Woodinblack

The processor makes a difference, but not as much as you would think. But the thing is, the i3/5/7 are a decade old now. They come out with a new one every year (in fact the first number is the year) and although you can generally say that i3 < i5 < i7 (and now i9), its not so clear cut as to whether a newer i5 is worse than an older i7. But there are comparison sites. The only think you can say for definate is that a spinny disk (ie, non SSD) is only really useful to store things that you are not working on. Luckily the mac has been doing that for a lot longer by default, unluckily apple are very tight with sizes and very keen on non standard / upgradeable disks.

Not coated but getting pretty round myself it has to be said! But seriously, what does coating give you?

Yes. that is what I mean, you didn't enjoy gigging so you stopped doing it, that seems the easy option really (obviously family / group commitments etc). But unless it is your full time career and your income source, I don't see why you would be gigging if you don't enjoy it.

Well, it has been sent back to bax now, so hopefully they will send back a fully working replacement. As I said, it is a great bass and I was perfectly happy with almost everything on it until I noticed that. Obviously I will check the replacement. If it seems like a common problem then maybe picking up a roasted maple one and replacing the pickups would be the way to go? Failing that I sell everything I have and get one of the UK luthiers to make me something with the same playability that holds together

I must admit I don't understand not gigging, seeing as not gigging is really easy to do, it doesn't need a global pandemic, it is the normal default position of most people, so if you enjoy not gigging, why not just not gig?

I wondered that

That is how I felt too but after a bit of calming down, it is a good platform, but people are a pain, trouble is there are people everywhere!

https://pages.ebay.com/ebay-money-back-guarantee/questions.html Seller’s return window: Review the seller’s return policy and return window before you make a purchase. If you did not receive the item, or the item is not as described, you have 30 days from your actual or latest estimated delivery date to open a request, under the eBay Money Back Guarantee.

I have just got over my one - I have been lucky, not too many of those sort of people. Sold a Microsoft surface, as I had a new one. Put it up on an auction with a high BIN price just in case, a woman contacted me to see if I would lower it, so because you can't do that, I edited the auction and she bought it right away (like the second I told her). Was 48 hour delivery, she bought it at 11pm on friday, told her I would pack it up the next day. End of saturday she asks if I posted it, I said, no, booked it and it is being picked up tuesday. She asks me every day. Turns up wednesday. That evening I get a 'request to return non functional item'. Bearing in mind the surface is basically a sheet of glass with a metal back, I packed it really carefully and I know it works. I asked what was wrong, as I knew it was working, she said it wouldnt' boot. I said it had all been fine, and I couldn't see what could go wrong if it got there in one piece, She posted a bunch of 'microsoft tech conversations' which she said indicated it was broken (it didn't), told us how experienced she was with computers and attached a photo of the windows 10 'cant find my operating system' screen telling me she would do the courtesy of not calling me a liar, so I replied and asked her why a fully working computer sold (and listed) with windows 8.1 pro on it was somehow now showing a windows 10 screen. Either it was another laptop or she had tried to install window 10. She then stopped talking to me. My wife spent a few hours on the phone to eBay, who were understand but saying that the rules are I have to accept (and pay for) a return, and afterwards I can dispute it. Being in a grump I decided to ignore it for a week. after the weekend, my wife tried to contact her to ask her to put it in its original box (so we knew how big it was for the postage). no reply. left it a bit longer and tried again, nothing. Finally decided we would just have to assume it was the same size to book the package and got a notification she had dropped the return! No explanation, nothing. I guess she got a cleverer friend to install window 10 properly. Almost put me off eBay, but what is your choice?

Fancy that, didn't realise the 2014 was upgradeable like that. Not quite so simple as the 2012 but not hard. So that is a good option then. Either way, any of those machines are fine for garage band and are much cheaper than current prices.

I would go for the opposite. The 2012 is the last mac mini you can upgrade the disk on. If all you want is a decent machine to make music on, you can stick an SSD in that and it will absolutely fly. That is what I have, it runs really well with garage band and logic.

Thats the RedZero isn't it - the budget G4M (or thoman?) fan frets - sorry, redsub.

Every weekend there is something that flashes up on the calendar of some gig that we should have been playing at. Some of them are well, ok, and some of them, like a few new open air things we were were really looking forward to. A couple of those really nice warm weekends we have had we had open air festivals booked for. Its safe to say every single one we missed has added a little downer to the day.

Agreed, this is a manufacturing issue that they need to know about. Maybe it is also a design issue, I don't know.

I got a reply from John Shuker last night, it is their own made one, from about 15 years ago. He said I can send it in for a service and get it repaired but the rest of the bass in such good condition I think I shall try and repair it and if not, just swap it with something else.

I honestly doubt it would fall apart and if I had it second hand, or if I bought it for a couple of hundred, I would be inclined to agree with you as apart from that and the jack socket, there is nothing I don't like about that bass. But it is brand new and north of £1300 and still in it start days. At that price it has to be good. As you say, the replacement might have issues, I can send that back too! Its rare I buy something new, might as well use the advantages I have for doing that.

True it seems like that lamination isn't glued properly for it to come apart like that. Anyway, its not a cheap bass, there is no excuse for that. So registered the return and will see how good they are.

Yeh - I wondered. That screw that holds the string holder goes straight through the join on that wood. But I have done a big search and can't find any other people talking about it happening, so I am guessing it is just bad luck. I hope so, as I want a replacement, it is my favourite bass to play!

Well, that didn't last long. I love this bass, but picked it up last night and noticed this:

I would say, I am not particularly a fan of deep purple, they seemed like an old peoples group to me when I was first into rock music (not sure why, considering most things I listened to were a similar age), and most people who liked them were 'car guys', where i was a bike guy (not a biker, never been one of those, I just used to ride a bike all the time and hang round with other people doing the same). Anyway, seen them a number of times, know there stuff, even played a few songs in various bands. I was on my walk today, with my headphones on (which I don't normally do- the headphone thing) and my iPhone on random played highway star. Can't say I had really thought about the bassline on it before, but that first descending riff at the start of the song is pretty fast, so I was thinking about whether I could do that, so I searched for this when I got back. Its actually very busy - I know the 'dont' like busy bass lines' people will hate it as it isn't just roots and 5ths, but considering the song is just a straight rock song quite a few bass players would have just played the roots on it, but it pulls the song out a bit (as well as the keyboard playing) and makes it something a bit different. Still not going to be a deep purple fan but I have a bit more respect for what is going on here.

Only 1 left - act fast!

It wasn't until I went to put the battery compartment lid on upside down that I realised how well done this is!

It looks like this: I have no idea what that pot on its own upside down is doing

I am not sure about singing It does actually have a preamp issue at the moment. After changing the batteries it got rid of the hiss but when playing last night after a while the sound faded a lot. I unplugged and replugged and it came back. Had a look at the preamp - I don't recognise the type it is a grey box with a blue control. it also has a 'spare pot' in there connected to the preamp that oddly doesn't appear to do anything - maybe it is a Q control? No idea. Anyway, sounds like a capactitance issue. I don't know how well these things are sealed, whether it is a take apart or replace thing, but not that worried, it will be fixed or replaced. I have contacted shuker to see what the preamp is, to see if that helps