WalMan

[quote name='Merton' post='900903' date='Jul 21 2010, 12:57 PM']Oh, bugger. Best start saving now [/quote] Indeed. If Andertons had had an LB in stock I might have had one last w/e, but the desire is waning now. A small valve amp that could be DI'd looked good to me, but I wanted to try it with one of my basses and the cab I would have been using with it for a final check - and then they confirmed that the ones they are advertising are not the UK ones, which are an additional £100. Think I'll wait to see what's in the pipeline now

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='900739' date='Jul 21 2010, 09:28 AM']There's a company around my way called "Sofa King". Although to be fair they stole the name - it's far from unique. However, they have huge billboards all over the place "Sofa King Cheap", "Sofa King Easy" etc. It's an old gag, but how they get away with it I don't know....[/quote] ...and of course [list] [*]there used to be a company called "Knobs & Knockers". Marvellous [*]Ashdown have jumped on the bandwagon with the Little B@st@rd [/list]

[quote name='hubrad' post='899857' date='Jul 20 2010, 11:48 AM']I'm not 100% sure on this point, but ref. selling gear later, I think that if you've claimed it as a capital expenditure (i.e. it's machinery!) then the proceeds of selling it come under Capital Gains Tax, for which there is a separate allowance. Other items like profits (and losses) from buying and selling shares also get lumped into CGT>[/quote] You're not sure, but I am and am afraid I have to tell you you're wrong. You have a pool of capital expenditure. You add to it and claim relevant reliefs. You sell an asset from within that pool and the proceeds (up to original cost of the asset sold comes back in as a receipt in the pool, which if it has a value of nil will give you a charge, and a charge in any event when you eventually retire from gigging/making money (do we ever!). If you are lucky enough to have a bass that has appreciated in value through being a vintage rarity and make a profit over cost then that profit will be a capital gain, but [i]probably[/i] exempt due to CGT rules on chattels EDITs to tweak the answer for correctness / hopefully help in understanding. If you are not sure ask someone in the know, which sadly nowadays [i]probably[/i] does not mean the HMRC Telephone Helplines as recent experience suggests you will get a variety of answers that may well not be correct

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='899157' date='Jul 19 2010, 05:29 PM']So If I (erm sorry Derek) were to claim the pre EB stingray and Genz rig against this years takings I would get a rebate from my (Sorry his) everyday job?Thats how I see it and it appears the way but contradicts earlier posts? Obviously they would not allow it forever and the gear would belong to the company rather than...... er Derek?[/quote] Well possibly. You've got to convince HMRC you're carrying on your musician business commercially and expecting to make a profit at some point. Then if you spent £2k on the gear plus say £400 on other expenses but only took in £500 from gigs you have a potential loss of £1,900 to set against your other income But again remember that if you sell the gear for £1.5k in a couple of years time, then that is income and taxed. NOTE this is a VERY basic example with a lot of assumptions, but you get the gist?

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='897328' date='Jul 17 2010, 02:58 PM']Gear buying is capital, so you can claim for depreciation, not the whole cost, unless you blow it all up within a year.[/quote] Well yes & no. You would claim the first £50k as a straight deduction - the Annual Investment Allowance - but remember that when you sell the gear you have claimed for theproceeds come back in as income, and if you stop your business/give up playing you need to value such items and bring the value in. So it's only a cashflow advantage for collectable/vintage amps & guitars [quote name='farmer61' post='898747' date='Jul 19 2010, 11:19 AM']I spoke with a Chartered Tax Accountant (through my work) last year about this very subject, who stated that earnings from a hobby are not taxable. However if the Tax man can prove that it is more than that then it is taxable. From that, and it was verified but a second source, I deducted that weekend warriors (those who play for beer money and gear) are safe. For functions band charging several £k's per gig, I think it could be construed as more than a hobby therefore would declare away. Btw O'Neills pubs ask for NI numbers on invoices. What do we feel about this from a data protection basis??[/quote] That's about the size of it. Pubs you probably should report, but there is likely to be a loss and after a few years of claiming losses HMRC would tell you it was a hobby and not allow you to set it off. Function bands are more likely to be in the taxable bracket with income exceeding expenses NI numbers, well that'll be because they are a large chain (Greene King pubs do as well) and their internal accountants will be more aware and have set it in stone as a requirement. Effectively they are self invoicing you and your NI number allows HMRC to link returns of payments to entertainers with the entertainers main tax record. As above there is no limit. If you make a profit it should be returned, but make sure you claim all your expenses and if you look at the odd £30 pub gig with perhaps a 50-100 mile round trip then once you take account cost of travel, strings, batteries (obviously some changed more frequently than others), use of your home for personal practice, band r/h costs, phoning round for gigs, etc., then there is little left and at that level it's really no more than a hobby. If you get sent a tax return for some other reason then you should at least acknowledge the fact that you gig, but possibly by adding a note in the "Other Income" section to the effect that you earn small sums as a musician, but it is really only a hobby and expenses regularly exceed income

