Starless

Top bloke, great deal and transaction smooth as butter. A pleasure to deal with and would have no hesitation doing it again.

Cheers Mike.

PM'd

Standard issue Apple earpods. Perfect.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1474274450' post='3136609']
now I'm a big Beatles fan, but how many times can they keep repackaging the same stuff?
[/quote]

Eh what? An album that has been out of print for what must be over 25 years, has never appeared on CD or any post-vinyl format, and has received a stunning 21st century sonic upgrade? The answer to your question is "Once".
What's your problem with that?

Great lightweight Sterling in perfect nick dispatched promptly. Thanks Wayne, a pleasure.

The weight, the power and the clarity I was aware of before, but the biggest unexpected bonus for me was the ability to hear myself without deafening myself while being assaulted by the noise of the drums and guitar, standing cramped up against the rig (alternating between standing right in front of it and a foot or so to one side - the usual bass player 'squeeze in somewhere with limited footprint after everyone else has claimed their acres of space' routine).

We did a short multi-band charity set the following day and the gear was provided... so it was back to some combo on the floor flapping at my ankles, hearing nothing but the boomy mush of the PA bouncing back at me off the opposite wall. Talk about sublime to the ridiculous....

Sorry, no gig photos (that I have seen yet), but this is the setup in a domestic setting. The two cabs together are about the same height as a bass standing on end.

Real bonus with the handles on the side.... a velcro cable tie through the top one and round the neck of the instrument and hey presto... no need for a guitar stand - one thing less to transport. Rock solid and safe as houses.


[attachment=218575:IMG_1648.jpg]

Sorry, another Barefaced thread but having taken the plunge I thought I better give something back to the forum after milking it over recent months and soaking up every drop of Barefaced/Vanderkley etc opinion I could find - opinions which ultimately led to the purchase of two Big Baby 2's.

Decent sized pub on Saturday night (back wall a long way away) with punters pretty much crammed in (doorman with his little clicker counting them in and out had them queuing in the rain outside - only 200 allowed in at any time), so a good mass of sound-absorbing human flesh inside.

Cabs smaller and lighter than what I have been used to (2 x TC 210), small enough to fit in the car without removing the child seat and folding the whole shooting match down, only the 2/3 back seat needed collapsed. Thumbs up.

Carried both cabs in to the venue in one go (parked up a side street so a reasonable walk), one in each hand. I have never done that before, no pain, no strain and not even slightly out of breath. Thumbs up.

Raised hollow stage in the corner so employed the Gramma pad and set it all up - Streamliner 900 and a Genzler Magellan 800. Was intending to use the Streamliner for the first half, then switch to the Magellan for the second half to see how they compare, but decided to try a different A/B - one cab for the first half (8ohm) and two for the second half (4ohm).

First half with one cab (on top of the redundant other cab) - very decent, very decent indeed. Guitarist asked me to turn up after a few tunes. I was reluctant as I thought I was well loud enough, but then realised I was listening to myself at my usual 6 inches from the rig at a level I was accustomed to with the TC cabs. The 'problem' here was I could actually hear myself perfectly well at a much lower volume with the Big Baby. I duly turned up a bit, got the thumbs up and could now REALLY hear myself. Fantastic. Thumbs up.

The set calls for a few numbers with pick playing - and I had to tame the treble on my bass as the ding-ding was ringing like a bell (that's with the horn turned all the way down BTW), serious top-end coming out of the cab, top-end that I'm not used to hearing with a drummer thrashing away a couple of feet away from me. I think another thumbs up in terms of fidelity, but I was all too aware of my sh1tty pick technique. Time to start practicing, I've been exposed!

The Streamliner never reached 12 o'clock and I had rolled off about a quarter of the volume on the bass (always like to have a bit in reserve towards the end of the night when everyone turns up and the drummer's steroids kick in).

At the interval I connected the second cab (at floor/Gramma level), hit a low E and just about blew my trousers off. Rolled everything back a bit and had a ball playing with my preferred light touch all the way through to the end. Normally I find myself digging in harder and harder as the night progresses and the watts all around increase, but I don't think I need to now. Thumbs up obviously, but both cabs in a pub setting... well, that's probably complete over-kill. I think I would only use one with the other acting as a stand, rotating them from gig to gig so that they each get a chance... and as I am paranoid about gear failure (always two heads and two cabs) the power handling of a single Big Baby should see me through just about any venue we play (couple of exceptions where I may employ both cabs).

As for aesthetics... I think they look just fine. The coating is textured and shiny (and I believe touchable-up-able) and a lot tougher than tolex.

