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We had a great gig last night at Liverpool's Empire Theatre. Despite the long journey in pretty grim weather, it proved well worth it - around 1300 people in the audience which amazed us. A really historic venue that has put on a long list of great singers and bands over the years, including of course The Beatles. Always think of this when I'm singing 'Roll over Beethoven' on that same stage, (albeit quite a different version from theirs and Chuck's!!) Managed time to get a great pizza at the famous Ma Egerton's pub (near the stage door) before the gig too, so didn't have to walk far on a night of dreadful weather. Made it home around 2am, knackered today though.

Has anyone clocked this yet

People get paid for gigs?

Fun fact Back in the mid-1970's the mother of my then-GF paid a visit to her sister (my then-GF's aunt) in that London, during the course of which visit she accompanied her sister to her sister's masseur of choice, there to receive a relaxing, osteopathic and entirely non-erotic massage. As the masseur was kneading my then GF's mother's iffy shoulder that gentleman observed that the client who had immediately preceded them on his couch was none other than Mr Frankie Howerd. 'He's got a bad back, you know,' observed the masseur. 'He's a bit handsy but I can usually dodge him and he pays well'. As my then-GF's mother imparted this news to me and my then-GF a look of incomprehension appeared on my then-GF's face. 'I don't understand what you mean, Mummy,' said my then-GF. 'You're so naive, Elizabeth,' huffed my then-GF's mother. 'I mean that Frankie Howerd is a homosexual'. My then-GF's father looked up from his copy of The Birmingham Evening Mail. 'Don't be silly, darling,' he said. 'Frankie Howerd can't possibly be a homosexual. He's much too funny'.

Welcome aboard @Ebenue. From someone who wasn't press-ganged by @Frank Blank and the rest of the WCPS.

@Sidlanir I understand that you are passionate about your product. That is essential for any new business to succeed, but if that overspills into an inability to accept criticism then it becomes counter productive. Every amazing new idea has had its fair share of detractors, however many terrible ideas have cost their developers dearly when they failed to listen to the market. What you need to do is to explain and persuade potential buyers of the benefits of your product but at present you are alienating them by getting defensive. I think you have an interesting design but would need convincing of any benefits. I would be willing to test one for you (and return it subsequently- I am not after a freebie) and provide feedback. I have access through work to equipment where I can accurately test intonation, sustain, noise etc and my best mate is a sound technician with a superb ear. I also repair and maintain guitars and basses for a music charity in my spare time so am used to setting up kit. Whatever you do, just relax as people will only invest In a product they believe in and upsetting people is the fastest way to persuade them to keep money in their pockets.

I’m currently experimenting to see: if I contribute five times to this thread will that count? Failing that I’m going to ask: (1) Which end do I hold it? (2) Which way up does it go? (3) Why does it have that thingy in the middle? (4) What is the best colour? (5) Progressive attenuation in the studio environment, a light discourse on at what point(s) during the epic journey of the alternate compression and rarefaction of air and its conversion into binary data should said attenuation take place: discuss.

Vinyl begs a degree of commitment, none of this hopping off to another tune halfway through. I like my music as curated by the artist, not an algorithm or a millenial...

My mirror twin. Love mine too.

No, you’re right. Number 5 was going to be: Shared onanistic pursuits at 60 hertz: Introducing innovative hand positions for precision release. Discuss. …but I thought better of it. Wouldn’t do to offend on my first day!

Private Ebenue presenting for duty, Sir! There’s an old man in my garden muttering something about J.R. Hartley, Sir. Requesting: one mower, sit on, old man for the use of.

And this ladies and gentlemen, is how you commit commercial suicide.

Fitted the Chrome flats, Tonerider pickup and gave it a set up today. It plays really, really nicely and sounds great now. Really happy with it. The neck has a familiar Yamaha feel to it which is nice. It's amazing the transformation an hour or two doing some fretwork and smoothing/rounding every edge on the neck has on comfort. This will be my old skool thump Precision and the Aria STB that had the Chromes on will get rounds to go with the already fitted 1/4 Pound PU, and be my grindy rock Precision as it has a bit of a 70s look. It would look nice with bridge and PU covers on but I don't really like how cluttered they make a bass feel. Bridge ones are OK but the PU ones drive me nuts.

