The Admiral

[quote name='blunderthumbs' post='979956' date='Oct 6 2010, 10:01 PM']Saw the guys in Manchester on Sunday on the opening night of the tour. They just get better with age, and the new drummer, Pete Ray Biggin is the dogs dangly bits. Loved it so much I bought two tickets to see them again this Sunday in Liverpool. Taking my 8 year old daughter with me. It's high time she saw what real music is all about. [/quote] Which just goes to prove that music is a subjective art form and particularly drummers it would seem - or it could just be me. A [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=105280&st=0&p=976705&#entry976705"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...mp;#entry976705[/url]

+ 1 on the "you can't go far wrong with a Yamaha" comments. I have one of these : a BBG4AII - which you don't see many of in the UK. This one (link) is for sale in Hungary I think, but it's the same colour as mine and I'm not at home to use my own pics! [url="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.njuskalo.hr/image-w450/bas-gitare/yamaha-bbg4aii-slika-1854441.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.njuskalo.hr/bas-gitare/yamaha-bbg4aii-oglas-774469&usg=__DEcL8jP_G70Hidw7IYgbc3yZqMY=&h=664&w=450&sz=53&hl=en&start=4&zoom=1&tbnid=YknC6d6eEE9vcM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbbg4aII%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1"]http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http...um=1&itbs=1[/url] I ordered it through Sound Control in Wilmslow, and it's fantastic for the money (about £350 I think in 2001). They come up occasionally on eBay for about £100 - £150, which to my mind is 'bite your hands off' money. Very Fender like, but a bit different too - if that makes sense! Have you checked out BC'er Oggy's BB414 in the For Sale thread? - It looks a cracking bass from the pic's. Cheers A

and now available at 30% off apparently - £102. Very tempting! [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350351117014&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...atchlink:top:en[/url]

Slightly off topic, and I'll start by saying that I am a great believer that anything is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it....... but............. I never understand why anyone bids so much for some items - viz, this Harley Benton Violin Bass, which went for £87 + £15.00 in courier costs - so £102 in total. You can buy a new one from Thomann, with a 3 year warranty from the retailer, and use your credit card for the consumer protection aspects, for £124 delivered! Fair play to the seller - he must be chuffed. If only we could all do so well when selling on eBay. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250698472954&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT[/url]

I really fancy one of these, but, not having the readies for a genuine high spec Hofner, I 'm wondering if anyone in the BC community has experience of any of the budget models? The options I have found are : [b]Hofner[/b] 'Ignition' violin bass (I'm guessing a Chinese version from Hofner to compete with the other 'copies' in this price band) @ £208 (Thomann) £240 w/c There also seems to be an 'Icon' range version @ £350 and a 'Contemporary' range @ £499, as well of course as the big money 500/1 62 reissue at £1,200 [b]Epiphone [/b]- currently £210 in my local Dawsons, which I had a look at on Saturday and looks very well finished. [b]Tanglewood[/b] - RVB2 @ £296 [b]Harley Benton [/b]- (Thomann own brand and I'm guessing pretty nasty at this price) @ £120 [b]Westfield VB960 [/b]- £245 I'd prefer the Hofner name on the headstock, but not at the cost of a better instrument from another maker at the same price point. Any thoughts/experience greatly appreciated. Thanks A

I had a 6 month sub, which I let lapse - for all the reasons covered in this thread. Just has a message left on the mobile from a chirpy girl in the subs department - offering me 12 months subscription for £22, or equivalent to £1.84 an issue. Times are hard at BGM we might presume? A

I've noticed that on eBay and also on Basschat - there are a lot of black p basses with the mirror scratchplate a la Phil Lynott, yet Fender never actually made a signature model in his lifetime as far as I know. Which made me think : 1. who else has gone unmarked as a player without a signature model in their lifetime, and 2. what happened to Phil's bass? I'm sure I remember it being given as a prize in a competition - after his death : or have I got that wrong? I certainly couldn't find anything on the net about its whereabouts. I'd certainly love to see something that was modelled on his actual bass by the gurus at Fender. For those who would like to remember the man - From Sydney Opera House : - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgST27FIzNg&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgST27FIzNg...feature=related[/url] A

A quick update : just delivered the Rower and picked up £800 in return. I would have had to sell on eBay for nearly £900 to achieve that result net of fees, and the ones I have been following on there recently have been hitting £750 - £800, so I'm well pleased. Many thanks for the suggestion to list on a Rowing forum - the guy is delighted, as it saved him about £500 on a new one, and it was barely used. Everyone a winner. Except eBay of course. A

