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I'm a teaching assistant at an autism resource base within a mainstream primary school. The money is crap but I do actually enjoy going to work in the morning. It's the first job I've ever had where I don't have to pretend to be a something or other, I just show up as me and it's valid.

Registered Mental Health Nurse - currently working in a homeless hostel as part of their outreach team. I walk the streets looking for rough sleepers and try to help them. As you can imagine I have cursed the recent weather!

At least the spoon is a neck-through.

You need a Lego "Build Your Own Integrity" set ... your current one seems to be missing a few pieces.

I can't agree mate. There's more homeless people on the streets than ever. There's people using food banks. There's people fleeing war torn parts of the world who've lost everything. You're a grown adult who's taken up a hobby. You have, presumably, a perfectly functional bass guitar already. You're asking total strangers to put their hand in their pockets so you can replace the perfectly adequate equipment you already have to carry out your hobby with an incredibly pricey luxury item that most people who actually play the bass as their profession and their living couldn't even justify owning. I'm sorry if this seems harsh, but I think it's absolutely ridiculous. You want nice, non-essential, luxury items, do what the rest of us do and work for it and earn it. I work in live music, and there's still times when I've sold instruments that I was actually going out and earning money playing to fill gaps in my cash flow. I've never put up a gofundme and asked people to chip in to replace the instruments, or to help pay the bills I was selling them for. I just dealt with it, because it's just "stuff", and when I can afford to I might treat myself to a nice bass/guitar one day. You're not (as far as I can see from what you've said) dependant on it for an income. Nobody is saying you shouldn't play bass, or enjoy playing bass, or aspire to own beautifully crafted instruments. Do those things, by all means. Just don't ask people to part with their hard-earned to fund your hobbies and interests. If you really think that's sensible behaviour you need to go give your head a wobble.

Thank you for the interest, encouragement and help, without it this would have taken me far longer and not been half the fun. Here is a family photo with the Ampeg PF20t and the '64 style P bass I made this cab to partner up with, I think they're made for eachother.

Better pic of my '71

try and avoid GAS at all times it will eat you up far better to spend the money on lessons and be a better player on a shoddy old bass than a poor one on a boutique bass. I am you 30 years on, lots of nice basses but still average on all of them. The only + to you not listening to me is that new gear does get you practicing again 😀

B*stards! You're all b*stards!

Got made redundant in October 2019, so decided to take a risk and try self employment. It's been a real big jump for me, but I have always wanted to run my own business, with a good, positive ethic behind it (and one that would only need a fairly modest outlay of money to start up) , so have recently started an Eco-Cleaning Service for residential and small businesses. Only began at the start of February, but already have gained 4 regular clients which is not bad. I get to drive around the beautiful countryside of Mid Wales borders and NW Herefordshire, and also am meeting new and nice , interesting people. Hopefully If it keeps going this way, I will be a reasonably profitable business in my first 12 months.

I'm an accountant (cue tumbleweed). My colleagues can't believe I'm in a band, and my bandmates can't believe I'm an accountant.

Brother in law and best mate are in the Police, best mates dad was in the police too. You guys are great in very very hard circumstances with dwindling respect for the law

He also said " Fools learn by their own mistakes, wise men learn by other peoples mistakes" my reply when i was about 15 was " I've learnt a lot from you Dad"

This is definitely one of the most bemusing posts i've seen here for some time. I can only suggest the OP is not socially aware and lacks some element of normal brain function (EDIT: And that's being said by someone with Asperger's). I've recently shifted 3 basses (nearly £2k worth) to help fund a round of IVF, maybe I should have just put a sob story on Basschat instead. EDIT: My main bass is now a Squier VM Jazz, to confirm my new found love for cheap instruments.

Damn straight.

I don't understand it, if you're 50 years old, why not work and save up like the rest of us mere mortals?

Getting other people to pitch in to buy you an expensive bass is still fairly low in my opinion. I sincerely hope people choose to spend their money on a more worthwhile cause and you do the reasonable thing and save up like a grown up and buy your own bass. That is just one mans opinion of course.

