tauzero

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1442781127' post='2869481'] Peavey Grind 6ers are ace as well, and cheap as chips used. [/quote] I would suggest that except that the string spacing is relatively narrow.

For playing at home, the Antoniotsai 5-string fretted as it's conveniently to hand (hanging on the wall) and comfortable to play sitting down (unlike the Buzzard, which is like cuddling a hedgehog). For gigging, mainly the Sei headless fretless. It lives in a case at home because Hercules wall hangers don't work with it (see also: clip-on tuners). But if there's going to be a reasonable amount of room, I'll take the Buzzard too, or if I feel like it, the Antoniotsai.

Damn you all. Now I've just found a Revelation lap steel on That Ebay for £55 new and it would have been rude not to buy it for Mrs Zero.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1442919550' post='2870473'] The other point is that the social clubs don't have a band on every week. Each week it's a different act. So you're not competing with the Karaoke, or disco, you're working alongside. If you're playing a club three times a year, you're competing with four other bands. And the likelihood is that the other bands are playing a different set (or maybe not). I can't believe anyone would go and watch solo singers singing to backing tracks week after week. Although I suspect we're looking at people who go to Spain for their holidays and read the Sun and eat fish and chips when they get there. [/quote] It used to be a live band every week. Gradually the karaoke acts have been moved in and the bands moved out. The people going to the clubs are there to meet their friends, to do bingo/raffle/members' draw/play your cards right/whatever, they're not there primarily for the band/karaoke singer. However, they do like their entertainment, and they prefer live bands to karaoke singers. The karaoke singers don't drive them away but they entertain them less.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1442861414' post='2870110'] You need silence so you can listen to the music in your head. [/quote] The voices are louder though. Radio 4 in the car - used to switch over to Planet Rock while Thought for the Day was on, but now it's Absolute Music and there's some sort of phone-in going on at that time, Radio 2 has Chris Evans so it's a bit of a lottery as to whether I'll hear some music, and BRMB is Brummies phoning in. Don't listen much at home. Mostly it's to learn stuff or see if I think it would be good for us to do (lest it be thought I have a dictatorship, we all have a say about that).

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1442873388' post='2870236'] We played an RBL club twice in six months. The second time; the committee had changed and the audience was made up of completely different people. [/quote] Well, that enormous sample size certainly blows a hole in my argument.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1442874186' post='2870243'] It's the first bit played forwards joined to the same bit played backwards. [/quote] Although when they did it live, he played the whole section including the bit that was reversed. Twice.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1442852502' post='2870012'] These threads always seem to get very polarised for some reason. I don't understand why people seem to get slightly irritated about the fact that other people really like Fender basses... and some don't. [/quote] The irritant is when the Fender fanbois start on about how no-one needs anything else, and how other musicians stop worrying when they see you've got a Fender (something I've never encountered, incidentally, all the musicians I've played with have been more concerned about whether I could play the right notes at the right time). I'm very happy for all you Fender lovers, I just wish you all understood that other people are happy with other basses and don't feel any need or desire for a Fender (or, indeed, Fender clone) and that doesn't make them bad people.

[quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1442848799' post='2869968'] That's it. Pretty much my reason for using a Precision. One less thing to worry about so I can enjoy playing the songs. [/quote] That's my reason for playing a bass. Stick the controls in the middle (active bass) or full chat (passive bass) and it sounds like a bass. Funnily enough, all of my basses do that. They even sound quite like a bass if I move the controls around a bit. Not like keyboards, those are a right menace. Press the wrong button and all of a sudden you're playing drums.

These are social club audiences. They're on rails on a Saturday night, and they want some decent entertainment before and after the bingo, raffle, and members' draw.

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1442853551' post='2870024'] Really? I can't get past the first chorus without lobbing heavy objects. [/quote] I enjoyed it all the way to the end. Chorus does get a bit repetitive though.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1442841019' post='2869887'] Erm. That'll be a different market then. One where the customer knows what they want and aren't getting it. [/quote] Same market, different products. One of which works, one of which doesn't, because their optimum audiences differ (assuming that there is an optimum audience for karaoke singers), but the product that doesn't work is foisted on the audience anyway. Like when the company that you work for decides that McAfee will be the virus, sorry, anti-virus, that runs on all the PCs in the company. I don't see how it can't be the same market if it's the same people being sold to (or played at).

