tauzero

[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1441367754' post='2858303'] That's only a valid comparison if you are buying privately from a US dealer. [/quote] I'm comparing buying privately from a US dealer with buying privately from a UK dealer.

[quote name='Toasted' timestamp='1441272999' post='2857363'] Dude. VAT. Import duty. Come on. [/quote] £500 would be a bit low, but the US price is about £460, plus about 25% VAt and duty is £575, so there's about £150 in price difference once you've accounted for shipping.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1441353126' post='2858117'] With an item that has a BIN, that's a smart strategy. But my initial bid will be for the starting price, simply to remove the BIN and declare an interest. My real bid will be made in the closing seconds of the auction. [/quote] Yes, agreed. Especially as the really unscrupulous seller could shill up an early bid to find out where it maxes out, and then retract the bid which takes it over the bidder's maximum.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1441361225' post='2858219'] A cheap bass may not sound any different but the playability is what counts. I'll select a bass on whether it feels right as well as how it sounds. [/quote] I was just about to say the same thing, seeing as absolutely no-one else has. The most playable (for me) four-string I've ever played is my Warwick JD Thumb. I bought it in 1987 for £900, because it was so good I just had to have it. I had never imagined playing that sort of money for a bass, my battered 70s Fender P had cost me something like £175 and to me back then, £500 would be a stratospheric price let alone £900. Nowadays, I play 5-strings, and gig with one of three basses, two worth a bit over a grand apiece, the other which cost me about £250 and which was my main gigging bass for a few years. Playability has always been a key point. You can (within certain limits) mess around with pickups and electronics, changing the feel of a neck, while not impossible, is a rather different ballgame.

I quite like it, but I'd be worried about it falling to bits: [font=Arial][size=1]"[/size][/font][font="Arial"][size="4"]This stunning instrument w[/size][/font][font=Arial][size=1]ould make the PERFECT Christmas gift and will not last long!"[/size][/font] And don't forget, a bass is for life [1], not just for Christmas. [1] Life, of course, can be terminated by GAS

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1440240004' post='2849263'] Only a fool bids before the last 15 seconds of an eBay auction. [/quote] There can be a tactical reason for it. If there's a BIN on an item and you're not sure whether you want to go for it or not but want to keep your options open, putting in a bid removes the BIN (meaning someone else can't buy it while you're prevaricating) and means the auction has to go to the end. Something of a gamble though.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1441148722' post='2856538'] They are talking about introducing a Table in their stores so you do not lose them, over any period. [/quote] That seems fairly elementary.

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1441118595' post='2856165'] All of the below turn my stomach. I dep quite a lot and when I get pub "classic rock" bands approaching me I know that pretty much all of these will feature and it makes me sad. Oh well - think of the cash. [b]Black Night[/b] [b]Can’t Get Enough[/b] [b]Alright Now [/b] [b]Born To Be Wild[/b] [b]Paranoid[/b] [b]Doctor Doctor [/b] [b]Black Velvet[/b] [b]Brown Sugar[/b] [b]Honky Tonk Women[/b] [b]Tie Your Mother Down [/b] [b]Shook me All Night Long[/b] [b]She Sells Sanctuary[/b] [b]Whole lotta Love[/b] [b]The Chain[/b] [b]Sweet Home Alabama [/b] [b]Rock And Roll[/b] [b]You Really Got Me Going[/b] [b]Highway[/b][b] to Hell[/b] [b]Sweet Child[/b] [b]Boys Are Back[/b] [b]You Give Love A Bad Name [/b] [b]Summer of 69[/b] [b]Sex On Fire[/b] [b]Dakota[/b] [/quote] Could I have your gigs please?

Despite the fact that so many of the songs in our set appear on various people's lists, there's nothing I actually dislike playing, though I'm not terribly enthusiastic about "Summer of 69" or "All Right Now". I rather like doing "Mustang Sally". I think you're all just a bunch of miserable bastards.

Red Red Whine Dance the night away Fortunately they're in the set list from a previous band, and I can cope with doing them on the occasional dep.

