BigRedX

Right now late 70s Fenders are going up in value, but a lot of that is due to the fact that all the earlier basses are now stupidly expensive rather than because they are great instruments in their own right. At some point the market for Fenders from this period will reach critical mass at which point only the instruments that have everything going for them in terms of playability, tone and weight will continue to be desirable, and unfortunately the heavy instruments are going to be the hardest ones to put right to make them truly desirable. If the Stingray suits you better, then go for it. If you can get some extra cash out of the deal at the same time go for it, because AFAICS there will come a time when the Stingray will be perceived as the more valuable instrument.

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1464345162' post='3058621'] I don't know... But putting a pic of Dave with Jools and then referring to him as "Jools Holland's bass player" isn't really cementing the fact that he's a name player in his own right. [/quote] But AFAICS his main gig at the moment (and for some time now) is being the bass player in Jools' band.

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1464340377' post='3058546'] I think once the song is written, there's little difference between the two, but I do love the writing aspect of playing in originals bands. Even if the part I go for is just root 5ths, or just a straight drum beat, I still start with a totally blank canvas and can do whatever I want. [/quote] But there is something extra special about getting a great audience reaction to playing a song you've written yourself.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1464338155' post='3058508'] I do believe that the copy basses create a desire to own the real thing, I think Fender know that and that is why they are not so protective of their trademarks (and I guess the sheer amount of clones out there would make any effort at protection rather futile now) I do think Rickenbacker are wrong in their aggressive pursuit of copy instruments for the same reasons given above, however, you cannot argue that a Rickenbacker bass has better residual values than the majority of Fender basses have [/quote] I think in Fender's case if they had known in the 70s what we know now they might not have been so complacent. Unfortunately for them the opportunity to do anything about it has long passed and they have to make the best of the situation as it stands. Also the Fender design ethos works against them. It's far easier to copy an instrument whose whole concept is to be produced easily and cheaply by people without any real luthiery skills.

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1464336957' post='3058490'] because we are all old, jaded and wish we had the youngsters care free attitude [/quote] I'm old and still have a care-free attitude. It's not difficult you know.

@ Roger2611. And although the end result was the same for me - I chose my originals band over covers, my experience of playing with both was completely the opposite. It might be that I am lucky enough to be in a very well organised and efficient originals band, and that my covers bands were always slightly disorganised and complacent, but IME covers bands have to be pretty rubbish before the average punter starts to notice. You can get seemingly away with all sorts of unprofessional stagecraft such as excessive tuning and pauses to locate and have a swig of your beer, which would kill and originals band set stone dead. When I mentioned this to my covers bandmates they didn't really understand what the problem was. Also my originals band was getting a lot more gigs - 3 or 4 every month all paid and rarely mid-week ones - while my covers band was struggling to be playing more than a handful of times each year. Also the originals band was far more efficient when it came to gigs: All the gear and the band went in the band van (or in a hatchback for gigs where backline and drum kit were provided) and if time was short it was no problem for us to turn up at the venue and be on-stage and playing our set within 20 minutes, at worst, of our arrival. Contrast that with the covers band where everyone arrived with their gear in their individual cars. There was also the PA and lights to set up and break down, so while the covers gig might pay more, in terms of the number of hours of work both setting up and playing, the originals ended up with a better hourly rate! And that's before you even consider the relative expenses of one car/van for the whole band versus one car for each band member. In the end my choice was easy to make. I was having far more fun and ultimately making more money for a lot less effort playing music I had written myself over even a set of universally accepted well-known crowd pleasers.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1464303420' post='3058391'] Well, do what you prefer but I think it's all just bass playing. I have managed to play in both covers and originals bands (a few did both) for most of my playing career. IMO there are no downsides to either style. They are all just playing songs. [/quote] I think it depends whether you are just a player or if you write as well. If you don't write then there's probably little difference from a playing PoV.

