BigRedX

From experience I wouldn't even bother with gigs other than Friday and Saturday as there is unlikely to be much of an audience. Thursday and Sunday nights given the right venue and other bands on the bill might be do-able. Any other night forget it unless your band (or the one you are supporting) are popular enough to fill a 200+ venue anywhere in the country.

[quote name='morgano' timestamp='1509022914' post='3396097'] If you don't need the strings really urgently try bassstringsonline (in the States). Have used them before, and they have good range of strings. I'm not sure how the prices compare now with the weak pound, but they were competitive a while back, even with shipping. [/quote] Unless the shipping is massively expensive (I can't see any shipping prices without placing an order) for what I'm after it works out about the same with VAT as my last order direct from the UK LaBella distributor.

Unfortunately Strings Direct don't stock any of my currently preferred sets of strings - LaBella Steels 40 - 128, LaBella Steels 45 - 135, Warwick Black Label 40 - 130 with a taper-wound low B.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1509006067' post='3395898'] In all fairness, the Warwick Jack Bruce shares the EB-3 shape but ... erm ... not a lot else. I spent half an hour playing one in the sadly-now-gone Warwick Custom Shop in New York, and it was one of the nicest things I've ever played. Completely unlike the EB-3, it was a very flexible and responsive bass with a wide range of tones available, and the neck was a delight in the hand. I'd have bought it on the spot had it not been for the eye-watering price. [/quote] I'd completely agree with that including the price. I tried the fretless version and loved it, but ultimately I went for a custom-made Sei Flamboyant instead and saved over £1000. Also the AFAIK the Warwick StarBass is only semi-acoustic long scale 5-string bass you can buy "off the peg".

You need to show how all the wires join all the speakers in the cab together and to the other components like the input sockets and the crossover. And unless you can guarantee that all the speakers in the cab are the ones originally fitted when it was made, you'll also need to measure the resistance of each one individually, just in case someone has replaced one or more of them with a speaker of a different value.

[quote name='outsider70' timestamp='1508933641' post='3395439'] This is why I tend to stay using Ashdown. Their aftersales customer service is top notch [/quote] Unfortunately not in my experience. All manufacturers can have their customer service off days. It's how frequent they are, and how they handle them later that sorts out the companies worth sticking with.

[quote name='martthebass' timestamp='1508933814' post='3395441'] I think that is a bit of an oversimplification BRX.....what about the likes of early Zappa or Stockhausen? [/quote] I don't think that Stockhausen counts as rock, and from what I've heard I not very much of Frank Zappa's output does either. The fact is, with the majority of acts on Later fall into the rock and pop categories, most listeners should be able to make up their minds whether or not the music is worth further investigation after 60 seconds worth of listening.

Most definitely. Especially if you want a consistent tension/compliance/feel across bases with different constructions and stringing methods - even something as simple as a different break angle over the bridge or nut can warrant a different choice of string.

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1508930950' post='3395403'] My guitarists both use the rack/footswitch set up. They sound fantastic. But. Silly things convince me I want nothing to do with big flash units like this. One was a "reset" incident where all saved patches were lost. I laughed a bit. I don't like the lack of air moving on stage, and it's just...I dunno. And they've got them in stupid big rack cases so it may as well be a decent little valve combo and get a couple of pedals - they only use delay, reverb, drive and chorus. Seems pointless. [/quote] I have to admit the size of the rack version is one of the reasons why I'll probably go with the floor unit. Not having a backup of your patches and a means to reload them is user error IMO. Also if the reset is as deeply buried on the Helix as it is on the BassPod it takes a special kind of idiot to trigger it. I used to be (briefly) in a band with a guitarist who only had simple 4 pedals but he still couldn't remember to settings he needed for the songs in our set from one rehearsal to the next. IME small guitar combos don't move much air either - my Hughes & Kuttner Tube 50 with a Marshall PowerBreak to bring the output volume down to sensible levels on stage has no discernible air movement whatsoever. I like programmable multi-effects, but then I've been using them since 1990, and I'm well organised. IMO the people who can't get on with them aren't much better with individual pedals either unless they only have one sound for each unit.

Eight 8Ω speakers can be wired up to give a total cab impedance of 4Ω or 8Ω (or 2Ω or 16Ω) depending on how it is done. You really need to photograph how the cab is currently wired up so that we can advise.

AFAIK the LT doesn't have as many routing options as the full version. This might be one of its shortcomings.

