molan

I must say that I totally understood the one word response. Question was about differences between older and newer cabs and they've gone up in price so 'cost' was both an accurate and appropriate response

Agree

I’m sure this sounds a bit silly but I love the fact that I’ve been down to one trip to and from the car for each gig for some time now. Simplest route is my MarkBass Alain Caron combo in one hand and bass over my shoulder - even leaves me with one free hand! My ‘big’ rig has a Berg 210 in one hand, amp in the other and the ubiquitous bass over the shoulder. If the car park is bit of distance from the stage area I’ll shift the amp to the other shoulder and use both hands on the cab. Still one journey though. Always make me smile watching guitarists and drummer going back & forth humping stuff. I even get to arrive half an hour after everyone else now because I can set up so quickly

Somewhat bizarrely, the loudest two gigs I’ve ever been to were soul / funk. Bobby Womack once played a ‘radio special’ in a tiny club and, for some inexplicable reason, his sound crew decided to use the same rig he’d had the night before at the Forum in Kentish Town. I was deafened and my ears rang for weeks - in fact I think it was the start of my long term tinnitus issue. The absolute loudest ever was Incognito at the small O2 venue in Greenwich. I literally had to put my hands over my ears because the higher frequencies hurt so much. All around me people were wincing and covering their ears. I had to move right back and to one side of the hall to get anything like a decent volume

You have to explain, rationally, how better quality sound, both for the musicians playing and the audience listening, is “killing rock & roll”. This makes no sense to me whatsoever.

I don’t understand why it should be expected that it would drop out if either out of sight or on a large stage? Whenever I’ve tested quality systems you can leave the room, close the door, walk across the car park, get in a car and wait for some to start driving away before you lose signal!

Our lead guitarist now has a lovely amp with a 5w setting. It sounds fabulous cranked up but he’s still sometimes struggling with it being too loud ?

Not really. Not even remotely similar businesses. Fender has way more in common with Disney or Nike where he was a huge success.

I thought Andy Mooney was super successful at Disney? He was credited with coming up with the idea for the Princess range and then turning it into a 4 billion dollar brand. Also ran the, hugely successful, Disney Retail business. The gossip when he left Disney was that he walked out because the board wouldn’t accept some of his punchier ideas (Disney is a very conservative company). Previously he’d had over 20 very successful years at Nike as both UK CFO and then head of marketing in USA. The job he was fired from was Quicksilver which was in a pretty bad shape when he arrived. Overall his credentials in retail, marketing and financial management are first rate. Seems like an excellent combination for for someone to run a large global music instrument business.

I’m not sure that his name sells that many basses. It’s his design choices that people buy into. He takes maybe 15-20 basses on the road when he goes on tour and genuinely uses a lot of them at each gig / TV appearance. Of course he doesn’t really need to use so many but, given that he can easily afford them (and the techs to get them ready at a moment’s notice) then I can’t see it does any harm to anyone. Because his band is such a ‘showcase’ he often chooses bright colours and bold designs to stand out on stage. Manufacturers like this because it gives them a chance to show off some flashier designs. The number of Clayton ‘haters’ are limited to a few players who hang out on forums. Not many of them and with little influence on the general bass buying public. By making some of the signature models as limited editions this increases immediate demand at launch which, in turn, generates much-needed publicity, and subsequent revenue, for what is an increasingly beleaguered industry. I’d think this particular run ought to sell out relatively quickly. It’ll be interesting to see how well they are made and what UK price comes in at. Looks like they’ll be around the same build spec and quality as the current American Vintage models so may be the same price - possibly a bit more because of the higher grade blocks. Of course, the real test is how they sound but even this is going to be pretty subjective. At most ‘everday’ gigs that they are likely to be used at, I doubt any audience member will be able to hear the difference between one of these and a pre CBS vintage model. They might get noticed as looking a bit different from run of the mill sunburst/Black/white/natural though. If the player feels good about him/herself whilst playing and has a good time then that feels like the most important thing I very much doubt anyone is going to see someone with one of these and go “ooh look it’s an Adam Clayton wannabe, bet he can’t play”. . .

I see that Fender have finally released a Signature version of a purple sparkle P that Adam Clayton has been seen with Theres also a matching J with what appears to be the same neck - 1.5” nut and a rounded C profile He had a pair of sparkle P basses made by Mike Lull quite a while ago - one gold and one purple. He didn’t keep the gold one but Fender released a Masterbuilt Custom Shop version in a small run of about 60. They then built him a personal one in purple that caused a bit of a stir after some high profile US TV performances. I cant find any official Fender press releases about them but stores in the US are taking deposits with a sale price of $1,999 so I’d expect they’ll be close to £2K over here. Seem to be limited editions of around 100 but obviously not CS builds at that price. They’ll be Standard US built Artist series I think with CS pickups (the J definitely has CS pups). I’m a complete sucker for sparkly basses and think they look great but far too bling for a lot of people

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The overload light was flashing with gain set at zero? Did you have a pedal running into the effects return?