PaulWarning

it's a pi55 take, some people have a strange sense of humour

The serious collector will probably prefer Vinyl, but as we discovered when we produced our last album in vinyl most people who come to our gigs, which is where we sell most of our albums, still prefer CD's, it's a lot easier to carry home for a start, and a lot easier to put on your mp3 player/phone, which seems to be where the most listening is done, certainly in my case

Hate it when I can't hear the bass very well in the mix, live or on record, one of the reasons I took up bass was because of the early Status Quo albums (up to but not including Rocking All Over the World)  where the bass is clearly audible.

Somebody mentioned Never mind the Bollocks, a brilliant album, but I for one think it would be even better with the bass was a bit higher in the mix, mind you it can be hard to hear the bass when it just follows the root, Another punk album SLF first album is unlistenable, despite some great songs on it because it's so tinny IMO ymmv

Another thought, whenever there's a remaster of an album, thinking Beatles and the Clash here, the bass is more prominent in the mix

On 20/01/2022 at 09:16, Happy Jack said:

 

Macca's memory on this subject is not necessarily unreliable. Here's what he has actually said:

 

"I remember going along there, and there was this bass which was quite cheap. I couldn't afford a Fender. Fenders even then seemed to be about £100. All I could really afford was about £30 ... so for about £30, I found this Hofner violin bass. And to me, it seemed like, because I was left-handed, it looked less daft because it was symmetrical. Didn't look as bad as a cutaway which was the wrong way. So I got into that."

 

The 500/1 was never as cheap as £30 in the UK and the 500/5 famously played badly by Stuart Sutcliffe cost him the thick end of £65 from Hessey's in Liverpool a year or two earlier. On the other hand, do bear in mind that Macca bought his bass in Germany, without import taxes etc. In fairness to Macca, I can't remember how much I paid for basses 15 years ago, so I can't see any reason why we should all expect him to remember details of a single transaction from 60 years ago!

 

As to context, in April 1962 a full-time manual worker in the UK earned an average weekly wage of 312s 10d. For those not old enough to remember pre-decimal coinage, that's just over £15. It follows that Macca's bass cost him either two weeks' wages (by his own £30 account) or four weeks' wages (by the Selmer catalogue).

 

As at December 2021 the direct equivalent figure - and that's a pretty sweeping generalisation - was £548, so a like for like comparison might be somewhere between £1100 and £2200 for his bass. The higher of those two numbers is pretty much exactly what a brand new Hofner 500/1 '62 RI will cost you today.

 

so if the rest of the story is true, the owner of the store ordered him a special left handed one from the factory, I wonder if that was still £30?

I once bought an Epiphone SG that had horrendous neck dive, soon got rid.

One good thing about neck dive is that it stops that really annoying habit some bass players have (well it annoys me) of letting go off the neck when they're playing an open string, with a smug look on their face

2 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

And finally...

 

Whilst I think that for a physical release, as a tactile artefact, an album pressed on 12" vinyl in a nicely produced sleeve is a very lovely thing of wonder, you also have to consider the practicalities of where and how your are going to sell them. 12" albums are fine if you are headlining/playing last or someone will be on hand to man the merch stand until the end of the night, but it is my experience that CDs are more practical for putting into a coat pocket or bag if you've sold them mid-way through the evening, and remember that your main selling times will be immediately after your band has played and just before everyone gets kicked out of the venue at the end of the night.

 

Also remember that if you intend to also sell physical product on line (through bandcamp or similar) a CD fits into a D1 size Jiffy Bag which are cheap to buy and go in the post as "large letter". 12" vinyl will require more expensive packaging (12" record mailers and you WILL require stiffeners as well to protect them in the post) plus the postage is significantly more. 

we found this, our last album was produced on vinyl and CD, we've sold far more CD's, while not regretting doing it on vinyl (it looks great on my lounge wall and I made a clock out of another copy 😀 ), sales were disappointing in that format and we'd think long and hard about repeating it

34 minutes ago, 4000 said:

We had a debate about this before releasing our last cd and decided to ask our fan base, who mostly wanted a physical cd. 

I think most of ours will be perfectly happy with a CD, just trying to cover all the bases

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

 

The best way to get download codes is by doing a Bandcamp release. You get 200 codes free with your Bandcamp account, and you can either buy more or you'll get another 1000 for every $500 of Bandcamp sales.

Cheers, so when I upload the CD to Bandcamp (we already have an account)we get 200 free codes that we could give a way with every CD purchased at a gig?

7 minutes ago, Woodwind said:

 

Have you got many gigs lined up for this year?

 

It's a really tricky situation.

 

I would buy a CD over a memory stick, but I own a CD player and like to keep listening to music as far away from the interface of laptop/phone as possible.

 

My merch sales nosedived through 2019, to the point it wasn't worth lugging the stuff to gigs anymore (even sales of downloads at shows).

 

I haven't got many shows planned for 2022 and really don't know what to do. I miss the money from merch sales so want to maximise the chance fans will buy something, but minimise expenditure.

 

Download codes included with whatever you sell is mandatory really, in which case maybe stick to CDs?

We've got a few Festival gigs lined up this year as well as the usual pub gigs, so CD's are the best bet, just that the last CD we released I did have people saying to me "I haven't got a CD player".

I hadn't thought about a download code with the CD, I'll have to investigate how this is done, through our website maybe?

We're about to re release our long sold out first CD, remixed, bonus tracks etc.

