BigRedX

IME anything that isn't inlaid into the neck will come off or move at the least appropriate moment. If you can justify the cost of LEDs get some Luminlay markers. On a bass with a removable neck they are an easy DIY fit, and for set or through neck instruments any decent luthier will do a great job for a little extra outlay.

Also given that the OP hasn't been on Basschat since the end of July we may never know.

AFAICS all the artist mentioned are from an age when recorded music was the end product rather than a promotional item. I doubt you'll find any mainstream acts from the last 10 years that don't play live.

There isn’t much danger of getting a bad cut or pressing these days as vinyl now has to compete with other technically superior formats, so it would be economically unsound for the manufacturers to produce anything sub-standard.

Named after a Scritti Politti song.

We’re the only support for that gig so hopefully we won’t be on stupidly early, 5 minutes after the doors open.

I'm surprised you're not doing your own sleeve artwork... I was part of the DIY, Weird Noise Cassette Scene in the late 70s and early 80s (at the slightly more "commercial" end). For some of us the Desperate Bicycles were too mainstream! Anyway good luck with the single and let us know when you have copies to sell.

But can you do it in real terms as cheaply as The Desperate Bicycles? I terms of keeping it pure/analogue that's a lot harder. A pervious band I was in tried to do an all-analogue release on cassette, but found that it added 50% to the mastering cost to keep the audio out of the digital domain, and that none of the small-run cassette duplicators would accept an analogue master tape. Same with your sleeve artwork. The first thing that will happen one you pass it over to the printers is that it will be scanned into a computer.

Unfortunately so. There has been no official disbanding, but Mr Venom has not been gig-fit for about 4 years now, and the last I heard he was looking at moving away from the UK, so any future Terrortones gigs or recordings are looking less and less likely. All the recordings are still available for sale...

Actually the best strategy is to do what The Terrortones did. Organise gigs in your home town. Put on reasonably well known bands who are doing a similar style of music to your band and who will play for less than £150, and get your band to open for them. Do this on a regular basis - every 4 to 6 weeks, make it into a decent evening with DJs playing appropriate music between the bands, promote the hell out of it. You'll learn lots from watching the more established bands go about their business (both what's good and what to avoid) and unless your band is dreadfully dull you should start building a decent local following. It also looks good on your band's "CV" for getting decent out of town gigs, when you've got a long list of impressive support gigs.

Yes, but... These days you are competing in much, much, bigger market place no matter how niche the genre of music you play. Gone are the days when having a record out made you band seem important, John Peel would play your single at least once, and Rough Trade would take a box or two so it was potentially in every independent record shop in the UK. Pretty much anyone can do it now, and you don't have to agonise over whether you can afford to have a second colour on the sleeve (or forgo the sleeve altogether for a bit of photocopied A4 paper folded around the paper dust sleeve) or printed labels vs plain white that you were going individually hand stamp yourself. It does mean though that the only way your are going sell very many copies is to do so at your gigs. It has been my experience that once the band stops gigging the internet sales drop of to a handful a year at best.

I don't know where this "soft-touch coating" has come from. The ones that I had that went sticky looked and felt exactly the same as their replacements until the plastic started to go sticky.

Not much use if your on-stage movement is much more than bobbing up and down on the spot...

That's interesting. The replacement stands I got had exactly the same design of grip, just made out of plastic that (hopefully) won't go sticky.

In real terms the cost of releasing music on vinyl has fallen since the late 70s, and the technical quality of the pressing and packaging has risen considerably. Whether it is worth doing when the main way you are going sell your records is to be out gigging every weekend is another matter.

And in case anyone in Nottingham is out on a “school night” my other band Hurtsfall are playing at the Golden Fleece on Mansfield Road tonight.

As a regular seller, adding a "Buy It Now" costs, whereas a "Best Offer" is free. I've had offers in excess of the starting price from people who were keen to secure an item before bidding starts.

Any extra-long rectangular hard case should do. I've owned 2 (both 36" scale five strings) and they fitted standard depth but extra long (by 2-3 inches) cases. I don't think you'll find a modern semi-rigid case to fit as they are all aimed at more conventional size and shape bases.

18th October at The Moon On The Water, Cleethorpes 26th October at The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham supporting Toyah 15th November at The Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh 23rd November at Electrowerkz, London 28th November at Audio, Glasgow supporting B Movie 30th November at FAC251, Manchester supporting B Movie 7th December at The Royal Standard, Sheffield and then later the same day at The Library, Leeds

All over the place:

The Revelation Bass VI is still on their web site. The harley Benton one has been out of stock forever. ATM the easiest model to get hold of the Squier bass VI. If you are lucky you might find a Burns Barracuda, but the list price is considerably higher than the Squier.

If it's the sound of the bass VI more than anything else you are after, then you need the right pickups in the right places. That means a pickup arrangement that matches or is very close to that of the original Fender Bass VI. So you need 3 single coil pickups all individually switchable. Neither of the basses mentioned in the OP come close to this arrangement.

Got to say that's a boring looking bass, but then again it goes nicely with Hue and Cry's boring sounding music. 😉

The sickness of the height adjuster grip which will eventually lead to the plastic disintegrating, is AFAICS completely down to Hercules using the wrong, or a dodgy batch of plastic for some their stands and has nothing to do with how the stands have been stored, or used/abused. If the plastic is wrong the grips will eventually become sticky and then the mechanism will fail irrespective of how you look after the stands. The good news is that Hercules and their distributors have acknowledged that there is a problem and have been putting it right. The replacement stands I got 2 years ago for my sticky ones are still fine and have no problems at all.

TBH these days nearly all vinyl pressing is good quality, because it has to be in order for it to compete with digital formats. Certainly no-one is going to accept the appalling quality of pressings that were the norm in the late 70s and early 80s. And while there are plenty of brokers in the UK offer vinyl production services you'll find that nearly all of them farm out the actual pressing to plants outside of the UK (not that there is anything wrong with this - if they can offer a good service in terms of turn-around times and production quality) If Diamond Black do actually press in the UK it would explain why they are consistently much more expensive than all the other quotes I've ever had.