I think one of the reasons I'm sticking with the CD format is that I just can't get used to the concept of not owning music in a physical sense - as Woodwind says above, I only stream to see if I like an album then usually buy it on CD. Plucking music out of the air seems alien to me as a replacement, am guessing it's having grown up with a music collection to hand on vinyl/CD it's hard to let that concept go. Definitely an age thing I think.....🧓

I have a TT4 passive with the Black Label pickups and I'm a big fan of that combo. Does things a J bass does very well and mine is 8lbs (3.6kgs) so very comfortable. I have V/B/T rather V/V/T as I prefer 1 volume for gigging. The pickups are quite hot but I've lowered them down a bit and the sound is sweet now.

So after seeing one of these featured on Bass The World, I've had my eyes peeled for one for ages. It's mid 80s, made India (eh?..... yep), I think its one of the early ones, as there's no bullet truss rod nut, and if you can find one at all in decent condition, they're not expensive at all. Past reviews are mixed... "Budget" or "Cheap Eastern knockoffs" ...to... "Best kept secret" "Future Classic". Not sure about any of that, but this thing is a belter. Really. I've been around long enough to know what's driftwood and what isn't. This isn't. Because it would sink. Many people describe these as "Cheap and cheerful", however having spoken to a couple guitar (6 string) techs, the "strats" were actually really very good when they're in good order, and desirable by some folks. One went on to say that actually the Indians were actually very good with the construction side, with regard to the timber, it was just the electrics that were "functional", but surprisingly, the pickups, although lowish in output, actually had a nice tone and perfectly useable. "Many people will replace the pickups for no reason, they're fine" Quote. Mine was in a sorry state when I got it, poor Ander (who I bought it from) had removed most of its gunk after he received it from someone else in that state. It had a broken tuner, cheap nasty and broken EQ, and looked like someone had used it as a battering ram. Not a bad idea, as it weighs a ton. So, lots of TLC later, an 80s set of (identical to the original ones) Hohner tuners, Dunlop straplocks (wouldn't want to drop it, it would go straight through floor), oiled fretboard, KiOgon loom and a set of D'Addario tapewounds, and I think its bloody awesome. I had my doubts about the pickup before I actually heard it, but it sounds perfectly decent with the new loom, no problem there. The neck is one peice maple with an Indian rosewood board, it's really nice and straight, and the body is.... solid ash? (it took ages to rout out for the CTS pots)(apparently the guitars were 3pcs mahogany). Nice tight neck pocket, decent construction from what I can see. Full ahead mojo on this thing. Very cool. This bass is a survivor, and I hope I've given it a new lease of life, because hasn't been loved for a long time. Great range of tones, SO good with the tone rolled back, lovely low action, no buzz, easy to play thanks to the tapes, AND it looks the dogs. Old school marvellousnes. It's a P bass? Looks like one, sounds like one, feels like one, and it reminds me of a '78 Fender I had in a lot of ways. Definitely 70s vibes, even though this was built 10yrs later, and having just spent a couple of hours playing it, I have a massive smile on my face. I don't care where it was made or how much it cost. With a proper clean up, set up and new parts (Original pickup), this thing is class, I was grinning from ear to ear. I literally haven't touched the other basses since I got this one, I just can't put it down. Fabulous thing. Precision bass requirements fulfilled. Obviously by the time I’d edited this post, I’d added a second one.

Understood, but it shouldn't take him more than a song to sort it out, if not in sound check. IME the problem is sound men who don't know what they're doing, and I've seen them from pub gigs to stadiums. The best FOH engineers I've worked with tended to be bass players and recording engineers, if not both. One I knew who was particularly good, he was working with 'Journey' when I met him, would automatically high pass the bass at 60Hz, knowing that doing so would make the bass through a monster PA still sound like a bass. If they all did so it might make going to concerts an enjoyable experience again.

You’ve got this wrong. I don’t have to build anything to have an objective view on your bridge. I’m your target market. Maybe listen a bit more and you’ll have more people on board with your product. For example, I don’t have to to build cars to say that a Fiat Mulitpla looks fricken awful.

E’s are good. The Shamen

What a dumpster fire this thread has become. You have killed any chance of me ever being interested in your product because it would necessitate dealing with you. You have been crass, unprofessional, shown a complete lack of ability to take criticism well, called people names, deflected when asked probing questions and been condescending. The only positive thing I can take from this is a lesson in how not to convince people to invest in your product. For all that I bear you no ill will and hope you turn this around and become successful in your endeavours, but it will be without my business.

Crazy brothers from different mother ...