Amazing thing to do. My little boy is autistic, I know how challenging it can be at times, so to deal with that multiple times over must take some doing. Hats off to you!

I'm a typical burned out registered 'Social Worker'.....now a Deputy Manager in a NHS Community Mental Health Team...essentially stuck between a rock and a hard place daily.

Very interesting thread! It gives us a glimpse of what's behind our avatars, besides our shared love of music and bass in particular. I was a (mostly) freelance technical translator, copy-editor and proofreader for around 25 years. That also included multiple-foreign-language website and applications testing. I then got bored and fed up with the direction taken by the industry, so I re-trained as pro PR/social media person. Around the same time, I joined Basschat. I also started my music photoblog, and through that was offered to write for BGM and later BPM. I consider myself semi-retired now, and I'm loving being able to gig every weekend as live sound engineer and photographer for @Happy Jack's bands. There are plenty of opportunities to learn new stuff and make yourself useful, no matter what age you are.

I couldn't buy a Harley Benton using that plan.

I'm supposed to be retired at 69 but I'm still presenting programmes on BBC local radio which I have done for over 40 years. I told the station manager that I would keep going until I got it right and he said I would have a long career ahead of me! Just about to go and present my usual Sunday evening show.

Lay concrete driveways?

Finally finished! There were just a few finishing off jobs to do, but for some reason it took a while to get them done. I took a bit of trouble to try to make it as airtight as possible, I've not made a cab, or even looked inside one, but from what I've read about this design, ownership is as much about chasing squeaks and rattles, as about enjoying the sound it makes! So, I got some adhesive spray, some sheets of black felt and foam, both about 1mm thick, and pinched a load of tricks from others, that will hopefully each make a little bit of difference. I glued rubber patches on the inside where the bolts for the handles come through. Then made one with a smaller diameter hole than the speaker socket, so that it stretched over and made an airtight seal. I glued a bit onto the spacer blocks on the back of the grille panel, as I have read these are a source of rattles. Then I followed the advice of Mark at Vintage Blue in the USA, I covered the other side with the black felt, it seems back in the day, they were covered with some sort of foam or similar, which was there to stop the grille cloth from rattling against the outer baffle. These would disintegrate over time and the cloth would flap against the front of the cab. Then I glued the wool felt to the inside of the cab, oh what sticky hairy fun that was! Then once again, following Mark's example, stapled on the grille cloth and heated it up in the oven to tighten it up onto the baffle, and bugger me it worked! This was quite satisfying! On went the back panel, and that was it!

You're a bass player, what are you doing trying to play lead? 🤣

@hiram.k.hackenbacker so is @fleabag avatar a picture of you?

When all this were fields, I used to get the Bell catalogue and dream about Fender Jazz basses, but the reality was I kept within the bounds of reality and played sub-£75.00 Columbus copies. It was all I could afford on my paper-round and Saturday-boy earnings. I wouldn't actually dare ask my dad for a loan or shake a cup, begging for money. Fast forward to 2020, let's set up a funding website and get people to pay towards a bass. I'm sorry, but that's insane and it's a forking disgrace that you should expect anyone to pay for something you want, but hey, we live in strange times. We all want something, but most of us just suck up that we're never going to get it or we have to do a hard save to get to it. I was raised to believe that you'll appreciate the good things more if you actually put in the graft to pay for it yourself. Right, I'm off to set up a go fund me as I need a holiday. Nowhere cheap, mind. Five star, all inclusive. Somewhere warm. Oh, I want to fly there business class at the very least. Some sucker will fund it.