That's a fantastic bit of improvised construction - sounds great too. I actually built this for an American friend of mine for his birthday, out of stuff I had knocking about at home and bits I picked up on eBay for peanuts. The 'body' is a bit of floor joist left over from the repairs to my kitchen floor after a Boxing day water leak, the nut and bridge are made from scrap aluminium angle. The tuner is a Schaller M4 (eBay - £3.50), and the pickup is from an old 70s Strat copy, which was donated FOC by a guy on another forum. Strung with a .46 E string from an old Les Paul, and plugged into an overdrive pedal - played with a slide it sounds awesome : really loud - instant Seasick Steve. I had to make a case - to take it to the states as 'hand luggage' (amazed I got it on board actually, as it's really heavy and would have made a good weapon, but there you go) , and the hardware for that case cost more than the diddly bow! I have some spare parts left over - so I'm thinking of making another one now. [attachment=57156:Reduced_1.jpg] A

[quote name='tauzero' post='930508' date='Aug 20 2010, 01:42 AM']Yes, it's an ebay condition. If you try and get round that by saying that you won't take Paypal in the description, your auction could be killed by ebay. I always state clearly that collection is available and cash on collection is welcome.[/quote] I believe ebay actually bought Paypal a few years ago, so they are effectively forcing you to use their own money transfer service, which feels like a questionable practice to me when the fees are so high. I know a guy who sells a lot of used DJ/audio gear through eBay, but does it by offering comprehensive descriptions and photos, but has his starting bid ludicrously high. He then puts in his telephone number and invites questions. Most people who are interested will call him and say so - but not at that price, and they then go on to do a deal for cash - off of eBay. He never sells an item on eBay - just using it as a 'shop window', and relies on dealing with people who are not impressed by the dire warnings given by eBay about how you will be ripped off by people who ask you to complete the transaction outside the site. There is certainly a chance of that, but by using eBay you are guaranteed to be ripped off by them as far as I can see, so if as a buyer you trust your eyes, ears and experience and are willing to travel to take a look, this may be an option. The fact that he hasn't got to make up the extortionate fees allows him to offer more leeway on the deal, so buyers benefit too. Wouldn't suit everyone I accept, but an interesting tactic. Also worth noting from the very experienced sellers I have read commenting on the eBay forums, how much the sellers rights have been eroded by eBay's recent changes of policy. They seem particularly unhappy that you can no longer leave negative feedback for buyers, once they have paid, and any complaint investigation seems to be weighted clearly in favour of the buyer, with cases of refunds being made to buyers, and the seller then having to prove that the item was as described/received etc, before they get their money back. It seems far more open to sellers being scammed by unscrupulous buyers - buying, paying, and then raising a complaint to get their money refunded - before disappearing off the site. See here : You may need to sign in to eBay to read : [url="http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1200362756&tstart=0&mod=1282138121392"]http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threa...d=1282138121392[/url] [url="http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1100313423&tstart=40&mod=1281394644265"]http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threa...d=1281394644265[/url]

[quote name='bethnalgreen' post='928086' date='Aug 17 2010, 10:04 PM']Are you sure it would add up to £100, as the max final value fee is £40. The other bits and bobs plus PayPal would bump this up, but maybe not to £100? Still too high though![/quote] Fair point : £17.38 to list and put a reserve of £750 on it. Final value fee : 10% of winning bid, up to a max of £40 - so £40. Paypal fee : 3.4% on an assumed selling price of £800 = £27.20 So £84.58 then - a bit of rounding on my part, but still a ludicrous amount of money - over 10% of £800.

[quote name='walbassist' post='925374' date='Aug 15 2010, 10:06 AM']My sentiments exactly. eBay used to be a decent site but sellers get pretty much shafted by the fees these days. I suspect your best bet is any rowing forums that may be out there. I used to have a Water Rower, which was a lovely thing.[/quote] Thanks for the suggestion, as this has I think proved a top tip. I put it up on the Concept 2 Forum Classifieds for a hopeful price, and a guy emailed the day after. I've agreed to come down a bit for cash, but still selling for more than I expected to achieve as an eBay selling price and I won't be paying £100 to sell it. I'll not count my chickens until I have the readies in my pocket, but fingers crossed, we should be doing the 'Funeral in Berlin' style handover on Saturday. They cost £1,300 new and he's paying a lot less than that for a basically brand new machine, so everyone's a winner. Just need to stop Mrs A buying stuff on impulse now, as that is how we ended up with the rower - unless of course she wants to buy me a Wal. A

