goes.

11:30pm comes and goes so I call over the guitarist as the rest of us in the band are all getting tired and a little concerned about when we're going to be able to get home considering most of us are working the following day. I tell him we're all a bit concerned about not being able to perform well if we're already exhausted before going on stage. The guitarist is a bit of a whip-whopper and goes into 'iss aht ov moi hands mate, no wot i meen, oi con du anifin' abaht it' mode, and the message is if I'm tired basically its my problem. So I'm seriously thinking about walking out if my mood suddenly swings into bear-with-sore-head mode (which happens when I'm extremely exhausted) and there's a risk of me being useless at work the following day. Given the time the tube shuts I'd also like to avoid a £40 taxi ride home if I possibly can, too.

Finally they start the show at 12:30 and we're on 30 mins later.

However the guitarist has changed the levels from soundcheck and he's also turned his guitar up. With the acoustics in the venue there's a 6 stringed sonic mush dampening out everything with mids and highs, so the backing singers can't hear themselves through the monitoring and I can't hear the keyboards who are right next to me. The first song goes well, the second we get through OK considering the lack of preparation but the third song is a bit of a stumble because I can't hear the keyboards and the guitar is echoing so much that we can't make out any lead vox or guitar chords. The drummer misses the breakdown in the last song because he can only hear bass (which carries on playing through the breakdown) above the rest of the mush. The keyboardist more or less gives up on the last song because he can't hear himself either.

We play for 30mins and then we're off, only we can't pack our gear up until the final act.

So the last act finish up and...

...the guitarist goes back up to sing a couple of croony Timberlake/Craig David RnB-style tracks by himself to a backing CD!!

We're like WTF?! Where's this come from? We were told there were only 4 acts and now there's 5?

He finally finishes at a quarter past 2, I'm too tired to care about anything other than helping everyone breakdown their gear and load up as quickly as possible. Again we offer to help break the PA down but the guitarist says no he'll do it himself. I thought the singers dad was coming by to load up gear in his car so they'd only have to make one journey in three cars but apparently that's not happening now because its too late. I try to help by suggesting they leave their PA stored at the venue and come back to get it the following evening after work.

The keyboardist is driving back to Worcester so drops me off at nearly 3am, although he's so tired he can't string a coherent sentence together. I offer him somewhere to crash at my place but he declines saying he's OK. I virtually collapse into unconsciousness when I finally get my head down.

Thankfully I'm feeling relatively sharp the following morning and coherent (which is more important) so am able to get through the day. Don't know about the others yet but I don't think we'll be doing that gig again - at least on a week day night or without a guaranteed start time to plan around.

No wonder they don't get many bands playing that night.

Passive basses are convenient and practical but all the basses I've liked the sound of have been active. The active eq will not change the inherent character of your bass significantly it will just emphasise or cut whatever is already there. If the bass sounds good in the first place, being active or passive will make less of a difference. My Smiths sound as good whether active or passive.

[quote name='dlloyd' post='41444' date='Aug 4 2007, 11:18 PM']Cheers.

That's about as desirable a bass as I've seen, but I can't help but think I'd be disappointed if I got my hands on it.[/quote]

I know some people like that lightweight sound but it didn't sound warm to me. I guess I found that a little surprising but there again I am used to playing warm sounding basses in my own collection so its all relative probably.

Hi Dave, I believe Ped (one of the other admin) already does stuff like this on other sites. Might be fun to try it here too and see what sort of response you get. Welcome aboard BTW.

Well funnily enough I've found passable (although not as creamy) impersonations of hammonds, rhodes and wurlitzers on my Yamaha CS6R which will do for now. I do need to learn how to get the unit to play off different MIDI channels simultaneously however.

The Smiths have proved surprisingly versatile - they're more than capable of fitting into a rock setting because they're so full sounding and sit in the mix so well. I've managed to get away with a passable motown sound on the neck pickup too. However I have needed to use pretty neutral sounding solid state amps as they have an inherently mid scooped colouring as instruments.

I wish the finish wasn't so soft though, I've lost count of the number of tiny grazes and nicks my fretted 5 has collected. Its possible to mark the wood with a thumbnail too easily.

[quote name='beerdragon' post='41397' date='Aug 4 2007, 09:04 PM']Did you ask him what that switch was for, or were already clued up on that.[/quote]
I didn't ask him but it might have been for a factory installed fuzz unit that he had removed.

[quote name='dlloyd' post='41430' date='Aug 4 2007, 10:35 PM']But how did it play?
All questions of value aside, was it any better than an off-the-shelf relic jazz?[/quote]
It was very light weight, the action was fairly high and the neck was under a lot of tension due to the heavy gauge flats on it. I was getting a sound out of it that might have been more appropriate on a Bread or Glen Campbell recording.

Although it felt light and resonant, it lacked the oomph of a heavier 70's jazz. I think with round wounds on it, it might have been a slightly different sounding beast - potentially quite growly like Jaco's basses I guess, or like some lighter MTD's or Foderas.

I would have preferred more weight in the sound myself however there was no escaping that it was the bass equivalent of a classic racing Ferrari - fragile, idiosyncratic but loaded with history nevertheless. In terms of what kind of sound you get, you could probably get as good a passive bass if not better sounding (for modern music) from a number of modern makers.

I've been fortunate to play his bass myself.



For the shot I was a bit naughty and carefully supported the bass by the massive 110-50 flatwounds he had on it, at the bridge and against my body. But the bass was light and Herbie didn't seem to mind Funny thing was that when I asked Herbie whether it really was a pre-production prototype, he wasn't so sure! It was a bit funky though - years of grime had built up around the pole pieces and pots.

bloody hell, her voice is awesome - strong and full and she holds the pitch by the scruff of the neck. She had a bit of a glitch getting over her second bridge though.

does that make us low end drivers too...?

Oh bloody hell, thats gorgeous.

Well done Alan!!

Since Bernard Edwards passing in 1996, noone's cooler than Meshell Nedegeocello

don't forget Pino - great for starter lines wiht lots of feel. Plus there's always jaco I guess...