Steve Browning

Indeed. We play a (good) gig in Southampton where there is a flat £150 fee and the pub staff take round a beer glass and card machine towards the end. Regularly get £200 or so in that. Nice PA is also provided so load in/set up is easier.

I'm with Mr Burns. I have basses in both camps and pretty much use the one I fancy on the night. I stick to particular basses for tours etc but that's more about established levels and amp settings rather than which is best. They're all great basses, irrespective of their cost.

Pretty much every Burns model.

My 4 piece band divvies up the tasks between the 3 of us who know how a computer works (or, rather, can operate one). We have no leader, as such, and can make collective decisions very easily.

Couldn't happen now as 50% of the band are dead. We were a punk/r'n'b band (late 70s) that gigged a lot around Pompey. We reunited about 10 years ago for a one off and it was dire. It was good to see everyone, and even play the songs. It wasn't up to public performance standard unhappily. More rehearsal wouldn't have helped.

A belated warm welcome from that place along the coast, you know the one!

All the best for the future. As others have said, don't desert us entirely. There will always be folk who will benefit from your knowledge and experience.

I was just about to post the same thing.

Don't forget you also need to get engaged to Naomi Campbell.

Not sure I get that. One of mine is a 1972 bass. Anyway, horses for courses.

I have had the same issue. Had either Luminlay or just larger side markers fitted to 4 of my basses.

The subtitles are irritating but this documentary from the Joshua Tree is a good watch.

Very John Deacon. I would love one of those.

Word.

Do we know why a chunk of the scratchplate is missing?

Nailed it. This one.

Just imagine them 20% lighter! 🙂

I have two basses that are active. The OLP Stingray that was converted to pre-EB spec and my fretless Precision. That's actually a passive Lace Sensor with a piezo in the bridge. I installed a buffer to bring the piezo output down to the LS level. I only use the fretless on gigs and have a Mike Hill switcher that has a level control on one channel so I can balance the outputs to the amp. In terms of eq, I use the eq on the fretless to get the tone, keeping the amp eq the same for both this bass and the SVLs that I play for the majority of the set.

There have been 5 string orchestral basses for many years, of course. I don't get the horn player argument as jazzers have generally played 4 string uprights throughout the history of the genre. As you conclude, we play what we play/suits us and no-one can tell us we're wrong.

I can only add that the Alto has settings to match it to other Alto tops. It is pretty obvious that a more expensive unit will be better, but there is a budget here. My ears told me it was way more than a boom box.

See question 40 and reverse the procedure. Relevant VAT applies. You are linking to an interpretation and not the relevant law. It is the VAT Act 1994 that applies in the UK. In very simple terms, there is ALWAYS a VAT charge. It is either applied by the seller or local Customs. The difference is that a business can recover the VAT. We won't get into partial exemption unless you want to. You also have to be mindful of the origin rules. A Japanese guitar originates in Japan, even if bought in the EU.

I can describe what I use. I don't think there are pictures of it but I'll look. This may be more detail that you want but I did what I did for the reasons I give following ... The lighting set up (each side) is a Kam Party Bar WFS (the wireless one, which seem to be £209 each at the moment) and Stairville LED Flood Panel 150 40° RGB (40 quid each, but bought s/h here). I bought the tallest stands I could find so the lights are positioned as high as possible. Again, bands at concerts aren't generally lit at head height. The Kam sits at the top and the other lamp is attached to the stand just below the Kam (positioned on the 'audience side' of the stand). The foot controller was bought here for 40 quid (Stairville LED Foot 8 DMX controller). I had originally intended to use the Kams wirelessly, with one as master and the other as slave using a single pedal to switch both. When that didn't work well, I switched to master and slave and used a dmx cable to link them. That wasn't really satisfactory and a problem remained. Advancing years has meant that the side markers on my basese are getting harder to see when it's dark. Normally you don't need them, but when you look down and you can't see them you (or rather, I) panic. As I said, I tried to look at the lighting as if it were a 'serious' gig. By that, I mean I looked at how bands are lit at a concert at a decent venue. What I noted was that they don't use random changes (auto chases) or sound to light. I had a video of a gig I did years ago where the lighting guy was going barmy with chases etc and it looked dire. We were actually in darkness a lot of the time, as lights flashed all over the stage. That meant I stuck with solid colours. I am operatinmg the switches, so it has to be simple. The Kams use 4 channel dmx so they use channels 001 to 004 and the singles use 005 to 008. Scene one is everything on full white (setting up and breaking down if there is no decent light at the venue). Scene two is low blue on all fixtures (I noticed that they often use this before the band hits the stage). Scenes two onwards are solid colours on the Kams and white on the others, so me, the keyborad player (next to me on stage) and the guitarist/singer (other side) can see what we're doing. Again, for the all the colour changes at concerts, the main performers are usually picked out in white. Now let me try and find some pictures to illustrate some of that.

And we get first dibs.

Sure thing Al. It'll take a day or two.