[quote name='algmusic' post='893531' date='Jul 13 2010, 10:58 AM']depending on how much you want to spend. Markbass are very light and sound great. you could take it on the train Markbass MINI CMD 121P very light (300w on it's own), 500w with another light extension cab. There are usually a few on ebay second hand as a bit pricey new.. £800[/quote] The MB combos are great, loud & light but don't come anywhere near the cheap requirement. Love my 121H but as I've said elsewhere a bit of a bu99er to keep down to a level that keeps the rest of my lot happy

EBS have just brought out a small 60W kickback combe that got good reviews in BGM as I recall.

I should have thought [list] [*]speaker out to cab for onstage monitoring [*]DI out to PA for FOH reinforcement in the overall mix [/list]That would be what I would be doing anyway. Then you have a bit of air moving on stage for everyone else to hear - fine unless you are up against monster guitar rigs that swamp you - and the (full range) PA for general level. My experience of running a Bass POD straight to the PA and feeding that to everyone else through foldback was that it was not the same as having an actual bass amp onstage shifting some air. Might have been different if everyone had used IEM's but that's another story

[quote name='phatbass787' post='893009' date='Jul 12 2010, 05:55 PM']Ive had some covers from these guys in the past, very good and theyll make up anything you want... [url="http://www.ampcovers.co.uk"]http://www.ampcovers.co.uk[/url][/quote] That or [url="http://www.roqsolid.co.uk/wordpress/amplifier-covers/"]Roqsolid[/url] Used them for both the MB combo & Epifani extension and they are - roqsolid

You ought to be able to through the DI socket, which is part of my cunning plan re the LB. Mind the MB combo with the basses volumes rolled back, but not obviously affected as running the actives, sounded blahdy marvellous Saturday, so we shall see.

New gig @ Bognor Yacht Club on Saturday. Worried at the start as it looked as if we were going to get bemused looks & nothing else all night, but actually it went really well response-wise. Playing good enough, but a couple of car wrecks to play through. Sound on stage was odd, bu apparently out front was great. Didn't use the IEM or radio and probably should have. Ah well I should know by now. G&L's sounding great as ever. I now find I have the volumes rolled right back to what seems like next to nothing on both to keep everyone happy on volume front, even with the MB combo on flat EQ, 12 o'clock in & around 8 o'clock out, but the actives seem to keep the sound good.

[quote name='cameltoe' post='891511' date='Jul 10 2010, 06:52 PM']If I can't get the volume I need it may be going straight up for sale if anyone is interested.[/quote] Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

