fretmeister

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1504090874' post='3362576'] Eloquently exposed, and doubtless pretty accurate, but I'm afraid I don't subscribe. I agree with the premise that he, her or those responsible for damage, loss or injury should take that responsibility on their shoulders (mine, if I was that person...). Where I do not agree is that someone who has committed no fault should pay, either directly nor indirectly. In your fictitious example, the hapless bass player, tucked up in bed when his luckless (or clumsy...) bandmate caused grave injury looses his home. This may be the law, but I'm not concerned so much by the law as by justice. Is it just that he be penalised for the actions of others..? I say 'No', and refuse to walk that path. I'll take full responsibility for my own actions; I'll not shoulder the burden of someone else's negligence. Solidarity, in the sense of paying NH insurance for the cover of all the population against misfortune is fine by me; 'betting' that I don't fall foul of an incident in which I have no part is not fair, and I won't (and don't...) do it. If I was the bass player in your story, I'd do my very best to not be implicated; if I was the perpetrator of the incident, I'd face the consequences, whatever they may be. I realise that Life (Reality, Pragmatics; call it what you will...) are against me in this stance, but I can be very stubborn when principles such as Justice (as seen through my eyes...) are at stake. It's only that folks go down the 'safe' route that these ambulance-chasers get a foot in the door, and the insurance industry relies on the law, rather than Justice, to even exist, in my view. I hold them in very dim esteem, as can be guessed from the above. [/quote] "I'll not shoulder the burden of someone else's negligence" - the point is, it IS your negligence if the negligence was the fault of the partners of the band. Partners are all in it together so you did have a part in it. Just like when a delivery driver driving a company vehicle crashes into to another vehicle, it is the company insurance that pays out - effectively the the owner of the company is paying out for the actions of his employees. And the reason for that joint liability (and vicarious liability in regard to employers and employees) is that far too many people attempted to avoid their obligations in the past. Whenever I see an "ambulance chasing" type argument I am always appalled yet not surprised at the complete disregard for the person who has been hurt. EDIT - another way to look at PL cover is that it protects you, the individual, from the actions of your partners in the band.

[quote name='fftc' timestamp='1504076901' post='3362449'] Would things like that not be covered by the venues insurance? Unless it was a specific act of negligence by the band? [/quote] The venue will deny liability if it was caused by the band or equipment owned by the band. Ignoring the finer points for a mo - if it was caused by anything the band did, or anything the band bought with them, OR anything the band did / altered / changed to the venue itself, then the band will find themselves in the firing line. Even if the band didn't do any of that the venue's insurers will try to pass the blame down the line. A band cannot afford to retain specialist insurance lawyers to resist. Could be something simple - moving something at the venue without the venue's permission. For example the table layout might have been subject to a Risk Assessment for footfalls and access to emergency exits. Band moves table to a place that the Risk Assessment shows must remain clear - then you might have problems. Not to mention the fact the staff will deny they gave the band permission to move anything, even if they did! Band members often don't realise that a Band is a legal partnership (unless it's actually been set up as a limited company) and so if the Guitarists amp falls on someone, the injured person can come after the entire band. The venue did not book 5 individuals - they booked the band as a unit. Let's say the guitarist's gear did cause the nasty event. And let's say he has zero money. Rents a house. Cheap gear. 15 year old car. Earning minimum wage. Not really worth suing him. Now let's say the bassist has a house with some equity in it, a nice car, and a bit of cash because he is handsome and successful. The injured person can ignore the guitarist and come after the band as a whole - the award will be for joint and several liability. Meaning that even if only the bassist owns a house, the injured person will be able to sell that house from under him to recover his damages award - it's not really just against the bassist, it is against the band partnership. It just happens that only the bassist has any money. Even if the bassist has been his usual responsible self and at the end of the show has packed up and gone home and is already in his bed when the nasty event happens - he is still a partner in the band and that means he is in the poo for the actions of his band mates. And just for a bit of info... Punter with broken wrist. Will be deemed a public liability claim. Say about £3000 for the injury as per the Judicial College Guide for the Assessment of Personal injury damages Then say he has a manual job and needs 2 months off work - call that another £2000 after tax. Then the legal costs - for simple injury claims with a value of under £25,000 the legal costs that can be recovered from the bad guys are now very much limited - but after the compulsory independent medical expert report and other bits will still be about £6000 That's a total outlay of about £11,000 for a simple broken wrist. If you haven't got insurance you'll also be paying your own lawyers to deal with the negotiations on top of that - and that is not subject to any fixed fee scheme. And you cannot get "no-win no-fee" for defending a claim as you've already lost by causing the nasty event. Now lets look at the other end. Same punter. Paralysed, neck down. Aged 30 Has 2 kids aged under 10. Was earning £30,000. Injury payment - not actually a lot in the scheme of things - about £600,000 Loss of earnings until retirement at 70. That's 40 years at £30,000 - £1,200,000 Alterations to the home - maybe having to buy a bungalow or putting a lift in. Say £250,000 Nursing care for 24 hour care. That is 3 specialist private nurses doing 8 hours each with salaries of £30,000. So 1 year would be £90,000 x 40 years £3,600,000. (And no the NHS does not have to provide it when there is a negligent party with adequate means to pay for it.) We are well over £5.5 million and we haven't looked at future surgery needs, or simple inflation on the loss of earnings and nursing case, or the legal fees. In a paralysis case the claim will last between 5 and 10 years - simply because it takes that long for the Doctors to confirm the final status of the patient - so they can say whether there is hope for improvement or it is as good as it gets. The legal fees will be an easy £750,000 on top of that. The wrist break is obviously far more common that the paralysis (thankfully!) - but the point is - can most bands even afford to deal with the wrist break? I'd say no. There's also another issue - even Wrist Break Man has to pay his rent and eat. He's not been able to. He may well lose his house because of the actions of others. Why should he? From personal experience I know many people complain that someone has the audacity to come after them. "Ambulance chasing scum" etc - I have no sympathy whatsoever. What about the "scum" who won't help people they have hurt, and refuse to accept they might be responsible? If someone breaks your amp, you'd want them to replace it - putting you back into the same position as before. Chances are they could get the credit card out and replace it. If you break their arm then all they want is for you to put them back in the same position as before as well.

