Sean

Great news. Enjoy the rehearsal tomorrow.

A lot of us seem to have the same experiences with this. One friend of mine has asked me every time I've seen him for the last 32 years how the band is going. "How's band life?" Is his favourite question. Every time I see him he says that he'll have to come along and see us play one night. He's got no concept. I've been in at least a dozen regular gigging bands in that time doing a vast variety of material, covers, originals, playing different instruments etc. My response is always the same, "Yeah, good, thanks. Busy as ever." I bumped into a former colleague last year that said to me that he was still intending to come see me play because him and his lad were such massive fans of the Blues Brothers. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I quit that tribute act in 2007. I go out and see friends' bands and I pay if it's ticketed!

Second hand Gigrig is good stuff. It's very low profile. You can pick up the units 2nd hand and then buy any specific connectors new. T-rex Chameleon fuel tank is a good option. I use both.

No opinion here, just facts and the assumption that this bass bears "that logo": 1. Stealing counterfeit goods is a crime, no doubt and this incident undermines our confidence in couriers. 2. Buying counterfeit goods isn't a crime in the UK. 3. Making and selling counterfeit goods is an offence. Here's the conundrum just as an observation. If the seller/maker of the counterfeit goods reports a theft of those goods to the police they will have to give a description of the goods, which should include some facts about them not being genuine but "replica". If it bears an unlicensed, unauthorised trademark. We've had the conversation on BassChat about the IP and whether or not it's wrong many times over the years but as far as I know the police haven't. Counterfeit goods are generally confiscated, they aren't returned because they breach intellectual rights. Interesting.

You'll get there. It comes in stages. I could go further and say the cab isn't part of the equation but I won't. Or maybe I just did. Who knows? It took me years to undo decades of conditioning. No one told me, I just took in little nuggets and absorbed things, tried stuff, listened to people who'd been on similar journeys, kept an open kind and pushed back on the masses (of BassChatters) that try to suck you in to their own established realities and then one day, "Boom!", sorted. It all dropped into place and became completely clear. Literally. I'm an evangelist about it, yes but I don't worry about it anymore, it's sorted. It gives me time to focus on my playing.

Why do you think that is?

45-60-80-107 D'Addario EXL170BT. I use those on Spectors with EMGs and the Haz-clone preamp dimed through a GK and play lots of high register stuff. Sweet as a nut. Other than that, it's all in the fingers.

If we look at the way Barefaced markets the products on the website, you can see that it's getting away from being led by driver size to a bigger degree than many other manufacturers but is still led by 10 and 12 in the names of the lines, 12XN, 10CR, it's still spec-focused rather than being completely led by what it does for the user, although the copy does focus on what it delivers so in that respect it is progressive. If you look at LFSys.co.uk it's entirely focused on what the product does for the user to the extent that whether it's a 12, a 10 or ceramic or neo gets put in the specification not the "reasons to buy". The Monaco delivers everything I need for most of my user cases. There are applications however where a different solution could be better and that's where it over-delivers. A 5m x 4m rehearsal room with 2m ceilings? Something much smaller would be the perfect answer and that's where the Monza and Goodwood come in and the small BC-build cabs that are based around an 8" driver. They aren't using 8" drivers because the 8" driver meets the tonal requirements, the 8" driver meets the technical requirements of loudness, size etc at a target price. Cab design/architecture has moved forward so much in the last 15 years and both these brands have done a lot in that respect. I'll not say I'll never buy another BF but for now, for me, my use cases and objective comparison there is a better option.

I'm an ex-Barefaced user. I had 4 over the years. My experiences are well documented on BassChat. I've moved on. I've applied a lot of my professional skills to the "what" of the desired outcome. I should have done this years ago but it's like cobblers' shoes. In work (I was a product manager for a big engineering company for the best part of 30 years) when developing a new product, we always tried to establish what users were trying to achieve, not what they want. In terms of bass players, they need to be able to hear themselves clearly and easily in a live environment. There are various solutions including IEM systems, which is disruptive tech as far as bass cabs go, but there's still very much a need for the individual bass amp to be heard in the room. So, bass cabs are still a need. Often users don't really know what they want from products and it's the product managers that need to determine what the product needs to be to meet the needs. I thought in the past that, "I want 10" drivers because they give me this..." and I couldn't have been more wrong, the level of ignorance involved in coming to that "requirement" defies belief. What users actually want, though they sometimes don't realise it, is easy portability, the ability to hear what they're playing in various situations and rooms easily, enough "volume" to keep up with other instruments (drums usually) etc. The constraints that then shape the product are price, size, availability of tech etc. For those of us that attended @Phil Starr 's speaker/cab demo at the SE and/or SW Bass Bashes last year, we've seen and heard first hand the whole "I prefer 10s" or "I only use 15s" fallacy in action. That demo just kills the argument about driver size preference and turns the conversation to which sound do you prefer, not which is your favourite size speaker. Then there's the array fallacy, "I prefer 4x10s". No you don't. What you have is experience(s) where a particular 4x10 has given you your desired outcome, or seeing Billy Sheehan using Hartke 4x10 cabs has coloured your thinking. What you need in reality is the sound you consider to be a pleasing tone clearly audible to you while performing. What pulled me away from BF? To start, product quality was a factor. I've never had anything where the tolex comes away and shrinks so easily; unacceptable on any product but inexcusable on a premium priced product. And the 10" BF cabs just didn't work for me in a gigging environment although they often sounded great out in the venue. The BT2 was pretty good but lacked something. I've now settled on a cab that gives me exactly what I want. I don't care what size driver it has, it does everything I want it to beautifully and brilliantly. It's light, compact, built like a tank and looks very professional. Comments and feedback from other people on the sound are always positive and I'm playing better because I can hear myself clearly all the time. The more we think about outcomes and less about specifications, the better products will get and the sooner you'll get what you need.