[quote name='KiOgon' post='891159' date='Jul 10 2010, 10:40 AM']I haven't heard of any Chinese built in the UK yet so most likely was a handmade you tried. There are some mistakes in the online manual regarding the switches, I pointed these out to Ashdown a while ago but nothing seems to have been updated/corrected yet. As you said the Bass Shift works opposite to the instructions, like the Mute too! The Bright has no effect according to my hearing, which unfortunately is like the rest of me - nearly 60 Still a great sounding amp though, just don't expect tone shaping anything like a 12 band EQ Simples old's kool Cheers, John[/quote] Ah haaa! Yes the Mute switch was odd. Duff lead first time round when I tried it so there was little or no level and I did wonder whether the mute was on at one time. I have the tone controls flat on my MB combo so lots of shaping is not required, and I could probably handle that with the EBS Microbass II. If I got one it would be running through the 1x12 Epifani so I probably ought to try taking that & one of my basses down for another go if I continue to have hankerings for one. Level is not an issue as it would be DI'd to the PA anyway. Decisions!!

Mentioned in the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=90616"]other thread[/url] on these, I tried one out last w/e & it sounded good. I have a bit of a hankering for one myself. It did seem to me though that only the treble control had any great effect on the tone. The bass & mid seemed to do very little, and to my ears the bass switch up was a harsher, middly tone, where the manual says it gives a deeper tone. Think I need to step back & give this some thought. It would also be interesting to know how the first 100 hand wired in the UK compare to the normal ones built elsewhere? Not sure which the one I tried was

[quote name='Paul S' post='887245' date='Jul 6 2010, 01:12 PM']One of my bands has decided they want to cover 'Somebody Told Me'. Every now and then he seems to pay a low D. I've watched vids of them playing live and he uses a 4 string but I can't quite get my head around whether he has just dropped the E to D or detuned the lot. I suspect the first but can't really tell. Any tips from anyone who plays it? Ta. Edit - I'm not sure he does now... I think what I was hearing as a D was just an E... anyone know for sure?[/quote] Not a clue, but perhaps he has a [url="http://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.php?c=6&m=product_list"]Hipshot D-Tuner[/url]? Great bit of kit I have had on my Wal for years, and so easy to fit even I could manage it!

Tried one out in Nevada today. Interesting. Treble control makes a lot of difference. Bass & Mid much less so, though there is quite a difference in band between the bass shift switch up or down. The manual says [quote]The BASS SHIFT switch causes the BASS control to operate on deeper frequencies in the up position, and less deep frequencies in the down position.[/quote] but to my ears (admittedly shot) it sounded the other way around. Down was much nicer than up Up on the bright was VERY bright. For the amount of grief I get with "tooo loud man" with the MB combo - always reminds me of this I may have to invest in one of these

[quote name='Oggy' post='883693' date='Jul 2 2010, 09:27 AM']Hi Basschatters, Anyone know who won the raffle prizes at the bash? I've just found my tickets in my wallet (315 - 325 incl.) - living in hope? Oggy [/quote] Well I had the scotch

A.C.T presently Todays Report, but will get through all their albums by the end of today. Yesterday it was Spocks Beard (versions 1 and 2) Both/all of whom belong in the Overlooked Bands thread IMO

[quote name='Gust0o' post='881101' date='Jun 29 2010, 04:24 PM']The tax threshold sucks. I'd be content to remain amateur, to be honest - unless it's a substantial additional income, so as to off-set the liability.[/quote]Not really your call. If you're making money, you ought to be telling HMRC [quote name='Jamesemt' post='881103' date='Jun 29 2010, 04:25 PM']Tbh this is all just talk at the moment. We haven't really made any money yet, just wondering what the benefits are...[/quote] Doing it as a partnership will require submitting a partnership return to HMRC as well as personal returns. The partnership return has it's own set of penalties if you submit it late (£100 per partner) so can get expensive if you are lax with the paperwork. As a partnership all your individual expenses and claims for gear have to be made through the partnership return/accounts. Not necessarily a problem as individual claims can be unwound as part of the tax profit sharing arrangement, BUT you cannot have one partner with a profit & another a loss - which could be a problem if you get a new rig and bass in the year and the gets a packet of lozenges. [quote name='hubrad' post='881108' date='Jun 29 2010, 04:29 PM']If you're near that tax threshold, you can probably afford to make it into a self-funding yet official thing, i.e. spend all the musical income on musical gear - strings, instruments, stage gear etc.. hence no additional tax liability but officialdom is, bizarrely, happy! Any income is technically of interest to HMRC, but they aren't the ogre that some make them out to be. Unless they find you first.. [/quote] You might even find that you have a loss once everything is factored in and you can claim a refund. But remember for capital items - like amps, intruments - when you stop you will need to value them (and not all gear loses value over time) and a tax liability could arise. Worth checking out with an accountant who is familiar with musicians claims - if you're in the MU & get the quarterly mag there are a few that advertise. And do draw up some sort of partnership agreement. Happy bands can become squabbling bands (as can be seen from other threads) and if you haven't agreed how stuff is split / who gets what / etc in the good times it becomes a nightmare when it turns sour.