Pulled the trigger on a SIRE M2 Version 2 four string bass guitar in a lovely transparent blue at the cost of 247 imperial units from Anderton's. It came well packaged and delivered by a nice man from DHL this morning. Lowered the action a touch and it's fantastic to play, a huge amount of different tones in the active mode (it has passive and active modes), excellent tuning stability and it looks stunning, fantastic maple fret board with lovely rolled edges. Pics below. John

I spent most of my working life in the broadcast industry, firstly in operations with the BBC and Thames Television, then in the administration of ITV before moving into the manufacturing industry where I was involved with system design, selling, project management, construction and testing of broadcast AV systems. These included outside broadcast units, studios and multi-VTR video editing systems. Our market area was Europe, Africa and the Middle East so I got to travel to a lot many interesting places as well as the USA and the factory in Japan. During the latter years I was Technical Manager for Exhibitions responsible for the technical design and installation of exhibition stands especially some huge ones at the annual broadcast show in Amsterdam. The largest of which was 1800 sq.metres on 3 levels, built in 11 days and taken apart in 2 days. Due to downsizing I was made redundant in 2003, just 3 years off my pension, and I vowed never to be employed by anyone else again so I did a bit of contract project management for a few years until a health issue forced me to cease. In 2001 I discovered Bassworld and one day in 2004 a member asked how to connect two pieces of kit together so I suggested he needed a particular cable. Where can I get one of those he asked so I said I'd make him one. A week later another member asked if he could have a similar cable but with the opposite sex of connector. It was at that moment that the penny dropped and the cable business was born. I never intended it to be more than a hobby in retirement and I have seen others come along and, with the help of the Internet, build up some very successful businesses. As of the end of this month I shall finally be fully retired although always happy to help another BC member.

No afraid it’s not, most of ours are up in Northumberland. Couple of pics, even made a few two storey ones!

We could possibly set up a crowdfund and send Mr Cgull on a weeks holiday to -

So let's get this right just to clarify things... you have presented the world's most ridiculous idea to a forum of strangers who have no vested interest apart from to give you honest advice, the concensus being it is at the very least "not a good idea" or approach to help fund your lifestyle by getting others to pay for it. You have now in turn thanked us for "entertaining" you with this honest advice, and are going to plod on regardless finding as many people that you think may be stupid enough to part with money to have the chance of winning a Lego set , so that you may continue your mission to adorn yourself with a finely crafted and very expensive instrument that will neither make you famous or allow you to demonstrate any higher level of ability than if you owned a cheap P-Bass, but at least will make a nice conversation piece as it sits in the corner of the living room..... … right you are then. You are definitely as bonkers as those who choose to play Rickenbackers.😄

this is true, I love Trace heads but the cabs, as good as they sound are just too bloody heavy in fact @kev b gave me 4 x 10 cab because he didn't want to cart it around and when I got it I knew why, I sold it for £40 and split the money with him, felt a bit of a wimp when the guy who bought it carried it out the front door with one hand 😂

@cgull I have to say I'm really not a fan of your money making techniques... Asking random strangers to donate to you so you can buy a new bass seems like poor form to me. Particularly when your funding page says 'He (meaning you) would be happy to donate £2 to your cause' which clearly isn't the case as if you dontated £2 for every £2 donated to you, you'd be permanently at square one. Not to be ferociously blunt, but do what we all do and either sell something or work hard, earn money and buy your bass, don't ask others to fund it for you.

We’ll clearly have to agree to disagree on what the residual value would be. The value is practical not monetary. To say you’d be left with nothing is a little extreme. What you would be left with is a more portable, quality (albeit old) amp. If that means that it is used more then to my mind it has been made better. There are people who think that anyone spending more than one minute faffing with these old amps need their bumps feeling. However, fans of the marque and particularly of this era would recognise the value of rehousing the amp. Popping out and buying the lighter weight head only version is not that easy as they’re not exactly easy to come by. The OP could indeed leave it as is, untouched as a piece of history but very few people have the luxury of space required to have old 4x10 combos sitting dormant. To my mind if splitting means that it or at least part of it is going to be used more, it’s a no brainer.

