BigRedX

For me the problem with 90s music wasn't so much the music - although a lot of what was supposed to "alternative" was actually deadly dull and mostly tuneless IMO, but the fact that the bands themselves looked boring. I simply couldn't get enough enthusiasm to check out the music of people who looked like the kind of sad losers that were selling drugs and dodgy tickets or posters outside music venues. I spent most of the 90s listening to dance music. I'm sure the people making it were just as boring looking as the "rock" bands but at least they didn't feel any compulsion to show it on their CD covers, which were filled with interesting looking graphics instead.

That's a lot of finding about to play an obsolete/niche audio format.

That looks cool. What's the string spacing at the nut and bridge if you don't mind telling me?

Nothing really wrong with a one-box solution. It's what most of us probably started with. Mine was a Dansette which cost £8 from a junk shop and played one channel of the stereo considerably louder than the other. When I finally got something that played both channels at the same volume it completely changed the way I felt about some of my favourite records now that extra unnecessary instruments were mucking up the mix. By the time I was in a position to buy a proper "HiFi" CDs were pretty much the norm, so I ditched what little vinyl I hadn't already sold to fund musical instrument purchases, and haven't looked back. Besides with the person in the OP has a load of vinyl from the 60s and 70s it will either be worn of crap pressings to begin with (like mine was) so the choice of playback device is fairly irrelevant. In the end it's the music that's important and ultimately the person in the OP would probably be better off with a Spotify or Apple Music subscription.

They're music centres!

Will he need an amp and speakers as well?

This. The thing about JPs radio show was that if you didn't like the record he was playing, there was an good chance that you would love the next one. From 1978 to 1984 the majority of my record purchases were as a result of hearing them on his show.

In the meantime the Matt Pop remix of "Infinite Girl" is available on Bandcamp.

All personal preference. I've not come across a single brand of coated strings that I liked the feel of. Others may have different opinions. Keeping basses on stands means that they get played more. I'm far more likely to pick up an instrument and play if it's easily accessible. Keeping them in their cases is generally safer for the instruments although I did have one guitar whose finish was attacked by something in the lining of the case after it had been kept there without opening the case for over two years. Depends entirely on your situation, If I lived somewhere with large pets or small children running wild I probably wouldn't leave my basses out of their cases ever.

Any progress on this?

I haven't played any Mayones basses so I can't comment on those, but IMO every Warwick I've ever tried except for the MiK Pro Series Star Bass was horrible, in both looks and playability. Of course this is just a personal opinion (just like all the other comments in this thread). Edit: I liked the Jack Bruce Cream Reunion Signature bass too, but that was in the serious custom bass price range, so really it ought to have been good.

Latest update for the Eastwood is now 3rd week in July - so about a month's time.

If you have Cubase installed and it's doing what you want without crashing, and comes with an expanded set of plug-ins; then I wouldn't bother with Reaper. IMO life is too short to messing about with trying out different DAWs. Apart from the enhanced MIDI capabilities of some of them, they all do pretty much the same thing. So pick one, and stick with it learning how to get the best out of it.

Looking at the product comparison on the Steinberg web site, Cubase LE is a very (the lowest spec) cut down version of Cubase. Personally I wouldn't abandon Reaper for anything other than the full version of another DAW.

What is causing it to crash? Reaper may be cheap/free but it's a properly supported program, and if you are having issues, you should looking first of all at what/why they are happening rather than blaming a "cheap" DAW. One thing to check is using lots of instance of the same plug-in each on a separate track, all with the same or similar settings, when you would be better off running a single instance on a bus being fed by all the tracks you want to process. It's at time like this that those of us who started recording with hardware when it was complicated and expensive have an advantage in working methods.

That's fair enough... But a load of those songs were released in 1979 (8 of them for sure and probably more if I could be bothered to check), plus Green Onions and a couple of others are even older, and some are covers of songs written way before the 80s.

In over 20 years of buying items form outside of the EU, I have only once avoided VAT and Import duty and was on something that was delivered to my work address by FedEx. It turns out that the company had bought from abroad before using FedEx as the courier, and they (at the time) had a system where once you were a registered customer, FedEx would bill the import charges retrospectively for large companies with a good rating. I made some attempt to enquire about paying the charges when they were billed, but nothing ever came of it. Everything else was pay in advance plus the handling fee before the goods were released. There are plenty of threads about import charges on here so it should never come as surprise to anyone. As I have said before allow an extra 25% of the combined item and shipping cost plus £15 for anything under £100 to cover the handling fee and you won't get a shock.

Selecting a DAW is a very personal choice, and no-one else can tell you what is going the right one for you. My choice was based entirely on the fact that when I bought it I was collaborating with another songwriter and it made sense for us to both have the same program. Other than that this down to having features that you need and presenting them to you in a way that is intuitive. All I will say is that on the whole the more expensive DAWs come with more bundled plug-ins, and that Cubase, Logic and Performer have better MIDI functions than the more recent competition (IMO Reaper is comparatively weak in this respect) as they all have their roots in MIDI sequencing rather than digital tape recorders. If detailed control of MIDI parameters is important to you for controlling instruments (VST or actual MIDI hardware) then I'm look at one of the above. If you are more likely to use it just as a digital multi-track recorder then anything that suits your work flow will be fine.

My experience has been that if you are buying something that is already available through an authorised dealer/distributor in the UK, but are hoping to save some money, it is never worth it, unless the item in question is second-hand at a bargain price. Everything I've bought from the US (or any other country outside the EU) have been items that are not available in the UK by any other method. That way I can evaluate the price simply on whether I'm prepared to pay it (plus all the shipping and import costs) rather than attempting to work out if I'm going to save a few £s.

I'd seen the price increase for sending to the US, but didn't know the reason. It will probably make selling bands CDs and Vinyl to them far too expensive to be worth while.

Thanks. I won't be getting one of those as based on those measurements it has the closest string spacing at both the nut and bridge of all the Bass VIs I've come across. Just have to wait it out for the Eastwood. Should be only a few more weeks... If you want flat-wound strings apparently Picato do a set as well as LaBella.

So who has it now?

Thanks for the update. Can I ask a favour? Could you supply the following measurements: Width of the nut. Distance from E to E at the nut Distance from E to E at the bridge Thanks! BTW if you want a decent set of Bass VI strings have a look at the Axion Bass VI set from Newtone.

IME with 8 string basses (I've owned two) the difference in saddle position between the main and octave strings is such that if you only have a single saddle for all the strings in a course it will never sound in tune above the 5th fret, and no amount of compromise between the ideal positions for each string gives anything workable. With decent strings you could get away with a single saddle for both the octave strings in each course on this, but the main string is always going to need it's own separate saddle for intonation.

When it comes to processors you also have to check the number of cores and whether or not your software can make use of multiple cores. Some music software doesn't.