"Similar guitars may have sold for far less, but we are not looking for a quick sell.". Eventually, inflation will catch up with that price. At 2.5% compounded, how many years will it take to get to 600%?

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1442832950' post='2869758'] Did you know those old Avons & Shaftesburys were actually hand-made in a shed in Clapham, by a prodigiously talented 13-year old called Rosie Morris? True that. [/quote] Her younger sister, Morris Minor, went on to run a chain of garages.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1442835022' post='2869790'] It's a different market. Target audience. Karaoke/Disco/Duos with backing/Live Band. They're different. [/quote] It's the same market. Social clubs used to put on bands. Then they moved over to mainly using karaoke singers, sorry, solo singers with backing music, as they were less than half the price. The people in the social club haven't changed, and, incidentally, generally say that they much prefer live music.

[quote name='bassjim' timestamp='1442835285' post='2869797'] ok you might want something else sound wise or feel wise but get one of these and it will be your bass for life. even if its not needed right now there will always be somewhere down the line you need one. IMO [/quote] I did get one. In fact, I got two. I don't have them any more. I have no desire to ever own one again. I will never need one.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1442833971' post='2869773'] That's just what the Precision Bass is not. Leo designed the Precision to be an alternative to the huge bulk of 'the dog house' that was portable, and what's more could be heard (as it could be amplified to any level) as acoustic double bass players were getting lost volume-wise against the proliferation of drum kits, big brass sections and electric guitars that were becoming prevalent at that time. The reason it was called 'Precision' is that it had frets, where the DB did not, and so could be played more accurately - and in tune. [/quote] To some degree, the Precision is a copy of the double bass. Like the Jazz is a copy of the Precision with one more pickup, the Precision is a copy of the double bass with one more pickup. The fretted bass is a copy of the double bass with added frets, and the fretless bass is, of course, a straight copy. How would the 1935 Audiovox Bass Fiddle be a copy of the 1951 Fender Precision? Did Mr Tutmarc have a time machine as well as a design for a solid-bodied 4-string fretted electric bass?

[quote name='SimonEdward' timestamp='1442761384' post='2869269'] Nope. Don't like the sound of my Alembic, but love my JD's sound (which it 'emulates'?? B** S***). My MM Sterling sounds different to both of these. [/quote] At your next gig, play all three (not at the same time, obviously), then survey the audience afterwards to see if any of them noticed any difference in the sound.

[quote name='4-string-thing' timestamp='1442746974' post='2869135'] One thing I've always thought though, is that EVERY other electric bass is, to some degree, a copy of the precision. [/quote] Which itself, of course, is a copy of the double bass.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1442605284' post='2868243'] The more I look at it, the more I think the neck & body aren't related. Black hardware on the neck but not the body is a bit odd, as is the black headstock. [/quote] Forgot to mention - isn't the black hardware actually only black courtesy of some black paint? Check the edges of the elephant ears and the centre lobe of the G string tuner (elephant's skull-cap?).

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1442733309' post='2868986'] So many club venues moving over to "karaoke" solo acts because they can no longer find bands that can cut it! Scary. [/quote] That's not the reason. It's because the karaoke is a lot cheaper.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1442616711' post='2868323'] You might be right - board does look bound though. Other differences aside, the headstock shape's a dead ringer for a Pervy Furry: [/quote] And also for a Hohner Rockwood: It could actually be what it says it is.

No offers, either. £1k and that's it.

I'm disenchanted with them, to say the least. We're registered with three local agencies who almost never get us gigs - the ones that they do are emergency last-minute ones. It's not as if we're crap either, or don't appeal to the audiences in the places we play. Sadly, those agencies lock out a lot of pubs so there's at least 25 pubs we can't get into because they're with one of the useless agencies.

What's the taxation situation?