Frank said I have to say hello... I mean ... I might have done anyway but ... who's gonna risk the wrath Mr Blank? I would avoid the DOI thread if I was you .... you may see a different , erm.. side to your duo partner.... though you do like dissonance so... 😉 Welcome by the way.. we are all friendly on here really. 👍

They are brining out an optional model with a hi-hat on the end of the neck. Just status cymbals if you ask me.

I've replaced knackered vinyl with the CDs of the same albums, but I've never been one for buying all the re-re-re-releases that get brought out. I've bought a couple of things that have had extra tracks, demo versions etc. on them & I never found them to be worth listening to. There was a reason these songs & out-takes were left off the original albums in the first place... 🙂 I have absolutely no interest in all these surround sound versions of old albums that seem to be very popular now either, I'm perfectly happy listening to an album as the artist originally intended it to be heard.

Fancied a bass wah wah. @Bass Wielder was selling one, so can I blame him instead of my own GAS? 😄

I like my vinyl. I don't care whether or not it's the last word in fidelity and I appreciate that it's not the most convenient way to store and listen to music, but I don't care. YMMV.

The 'philosophical' reason I like vinyl (which only applies to pre digital recording); sound pressure waves are converted to an electrical signal by a microphone which is represented by lumps and bumps on a vinyl groove,, a cartridge then converts them back to an electrical signal which is amplified and moves a speaker diaphragm to produce sound pressure waves.... the process to listen to the music being a reversal (well, in principle anyway!) of the recording and all analogue. With digital your are listening to a chip generating waveforms from a data stream. So when I play my Miles Davis vinyl I close my eyes and there's, philosophically, less of a disconnect between me and artist!! Admittedly it's a zen thing and in no way is related to the quality of the reproduced signal!

Dear Friends, a short update, the X5 Bass is finally back from my painter...

This is true, and has always been true for anything bought outside the EU. I'd love to buy all my gear direct from the US where prices are cheap but have always had to pay import duty and shipping. It's never made a lot of sense to me that the RRP of products in some countries of the EU is cheaper than it is in the UK (AFAIK we are still charging the same duty we were when we were in it). The big problem IMO is that VAT should not be applicable on 2nd hand gear (whether imported or not) on a private sale.

Oh she's a natural! Definitely belongs in the DoI.

Oh gawd, it's another Blank... 😄

TBH you regurgitate the same patter (other manufacturers do/don't do this / you wouldn't understand et al) which I'm frankly getting nothing new or informative from... I'm actually going to have to unfollow my own thread, which is something I've never had to do before!

Yeah, after all, I had a curry last night.

Be My Wlife - David Bowie

I can decode/translate if you like but I think we both know that we have no right to question our betters... but that's enough cow poop for now.

I have had a few SVT cabinets and I know what you mean . My Ashdown ABM 610 seems to get that punch. Maybe an Ashdown Rootmaster 610 would be good- if you can move it.

Virtually all the music I listen to is on record or CD, with a few new tapes and minidiscs bought from bands when I'm at a friend's who owns an appropriate player. The only times I stream music (primarily in previews on Boomkat or bandcamp or sometimes on excerpts in reviews) is to find out if I want to buy it. And @Stub Mandrelhas just replied while I type with precisely what I was going to say about commitment and algorithm 😀

One of my greatest bass hero's favourite pub.

As good as this PBO is, I’ve returned it as I don’t think it gives me anything above what I can do using my current gear. That being said, if you want a one-stop shop for loads of different sounds with an easy on-pedal interface, the PBO is a pretty good choice.

Surely the most comfortable bass shape ever made? Spector NS2000/4 curved body thru neck, maple wings, gorgeous unplugged acoustics. Just lovely 🙂

A detail like that never stopped the tonewood devotees! 🤣

First gig with my new band, The Spacewasters last night. At a charity fund raiser for cancer in The Fiddlers Elbow in Camden. Seeing as our drummer has had two brain tumours, and had a kidney removed, and still had cancer of the renal gland it was close to the bands heart. Got there 5ish as had to work, fortunately there was a backstage room to store the gear whilst we waited til our slot at 6:30. Went on, provided amp stack of Genz Benz Streamliner with matching 410/115, so all I had to use was trusty Precision & Sansamp. Went really well, didn’t feel nervous at all, was just so happy to be back gigging. Lots of compliments afterwards about how my playing held the band together which was nice. I had a blast, I’m back!