tauzero

[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?

We've had two Saturday gigs (26th Sept and 3rd Oct) postponed due to the rugby.

I was being idle so I used ready-made reasonable quality cables.

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1442404941' post='2866671'] Now have any of you been to Johnson's of Leeds military surplus shop? That place is crazy. It used to have a white UN tank or something parked outside. For sale. [/quote] That would probably be good for metal.

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1442406710' post='2866708'] Yes, although that would tend to make the whole snake slightly less flexible if the braid is too tight. [/quote] I was thinking more of reducing the wizard's sleeviness of it than making it really tight. Hmm, about £3-50 for 5m of 8mm braiding, about the same for 5m of 13mm heatshrink, and I have two cables, one 2m long and one 3m long. It may be time for an experiment.

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1442401532' post='2866622'] I used this stuff (pic). Search for "braided cable sleeving". It's dead easy to use, just one cable tie holding it all together at each end of the sleeve. [/quote] Aha, that's more like it. Presumably you can pull it lengthways to reduce the diameter when you put the cable ties on?

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1442398132' post='2866589'] Edit: Search for "cable lacing" [/quote] Blimey, it's not cheap is it? I think I'll measure everything up and see whether heatshrink would do the job.

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1442330001' post='2866089'] Imagine a space going full width of the stage between the mic stands and the backline. I'd aim to have nothing in that space except humans if at all possible. [/quote] Drummers? In common with others who've mentioned it, I use a cable snake for pedalboard (or effects) to amp. I'll either have a Zoom MS-60B or a Zoom B3 and a Line 6 G50 receiver on the floor, so the cable snake is actually a jack-to-jack with two DC power extension leads cable-tied to it, and I have a choice of two lengths. Out of curiosity, has anyone else made up this sort of thing, and if so, have you used cable-ties or some other means of consolidating it? I have to take care with cable ties round the lead, they're a little hard on my delicate little hands if I'm not careful. I do have a few colour-coded leads - two green XLR to balanced jack (one longer than the other) for the PA speakers, one 2m XLR in yellow to run between the active monitors, and a red jack-to-jack which is theoretically my backup lead if anything goes wrong with the wireless.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1442327498' post='2866059'] With the advent of all the online outlets for moving on used gear it's actually not that common to see much used gear in recognised music shops any more. I miss the 'rummage factor' a bit and old basses smelling of woodbines after they'd done years on the WMC circuit. Did I mention this all used to be fields once? [/quote] Yes, I used to go into Musical Exchanges in Brum back when it was in Broad Street (little Gary who went to PMT used to work there back then) and then Snow Hill, and the second-hand side of it just disappeared. Now there's just Stirchley Musical Exchange which is a tiny OMAAD place with some decent instruments but not very many of them, and you have to go somewhat further afield - Warwick is reasonably close for bass gear albeit not so much at the budget end of the scale, but other than that it's probably a trip to That London.