I don't use eBay at all to sell expensive stuff - but I was just about to list a Concept 2 Rower, which should go for about £750 - £800, when I thought I would check the fees. Holy Cow! No wonder private sellers seem to have all but disappeared from eBay (a point made in another thread on here about the lack of Private Sale basses). It will cost me about £100 if have a reserve and accept payment via PayPal. Frankly - I'm reluctant to get shafted to that degree, but what are the alternatives? Gumtree, Local Paper, Loot (free ads)? What does anyone on BC do when they want to shift stuff at the pricier end (other than on here of course)? Any top tips? Cheers A

[quote name='Johnston' post='808820' date='Apr 16 2010, 07:36 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Satellite-Bass-Guitar_W0QQitemZ190389241654QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item2c54154736"]road worn satellite[/url][/quote] I had this model - my first bass, bought in 1980 for £115. PX'd it for an Aria SB. These are really heavy and that's (IMHO) definitely not the original bridge (or if it is, it's a [b]very[/b] different design from the one I had). It has a through neck and my one had 'pickups designed by DiMarzio' on a factory sticker. This one appears to have a bad day out with an orbital sander but it would probably clean up very nicely I would imagine. A

I've been running around the country like a loon again recently - (part of the job unfortunately) - and have been delighted by my decision to pay a bit myself, and have 2 things fitted in my new company car. 1. DAB radio, and 2. a USB for the iPod. I have found so much stuff that I either hadn't listened to for years - both on radio and the iPod (13,000 tracks on the 'shuffle all' setting - what a great idea!). I also realised how many great players there are that go - if not unrecognsied - then certainly, frequently overlooked. One such came to mind when listening to a lot of the old Whitesnake albums from the early 80s, before the legwarmers and 'pretty' guitarists took over in 1987 : Neil Murray - what a fantastic and inventive player, who really drove the band along. Anyone else got a contender?

FWIW - I did it the other way around a couple of years ago and bought an Ibanez electro acoustic bass in New York. I couldn't afford to buy a full flightcase for it, which I would never use again when I got home, so I had to consider plan B. I nearly didn't buy it, but at the time it was $2 to the £1 and it was such a bargain, I couldn't resist. I actually bought a plywood shaped case for it - having had a conversation with a friend who is a New Yorker, and regularly travels to Europe with a 1969 Les paul and a custom Tele in a soft double back pack. His advice - check it at the gate, having had it put through the big x ray machine. At check in I told them I wanted to check it in at the gate - and they were happy with this (Continental - who are a sh*te airline and complete bastards usually IMHO). I took it down to the gate, and duly handed it over. I understand that they then put the gate checked luggage in last, and it goes on top of the other stuff. I must admit I was very worried, but I waited at the gate at Manchester and it came up with all the pushchairs - as good as gold. I would point out that : 1. I packed the guitar case with loads of socks, bubble wrap etc for as much additional protection as possible. 2. I may just have been lucky 3. This was 2 - 3 years ago and they were very tight on security then 4. The case did split around the bottom edge - but this was a stereotypically ignorant, imaptient and boorish Yank, who knocked it out of my wife's hand - pushing past her, en route to the departure lounge - whilst I was having a piss. 5. I think you have ZERO chance of getting it on the plane - in the cabin, and 6. A Steinberger style headless bass just looks like a rifle, so don't even think about it!!! As others have said - it will depend on a number of things - but being [b]super[/b] polite at check in and not looking like Swampy will help. In my experience - minimum wage gofers with little real influence are happiest when you appear scared of their 'power', and if you aren't suitably awed - they will just exercise what little power they have got - just to f*** you over and prove they are the boss. Finally - my vote is - if you must - buy a Squire Jazz, and check it at the gate. A