I'd have thought just saving the money from gigs, sales of recordings, session payments or whatever it is that you're using your current bass for would be the best way of saving for a new bass if the day job won't cover it. If you're not getting revenue from any of the above type of avenues then I can't really see why you'd be needing a 2.5k bass. Of course there's no reason why you shouldn't have a 2.5k bass for home noodling if your funds allow, but it appears they don't and asking others to pay for it is, to me, out of order.

Hired assassin.

Work in Healthcare. Never had grey/white hair till accumulating NHS time and kids - wouldn’t change it

I learn people stuff. Specifically I teach corporates how to make phone video. Job that didn't exist six years ago. Afore that I learned people how to tell lies to the public through the media. Afore that I told lies to the public, while in the BBC. I am also now a semi pro music photographer. Well, if being given free tickets to gigs in return for pictures counts as semi pro.

For 20 years, I worked in a company manufacturing industrial cladding eventually becoming one of the managers of the facility. It nearly drove me nuts as there was a lot of stress involved and my wife said it made me a different person. It closed in late 2003 and I got a job in transport with one of the companies who did work for me as an lgv driver. I thought it would do me me for a year or so till I get my head together but I`m still doing it. After having numerous jobs driving for various companies, I currently work for a multi national company delivering bathroom and heating items to mostly new builds across Scotland. The job is easy but the place I work is full of numpties, god knows how they are still in business. A few thing I have learned in this job. Don`t buy one of those shiny new builds, they are thrown together and are mostly crap. And plumbers are the biggest bunch of moaners I have ever worked with despite earning really good money.

Honestly, when you look at all the charitable fundraising causes on those sites, I think it's a bit of a stretch to expect people to throw in for a grown adult to replace the nice non-essential luxury hobby item he already owns with an even nicer non-essential luxury hobby item. Owning a better bass won't further your playing, won't get you more gig opportunities or more bands. I bought my nice expensive instruments when I was in my late teens, working three jobs and playing in bands. The reality is I couldn't afford to do it now at 35 with kids to feed and a mortgage. Very few bassists will ever own an instrument as pricey as the Mayones you're looking at. I tour as a sound engineer and guitar tech and can tell you with certainty that very few of the professional working players I've come across, even those doing massive shows with household name artists, own and gig anything like that. Honestly, if that's what you really want - save for it, cut out non-essential spending, sell off other things that you don't need/use, put any money you earn from gigging in a pot. Expecting other people to chip in on a fundraiser for you to own an incredible luxury item that most people could never dream of buying is a bit of a stretch though.

I don’t know how that will sit , I think it could be a touch early to get him to put his pride and joy down and play some randomly bought “rock” guitar . It might be getting him to question how much he wants the gig. I don’t know the dude , but if it was happening to me I’d be thinking twice

EBS Reidmar never makes it into these lists but I sure do love my 750, 250, MicroBass 3 and my Neo212 cab. EBS is the sound I hear in my head.

Cheers, man! 😀 Nice to see they used the first part of my Trace V4 review as their description - do you think I'd get a discount? The old Fender is a bit 'looser' the way the power stage drives the speakers plus the natural compression is a bit more ever present. The Trace feels a bit more 'scooped' with all the controls set at noon but even with them adjusted to taste, it's always a little more 'hollow' sounding than the Fender.. I think I suggested in my review of the V4 that the Trace was still a 'modern' sounding amplifier and made comparisons to that of the Swedish EBS products - very much a classic modern classic if that makes sense?

Surely it would be more pointless to have it sat unused? I’m pretty sure that the OP is fully aware that the resulting separate items would still weigh the same as they do now, but the OP clearly likes what he has otherwise he wouldn’t own it. Yes the head will still be heavy but comparing 12-14kg for the removed head to the 45kg plus that the combo currently weighs is hardly pointless (and no this isn’t an Old School vs Class D argument). The speakers being old is a valid point, that’s why most who do this keep the head and dispose of the old speakers and combo casing. With regard to comparing chopping this down to butchering an old Fender, I’m pretty sure if these old combos were going to become hugely valuable or collectable the market would have started to show signs of that long before now.