Dan Dare

As I was in my teens during the late 60s, this bloke:

However, his partner in crime at Motown inspired me to play the bass. He played on Tears of a Clown, which was the first bass part that really hooked me.

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1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

André Rieu classical?

In much the same way as the Carpenters are Death Metal! 😁

 Extreme Easy Listening at best, though it's only easy to listen to if you like the slimiest of cheese 🧀😜

I appreciate he's the classical music equivalent of Kenny G, but if you want to be clever and have the last word, have at it.

Very happy to be the first to post feedback for Quent. He bought a Cort A5 from me and was great to deal with. Many thanks and I hope you enjoy playing it.

Love this (apart from Greg Koch, who can't seem to resist playing a pastiche of everything), but Guy's a great singer as well as being mighty handy on the geetar.

12 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

Do you know who André Rieu is?

 Yes. You ain't the only one on here who knows about classical music. My first instrument was actually the violin, btw.

10 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

In another world of four-stringed instruments, many Stradivarius violins are owned by collectors but they are frequently loaned to violinists. I was rather surprised that André Rieu has a loaner, I'm sure he could afford one of his own.

Debatable. Strads are pretty well all accounted for and range in value from £4m for a regular one to "name your price" for one of the more highly-regarded examples. Even a very prominent player would have difficulty in parking those sums at the kerb of a fiddle and insuring it would be a nightmare.

23 minutes ago, peteb said:

As ever, you are taking an argument to an absurd extreme to make some dubious point. I assume that @Dan Dare was talking about everyday working musicians rather than millionaire superstars like Slash, Steve How, Joe Bonamassa, etc.

Much obliged, Pete. Spot on. I do concede that there are a few Nigel Tuffnells among the absurdly rich and famous.

45 minutes ago, tauzero said:

In another world of four-stringed instruments, many Stradivarius violins are owned by collectors but they are frequently loaned to violinists. I was rather surprised that André Rieu has a loaner, I'm sure he could afford one of his own.

It's akin to sports companies sponsoring footballers, golfers, etc. The collector (they can be companies as well as individuals) loans the instrument to a prominent player in return for credits in concert programmes and so on - "with grateful thanks to Megacorp Insurance Inc".

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

There was a guy that used to come to a few of our gigs, then afterwards would talk about all the old gibsons and fenders he had. He couldn't actualy play them at all, and seemed to have no desire to, he said he would occasionally let other people play them, but that was just his collection. It didn't really make much sense, but I guess that was his thing.

I encountered someone similar. Hi schtick was to hang around with musicians and he used to let people play his toys as a way of buying their friendship. A little bit sad, really. He saw the instruments as investments, in much the same way as others view paintings and the like. Provided you know what you're buying, vintage instruments, art, etc are a sensible way to invest, especially with the volatility in the financial markets. 

15 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

There’s often a weird relationship where people with hugely expensive instruments can barely play. I’ve witnessed this many times in vintage guitar shops, or at bass shows.

Very true. Wealthy weekend warriors - lawyers, doctors and other professional types - buy an awful lot of premium instruments. They are rarely capable of using them for their intended purpose, but we shouldn't knock it, because it's thanks to them that many instrument manufacturers stay afloat. Real musicians tend to find and stick with a few instruments that we really like and change them relatively rarely. When we do, we often buy something old and used. Fender and Spector aren't going to stay in business because I have a couple of nice older basses from them, for example.

The really wealthy collect vintage instruments. Few can play them decently or even competently/at all. Some years ago, some US multi-millionaire placed ad's in a number of the instrument magazines, such as Frets, looking to buy vintage stuff. The ad's, which included much bragging about how well he'd done and how much of the folding stuff he'd accumulated, carried a photo of him, wearing jeans with knife edge creases down the legs (always a sign that someone is deeply dodgy), sitting on the bonnet of the Batmobile (he'd apparently bought it from the film company), holding a '59 Les Paul and a Gibson Citation jazz box. He was clutching them like shovels - it was obvious he didn't even know how to hold them. He saw them purely as investments.

I thought of parcelling up a dog turd and sending it to him, with a note explaining that he would probably be better able to use it than a fine vintage instrument, but I decided it probably wasn't wise.

What Stevie said. You might try a pre/power amp combination, but modern bass amps are generally pretty neutral unless you use the eq. You might consider the fact that "uncoloured", whilst an appealing sounding idea, may not be to your liking in reality. I've heard my instrument reproduced through some pretty serious stuff in recording studios. It was clean, hi-fi and all the other clichés and needed tweaking in order not to sound sterile and to fit in the track. That would be likely to be the case in your blues/hard rock outfit.

Eurowhat? Have I missed somethinig?

Still no interest. I'll consider offers on this.

18 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Car windscreen shipping boxes are in the same camp. Very sturdy. It's a bit of work chopping one down but end result is solid.

