rushbo

I don't know what I'm more proud of - the fact that I regularly gig with basses which would cause many of the members of BassChat to reach for their weapon of choice, or that my own prejudices are so absurd that it's pointless trying to explain them. While there are several things in the Wonderful World of Bass that make me roll my eyes and tut, there are only two which cause me to clench my teeth, fists and buttocks simultaneously. Both are pictured here: Exhibit A: The two "extra" screws on some BBoT bridges. Why oh Lord, why? Exhibit B: That bonus bit of wood at the dusty end of the neck, often shaped into a jaunty diagonal. I don't know what it's called, I just don't like it. I have no doubt that these are perfectly great sounding basses and fun to play, but I'm afraid if they ever fell into my hands, I'd probably have to take them into the darkest part of the woods and put them out of their misery for the good of mankind.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but my dealings with Bax have always been positive... The last things I bought from them - a Warwick Gnome Amp and Cab were both 'B' stock, but arrived boxed and in immaculate condition. Initially, all was good. However, after a couple of gigs, the DI on the amp developed a fault, meaning that the signal from the amp to the mixing desk sounded horribly distorted. As I bought the gear about a week before all the recent shenanigans, I was a little trepidatious when I got in touch with them about a returning it. I quickly received a free postage label and sent it back. I was told that the turnaround time was 11 weeks, which didn't really fill me with hope. However, I was kept informed all through the process and after just under four weeks, I received an email to say that a brand-new replacement was on the way which arrived promptly. So far, so good. I'd use them again.

Bought another book from Mick - as smooth as always.

. Full disclosure: Slap bass played well doesn't offend me at all, and I wish I could play it better...

Good work!

I agree - I had a BG250 15" and it was excellent. I think people have woken up to how good they are as the secod hand price has crept up from £150 to closer to £200.

Just to muddy the waters a bit, I think you also need to consider demographics before you take the plunge on manufacturing physical media. My old Rhythm and Blues band sold a decent amount of CDs at gigs and by mail order- and by decent amount, I mean 300-ish of each CD we made. One of the reasons for that was that our audience of 40-65+ year-olds were still hardwired to buying actual things, rather than streaming or downloading. The band had a BandCamp page with competetively priced downloads in MP3 and WAV formats, but digital sales were minimal. My advice would be to look at your audience. If it's full of bright young things, then streaming, downloads and maybe some boutique vinyl could be the ways forward. Of all the stuff we sold however, it was T Shirts that generated the most revenue and a well designed, sensibly priced shirt or beanie will always be popular.

The Roxy Music tribute I play in has used projections for a couple of years now. We've made it as simple as it can be - I put together a three hour mp4 (edited on an excellent free programme called Shotcut) with appropriate, royalty free images and short video clips. We check with the venue well in advance to see if they have the facility to run it and about 70% of them do. We play 200-300 seater places - some have a projector and some ask for us to bring a laptop with the mp4 pre-loaded. I've always got a couple of memory sticks in my gig bag with the file on, too. It's not synchronised to what we're playing, but it adds another visual element to our performance and we often get people saying how much they enjoyed the "film." Occasionally some of the "screens" that the images get projected on are basically white bedsheets (with stains and creases) but from a distance, they look fine. My advice would be to get one done - it's quite a fun project - let the venues know you can provide one and always keep a copy handy, along with an HDMI lead or two. Ours is also available to download from our website.

They're called We Are Not Devo and they're ace. If they play anywhere by you, go and see them.

I was once asked to join an All About Eve tribute band, well after their chart successes. As much as I like AAE, I politely demurred.

That is amazing. If you'd have sweetened the deal with a few tunes from his collaborations with Jan Garbarek, I'd have been there in a heartbeat.

Genius.