These days quite a lot of people don't have a CD player, so what's the alternative apart from downloads and streaming? which don't produce much revenue, and like a lot of small bands we sell most of our music at gigs

Anybody tried selling them at gigs from a memory stick or something similar?

27 minutes ago, theyellowcar said:

My first bass was a boot sale find from my uncle. He paid £30 for a Hondo II Professional bass, like the one below. It weighed a tonne, and the bridge saddles were sharp enough to sever a few E strings. I had it for about a year, before getting *my* first proper bass, a Yamaha RBX170 from Academy of Sound in Stoke (same uncle had driven me up there to do a tour of all the shops to find a bass, and my folks bought it for me for Christmas)

 

 

 

The Hondo was then passed around the family, first to my brother to get him started (he now plays guitar in a decent band, and has a music degree), then to my cousin. The Yamaha lives with my best mate in Manchester - he was the guitarist in my “main” high school band, and I have his teenage years Telecaster at my house. 

 

After the Yamaha, I got my first Fender, bought used, completely blind on eBay without any pictures, which on reflection was a rookie move, which luckily paid off. I still have this one 17 years later. 
 

just goes to show, one mans meat etc, I rate my Hondo, same model, see bottom of the previous page, I certainly wouldn't say it isn't a proper bass, I'm reasonable sure it was made at the Matsumoku  factory and fitted with DiMarzio pick ups

mine was a made in Japan Hondo professional, bought it off a mate for £40, flipped it as I'm a lefty, recorded our first album with it which has just been remixed and it sounds as dirty as hell, in a good way, for a punk band, I've still got it, it's worth so little why would I sell it? I can sound more like JJ Burnel with it than with my precision

the problem with these offensive bands is that mostly they are joke bands, the joke does wear a bit thin after a while, I've seen the Macc Lads a couple of times and found them entertaining, but wouldn't bother going to see them again

I would say £250 is overpriced, check out the completed listings on ebay

you could always buy a 5 set then sell the other 4 to someone like me who only uses neon greens in 4's

10 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

Apparently? To reference something you posted earlier in this thread - "if the same thing had been said about, say, West Indians all hell would break loose" 

 

Do you think a negative generalisation is ok to say when you're not saying it about black people?

not at all, I added the word apparently to emphasise the opposite (very badly apparently) many people get in a lather about jokes about people of colour but jokes about white races seem to be ok in some people's minds, personally I think maybe the whole things it's gone too far, it is possible to poke fun at a certain group of people without upsetting them (or at least they can see the funny side), it seems that some get offended for others when the others aren't offended, if that makes sense. 

In my original 'west Indians' post I was playing Devils Advocate to a certain degree

20 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

 

Have yoy tried the Marshall SuperBass amp and Cab SIM to 'Lemmy'?

no, I use the bass muff, gain and tone 100, mode normal, bal 100, and then some separate EQ,  it does depend on what other gear you're using as well, I use a P bass.

I'll try the Marshall Superbass next time I'm experimenting with the different settings

16 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

@PaulWarning

B1on owner here...

Care to share your Tech 21 Leeds settings?

presumably for the 'BassDrive' (Sans Amp Bass Drive Sim)

Have yoy tried the Marshall SuperBass amp and Cab SIM to 'Lemmy'?

AC Bs Pre gain 50, Depth 9, level 50, Bass -6, L-Mid 10, LM_F 1.2K, Mid 0, H-Mid -10, Treble -10. BassDrive, Bass-10, Trebl -5, Prese -5, Gain 100, Blend 100, Level 40, Mid 5.
You may not agree with me of course and it depends on what the Leeds pedal setting are

I've used a Zoom B1on for years, it's not easy to adjust the parameters but in a way that's a good thing, stops you messing about with it during a gig, when you've really no idea how it's sounds out in the audience, but I only use the AC Bs pre and Bassdrive for my core sound and the Bass Muff for my Lemmy impersonation.

I commented on another thread I recently got hold of a Tech 21 Leeds pedal (paid way too much, but GAS has to be scratched) I've got my Zoom to sound the same, near enough, so I'll be moving it on soon 

9 hours ago, leschirons said:

I got a bit lost with all that so, just to clarify, are we still allowed to call dim people dim? Or not?

absolutely, just not the whole nation (or race), apparently it's very bad form to tell Irish jokes these days, or at least the ones that infer all the Irish are a bit dim  

4 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

So the funny is that it denigrates, upsets and offends other people, am I getting that right?

I guess you are, funny old world

I suppose being offensive is funny if you're not offended by it,  if no one was offended by it it wouldn't be funny

the other side of the coin, this modern music is rubbish, starting to sound like my Dad

2 minutes ago, Clarky said:

Now this is offensive on more than one count

 

now I'm really offended, thought is was Ed doing a cover of this, what a disappointment

I think stuff is only offensive if you don't really agree with it, which is a personal thing, for instance some wouldn't find Boris Johnson is a f**cking C***t offensive and think it's funny because they don't like Boris Johnson or his politics, but if the lyric were Jeremy Corbyn is a Jew Hating C***t, they might find it offensive, or least not funny.

Some (most) find Right Wing bands offensive but some wouldn't.

 We do  a Sid Vicious inspired My Way but the singer won't sing Sid's "I'm not a Queer" lyric, which, these days is probably a lot more controversial than the lyrics in Bodies, how times change 

Sorry if anybody has been offended by some of the things in this post