[quote name='Spaced' timestamp='1508878666' post='3395140'] Would you like it if everyone judged your music by the first 30-60 seconds? Sure, that's what the public will most likely do, but as musicians I thought we'd have a bit more appreciation as to the amount of effort that goes into any song that gets onto Jools, even if it's crap. Be the change you want to see [/quote] The majority of music on Later is rock-based where your average composition somewhere around the 4 minute mark. IMO if you haven't been able to give your audience a good idea of what your music is all about in the first quarter of your song then you haven't really succeeded as a musician or composer.

It doesn't matter how serious and skilful a musician you are if people don't like the music you are making then your skill and seriousness is irrelevant. I quite liked that - play it using 8-bit synth sounds and stick a breakbeat behind it and you have Plustech Squeeze Box!

It might be worth posting this on Ampeg's and Polar Audio's (UK Distributor) Facebook pages.

I would have thought that the shop-based second hand gear market has been pretty much wiped out by the internet.

[quote name='thegummy' timestamp='1508602547' post='3393264'] Was looking on Reverb for used Americans - seem to be around a grand though, a bit OTT for second-hand in my opinion. Came across this - will this give a good aggressive P tone? [/quote] Probably. It will depend on how much the body mass (and construction) of that body against a standard P-bass body affects the tone.

[quote name='hen barn' timestamp='1508916659' post='3395248'] I like a more powerful bass, more cutting. I use a status bass as my main bass. Just having fun putting this together . [/quote] And you can't get this by adjusting the controls on your amp?

What do you want to get out of "active power"?

Which era ACR? If it's early on (first 2 or 3 albums) you could also fit into a more 80s industrial scene, as well as that skinny white boy funk. What worked for The Terrortones when we were first starting out was to hit up any vaguely similar bands on social media and find out where they played locally, and take it from there. Might also be worth looking at gig swaps too.

Cocktail sticks work better than matchsticks as they are made from harder wood. IME the problem with the Schaller screws isn't the length, which always seems plenty long enough where you consider that the screw goes deeper into the strap button on a Straplock and consequently more of it goes into the wood; but the fact that the screws tend to be thinner than those used for normal stop buttons. Which is why the cocktail stick method works so well.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1508344638' post='3391543'] I got a message from the Amp Tech at Ashdown this afternoon. Repair completed, [color=#000000][color=#1F497D]Hi Mick,[/color][/color] [color=#000000][color=#1F497D]Your amp is all sorted and ready to be shipped back to you.. One of the power amps was playing up and shutting down at high[/color][/color] [color=#000000][color=#1F497D]volumes.. \I have replaced it with a brand new one.. Lucky we still had one..[/color][/color] [color=#000000]All FOC...can't ask for more than that...Great service.[/color] [/quote] Glad to hear that you got a good result from your interactions with Ashdown. It's a pity that they couldn't be so accommodating for all their Superfly users in the past :-((

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1508839928' post='3394718'] If you're good enough to be noticed, get networking. That's the only way. [/quote] I think you need a bit of both networking and ads. The fact that I was known form my previous bands and therefore people know that I was serious about my music helped, but I wouldn't have joined either of my current bands if it hadn't been for placing and answering ads, because I wouldn't have known that the bands in question were looking for a bassist and they wouldn't have known that I was looking for a band.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1508838154' post='3394696'] And yet look at how many people still enjoy them! For me, there's nothing more pleasing than a good P-bass, so why would I want anything different? I've been round the houses. I've had all the active doo-hickies (still do!). I've owned graphite necked basses, hell I've owned an all graphite bass. But I've returned to the tried and trusted design because it works best for me. The sound works for me. It's ergonomically comfortable for me. Any change would just be for the sake of it. But each to their own! [/quote] As you said each to their own. There's plenty of people who like the original Thunderbird too and apart from maybe sorting out the original 2-piece bridge so that it has enough travel to intonate the more modern string designs, don't think that it needs any updating either. Personally I don't find any of Leo Fender's designs particular ergonomic or comfortable, and that's just as much to do with familiarity as anything else. I'd been playing bass for over 30 years before I even owned an instrument that owed very much more to Fender's designs than being a fretted, stringed instrument tuned E-G an octave below the guitar.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1508833735' post='3394643'] Explain... [/quote] Pretty much everything about the necks (and to a lesser extent the chunkiness of the bodies) which are all about low-skill, low-cost manufacturing with the technology that was easily and cheaply available in the 1940s. Leo Fender did a good job back then, but technology and manufacturing techniques have moved on and a lot of the compromises he had to make for the sake of hitting his price point with a workforce that were not luthiers is unnecessary these days.

These days I think focusing on the actual instruments rather than the music that they make is a mistake. Unless you are able to use it as a gimmick in the way that bands like the White Stripes and Royal Blood manage to make very ordinary music seem interesting because they don't have a "conventional" band line up.