Woodinblack

Fair enough, and yes I know some people can't separate the music and the people, and for the it matters, so I suppose the music really does die. luckily for me I would take the second option, the music is far more important to me than the personalities.

Yes, I think they are made of cheese, the cheapest of the cheap - replace those as soon as you can. I didn't actually have an question as to whether I would upgrade mine as I went to put strap locks on the bass, but trying to undo the screw to get the old one off it broke and left half the screw in the body. Luckily I had a friend who managed to get the old bit out and redo the hole, so while I was there I updated the rest of the screws.

All headstocks are marmite things. Love the G&L, hate the guild.

I have had that. I am glad they have improved that in their new offering (and the screw coming apart thing). That gets rid of the main problems with schallers. Probably is when you have 10+ basses, the decision to switch from one to the other is a bit tricky! Thats why I have both, and ones that don't have either.

Remember even with the same PA, every room is different. There is one pub i always have a problem with, shiney floors, walls ceiling. The guitarist keeps nagging to turn the reverb down 'there is no reverb on!'

I suspect that since he has just been kicked out of Public Enemy, it probably isn't so important to him now!

Yes, like that. If you want to use that with just a regular strap, you are a braver man than me! That is much worse than just using an ordinary strap button that comes with any guitar. That is what I like about the dunlops, they are about as big as an ordinary strap button so you haven't actually lost anything putting one on.

Really? All the schallers I have (and the ones I have seen), have a very small lip part, so any normal strap wouldn't stand a chance of staying on for a gig without the locking part. Maybe there is another shaller type I don't know about? Mine all look like the image you posted up there ^

I used to like the schallers, but had a few that unscrewed themselves. Apparently they have fixed that problem now, or mitigated it somewhat, so worth trying out. The advantage the dunlops have is that if you end up with the wrong strap, you can still use a normal strap on a dunlop where you can't with a schaller.

That is an essential feature for my guitarist! i have only owned a few, and tried a few more, but I have been gigging now for 3 years with the TC450, and I trust it. I still have an ashdown CTM100 but I rarely get round to using it

Don't ACG fit Dunlop's to all of their basses? Certainly where my first Dunlop came from. I was Schaller only before that

There was a bit when I looked before you could book tickets that said that tickets were only valid when purchased through <whatever that system was> and if you no longer could use your tickets they would be refunded. i don't know how accurate or enforceable that is

Friend of mine posted a link to the Genesis reunion tour notice on facebook and wrote: Brexit, Coronavirus and now this? 😂

Been looking at one of those column PAs with interest. Trouble is they are generally way out of my price range for the bose ones, or some of the others, and not convinced that what I need to get as a replacement for £300 of Altos on sticks wasn't £2k of fancy stuff I don't want to take down to the Dog and Angry Duck. So I looked at gear4music, with their subzero ones. Some of them get good reviews around the net. Decided I needed at least the 12" one to be of use to me. Then I remembered that gear4music pretty well break everything they touch so looked on their eBay store! Found that one of their battery powered ones (which is only an 8") was reduced from £499 to £299 for a slight broken bit of plastic, which seemed a bit too good to be true, but thought it was worth the try. So I ordered it on monday and now it is here. Here is what the £200 saving was for: Yep, that bit of plastic missing on the left. It all still works fine. It said it wouldn't come with anything else, but it came with all the things the full priced one comes with. TBH, I am not sure it is going to work for a noisy rock band, but it will work for vocals for practice (it is very clear, just not that much bass) and it has a battery too, so I can use it in the street if I decide to try random busking! I will find out next week how loud it is with a drummer. Anyone else use one of these?

