BigRedX

Why do you need to connect the Roland Piano to the Behringer interface via MIDI? surely the best thing is to connect the Roland direct to your computer using the USB sockets on each or have I missed something?

If you don’t like the body shape as well as the colour how about getting a new body made to fit the rest of the hardware?

Personally I wouldn't take this to a door stripping company even in the UK. The chemicals used are rather too aggressive in order to get the job done with the minimum of fuss and you are likely to end up with 4 separate pieces of wood. Doors mostly survive because they are held together by woodworking joints and nails although it is always best to re-glue them after the stripping process.

Very true. If this was a Fender bass from the same era, this thread would have probably generated an outcry with posts full of words like "mojo" and "vintage". However 70s Kramers are an oddity only really interesting to enthusiasts of aluminium basses (like myself). Having said that the body colour isn't the most attractive, and if this bass was mine and I hadn't already had a poor experience trying to strip a 70s Kramer bass, I might be tempted to change it.

The poly finish I tried to remove from my 70s Kramer was very thick and well bonded to the wood. It was a solid colour finish so just a clear coat might not be quite so difficult to remove... Having said that, none of the chemical strippers available to the general public 10-15 years ago when I was doing mine were successful in doing much to the finish other than making it look slightly worse after a couple of applications. I didn't want to use a heat gun because I was hoping to preserve the look of the natural wood beneath the colour without burning it. I ended up spending about an hour a day for 2-3 weeks - an hour being the maximum amount of time I could stand holding the power sander, getting the finish off and then sanding the underlying wood smooth. If I was in the same situation again I would either live with the dents in the existing finish or pay a professional to do the job. Not trying to put you off, but just ensuring that you are realistic with your expectations.

The poly finish applied to Kramer instruments from the 70s is a complete bastard to remove. Don't ask me how I know. You'll need a good power sander, a LOT of course grit sandpaper, a well ventilated space to work in, and MANY hours of free time before you'll get to see any bare wood. And be very careful removing and replacing the wooden pickup surrounds as they are prone to damage and the ones on your bass still appear to be complete which is a rare thing in itself.

One more thing to try. These days it shouldn't necessary with most ethernet devices being auto-sensing, but since this is essentially a peer-to-peer wired network it might be worth checking if it can be made to work with an ethernet cross-over cable rather than just a standard patch cable.

For my current band I only own one bass that is suitable. At some point next year I'll probably buy another one, but it will most likely be exactly the same model but in a different colour. I'll then decide which one I'll be playing and which will be the back-up based on what I am wearing on stage.

Of course you have a lot more choice if a P or J style bass is what you want, and therefore price can be a consideration. For those of us who require something different options, and price points, can be severely limited. In my current band I play an Eastwood Hooky Bass VI. I've found that the neck is every other Bass VI that I have tried far too narrow and the string spacing too tight, and I've tried every single one I've been able to get my hands on. That means the $1399 plus shipping, import duty and VAT for the Hooky is the entry price point for the bass I need. The alternatives would be either an original vintage Shergold Marathon 6-string bass which is essentially the same instrument but more worn and more expensive, or having something custom made. That puts a new perspective on "what is an expensive bass?"

Last time I looked at the possibility of getting a replacement, buying second-hand meant old, potentially unreliable, overpriced crap. However I've just had a look on eBay and there are some hopefully suitable machines for around the £150 mark which is probably worth it. Plus if I get all the cassettes digitised in a timely manner, I'll be able to sell it on when I'm done for hopefully what I paid for it.

It's a tricky one to quantify. I spent most of the 80s playing synths and my cheapest setup would have had a replacement value of at least £1k which is about £3.5k in today's money, and that has most definitely influenced what I consider expensive now. Also this was in the days when I had almost no disposable income so finding the money the replace my setup at any point in the 80s would have been a lot harder than finding the equivalent adjusted for inflation etc. today. All my musical equipment has been bought to be played and gigged. If I wasn't going to use it there wouldn't be any point in having it. In my last band I took both my 5-string Gus basses to all the gigs - one to play and one as a, never needed, back up. That's about £12k replacement value (I didn't pay anything like that when I bought them) and an 18 month wait with the current production times. Also the only thing I've lost/had stolen at a gig in the last 25 years has been the jacket which I up until recently I was wearing on stage with my current band and, as it was a one-off bought in a stock sale from the designer, has turned out to be both difficult and costly to replace.

This has become relevant again as I've finally got my old Awai cassette deck out of storage and it no longer works. It makes a horrible grinding noise when powered up and although fast forward and reverse work, it won't play. The solenoids for the heads and pinch wheel seem to engage and then immediately disengage again. Therefore I've been looking at what is available and it's a load of over-priced crap. The two Teac decks in the above link don't even have proper Dolby NR. One has something that simulates Dolby B, but no Dolby C or S. Support for Metal tapes is limited. I suspect that the transport will be flimsy plastic rather than a decent machined metal shell. All in all they appear to be little more than the most basic of mechanisms in a "HiFi" separates case. At the moment I'm looking for someone who can repair my Awai, but it not looking good. It is possible to replicate Dolby B and C NR encoding and decoding in software, so instead I'm thinking of buying something that will simply play back the audio into my computer where I can apply these treatments to it. I've got over 100 local band demo cassettes from the 80s and 90s that I'd like to preserve.

Have you been able to wirelessly connect any of your usual devices to the external router or direct to the X18 since the problematic gig? Since the wireless connection to the X18 or external router is generally a peer-to-peer rather than a normal network connection I wonder if the network setting have been lost? I would try a wireless connection from a proper computer so you can see the network settings and IP addresses, and then see if these are being carried over to the Android tablet via the ethernet connection.

In order for the ethernet adaptor to work your Android tablet must be set to USB host mode. Not all Android devices are capable of this.

Do any of the lights on the ethernet socket come on when when everything is plugged in? Can you make this adaptor work with your laptop? What make and model number is your Android Tablet? It simply might not be able to make a network connection via the USB port.