bobpalt

Hi Jules. I can recommend retirement to anyone! Off travelling soon when Sue retires, so watch out for the big bass stuff sale! Hope your markers continue to glow brightly........... Cheers, Bob

Redband, The old Yammy digital mixer we use (value, £100 or so) has a multitude of monitor outputs, and our guitarist/techie has bought the cheapest (passive) headphone amps he could find on ebay to complete the set. The Behringer unit looks the badgers though!

Our guitarists just use tiny practice amps, their usual pedal set ups and then di into the desk. You don't need any volume on the amps. I use an EBS 60 wattbass combo turned right down, di'd again into the desk. 6 cheap headphone amps complete the kit, one for each of us. Result, practice heaven! With the Yamaha digital mixer, we can all have our own individual mixes in the cans as well. What could be better?

Our drummer, bless him has converted one half of his double garage to use as a practice room. He has built a wall, put soundproofing in, and bought an electronic drum kit so we now all di into an old Yamaha digital mixer and out into individual headphone amps.Brilliant! No noise for the neighbours, no big amps cluttering up the space, with the added (and unexpected) bonus that being in what at first seems a tiny space means we can all interact with one another, pass drinks around and generally have a fun time when we practice. To be honest, I dont know why more bands dont use the headphone system. Its cheap, works really well and means you can fit into a really small space, as well as keeping the neighbours happy.

Hi Jules. They are not expensive, but in my experience only last 10 minutes or so per charge, so unless you have a roadie who can dash on stage every few minutes with a blue torch to zap them, are only marginally better than white dots........ Hope you are keeping well by the way? Cheers, Bob

I have bought a couple of watches from the States, and the pre payment thing worked fine with no overcharging. No Parcelforce handling fee either!

After 13 years with my function band, my wife and I have decided to take some time off when she retires next January to travel, and with massive sadness I can no longer commit to the needs of the band. We gig about 20 times a year, although have the capacity and public demand to do more if we wanted to. We just find that as we are all family men who gig for pure pleasure it keeps things fresh and we enjoy every outing to the full. We used to do more gigs, but found that when it starts to become a "job" some of the fun goes. We have superb quality pa and lighting equipment which the new bassist would be expected to take over my share in, although this is not as financially onerous as it might sound as its all depreciated and the share wouldnt be based on new cost! The band has six members, drummer (aged 62), bass (me, 59) rhythm guitar (55), lead guitar and musical arranger (35), keyboard and vocals (33) and female singer (33). A wide spread of ages, but everyone gets on like a house on fire and we have social nights at each others houses, go out for meals as a group etc. We practice once a week at our own practice facility which the drummer built in his house (bless him), using a central headphone system so its nice and quiet for the neighbours. What we are looking for to replace me is a keen, reasonably talented (I have dreams of adequacy!) and friendly local to Tewkesbury bass player with good equipment, who could commit to the practice and gigging regime without any delusions of earning a fortune. As we say, its a hobby that pays for itself. We do a lot of weddings and get paid quite well (£1250 for a wedding is the norm)playing the usual covers, perhaps with a bias recently towards a bit of soul but certainly covering every genre, , but pay ourselves wages of £100 each a gig with beer and food coming from the kitty if need be, and we share the balance out at the end of the year after paying for insurance, new gear etc. The band really are keen and very friendly, so you would make a few new mates very quickly. This cameraderie is as important as the music to us. Anyone interested?

I have one of the later models without the silly 8/4 ohm switch, and I have to say I think its really the bee's knee's. With the additional subwoofer which pairs the 12" woofer it goes really low, and the mids are highs are as sweet as sweet can be. The cab itself is very light and well made,and I cant find anything to fault. I also have a Barefaced S12, and the Accugroove is every bit as good (to my ears of course).

I didnt find the standard strings sticky at all, and once they were fully stretched in (quite a long process),felt they were excellent. I didnt feel the need to change them, but when I later bought one of the solid bodied uke basses (Sub-U)the strings, which looked just like the UBass strings were horrible, and I changed them to Thunderguts. The change was remarkable. They stayed in tune much better, sounded very good and powerful (bright?) and I was well pleased. I think though that the Sub-U was fitted from new with cheap copy strings though, as they certainly werent up to the standard hollow bodied UBass strings feel and tone.

Super easy deal with Mike who bought my ACG. Good communications and really fast payment.Thanks Mike! Bob

Is it me, or do the review and the photos not seem to be of the same bass? The reviewer mentions the bass as having a quilted maple top, 3 knobs, passive electronics and having soap bar pickups. The photos are of an ash bodied (no maple top), active, non soap bar pickuped and more knobbed bass. He also says that the graphite neck contains "wood", and whilst I am no chemist, I wouldnt have thought that this was likely (I know the phenolic fingerboard is different). If I were Mansons who had lent them the bass to review, I would be mightily miffed with what they produced. I have owned 4 or 5 Zons and they are wonderful basses, deserving of a lot more care from a prestigious magazine.

Karl just bought and paid for my Line 6 radio mike in super fast, speedy and absolutely no time at all! A splendiferous pleasure to do business, as they say. Cheers, Bob