And thanks to Tom & everyone else involved in arranging yesterday extravaganza

[quote name='BigBeatNut' post='880151' date='Jun 28 2010, 06:30 PM']So ... has a South East Bash been organised for this year ? (because I've searched again and still had no luck)[/quote] Not yet. Tentative PM's have started (last night)

[quote name='alexharvay' post='879897' date='Jun 28 2010, 02:20 PM'][url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=56195&hl"]Here[/url][/quote] Not quite, that was last year, but......................................

Firstr gig back with my main band since the op in April, and at our favourite gig in Chichester. Bit quieter than usual because [list=1] [*]it was the start of the Chichester festivities so there was a procession & fireworks up the road [*]it was so bleedin' hot & a lot of people were outside. [/list] That said it was still a fair crowd & a good night. New landlord was well pleased. To me things felt very slow (but weren't as the drummer starts us off with a metronome). IEM battery went flat fourth song into the first set, so ended up getting what I could from the PA. All of which sounds like it was not so great, but actually it went OK and finished on a high. Now then. Bed & an earlyish start for the London Bash

01. Essexbasscat 02. Aero , I'll bring:- Status Fretless Neck Jazz /Fender Aerodyne Jazz- David Eden WT800-Eden 210XST and XLT - Eden 115 - H&K BassBase 600 03. Jerry_B - Peavey T-40, MIJ Fender Jazz fretless 04. Stingray5 - Selected basses from my signature pic below; Trace Elliot GP12 SMX 1x15 + 2x10 rig; Boss GT-6B; (donuts...? smile.gif ) 05. Bloodaxe - A couple of Aria SBs, Ashdown Superfly, Epifani UL-110. Possibly a couple of other bits & bobs if I can blag a lift. Oh, and a tenner. 06. silddx - my Warwicks 07. Waynepunkdude - Fender Jazz, VMJ with Wizard 84's, Ampeg SVT 5 Pro, Ampeg 410 and DHA DI/EQ 08. Netballman - Ibanez GWB35 fretless (FOR SALE...), Spector Legend Classic 5, Markbass Jeff Berlin combo 09. Molan - 4 x Alleva Coppolos - KPB4, Signature 4, Ltd 4, Walnut 5, Celinder J update 4, Sadowsky Will Lee, Performance Louis Johnson, TC Electronics RH450 + a couple of Bag End cabs, Maybe more basses if I can fit any in the car, lol 10. Bottle - Stuff in siggie, basically smile.gif. Squier P-Special, EBS rig, GK head, some extra cabs and widdly stuff 11. Fat Rich - Status S2 Classic bolt-on 5, Status Series 1 Fretless 6, Line 6 Studio 110 12. Walman - Wal Pro1/Custom, G&L L2500 US fretted & fretless, Markbass CMS121H, Epifani 1x12 cab, possibly the BOD xT Pro & floorboard & Marshall Superbass 100 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. This always assumes that I wake up tomorrow after a long gig tonight & having slept much of today to no apparent avail as to how tired I feel at the moment

[size=7]Echo [/size][size=6]Echo [/size][size=5]Echo [/size][size=4]Echo [/size][size=3]Echo [/size][size=2]Echo [/size]Echo Sorry, I'll get me coat but am hoping to make it Sunday