I'm not a big fan of BJ, but they are excellent live by all accounts, and I'd hoped to see them this time around, but couldn't get a ticket. Regarding JBJ : I'm pretty certain that I read an article years ago which suggested when they originally signed their deal, it actually wasn't for the band, but JBJ on his own - with the band as his support players. If this were true, in effect this would mean the band have all been on 'wages' since day one, with the publishing shared, based on the writing credits one would assume. I also remember reading an interview with JBJ, where he talked about the original bass player - Alec John Such, who it was suggested 'they' had to fire after he couldn't play shows, due to being drunk all the time. IIRC JBJ then went on to say that he (Such) had been 'a total gentleman about it all', taken the big pay off, and disappeared quietly to straighten himself out : I think it was suggested he now lives on a house boat and runs a motorcycle shop in NY. Such is also 10 years older than JBJ (Such is now 57) and left the band in 1994 I think (when he was 42) : which is pretty old to still be knocking around the world doing huge 200 date tours, especially if you have been on the road for the previous 10 years too I would think. Fine if you are as big as Metallica are now, where the guys are now in their 40s, but are further into their career than BJ were in 94 - and consequently set the agenda for touring : 2 - 3 weeks 'out' and then 2 weeks at home. Also, I read an article with JBJ this month (Q or possibly Classic Rock), where he makes the point that he is and always has been the businessman in the band, and whilist the other guys are goofing about and spending time at home, he's the one 'doing the spreadsheets'. Ultimately, he's a bloody good businessman - his business just happens to be 'Bon Jovi Inc' of which he's the CEO, and like any businessman he dispassionately hires and fires to maintain success it would seem. Finally, he's not the only business minded bloke in rock : Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue did a deal with his old label - whereby they signed over all the rights to the MC back catalogue, in return for royalties owed to the band. Consequently, they have made more money out of their Greatest Hits CD reissues than they made when they were huge, back in the day. Smarter boy than he's given credit for - although some might say, as I believe his good friend Rick Nilesen told him, " it sounds better when you're not playing". Sixx's book 'The Heroin Diaries' is a thought provoking read and a lesson about how sometimes getting what you wish for isn't all it's cracked up to be, particularly when you are sleeping in the wardrobe of your Beverley Hills mansion, with a loaded shotgun, because in your heroin induced paranoia, you think that hordes of Mexicans are trying to break into your house! A

Bought a Small Clone from WarPig Item absolutely as described, arrived very quickly and beautifully packaged. Good guy - good coms. All round good news. A

[quote name='ashevans09' post='642508' date='Nov 1 2009, 02:07 PM']Hello, I've recently been having problems with my live sound. I'm running a Mesa 400+ into a Matamp 410 and (if it's a big enough venue) an ampeg 410HE. I don't use effects and usually stick with one bass for the whole set (my MTD). On stage and when practicing in our rehearsal area things are sounding great to my and the bands' ears but apparently front of house bass tone sounds muddy and horrible. Now, I'm pretty sure this isn't a tone problem. I played a non PA gig last night and everyone reckoned the bass sounded good. They said it cut well and rounded the overall sound. In fact, since another bassist used all of my equipment for a couple of songs to begin with I got to hear it too and I thought it sounded great. All the gigs where there have been comments about bad FOH bass sound have been where the head is DI'd. Is this a sound engineer cock up or would it be worth getting equipment to mic up the rig? And if so, what would be the best mic to go with? Thanks! Ash[/quote] Some interesting stuff here maybe : [url="http://www.homerecordingconnection.com/news.php?action=view_story&id=9"]http://www.homerecordingconnection.com/new..._story&id=9[/url] Industry standard (dangerous generalisation I know) is the AKG D112, and engineers I know go with a DI too, so you get a nice sound on stage and they have options for FOH. However, a cloth eared engineer can make a mega rig sound sh*te out front IMHO. A

[quote name='JHBASS' post='642750' date='Nov 1 2009, 07:51 PM']Hey guys, I'm looking for a practise amp. But before we get started, Im looking for something similar to the Peavey TNT 100 or TKA range, in speaker size (bigger than 8" please!) and around 20-30watts (or above...sub 100 watts maybe). I've played through old Peaveys and I loved them! I need something around and less than £100 and older models (to be bought second hand) are also welcomed! So, if any of you have any ideas and tips (about the peaveys or other amps ) Ill be incredibly grateful! Cheers, Josh[/quote] I've got an old Laney for sale - with a 12 inch speaker - 40w - on the amps for sale thread. A

[quote name='steve-soar' post='566337' date='Aug 11 2009, 09:27 PM']Take the cover off and replace the power supply fuse.[/quote] Good advice, which I have now tried, but it just fried the quick blow fuse straight away. If anyone wants this - please shout - yours for the postage (£10 Royal Mail Parcels). No takers by Thursday the 5th - it goes the way of Mr Fawkes (although not literally....... I'll take it to the tip.... and I won't torture a confession out of it first). Cheers A

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='640024' date='Oct 29 2009, 01:25 PM']Did he do that funny little goose-step walk during his solos? Very odd. Didn't know they were touring, TBH. Nice to know they're still out there.[/quote] Goose step very much still part of the package, and interesting to note that he still uses a cable - not a wireless system, which was interesting when he went 'walkabout' across the stage. A