I've been experimenting with cleaner sounds with it - just a bit of grit. 100% wet blend and then just fiddling with the drive knob. That knob really does have a massive range - pretty much all the way down to zero drive. About 11 o clock, with the bass cut a little and the mids boosted a little is lovely. Tight sound with plenty of mids to cut, never boomy and just a little grit coming through. Something interesting I noticed - how hard I hit the front of the AO doesn't change the drive that much - it does a bit of course, but nothing like many other drive pedals I've had where I've really slammed the front with a compressor or flat EQ with signal increase to get it to drive the way I want it to. Makes me wonder if there is a bit of level control going on in there at the input.

Blimey. Am I really going to have to be the one to ask? Have you shagged her yet?

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1504018165' post='3362144'] Most home insurance will cover PLI as long as it's not for your business, trade or profession. So it's worth talking to you insurers exactly what that means if you are not technically running a business. Then get it in writing. [/quote] This is true - although I've seen a few decide "paid hobby" is excluded too. So even if you make a loss, or the income only covers strings etc, it may well be excluded.

Don't "produce" your own - they'll want something they can check. Get 3 quotes too. I know of (but never used) Gareth Lewis in Cardiff. Supposed to be good.

[quote name='fftc' timestamp='1504015969' post='3362127'] What kind of disasters are you foreseeing that requires public liability insurance to be compulsory? [/quote] PA falls onto a punter. Punter gets brain damage. Band will be liable for his 24 hour care / loss of earnings etc from that point until the day he dies - and perhaps beyond if there are dependants. Or even at the bottom end - cable makes punter trip and break wrist and can't work for 2 months. I calculate losses like that for a living. And for anything other than a broken finger or two, 99% of bands couldn't afford to deal with the fallout. PL cover is cheap as chips precisely because it is hardly ever needed. It's also worth every penny.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1504013504' post='3362111'] If you're taking £7k+ worth of gear to a gig, that's a different question entirely. Especially when your cheapest single item is worth more than all my gear put together. You really have all your eggs in one basket. My gear isn't even a 5th of yours. [/quote] It's all relative though. If I had a million in the bank maybe I would't worry about insuring £1500 of gig rig. But if I only had £500 in disposable to replace that gear then I think I'd be more likely to insure it. That's the approach I take (aside from public liability insurance which I think should be compulsory) - if the gear I'm taking out could not be replaced from my "fun" money without credit / loans / whatever then either it gets insured or I don't take it.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1504011561' post='3362097'] It's only stuff, after all. A hassle if nicked or damaged, but not life-threatening in any way. Insurance is just betting, really; so far, by luck and diligence, I've never had any occasion to win such a bet. It could happen, of course, but in the meantime I'm not concerned by looking for insurers, comparing rates, having to renew (and fork out, naturally...). I can safely say that I've never lost a bet in my life, so far, and for good reason; I never bet. [/quote] Going out to gig with nice gear is the bet. Your gear is the stake. Without a policy your best result is to break even.

