BigRedX

Interesting, if brief, and rather tactfully doesn't come out and say that the real problem with the lack of streaming royalty is two-fold: 1. There are simply too many artists all competing for tiny individual shares of the pie. It's all very well that it's easier than ever to make your music available to anyone who has an internet connection, but of course the downside is then that everyone does it, therefore the streaming royalties pot is divided up in ever diminishing chunks to ever increasing numbers of artists. 2. All the artists who are getting their music streamed a lot but aren't receiving very much money for it do so because of the contracts they have signed with their record labels. They only have themselves and/or their legal advice to blame. It's no longer the 50s and 60s and any artist who doesn't get proper legal advice before signing anything to do with they music is a fool. So what can the UK Government do? Nothing. You can't stop musicians from uploading their music to the streaming services, you can't make record labels (most of whom aren't even based in the UK any more) go against contracts already signed just because they might not be entirely "fair" to the artists involved. You can't legislate against stupidity.

OoI other than music what will your computer be used for? It might just be worth looking at a second hand refurbished Mac from a reputable dealer. My main computer (and the one I also use to earn my living doing graphic design) is a 12 year old MacPro that cost £650 (with 64GB RAM) a couple years ago. Apart form a couple of marks on the casing and the fact it didn't come with the original Apple packaging, it was in excellent condition when I bought it. It won't run the latest Mac OS (or the latest Adobe CC for that matter), but so far that hasn't been a problem. It has yet to run out of steam on any of my musical projects. I also have a 10 year old MacBook Pro that is used to run the backing for my bands' live set (that's up to 4 plugin instruments and 10 audio tracks simultaneously plus some external MIDI) which was £700 EoL from John Lewis 7 or 8 years ago. I've seen newer and better models for much less than this second hand.

If your interface and keyboard connect via USB the important phrase to look for is "class compliant". This means that they work with the USB drivers built in to the OS and therefore should be fine. However if they rely on having to install separate drivers you might be out of luck.

Very much this. To me the "front" pickup would be the one closest to the bridge.

I was under the impression that Alembic kept very good records of where their various materials came from - especially those subject to restrictions, and IIRC have helped out at least one other member here who was having problems authenticating the provenance of MoP inlays on their bass when they were selling it. Have you been in touch with Alembic regarding this yet?

Paging @Bassassin

Just a reminder that Hurtsfall will be playing The Lending Room in Leeds on Saturday 3rd December supporting Skeletal Family:

What is the external drive for? Audio or archival/backup? Going wireless for the keyboard and mouse doesn't spare you any USB bandwidth as the Bluetooth adaptor for them will be on one of the USB buses. And yes USB 2 and 3 should be on separate buses.

I don't see this as a problem. Coming from synth playing background, I have never found any presets much use to me, and also I have my own ideas about how my bass should sound. Consequently, when I got my Helix I started with a blank patch with just the volume pedal enabled and then started adding modules one at a time. I found having one of the EQ modules far more versatile than any of the Amp sims, so I only really use them on a couple of patches where they have been chosen specifically for the drive sounds rather than any particular EQ (but that's just my preference). I then added a compressor and chorus and got a basic sound I like, which I then tweaked at the next band rehearsal until I (and the rest of the band) was happy that I had the right sound for our instrumentation. Only then did I start to add specific effects and EQ tweaks for each individual song. I rarely take any notice of what specific devices the various modules are supposed to emulating and simply ask myself is this giving me the (EQ/chorus/delay/filter) sound that I want? If it is then good, if not then try another of the modules from the same range until I get something I like and that fits with the rest of the band sound. This whole process took about 4 rehearsals for about 12 songs, building up patches between practices and then tweaking them with the whole band playing. Now when we start work on a new song I already have a few "core sounds" one of which will be the correct starting point for the song depending on the overall feel.

Last time I looked at Windows machine specs, laptops, all-in-ones and the small desktops were all pretty much the same inside the cases for a given processor. A desktop machine might have room for more RAM and a PCI slot or two but that's it. Also unless you are running multiple instances of huge sample library instruments along with a convolution reverb on every channel any modern PC should be able to cope with the demands the typical DAW throws at it. Also don't assume that just because a particular model sports more USB sockets, it actually has more USB buses and therefore won't have any benefits (and may actually be worse than a good quality powered USB hub). Also remember that both the laptop and the all-in-one will have lots of "hidden" built-in devices already on the USB bus(es). Mac OS has a handy utility built in which allows you to see exactly how the hardware is configured, the spec of each USB bus and which sockets are on which bus (and what built-in devices are also on the bus). Is there something similar for Windows? I personally wouldn't buy a laptop unless portability is essential, as you generally get more performance for the same price when the manufacturer is not concentrating on fitting everything into the smallest and lightest form factor. Remember also that All-in-ones are essentially laptops with a bigger screen and limited portability.

The only bass I've owned with neck LEDs had a separate battery for their operation.

Two different cabs might sound fine to you on stage or in the rehearsal room, where you are probably only really hearing the one closest to your ears, but unless your FoH sound is from the PA they will sound very different out front and different in different locations in the venue.

Do you already have a drum machine? If not what's you budget? I assume that you already have a drummer (since you talk about percussion rather than drums) have you considered how you are going to keep the drums and programmed percussion in time? Can your drummer play to a click track? Edit: And if you have all of that sorted out why not program your own percussion parts? If you are copying existing parts off recordings it's hardly difficult (and free).

How about a Bass VI? If you're going to play solos then get a bass aimed at guitarists.