Would love the rack, but don't really have a need for it. I have an X18 - the desktop shaped one, otherwise the same as an XR18, except it gives you a few other monitor options but the aux outs are on TRS instead of XLR. It has an area on the front I think the original design idea was that you placed an ipad, except it is too small if it is plugged in. I had (in fact I still have, hoarder as I am ) an XR16 that I started with. I am not sure but I think i ahve had problems with it on two occasions recently. The first was a gig just after christmas, we set the sound up and the singer said that it wasn't coming out of the left PA. I listened and it was coming out but it was really low, So i turned the PA itself up from its own knob (which I never do ). Come the show, unmute and major feedback. Turned stuff down and got it under control but unbalanced, then I realised it was because the 'quite' pa was now deafening and clipping, so turned it back to normal, put the mixer levels at normal and sound was good (lucky I make a scene save everytime I get it where I am happy just incase). At practice for my other group, one of the PA speakers didn't appear to be working, so I muted and unmuted and it was back. But I was doing other things, so I didn't really pay much attention. This is however the same PA and the same leads, so it is hardly a conclusive test. I tried it at home and everything seems fine. I have been storing it out in an outbuilding which is cold and possibly damp, and both of those events would have been in an unusually warm area so a big change of temperature. However, after a couple of hundred gigs and the fact it has not been treated well in its life (and it was second hand when I got it), if it died tomorrow, I wouldn't feel cheated and would go out and get another one. There are very few technological things that promised as much and actually delivered like this.

Obviously there is that to-the-point thing, which is a bit jarring to start with, but beyond that, I didn't find him that helpful when trying to work out what I wanted back in the day, and not really clear what he was suggesting, and then when it came to aftersales, actively unhelpful. I do love the bass though, especially once i have replaced the cheap strap screws..

The last tour rush did they were playing on my birthday, so we looked but it was £70-80 to sit at the back of the O2. They might have been one of my alltime favourite groups, but they were not at their prime and there is no-one I would pay that for.

I found communication with him was fairly difficult

Yes, but I see you have seen it is the same up there. TBF, that is the sort of prices things go for now, which is why I doubt I will be seeing anything at the o2 again. and honestly I am ok with that. I saw NiN twice in the same year, once at the O2 and once at Scala, where I was at the front. O2 was twice the price of Scala, Scala was 5 times the enjoyment of the O2. I think any gigs for me now have to be within the range of being able to see them well, and I have poor eyesight. Not that strange, it is the same with me. The best thing that happened to both Peter Gabriel and Genesis was when he went solo, they both got better because of it.

Ooh look at that, you can get tickets where you only need binoculars from only £70, or £187 if you want to be able to see them. I think I will catch it on youtube, the view is better!

I have seen that. I dont' think I would ever stop playing 'something', I would certainly stop performing for other people, but then tbh, that was never really the big drive anyway.

Watching that video sort of says enough for me. Unlike what was trendy, I never disliked Phil Collins, he was an excellent drummer and sang on what are some of my favourite songs. But that was a long time ago. As the gigs are bound to be stupidly expensive, I wouldn't have been going anyway but even if they hadn't been, him being like that would be a waste of time and money. Good luck to him and all, hope they get his issues solved

Indeed. As previously mentioned there is the cost of testing if you don't have health insurance (figures vary), which means large amounts of the population will not be tested when they have it, and also the 'self isolate for 14 days'. There are a very large amount of people in the USA (as here but more so) for whom self isolating isn't an option. People working in catering, care homes, schools, public bodies - any of the 'unvalued' occupations. These people can not afford to be off work due to being ill so they will go in. At least we have a bit of a safety net for a few more here, however much they are trying to strip it down. Still, the work heroes will help spread it.

Mine too and it almost certainly will unless someone else decides it won't, or something materially changes. We haven't missed a gig due to illness (apart from my knee replacement, and then only one) in 3 years, I don't think we will be missing it due to an illness that none of us have. Until something materially changes, I don't really see there is a need for anything to change. TBH - the current advice of stay in, avoid crowds seems like my idea of heaven anyway.

Thats a lot through one speaker, Maybe if you all clubbed together you could get another one too!