[quote name='leschirons' timestamp='1464299163' post='3058352'] Love the enthusiasm and hope they make it but doomed to fail. The stumbling block being transport. If you're 18-21, it must cost a couple of grand to insure the cheapest car. Bring back the good old days with a band van full of dog-ends and vomit I say. [/quote] And that's exactly the kind of middle-aged middle-class thinking that dooms you to failure. There's nothing to stop them from finding someone who can afford the insurance and the transport to drive them about. And before you say that's impossible I've done it several times in bands I have been in over the years. IME there is very little that can't be overcome with a bit of ingenuity and the attitude that you never know what you can get for nothing (or very little) until you ask. My first band had been played on John Peel when the closest thing we'd done to a proper gig was performing 3 of our songs at our school music evening. Said recording cost less than £40 for the day in the studio including getting the band there with our gear on the bus! My next band managed to blag free recording time in the university music studio, and results got us major record label interest. Over the years the bands I've played in have made a good number of promo videos including a couple done in the 80s when it wasn't anywhere near as cheap and easy as it is nowadays. Total video production spend to date? Well under £1000. It's all doable so long as you have the right attitude and don't give up before you've even started.

Buy some music made by your follow Basschatters ;-)

[quote name='thebassist' timestamp='1464258416' post='3057929'] I don't know of course but I'd bet a significant number of them don't have a blast because there are very few brilliant players aged 18-21 with own transport, etc. prepared to follow up on these "awesome opportunities". [/quote] IME general reliability, enthusiasm and energy always trump being a "brilliant player". This is a mistake musicians commonly make. Also if you have all those things you can find was around the transport problem if you don't have your own. Opportunities come to those who work hard to make them happen. Something else a lot of musicians don't seem to understand.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1464185932' post='3057334'] Ask them to mark it as a gift. No import charges. [/quote] And once again this mis-information appears. All that marking it as a gift does increase the threshold at which VAT and import duty becomes chargeable to £34.

[quote name='FuNkShUi' timestamp='1464161237' post='3056971'] Excuse my ignorance, but what's a UI? [/quote] User Interface.

What you need is a PCI chassis which is a box that holds your PCI card(s) and connects either via Firewire or Thunderbolt, depending on the model, to you Mac. Unfortunately they are not particularly cheap, a chassis cable of holding a single PCI card cost around £125. Also most of the current models available are for PCIe so you may need to also upgrade your MotU host card to the PCIe version. BTW which iMac have you got? Unless it's a very recent model you might be better off swapping it for a second-hand tower-style Mac Pro which will accommodate your PCIe cards.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1464104676' post='3056587'] A bit off-topic, but: Do you happen to know this to be fact? I'd have assumed that the iPad's battery would be run down more quickly when it has to drive the wired headphones than when it has to send a Bluetooth signal. BTW, yesterday I happened to read the specifications for a slightly up-market Bluetooth set (€250), and the specifications were better for wired connection. I hastily assumed this expresses a limitation of the Bluetooth system as well as of the built-in amp, but do not know. [/quote] My understanding is that any wireless connection the iPad makes will use up the battery power, but I hadn't considered the fact that the headphone amplifier might use more battery power than the Bluetooth transmitter. However the point is moot since I've also discovered that the Bluetooth connection adds too much latency to the audio for the viewing of TV to be a comfortable experience.

[quote name='Number6' timestamp='1464048838' post='3056161'] Sennheiser do a headband set called 686 Sports but they look like in ear. I really rate Sennheiser though. [/quote] Thanks. I did look at the Sennheiser site, but after too many non-fitting earbud/in-ear headphones I'm simply not going to risk getting another pair unless I can try them out first.

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1464088863' post='3056415'] No not really. Just from the house to the car and the car to the venue. [/quote] In that case anything that fits your basses and your budget will probably do the job.

Are you planning on walking any distance with this gig bag on your back? If so I recommend that you try before you buy. Having bought a (single) Mono M80, I found it very uncomfortable to wear and would not consider buying another expensive gig bag without trying it out first.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1464043105' post='3056126'] I know what you mean, but almost certainly the new cavity will be bigger all round than the old one, so it will all be routed out anyway. [/quote] Bigger? I await the next development with interest!

