markbunney

I keep looking at the new Mexican Duff Mckagen signature but it is also £1400 and I worry about the quality.

I have the original issue Duff signature which I love, but am starting to think that the neck is starting to develop some issues. It’s 7 years old but I am constantly noticing buzzing and dead spots despite a recent pro set up.

The American Performer range is around £1,250 and I am tempted to get one of those instead. I have always wanted an American made fender

My best purchases have been:

Darkglass AO500 head

Lekato XLR set to turn my IEM setup wireless

Worst

Orange Little Bass Thing head, I just didn't get on with it

I tried to play my Ibanez RG guitar through my Darkglass AO head (with headphones). It was bearable for a noodle, but nothing compared to a proper guitar amp 

I only take one bass to gig, but I only currently have one bass.

I am always paranoid that I will have an issue and so hope to get a spare of some sort in 2024.

I am not sure if that will be a cheap spare, or one that is equal to my main bass.

In 25 years of gigging I have only had problems twice, albeit with the same bass. I had bought a second hand Spector bass and the internal wiring came loose, I got through the gig by keeping completely still so the contact maintained. I took it back to the shop who soldered the problem, only they didn’t fix it properly and I had the same problem the next time i gigged with it, and it cut out completely. Luckily the guitarist at the time lived close to the venue and owned a bass so I was able to use that.

The shop fixed it again, but I never trusted that bass again so moved it on.

I am having seconds thoughts about returning it! Now I have a few days off over Xmas I am going to get it out of the box and have another look at it before it gets collected.

might see if they’ll exchange it instead 

We learned Merry Christmas Everyone this year, which was fun to play. We only did it up to the key change part though

9 minutes ago, SumOne said:

 

Guilford neck of the woods? 

Nope 

6 hours ago, miles'tone said:

Did you get it at discount already? They're listed around £1300 everywhere from what I can see.

Maybe it was a shop demo bass?

If you can exchange it for a new one at the same price then do so. 

If it was discounted for the couple of imperfections stated then rock on with it imho. 

Do whatever your gut is telling you though. 

Beautiful basses these btw...

It first went up for sale at £1,099 and then a few days later went up to £1,299. I contacted them and they agreed to see it for the original lower price.

The colour and finish on it was beautiful

48 minutes ago, TimR said:

I'd have been waiting a long time then. Must have read Bassassin's post. 

I would think if you asked PMT to sell you one at £1,099 they would 👀

it has been on sale there this week at three different prices, £1,099, £1,299 and £1,499

1 minute ago, TimR said:

I'm watching gear4music for when it gets re-listed. I'll have it. 👍😎

Lol it wasn’t from there 

They offered me a £30 gift card or a return, so I opted for the return.

They said that as it had £400 off it already there was nothing else they could do. I think this was £400 off the list price though, as i had bought it at the advertised online price which was £1,099.

it had been delivered directly from the distributor and it looked like some of the Ibanez tape on the box had already been opened and resealed whether this was for a final QC inspection or a return I don’t know.

It’s being collected next week for a refund.  
 

thanks all for the replies, it’s interesting to see other people’s perspectives on the issue. It would have been the most expensive bass I had ever bought, and I needed to be 100% happy with it.

I have noticed that QC across all consumer goods is terrible these days.

The amount of things (not just bass related) that I have to return due to poor manufacturing or damage on delivery  is terrible.

NBD today for something I’d been looking at for over 3 years, but for various reasons wasn’t able to get.

This was an Ibanez SR1600B in Caribbean Shoreline finish.

It arrived today and had a scratch on the fretboard and a ding in the back of the neck.

The shop said they were just minor imperfections, which I guess they are, but after spending £1100 on something I expect it to be perfect, so they agreed to take it back as faulty.

Just wondering if I was being overly picky, or right to expect a new instrument to arrive in perfect condition.

Useful rehearsal last night ahead of our NYE gig, it was the first one we’d had for a few months and we brushed up on some songs we hadn’t played for ages and also added in a couple of new ones.

I realised that my strap had worn out, and my bass almost fell off. Luckily I realised and I have a spare. Annoying as it was a Mono one and really expensive, but the material that goes around the strap button has just disintegrated.

