mattpbass

It did but was then reopened - https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/leisure/bax-music-reopens-stores-and-webshop/

I use mono cases with multiple Sandbergs, fit perfectly and unless you specifically need a flight case are more than protective enough for touring.

Yeah, it just staying in preset mode until you do a long press would make more sense to me.

Thinking the preset switching could be better is hardly asking for a completely different feature.

How are you finding the tracking? It really does sound cool, though having watched that demo video I still think the preset change is unnecessarily fiddly for live use.

I think I am just too far down the actual bass synth rabbit hole now to not feel like even the best pedal is too limited; there’s a medley we do that is 8 different patches just by itself. 😅 Still, as a fan of the sound I’m looking forward to seeing what people think of this one.

Yeah I get that not everyone needs loads of sounds, but looking at the manual and seeing that you have to hold the foot switch down to get it into preset change mode, then cycle through presets with just a little light to say what you preset you are on, and then it will timeout of preset mode etc… I would definitely mess that up live. 😅

Yeah agreed (well, sort of, I’ve tried most synth pedals and concluded that they are all too compromised/ impractical as well). I’m sure this will sell and hopefully work as well as it seems to in the videos, for home playing it looks fantastic, just can’t see it being very giggable.

Cool, that makes it slightly more useable, but 8 is still not really enough, and presumably you have to write over the IMA presets? Yep, absolutely, I ended up selling my Sub 25 to get a 37 purely because there wasn’t enough patch spaces, nor could I keep track without some kind of display. If you need synth for just 1 or 2 songs this looks like it could be a great pedal, but for anything more I think I’m still in the (annoying to some) “if you want synth just get a synth” camp.

Sounds great and the tracking seems excellent, but if I read it right there are only 8 presets, and they’re changed by pressing those little buttons? That alone would make it not really a viable gigging alternative to an actual bass synth for anyone but the lightest user.

Google Sheets also works really well, it allows for a more bespoke grid of information. We have the whole year planned out with gigs, potential gigs, rehearsals, meetings, and each gig has all of the info anyone needs; location, deps, fee splits etc.

I teach above Hippo/R&D, both great independent shops run by owners who care about what they are doing.

Welcome Chris, I live in Derby, gigging and teaching bass. I worked in East Mill in Belper for years (when it was offices rather than a mill, I’m not that old!)!

Agreed, I hate the furry feel of Pau Ferro, I would never choose it over rosewood or maple.

It has be tied to an individual unless the band is its own legal entity (ie a limited company etc). But it can be a business account that is “person name trading as band name”.

In the last 3/4 years. I’ve opened a couple of accounts with different app-based banks, it couldn’t have been simpler or more streamlined.

Digital/online/app-based/mobile/challenger banks, I don’t think anyone has settled on exactly which of these. You do obviously still have to go through an ID process though, although it’s fairly easy, I think I opened the band account with my driving licence and a video statement.

If you don’t want it going through your personal account, set up a separate account for the band with someone like Starling and make all payments in/out of that. 10 minute job to get one up and running.

Precisely what my pub band does, a couple of us are full time musicians, and the others have higher earning jobs, so we don’t split band income equally. It kind of has to be like that otherwise I could’t commit to tying up dates where I could be earning way more gigging with the function band. But does rely on being good mates / trusting each other to make that work.

Yeah I think you find yourself in a tricky middle ground; standard pub rock covers you can probably find someone easily enough, but anything else means more prep work/time for the dep which then pushes the financial demands higher. Which is much the same as my “for fun” band, our set is too niche to have someone just walk in and play it, and we are too cheap to be able to pay someone for the time to learn it! 😅

There’s no harm in trying! I suppose another question is even if the budget is there can you actually find a good dep (or two!) any easier than you can find a good permanent guitarist?

I get the situation and economics of it, I’m just saying I think you’ll find it difficult. I have a foot in both worlds, I’m in a busy professional function band, and a pub band with old mates. For the function band, getting good deps is no issue because the budget is there, for the pub band unavailability means a cancelled gig.

Deps are common place in the function world but you’re looking at players used to individual fees of £200-300 (or more). I don’t know any decent players who would look at a 30 song set for £80 as a one-off, I certainly wouldn’t. But for a friend where there is potential for repeat local work etc you might have a chance of attracting someone.

It’s certainly true that a valve amp of a quoted wattage will sound significantly louder than the equivalent solid state amp of the same quoted wattage.