I insure my gear with Allianz. It comes with PL cover as part of the policy. I wouldn't gig without proper cover even if the venue didn't demand it.

Looks like I'll have to save up more than I wanted then! ta.

I'm amazed anyone gigs without insurance. Not only for their own gear, but most gear policies cover public liability insurance as well.

Anyone played both the Jap and Mex Geddy Lee jazz? Are the necks the same, or like the US version, has the Mex one put on some neck thickness? ta

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1503952735' post='3361839'] How much are your cars worth though? [/quote] With or without a full tank of petrol?

Stupid upside down picture!

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1503911436' post='3361427'] That is because the sound of a Stingray and especially a Stingray 5 is contributed to heavily by the construction - the bridge especially with those deep seated bolts as well as screws and heavy mass, along with the body resonance (especially if it's an ash body). So you've got all of that as well as your vintage sounding P pickup. If you look at the bridges on the MM passive basses (Cutlass and Caprice - P and PJ) you'll see the bolts aren't included - when asked about this MM said it was deliberate and is part of the design to get a more vintage sound. Btw the weight loss may be to do with you having two defunct pick up routs and the pre amp/ multi switch rout - quite a lot of wood missing under that scratch plate now? [/quote] No more routing since the EMGs went in. Here is the weight of a 40DC and the MM5CS. The 2 pickups together weigh 0.8 lb !

I'm getting tons of clank from mine. Depending on how hard I play. Gentle = round full tone. Hard = proper clank.

Been playing it a lot this afternoon. Bass, Darkglass AO, Cali compressor, Amp. Really enjoying it. In 2 weeks I'll be back on duty with the local educational trust music group I play with and I'm looking forward to giving it a run with some big band tunes and film themes.

It was Paul_C who did the work for me. I only had the idea. I shouldn't be trusted with soldering irons!

It sounds brilliant. Ray spacing and neck, with Precision sound. While I enjoyed the EMGs I had in it (and the abuse for installing them) the Aguilar 60s pickup is lovely. Unexpected benefit- with the EMGs it weighed 9.2lb. Those are very heavy pickups. Now it's only 8.4lb !!

Sounds very different depending on the bass too. HUGE sound with my Urge 2. Pretty ordinary with my Marleaux - not a surprise though. If ever a bass was built for a clean jazzy piano tone, it's this one. That bass pretty much hates drive pedals of all types! Tomorrow I get my much modified Stingray back from the butc... err luthiers. It will be very different so I'm looking forward to trying it.

I played for about an hour at lunch time. I have come to the conclusion that Doug might as well stop making the other drive pedals. The AO rules them all. Just brilliant.

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1503483801' post='3358556'] Alex, if you ask 10 different basschatters what they want in an amp you'll get 100 different answers and you'll end up making a monstrosity. [/quote] [url="https://media.giphy.com/media/l2JdSP4o5EZkTU16o/giphy.gif"]https://media.giphy....TU16o/giphy.gif[/url] [url="https://media.giphy.com/media/l2JdSP4o5EZkTU16o/giphy.gif"]https://media.giphy....TU16o/giphy.gif[/url]

The Alpha Omega arrived early this morning - early enough for me to play for about 5 mins before work. It sounds very chunky, but very defined. I've not played with the EQ yet, but I'd say there was a hell of a lot of sounds in this box. The Alpha side is stunning. The Omega side is a bit too mid pushed for me, but then again I was playing a Fender Urder2 that has a load of mids anyway. But that will be tweaked to taste with the EQ. The bite and grown switches have an obvious impact too. I usually run compression into drive to boost the drive levels, but I don't think I'll need that on this pedal - in fact the compression takes a little clank off the top, so I'm going to swap them round so the pedal remains fully reactive to playing dynamics, and then after the compressor can deal with excessive peaks Can't wait for after work now so have a proper go with some volume. I've just realised my Nano board, tiny as it is, has a value of about £800 with the board and the envelope filter on it too. That makes me feel a bit ill!

the HPF is amazing for allowing more low thump through. It's witchcraft! I think it will probably bump my Super Symmetry off the board.