[quote name='casapete' timestamp='1464033502' post='3056006'] ...maybe they're a bit late to the lightweight amp party. [/quote] IIRC the very first class D amp I ever came across was a Peavey power amp some time in the early 90s. This can't be the first one they've made specifically for bass?

[quote name='Leftfret' timestamp='1463874655' post='3054725'] (Be honest all you Rickenbacker 4001/3 and Gibson EB players - you all come back to the fold sooner or later) [/quote] Come back? I never went there in the first place. My first bass was a Burns Sonic, and after that I got an Overwater Original. Full disclosure: I did own a Squier VM Fretless Jazz once - it was fine in the shop but in the band context I couldn't get on with it at all and after 3 months it got replaced with a Pedulla Buzz. If the only options were a P or a J bass I'd go back to playing synth.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1464016517' post='3055768'] There are still some scary bits to do, but fewer than there were! This evening I'll glue the infills so that I can route the bridge and stop-tail recesses tomorrow. If those go OK, there is only one really scary bit left - the control chamber. I can start the finishing process before I need to do that to give me plenty of time to think through exactly how best and how to do it. [/quote] I was surprised that you didn't fill in the existing control cavity completely while the back laminations were off, with a view to routing a new and more elegantly shaped one.

[quote name='Sammers' timestamp='1464036342' post='3056051'] I seem to remember that you can specify almost anything you want if you pay for a master builder. Check out Tye Zamora's Fender as an example, it's pretty out there! [/quote] That's the Alien Ant Farm bass? That's only "pretty out there" because he got Fender to make something that was a long way out of their comfort zone and IMO it shows. For me the whole point of picking a luthier or manufacturer to make your custom instrument is because they are already making something similar, hence my request above. However I've just had a look at the current [url="http://wpc.077d.edgecastcdn.net/00077D/custom_shop/quote_guide/2015/2015%20Fender%20Custom%20Shop%20Order%20Form%20(rev%20ii).pdf"]Quote Sheet[/url] and the options are pretty limited. It might be possible to have something like a long scale 5-string Starcaster Bass as a Masterbuilt option but there doesn't seem to be any way of finding out for sure. In the end it would probably be simpler to buy a standard Starcaster bass and get a decent luthier in this country to copy it with my modifications.

I need some new headphones. They don't have to be fantastic, they are going to be used when I'm listening to music or watching TV on my iPad. However I do have some fairly specific needs. 1. Earbuds DO NOT fit in my ears. I've tried many different designs at all sorts of price points over the years and none of them fit in my ears. Either they fall out or they simply don't seal well enough to eliminate any background noise. So please don't recommend me any earbuds. 2. They need to be small and lightweight. The huge headphones that are currently popular are simply too big for me. Not to mention the fact that they look like those crap headphones from the 70s. All that is missing is the curly lead! 3. Must not be too bassy. I find anything with even an average amount of bass tend to make the soundtrack and sound effects in TV programmes louder than the dialogue to the point where I can't understand a word that anyone is saying. 4. They should not have a headband that goes over the top of my head. I'm lucky enough to not only still have hair but also a hairstyle. I don't want anything that will mess it up. Many years ago I had a pair of Sony sport headphones that had a band that clipped over my ears and went around the back of my head. These were my ideal headphones for my needs and I've been looking ever since for another pair the same. The current Sony range has [url=http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/headband-headphones/mdr-as700bt]this model[/url] which looks like it might be a suitable replacement, except it appears to be bluetooth only. I don't need bluetooth. IMO it's completely unnecessary. I'm perfectly happy with a wired connection, and also it won't run down the batteries in my iPad so quickly. So does anyone know of a pair of headphones with a similar design to those above that don't deliver too much bass and are wired?

I really like the sound of the neck pickup on my MiK Starbass. If it died I'd be replacing it with one exactly the same.

It's easy for the Terrortones. Drums in the middle, guitar and bass either side (it doesn't matter which) and Mr Venom in the middle. So long as there's room at the front for the guitarist's small pedal board, my Line6 Shortboard and the theremin, and space for me and the guitarist to stand, we're good. Mr Venom spends most of his time in the audience so he doesn't need much room on stage.