warwickhunt

Gigging presently makes up 50% of my total income... and the tax man knows it.

Music is all about emotional response... well it is for me. I like to hear the drummer putting in subtle accents and variations of dynamic, the guitarist pushing the tone of his amp/pedals etc to elicit the feeling etc etc and likewise I want to feel my bass/rig responding to my input. I don't always get that with certain amp / cab combinations, hence I've come (partial) full circle back to using my Thunderfunk (yes I actually bought back my first TF). I certainly never felt it when I tried IEM where I was ONLY going through the FOH PA but I'll confess I just dipped my toe in that dirty puddle. My response would be that yes heft matters to me and my response to what is occurring on stage.

I play in 3 different bands and we basically all have access to a shared Google Calendar. Individuals put in their 'not available' dates and if a gig is offered to any of the bands it is a case of check to see if members are unavailable, if not... take the gig! I'd imagine with 12 people you are going to get a LOT of unavailable dates!

Which raises an interesting point... if a EU person buys an item, they pay their VAT (or equivalent), if they then sell that to the UK (who will charge VAT on a used/2nd hand item), can the original owner claim local/EU VAT back?

Yes, 25% is a good ball park. I've just had the very same discussion re a simple 'swap' of basses with a guy in Europe. I pointed out that we'd both have to pay for shipping and budget to pay our respective governments approx 25%, despite the items being used, with tax paid when new and neither of us actually 'selling' an item for money.

I find this genuinely interesting because I've owned fan fret basses and basses with Buzz Feiten altered nuts etc which would mean I 'theoretically' was in better tuning than the guitar player... so did that mean we were now MORE out of tune with each other? If all musicians playing tuned instruments are using standard tuning and intonation than stringed instruments would be in tune with keyboards and each other but if one person starts using tempered tuning (Frank Gambale / true temperament any one?), you'd be out with the others.

Do you want to borrow my Boss units and see if they suit? My old brown chorus died and I got the new (blue) chorus but the Octave is original. I may even have the chorus back up and running soon as I established it is the switch which is an easy replaceable part.

You are stuck with whatever method/setting is done at the point of design/production. Often as per acoustic guitars there is a fixed bias set across the strings which helps you out but can get messy with certain string gauges. You just learn to not hold notes or play pairs of strings/chords higher up. Some basses do offer the opportunity to offset each string with adjustable slots etc but it is again, approximation.

Really? We've gone through all these stringent negotiations and still haven't sorted it out re Ireland but there's a lax attitude to earning money et al on an ad hoc basis? Sorry, I should say that isn't a dig at you, I am just genuinely surprised that you can just rock up and play these days... now if you could just slip this bass that I've seen for sale in your van! Enjoy. I went over with a band 25 years ago on a self promoted tour and it was an experience that still brings back smiles and memories... rose tinted glasses, as kipping on floors wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

No replacement for displacement, so even though you are (according to the manufacturer) only getting 50w more, you'll notice quite a difference. As to which speaker; if the combo doesn't have a matching extension I'd opted for the same manufacturer and same diameter speaker as is fitted (2x10). The science is that you don't need a 15" to get bottom end and 10's for the highs (even if you could bi-amp), you are better off with all drivers the same size... caveat being that sometimes mixing them can work but it is less predictable.

What is the score with musicians working/playing in Europe now (post Brexshit)?

I bought a Puma 212 combo when they had a fire sale of Tech stuff in the UK and I'm 99% that it was a Class D power section! <edit> The weight would certainly point toward Class D.

Is your buyer aware they'll be paying import taxes? I sold a bass to the States some years back and (wrongly) assumed they knew that... they didn't and were annoyed at me!

As you were @fretmeister... I was using the Super Alloys!