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1441106878' post='2856036'] Alice Coopers' massive hit single 'Eighteen', was really about Argon. [/quote] "N-N-N-Nineteen" sounds so much better than "P-P-P-Potassium".

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1441047266' post='2855673'] I'm still firmly wedged in the 70s, maybe I should move as far south as I can without having to learn French. [/quote] That's the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. The 70s haven't made it there yet.

If the coils are in parallel, you'd need a centre-on SPDT toggle eg [url="http://www.axetec.co.uk/guitar_parts_uk_051.htm"]http://www.axetec.co.uk/guitar_parts_uk_051.htm[/url] (the bottom switch, 3 Position Centre ON option) and take the hot of one coil to one throw, other coil to other throw, and the pole goes to where the combination used to go to. Same as the switching on a Les Paul guitar.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1440796981' post='2854026'] Blimey! That's about the same as the Ashdown ABM 500 Combo I had. [/quote] It's about the same as my head, two 1x12 cabs, and one bass.

[quote name='Merton' timestamp='1440755624' post='2853501'] Not a fan of the looks myself. More importantly interested to hear BFM's views on the Bass Array cab - it reminds me a bit of some of his designs [/quote] Doesn't sticking an array of open-back cone tweeters like that in front of another driver mean that you'll get colossal intermodulation distortion through the tweeters and on the reflected sound from the main driver?

[quote name='paul h' timestamp='1440828204' post='2854124'] I'm still keeping my eye out for a fretless jazz. [/quote] Defret a fretted one?

[quote name='King Tut' timestamp='1440803643' post='2854089'] Just found this . . . . Pretty useful . . . . A, B, C and D are widths not shapes! [/quote] C is both a shape and a width. I'm pretty sure all the Fenders and Squiers I've played have been C shapes, Yamaha acoustic guitars are V shapes (can't remember what the basses are like), and Warwicks are either C or U shapes (I have examples of both).

A couple of years ago, we played in a marquee at Arrow Valley in Redditch, at the end of March. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground. Worse than that was one rehearsal about 25 years ago, which for some reason we had in a Dutch barn (a roof on legs, for those that don't know), with several inches of snow on the ground. I really can't for the life of me remember why we did that, when it was a Birmingham based band and we were spoilt rotten for choice with rehearsal studios.

The Three Degrees, even though they have had fifteen members, didn't have any academic qualifications.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1440773510' post='2853767'] Ska bands around here are the best pulls... consistantly. Not many bands get into the £500 bracket but most of the ones that could are Ska bands. [/quote] The disadvantage, of course, is that you have to play ska.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1440765240' post='2853643'] I certainly don't think it's even possible to explain it. And I still have no idea why it's a curse. [/quote] The OP's curse is that he can't get the young folks to listen to him when he tells them that the Beatles were responsible for all music since 1963. Our curse is that some old bloke goes banging on constantly about how the Beatles were responsible for all music since 1963. So there's actually two curses.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1440712075' post='2853307'] From such tenacity are legends born. That is the case here. We are witnessing something very special. [/quote] He hasn't yet learnt that the true art of trolling requires putting in a minimum of effort. This is more like blunderbussing.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1440684068' post='2852943'] Would that not affect the Piezo underneath? [/quote] It shouldn't if it's a flat shim (not necessarily uniform thickness) making good mechanical contact all along its length with both the bridge saddle and the piezo strip.

[quote name='jeweytheroux' timestamp='1440611871' post='2852434'] My deko acoustic bass is here and seems totally fine apart from fret buzz up around the 12th to 14th frets on the D and G strings. I've tried adjusting the truss rod in both directions but it isn't helping - any advice here? Not sure how to adjust the bridge? [/quote] You'd need to pull the bridge saddle out and shim it.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1440604472' post='2852345'] Ahh.... ok. Thanks. So we're not looking for a faulty component or dry joint then. I'm sure it can be fixed with a capacitor across the switch, or the battery. It's just a matter of finding out what size that needs to be. [/quote] I don't think a capacitor across the switch would do it. The active/passive switch changes the signal path rather than switching power to something. It does make me wonder if there's a DC offset somewhere that shouldn't be there. You could always replace it with a cheap and cheerful Artec preamp.