Overall, the combination of near hi-fi reproduction at serious volume and ridiculous weight of these things ticks all the boxes for me. I knew I had to move on from the TC rig as, although one of the lighter brands, they were still affecting my back and didn't give me that extra ammunition that I needed as a gig wore on. It's cost me a few bob, but I think that's pretty much all I need now and can't see what possible upgrade path there is from here.

Just my tuppenceworth

Can't believe some of the responses on here, especially if the OP simply wants something tiny with aux to practice and play along with. I've used Amplug for a few years now with apple earbuds and it is a great little piece of kit. Sounds absolutely fine and goes everywhere with me.

Unless I'm missing something here, exactly what is the downside of the Amplug?

PM'd

Great bass and well packaged, and very quick dispatch. Top bloke.

Lovely fretless Sterling bought from Tapan, well packaged and super-efficient service.

Forget 'petrol money'. If the van is yours and you also use it for personal (non-band) trips, then keep an accurate count of every mile the van does on band business. On a monthly basis take the total band mileage multiply by 0.45 and then invoice each band member for an equal share of that figure (in pounds sterling). If you do all the driving then that is your contribution to the band's transport. The rest contribute by recompensing you via the 45p per mile mileage allowance for fuel and other running costs.

Have now taken delivery of (hopefully) my final Ric from John. Great item as advertised and packaged well enough to withstand a nuclear attack. Great communication throughout.

A pleasure.

Link up the hi-fi again. Listen to the albums the way you remember. But beware, did this myself last year, can't stop buying vinyl now.

PM'd

40 years. Typical schoolkid bedroom band in early seventies for a few years, never gigged, gave up. Bought another bass at age 52, first gig, and gigging ever since.

You Tube? Bass teachers? (shakes head in despair).

Does no-one have the desire or self-confidence to teach themselves? Has bass playing somehow turned into rocket science all of a sudden?

Instant gratification is the obviously the way it is these days. I can't do this, here's some money, make me good.

Myself and the other members of our covers band have been engaged in filesharing for some time now. If any of us have a suggestion for a new song to add to the setlist we email an mp3 to the other members. Sometimes even distribute a doctored edit or key-changed version. There has never been a time when a new suggestion has resulted in us all popping to HMV or iTunes and laying down cold hard cash for a song. If none of us actually own a copy of a tune, then it's usually a straight audio rip from a You Tube version.

So just how guilty should we all be feeling?

I remember a time when album inner sleeves screamed at you, "Home taping is killing music". That was 40+ years ago, so exactly how much better would the last 40 years of popular music have been if us young scrotes hadn't swapped our cassettes around with our mates? Did the music actually die?

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1349532661' post='1827456']


Self-righteous indignation by proxy
[/quote]

I'm sorry, I have no idea what that means.

Not really, they rarely come up on shuffle, but most things that I do listen to owe a hell of a lot to them (and I'm not talking about f***ing Oasis - classic case of how to do 'Beatles' very badly).

It just amazes me how the likes of McCartney can attract so much scorn for daring to keep doing it into his seventies. He grew old, he's still a legend, can't some people let it go?

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1348943994' post='1820054']
That means we only have 8 years before Macca can perform the 50th anniversary of Hey Jude . . . . .
[/quote]

6 years. Hilarious quips work better when the hilarious quipper gets their facts straight.

7 years, 12 albums, 22 singles, a concentrated out-pouring of panache, progression and creativity which will never be matched in popular music.

Rightly adored and respected by the masses, and 43 years after ceasing to be, continuing to elicit derision and ignorant cynicism from the terminally cloth-eared.

Fender Jap P body with Fender Jap Jazz fretless neck. Perfect. No gap in the pocket. With 3mm nut difference, that's 1.5mm each side. There's about 550mm of neck between pocket exit point and nut (topside). Not the greatest at trigonometry, but the increase in taper angle between a P and a Jazz neck must only be measurable in microns at the pocket exit point.

[quote name='3V17C' timestamp='1337158010' post='1656233']
Fingers crossed its only going to be a matter of time before the parents realise that its more trouble than its worth having the kids there.........

........(we've just been booked for a BBC Maida Vale session and are getting some dates in Europe etc) so I don't want to shoot myself in the foot over this issue! Will have to see how it goes!!....
[/quote]

Apologies to the OP, but if the 'parents' are complete a***holes, then it has obviously spread to the rest of the band. Let me get this straight. Small kids are being left in a van outside a pub or similar, locked in the van? or unlocked in case they need to escape from some bad situation, which also includes any passing drunk/paedo etc trying to get in. This kind of situation has prison sentence written all over it, but owing to an upcoming session at the BBC and some European dates these kids are going to coninue to be subjected to this treatment with no argument from any other band members?

Wow, fame at any price eh?

I just hope I never meet the OP, the urge to punch him in the face for his part in the abuse of innocent kids would be just too strong.

Unbelievable.