asingardenof

I wasn't trying to be comprehensive

Valve amp wattage takes you further than solid state wattage though

Battery connections not connected properly. Egg on face.

Today a friend and I have had an attempt to replace the broken preamp in my Sire V7 with a Sadowsky drop-in replacement. All of the soldering seems to have gone OK, including the trickier than expected task of attaching the pickup ground wires to the back of the blend pot (not as easy as various videos would have you believe!). Before finishing everything we decided it would be prudent to test everything. So we booked up my little Vox headphone amp and plugged it in. In passive mode it works fine, and the volume and pickup blends knobs all work, which is a relief given how long we had to leave the soldering iron on the pot to get it hot enough for the solder to stick. But when we engage the preamp, nothing, not a dicky bird. We've checked the soldered connections on the spliced battery harness which all appear to be fine, and used a fresh battery, but still nothing. I've messaged a local tech to get their advice and maybe book it in, but other than the connections on the battery harness not being as sound as we think they are, or possibly the preamp module being borked, does anyone have any possible suggestions for what night be the issue?

Having spent years on various volunteer-run committees for organisations I feel the pain of everyone having views but nobody wanting to actually wanting to contribute to improvements.

Agree on all of those. Steer clear of the Old Speckled Hen AF variety though, it's weird.

No, but it must have been close from the reaction.

I'm not sure why that's relevant to what I posted. Someone asked about the price of a 90s Korean P-bass, I said what mine cost in 1998, then worked out what it would cost in today's money and compared it to the equivalent current model and noted they were more or less the same. That's it. I wasn't referring anything back to that post about instruments in the US from the 60s other than to say it gave me the idea to work out the equivalent current price.

Only time I've ever been breathalysed in nearly 29 years of driving was when I was living in Dublin and had been out for dinner for my birthday. I'd had one Guinness and some JD sauce on a steak, and the young garda who pulled me over looked more amused than anything as he let me drive the 100yds or so I still had left to go home.

I suspect that Sadowsky chap is quite keen on it as well.

I was only considering the individual case of my bass.

Decent price and decent gear for a first bass and amp. I agree with the comments about getting it set up, which you can do following YT videos or if you can find a local guitar repairer/luthier you could ask them to do it and then take notes so you understand what's being done and why. You'll need a lead to connect the two if you don't have one, and you can pick up a Fender or Planet Waves one reasonably inexpensively but both will be decent quality. Other than that you'll probably want to learn how to play it, and a good starting point would be something like Bass Buzz or Scott's Bass Lessons YT videos, and then go from there. Have fun and welcome to the world of bass!

Inspired by the recent post on the comparison of US costs of instruments in the 60s in today's prices, I thought I'd do something similar here and in today's money my Precision would be worth £430 new according to the BoE inflation calculator (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator), which is more or less the same as a new Squier Classic Vibe today.

Tetris Master Level!

You don't notice it while you're playing so I don't find it to be a big deal. There are less attractive headstocks out there.

Ah, the Michael Gove theory of statistics

Depends if it was an Affinity or a Standard. My Korean Precision Standard was £230 when I bought it new in 1998 but I believe the Affinity series was cheaper than that.

Apparently because of the hot weather they were super busy or something. I might put in a complaint but don't expect anything to come of it as they'll just trot that out and shrug probably.

Ford Mondeo. I was very pissed off that they were talking about having a local contractor come out until nobody wanted to and I had to wait for the morning patrol to start. I've been with the AA and they weren't any better from memory, so I might investigate Green Flag or another alternative when renewal time comes around. To be fair I've never had a bad experience with an RAC patrol, it's always the arranging of them to come out that's the major headache.

Yes, the Sires are that good

I the words of the prophets, I had a doozy of a day. This is a long one so tl;dr version is my car broke down on the way to the gig so I got towed there, the gig went great and then I spent all night waiting for the RAC. First gig of the year and we were playing at the East and West Ardsley Social Club near Dewsbury. I was very excited, and even bought myself a new shirt for the occasion. Well, things did not go to plan for me. Half a mile away from the venue all of the warning lights on my dashboard came on, along with a warning of an engine malfunction and I believe the full beam headlights as someone coming the other way flashed me. I managed to pull into a bus layby and turned the engine off, after which the dashboard and lights stayed on but the engine wouldn't start and I couldn't close the windows or open the boot. After resisting calls from the band to have someone pick me and my gear up and abandon my car at the roadside, I suggested if I got towed I'd be able to get my gear out through the backseat and would call the RAC at halftime. Our drummist Mick and a bloke from the club came out with the shortest tow rope ever and a towing eye, and we very gingerly made our way to the venue with me trying very hard not to crash into the back of Mick's Range Rover. Mick took the turn into the venue too tight though, which snapped the tow rope and meant I had to be pushed to a parking space. We were only about half an hour to kick off at this point so I hastily assembled my rig (ABM atop Two10S, with the P-bass used for the first time in a while with my Sire still to receive it's new Sadowsky preamp), and with no opportunity for soundcheck (or "tonight's office" photo) we began. Someone in our following very helpful told us we were a bit loud so we all dropped the volume slightly and all was well. The crowd, other than the twentysomethings in our following, were very subdued and at halftime we debated cutting new tune Club Foot from the second set as it might not go down very well, but we figured if nothing else it would be a paid rehearsal so opted to include it and it went down pretty well. Our second set is a lot more energetic than our first and we were having a great one. We even got three encore calls which was surprising as we usually only manage one, maybe two. I was caught on the hop by Mick launching straight into Chelsea Dagger for our second and just managed to grab a pick in time to start where I should. Then we were demanded to play A Town Called Malice again, so I was a bit broken by the end. Afterwards I resisted further invitations by the band to crash on various sofas as my car was still unlocked, and with north of £1500 worth of gear in it I didn't want to leave it unattended, albeit in a well-lit and CCTV-monitored car park. So from 11pm I sat and waited for the RAC. And waited. Then waited some more, with a final burst of waiting after dawn. Finally the recovery patrol arrived at 7.30 and managed to get my now completely dead car to start off a jump. After dumping all my gear at home I left the car outside a local garage ready to call them tomorrow to get a confirmatory diagnostic of a possible ECU failure. Then it was home for some sleep. Hoping for a quick and inexpensive resolution to the car woes before the next gig in a fortnight. I had such a good day on Friday, but yesterday was a day full of finding out the bonus I'll be getting for getting chartered will now be ringfenced for car repairs.