I think you handled that very well indeed. You were 100% straight and got all the expectations out. I agree with the thoughts about how sax should be handled as far as set lists go too.

That is the first properly shonky Yamaha I've ever seen. Maybe the guy that was doing the book-matching for the Cort Space basses got moved to the Yamaha facility.

They really really really don't want us putting aftermarket preamps in these, do they?

IIRC DJ was going to collaborate with Albey Balgochian to introduce a range of instruments under the "A Bass" brand and they were looking at setting up pre-orders. I registered my interest at the time. The Lakland DJ ceased to be for a while but soon returned when the "A Bass" thing came to nothing. I had a limited edition Lakland "Adam Clayton" DJ in a natural ash with black blocks and ChiSonic pickups for a while. These were Korean-made then shipped to Chicago for QA and set up. It was an absolute lead sled ship's anchor of a bass. I think it was commissioned by Bass Central and there was a small amount of config available like pickup selection and white or black blocks.

I had a Skyline Darryl Jones (Korea) and I had a Shoreline Darryl Jones. There was nothing between them, really. I preferred the Korean one as it was lighter and more "played in" but there was no difference in build quality or spec. Both were very good instruments.

What's the neck like, Matt? Is it P-like?

Wow. I didn't know that. It's a bit like custom shop Squier being more expensive than Fender. Sort of. Either way, now you've explained it I get it even less. I could go to Woodstock and place my Spector order in person for that money.

£8k+ for what it is seems excessive to say the least. It makes Fodera, Spector USA, Valenti and F Bass look like bargains in comparison. If you look at European builders like Sei, Overwater, Brooks, Shuker etc, you're paying a heap of extra money for one of Roger's finest. Good work if you can get it and all the best to him but pound for pound, I just don't get it.

It looks like it's been left in the shop window for 50 years. I want a shiny new one that looks like Sting's did in 1983. Without dropping £7k on the Woodstock crew.

Non-aged and a neck profile that wasn't so skinny it was like a sleeve on the truss rod and I'd be all over it 😃

After rehearsal tonight, I can only say that this is just a complete misinterpretation, mistranscription of a song. Jeez. It's a train crash. I'm left wondering how to deal with it. I've managed to get the message across about it all being C# for 12 bars but the effort versus reward is stacked against me when we're trying to get gig-ready. It works if I play the bass line as roots of the chords the guitarists play (of course) but it's a butcher's shop of a song after the reprise. I'm struggling to see how whoever got it that wrong/different. Not only that but the arrangement is different inasmuch as there's extra bits and missing bits compared to the original. The 8 bar bridge from 2:07 to 2:20 is omitted. Fortunately, it's a band of people that are very balanced and OK with challenging anything. It's a rare thing.

We rehearsed Sultans last week and it was so fast that I was blown away by the dexterity of nailing the solos note for note. I believe that a lot of songs "breathe" better at the right tempo or within a certain tolerance. With Sultans I found that my bass line sounded too busy at the tempo we played it whereas playing it at the "Alchemy tempo" sounds fine. I've found that vocalists struggle too when songs are rushed, their breath control goes completely and then their performance drops off. In a previous band I used to nag about playing songs too fast all the time and was ignored, not even a conversation. I clocked Living on a Prayer at 151 bpm off one gig recording (it's 123bpm on the record), others were similarly fast, then one gig we had a dep drummer who played everything absolutely on the money and afterwards the other three wouldn't shut up about how well we played and how much a great groove we had, how we didn't make any mistakes etc.

A friend of mine gave me some reduced to clear mince that was just on the sell by date the other day. I said, "thank you very much, I never look a gift house in the mouth". [Boom, tish and long tom full that doesn't come back on the beat...]

One thing I've done as a result of all this is to chart out the songs as the band plays them with notes to explain. One day they might need a dep or a replacement and having this reference material is going to save some bassist a lot of time. It could well be a fellow Basschatter. You're welcome. 😀

I'm the newbie and there's quite a few things above that on the list of things to be having chats about that will refine the set. Things are really positive and moving forward, I need to be selective and focus.

I'm currently getting my head around playing "those sections" of Times Like These in 4/4 time instead of 7/4. I can see the logic in making the decision but it's not difficult to count 3 / 4 then 4/4 to get to 7. That one is a lazy shortcut and and is now 15 years ingrained into 4 people so I'm "re-learning" it.