Good idea. The other option is a kid's bicycle box. Your local Halfords will happily give you one (mine does, at any rate). I've used them for shipping guitars before.

On 05/05/2024 at 08:42, Downunderwonder said:

No love for homegrown John East?

Not if you want the classic J bass sound. I had a J Retro in my Jazz. Made it a little more versatile, but I couldn't quite get that J sound any longer. Made it sound like a generic active bass, so I removed and sold it. Of those listed by the OP, the Axesrus one looks the best option. It's the cheapest and uses the same parts as the original spec'. £100 is having a laugh for three CTS pots, a cap, socket, plate and a few inches of wire. 

The mangled Inglish these scammers use is hilarious.

13 hours ago, Davy said:

Great colour, great weight, great playability, great sound, great price, what's not to like!

I shouldn't have sold mine!

GLWTS.

Thanks. Can I tempt you?

1 hour ago, Gypsyfolk said:

When I was selling an Orange ad200 a guy tried it out with his cab (BF supertwin). I couldn’t believe how bad it made my amp sound. Probably just needed somebody who knew how to eq.

The 12" BF cabs have very extended low end compared to pretty well everything on the market. You need to dial it back quite a bit in my experience.

Owned from new. In unmarked condition and zero fret wear (I use flats). 34" scale, single G&L MFD p/u. Lives up to its name, weight-wise, at 10lb 4oz or 4.7kg (I find it fine on a 4" strap). Passive, but very powerful instrument (has more poke than my active basses). I use it de-tuned a semitone for just a few numbers per gig, as our singer has a penchant for Eb. Have bought a Spector multi-scale to cover that job, so this is now surplus to requirements.

You're welcome to PM me (sensible) offers. Would prefer collection (I'm between Basingstoke and Winchester in Hants), but will post at cost. I estimate that will be around £25.

Photos below. Any questions, ask away.

Bought new a couple of years ago because I fancied a 5 string. Since then it has spent most of its time in a gig bag in the cupboard. In unmarked condition (it has done one gig and had light home use) and zero fret wear.

34" scale, Bartolini mk 1 p/us and pre', Hipshot bridge and tuners. Weighs 8lb 4oz/3.8kg. A nice instrument, but I never use it and find a 4 string more than adequate for what I do. These are around £800 new, so half that seems a fair price. Wearing little used EB Cobalt Flats, which are around £60 a set. You're welcome to PM me (sensible) offers. Would prefer collection (I'm between Basingstoke and Winchester in Hants), but will post at cost. I estimate that will be around £25.

Photos below. Any questions, ask away.

1 hour ago, mrtcat said:

The advice is to high pass tops at no lower than 80hz. High passing subs at 80hz would really defeat the object of having them in the first place.

1 minute ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

It's OK, we knew what he meant. ☺️

The best FOH mixers in pro-touring sound high pass the bass channel between 60 and 80Hz, so the bass sounds like a bass and not a 30 ton dump truck dropping a load. There's still bass content in the subs, but not so much that it drowns out everything else.

Thanks Bill. My bad. Should have read more carefully. I'd still high pass subs. I do mine (there will be some LF content below that in them due to the filter slope) to avoid the other issues (I like the dump truck analogy) I mentioned. And I only use one in the vast majority of cases.

Bill's advice is, as usual, excellent, in particular, his recommendation to high pass subs no lower than 80Hz. Most people try to push far too much low frequency energy into a room, with horrible results - one note, booming bass, no definition and masking of higher frequencies. They generally crank the system up in an attempt to overcome this, resulting in more of a sonic mess. Two subs is overkill in most pub venues. I only ever need to use one and frequently roll that off in volume by 3db or more.

On 26/04/2024 at 17:07, BassmanPaul said:

Amps and cabinets are the tools of our trade. If you worked with wood as a profession would you use the cheapest, ratty equipment or would you invest in proper woodworking tools?  If you are a serious musician, invest in your equipment. It'll pay dividends in the future and other musicians you work with will see that you mean business!

 

BTW we've all been where you are now at some time in our careers.

 

This. I appreciate not everyone can afford the gear they really want, but buying the best possible within ones budget is always a smart move. You will enjoy using it more and you will recoup more of your original outlay when the time comes to move it on/upgrade. In the OP's position, I'd be looking for another Eden EX112 to go  with the one he has already. They aren't a bad cab by any means and can be had used for a couple of hundred. Two of them would be a lot better than a hacked about old Ashdown.

10 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

None of that is especially challenging on a technical level. The real issue is that there's a lot of it and much of it isn't repeated.

 

I wouldn't foresee an issue there, beyond being able to find the sheet music for it (I can only find it for piano) so it'd be a long grind with the GB-10, and learning by ear is my least favourite method.

 

 

Ah. Right.

13 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

Not found a bass line yet that I couldn't master given sufficient time and determination, and that's with two fingers that don't work properly.

Good luck