8 hours ago, dand666 said:

Never heard of these Lekatos, any good? Seem reasonable for £80

I’ve used the XLR one for about 6 gigs now and it’s been reliable (apart from the distortion mentioned in the above post which I think is due to the mixer)

it’s just a bit bulky when plugged into the P2

24 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Played under Concord last Friday for a Xmas bash.. Not all companies are struggling. £250k budget for the staff party.

Wow!

There look to be quite a few unsold tickets to London on Monday, I wonder if they will get reduced on the day to shift them 

26 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

It's still likely to be a morning or a day for the whole band. 

The photographer was going to come to our gig and just take pictures there

On 09/12/2023 at 20:20, SteveXFR said:

Whats the one song would you really like to cover but just know it won't fit your band?

My band has a no cover policy but I'd love to play this

 

 

 

Therapy? are a great band and deserved to be bigger than they are. I won tickets to see them at Blondies dive bar in London a few years ago, the place was tiny and I was about six foot away from the band, stood in my suit as Id had to go straight from work! It was great being so close, but also unnerving having Andy Cairns looking me straight in the eye from a short distance. 

They only did a couple of songs, as it was a new album promo thing for Kerrang magazine, and they were en route to Europe, they had a transit van parked outside and were loading up all the gear afterwards.

I had also seen them at an Ozzfest (I think!) 20 odd years ago, and in London more recently.

I wanted to cover Screamager in my band, but the rest of them didn't fancy it, as they didn't think it was well know enough

I also got to see them

8 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Maybe the pro pics will infuse him with a bit more enthusiasm. Might even have a positive effect when his partner sees how good he looks on stage.

Worth a shot. Shouldn't cost an awful lot of money for a photographer for a few hrs.  Split between band members £50 a head or thereabouts.

Dave

The photographer has offered to do it for £70 as its local to her (she has shot some pro bands, and one of the guys has used her in an old band, so her work is good), so we are not talking a huge amount of money between 4 of us, its more the principle.

I told them I would compromise on agreeing to the photographer if we booked in another gig in the first couple of months of next year!

9 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Whereabouts are you guys based? If some of you want to do (a lot) more than 10 gigs, could you consider getting a dep in to cover?

We are based in Kent. He sings & plays guitar so its tricky to get someone to dep for that. We are hoping his personal situation calms down a bit and we can get some more stuff booked in next year

He is having issues with his partner and the time taken up by playing in the band.

We have 10 gigs booked next year and he doesn't want to take on any more, unless they are last minute cancellations. We have got to the point where I think we could get a booking every weekend, so there is a big gap in what we could do, vs what we are able to do.

We are currently only playing once a month anyway and barely having any rehearsals so IMO it is not taking up a great deal of time. But as the months are rolling on, the gigs & practices are having to start later, and are becoming more infrequent, but when we do have a gig, they are generally really good.

The 4 of us get on well, and the band is otherwise pretty stress-free, its just a frustration that we are having to deal with.

Nice, I have got my eye on one of the V7's

My bands suggestion yesterday was to hire a photographer for our theatre gig in January to get some good pictures for social media and for promotion etc etc

A member who was championing this also doesn't want to book any more gigs next year

Whilst I can see it would be nice to have some pro photos, it seems pointless to me as they won't be really used for anything, and it would be a big chunk of our gig fee gone paying for it 😕

9 minutes ago, Muzz said:

I have exactly the same setup and experienced exactly the same thing (and did the same thing with the XLR subbing): turned out the BL/mixer owner had farted around with the aux channels. Output down on the mixer, volume up on the P2. Sorted.

Thats great, hopefully this will save me from having to buy something else. Although the Lekato + P2 combination is a bit bulky, it does seem to work pretty well with no drop outs etc

4 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

I'm not a fan of these types who assume everyone in the vicinity is on board with their antics, good natured though it may be.

Agreed, I was having to keep one on the PA speaker on my side to make sure no-one crashed into it.

I am constantly tempted at buying a Helix, but then things like this happen and it puts me off as I wouldn't want it to get stamped on, or a beer spilled on it