Guitar type humbuckers without coil taps in the typical guitar bridge and neck positions. All the "popular" Bass VIs tend to follow the Fender model of having 3 single coils and although they include a "bridge" and "neck" pickup they tend to be set in slightly from where they would be on a guitar. Also all the best "bass" sounds use the centre pickup either on its own or in conjunction with one of the others. You can get a decent bass sound out of pickups in the typical guitar bridge and neck positions but they need to be single coil (or with coil taps) and be capable of being wired in series when both are on. This instrument appears to offer none of those options. It is simply a standard parts bin guitar with a long neck.

Fenders have never been on my radar, and TBH until I start frequenting internet bass forums I never knew that there was supposed to be something extra magical/special about the Fender compared with basses from other manufacturers. I think for me the problem is that they are pretty anonymous as instruments. When I was first getting into music the bass players of the bands I liked seemed to be playing Rickenbackers, Thunderbirds, EB3s or something custom (probably made by John Birch). To give an example of how anonymous I found Fender basses, one of the bands I really liked in the early 70s was The Sweet; my memory of Steve Priest has him playing either a hollow-bodied Long Horn copy or a Rickenbacker, but looking through all the videos of them on TotP that are available on YouTube, AFAICS he only played those basses once each and the rest of the time he appears to be playing a Jazz bass. When I bought my first bass I ended up with a second-hand Burns Sonic, which I played all through the 80s. This was replaced by an Overwater Original 5-string in the early 90s and that by the first of my Gus Basses 10 years later. Having spent all my bass-playing "career" using instruments that had little in common with either the Fender P or J, when I bought a Squier VMJ because I wanted to play fretless and I'd heard good things about them, I found it very alien and uncomfortable to play and it was quickly replaced by a Pedulla Buzz. In some ways my experience with Fender-derived designs must be similar to those Fender players who try a Rickenbacker bass for the first time and discover that everything about it is "wrong" compared with what they are used to. I couldn't get on with the Squier Bass VI either. I liked the concept enough to switch over to using one exclusively for one of the bands I play in, but the neck was just far too narrow for me, and it was been replaced first by a Burns Barracuda and more recently by the Eastwood copy of the Shergold Marathon 6-string Bass. I've never had any problems with my less than conventional choices of bass guitars mostly due to the types of music I have chosen to play over the past almost 50 years, because I always pick something that is visually appropriate for the image of the band and finally because no matter what the bass I have chosen to wield looks like I have always been to deliver the sympathetic bass sounds for the music being played. So to the OP, if you have managed so far without a Fender bass then you really don't need one. There are plenty of alternatives that will supply the correct sound(s) and image for whatever you want to do that don't have to have the magic "F" word on the headstock and these days the over-inflated price (for what is essentially little more than a pre-assembled Ikea flat-pack instrument) that goes with it.

Rehearsals are for learning how to play the songs as band as opposed to a number of musicians who are all playing the same song at the same time. Also for those bands who care about such things (and you should) for sorting out the correct sounds for all the instruments and deciding what to do between songs.

I suggested this because my Helix and FRFR has replaced both my bass and guitar rigs for practice and live use, and after selling the equipment that they replaced I came away with an overall profit!

Helix and the smallest FRFR you can get away with. Seriously. For headphone only practice you just need the Helix, and you can even use it as your gigging rig. The only thing it won't do is the wireless streaming, but what's wrong with connecting your practice source with a cable?

Pickup position and type will probably make it more suitable as an A-A baritone guitar than an E-E Bass VI. And looking at the specs if you want to use it as a Bass VI you'll need to swap the supplied strings for LaBella's or Newtone Axions.

Thanks for posting the additional photos. There may still be some reinforcement in the neck but it's just not adjustable. Quite a few other budget brands in the 60s had necks built this way. If it's straight I wouldn't worry about it, but when you put it all back together again you might want to string this with strings from the lighter end of the gauge selection to keep it that way. These photos confirm that it most probably had an Audition logo on the headstock when it was new (there appears to be a hole for fixing the logo badge between the E and A tuner posts), so the photo I posted previously shows how it should look like (apart from the missing vibrato arm, which yours still has). They were sold through Woolworths in the 70s and AFAIK they were the cheapest new electric guitars you could buy in the UK at the time - this particular model would have been under £20 in the shop. None of the examples I came across back then were up to much especially when you consider that at the time you could have bought a much better instrument with Columbus, Grant or Kimbara on the headstock for about the same price second hand. Good luck with the restoration, but I wouldn't spent too much money on it.

The shape is based on the Mosrite as surf music was massively popular in Japan in the 60s. Apart form the black finish and the metal pick guard it looks mostly original. Here's what it probably should have looked like: Edit: One of my classmates at school in the late 70s had the bass version of this. It was a nasty, almost unplayable piece of crap. 2nd Edit: IIRC these were £19.99 new in Woolworths in the mid 70s. The 2 pickup version was an extra fiver.

Once again paging @Bassassin Seriously... Looks to me a bit like a modified "Woolies Special" so may have been branded Zenta or Audition. IIRC most of these were sunburst so it's probably been painted black at some point. Also the pick guard is unlikely to be original. Some more photos would help - close-ups of both sides of the headstock and the neck plate. You may find that there is a truss rod at the body end of the neck.

You do know that this is bass forum... 😉

A group of my friends actually did this a few years ago. Having had a look only one of my choices has changed since then: Songs in order of their release date: "Seven Seas Of Rye" Queen "Being Boiled" (Travelogue version) The Human League "Stepin' Out" Joe Jackson "Doot-Doot" Freur "New Wave Jacket (Reform)" Polysics "World's End Supernova" Kuruli "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" The Postal Service "Kill The Lights" The Birthday Massacre Book would either be "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins or "Fool On The Hill" by Matt Ruff, most likely the latter. And my luxury item would be a Mac loaded with a copy of Logic (and of course some means of powering it) so I could compose some new music to go with my listening choices.