BigRedX

IME Hohner are terrible at record keeping when it comes to all the various musical instruments they have made. I used to own an electric 12 string guitar that hasn't appeared in any of their catalogues or model lists. If I did an on-line search based on the model name and number on the headstock it came up with an entirely different looking instrument. However, there are various features that indicated that it had been built that way originally and hadn't been "Frankensteined" together from a couple of other guitars by a previous owner. Also I was aware that there was at least one other similar example owned by a well-known guitarist. So don't be put off if you can't find your exact model listed anywhere.

In the last 35 years I bought a total of 3 basses that I tried before parting with my cash. The fact that I don't own any of them now, but do own 3 basses that I bought on-line either direct from the manufacturer or off eBay without being able to play them first should say something. IME it is impossible to make a proper decision about the suitability of an instrument until you have put it to its intended use. If you play in a band that means at least one rehearsal and ideally one gig.

I've been able to be in bands for almost 50 years now without owning a car and for much of that time without being able to drive. Technically I can drive, but I didn't start leaning until I was in my 30s, there was no point before as I couldn't afford lessons let alone the cost of owning and running a car, and it took me 2 years of intensive lessons before I passed my test on the 3rd attempt. TBH I'm a terrible driver and the roads are safer for everyone without me behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, so I don't drive. As others have said, it very much depends on where you live and the sorts of bands you want to be in and the sorts of gigs you want to do. It may also depend on what other skills and resources you can bring to your musical ventures. I have chosen to live in a fairly large city with good public transport and taxi services which is more than adequate for getting to rehearsals and local gigs. In fact for local gigs getting a taxi to and from the venue is far more convenient and often cheaper than driving myself would be. Taxi drivers have zero problem stopping in the middle of the road directly outside the venue for me to load in and out. I don't have the hassle of trying to find somewhere to park that isn't going to cost the earth and if the gig goes on past midnight there is a very good chance that two taxi fares will be less than the cost of parking anywhere close to where we are playing. Any band I have been in that regularly does gigs in other parts of the country has had dedicated band transport, often with a driver/roadie, and IME it makes more sense if travelling any distance for the whole band to travel together. Remember that you can't finish setting up and doing your sound check until all the band are there and invariably if you are travelling in multiple vehicles, at least one will get caught in traffic or some other incident. Otherwise what else can you bring to the band or musical venture other than yourself and your bass? For about 20 years I lived somewhere where it was possible for any band I was in to rehearse for free. I also had what started as a simple 4-track recording setup that eventually grew to become a fully-fledged home recording studio where we could record everything except an acoustic drum kit. All available to whatever band I was in at no charge. Also in my day job I am involved with graphic design and can produce imagery for all the band's visual identity - posters, flyers, CD and record covers, T-shirts and on-line graphics - for free and able to get the print at discount prices or for free too. Do you have any other musical skills? Can you sing backing vocals? I currently play in a Goth/post-punk influenced band as well as playing bass I do all the drum programming and much of the sound design for our songs. I also provide all the hardware for the playback of the drums and second synth parts when we gig. All these things mean that the bands I played with since I first started gigging have been more than happy to help me with transport where I can't sort it out for myself.

I doubt that custom or boutique instruments will ever go away given that they have been in mainstream usage for over 50 years now. And you should be glad that they exist, because the alternative would be people like me hacking vintage instruments apart to get them to do what we want.

In theory a decent idea. However in practice, especially for live use, every additional connection adds another point of potential failure and a patch bay will add 2 for every device connected to it. Also connections that are made and broken on a regular basis tend to be the ones that fail first. If you find yourself changing the routings you use on your pedal board a lot, there are two things you may want to look at: 1. Have your patch bay normalised so that the most commonly used configuration is hard wired into it without needing any additional patch cables. 2. Look at one of the MIDI controlled routing systems where all your devices are attached to a master controller unit and the various routing are made from that.

Next gig for us is our first proper headlining one: Friday 19th September at Liquid Light in Nottingham. Supports from St Lucifer and Joshua Todd. Doors are at 7.00 with free entry.

For me the only significant advantage of the Stadium over the standard Helix is Showcase. I'll wait until it is included and I can see if it's actually going to be any use to me.

Are you going to stain the back of the neck to match the body?

Actually in a way it is Thomann's fault as they continue to use DHL for deliveries in the UK, and while they may be giving an excellent service on mainland Europe, here they are mostly a bunch of useless muppets.

IME playing along to the recorded version always gives you a false sense of ability as the original part is there in the background as an unconscious safety net. Also the songs are EXACTLY the same every time, and while that should be what the band as a whole is aiming for, the reality is often a quite a bit different. In the days when I was playing covers, no matter how well I thought I'd nailed the bass line when practicing at home, in the rehearsal room with the rest of the band it would become rapidly obvious that there was still some way to go.

Listen to drummers and write your own.

Practicing? That's boring. I'd rather be commissioning another boutique bass. While still at school, my history teacher wrote the following on my end of term report: "His design of guitars is stunning. I wish I could say the same for his attention during history".

I've been involved at every level from doing all the writing, recording and production (except the vocals) and organising every aspect of the other band members musical lives, to simply turning up and playing what I am told to play. However as I see myself first and foremost as a composer rather than a musician I have been the major creative force behind the vast majority of the bands I have been in over the last 50 years. When it comes to music I have the sort of personality that if there is no great creative or organisational force within any band that I am part of, I will gradually take over those roles. For my current band all the musical and non-musical duties are fairly evenly split between the three of us. The synth player and myself come up with the main musical ideas and our singer adds lyrics and vocal melodies. I do the drum programming and our synth player does the production. On the non-musical side it's pretty much evenly divided up: our singer does all the people stuff, I do the graphic design and our synth player provides the band transport. It seems to work very well.

From the other side of the fence from someone who has used deps for their band, I'll repeat this because IMO it is worth repeating: If there is a dress code then follow it! While we didn't except our deps to go all out with full leathers (we were a garage punk/psychobilly band) although it would be nice if they had, we did think that a simple instruction to wear black with no obtrusive band or brand logos and no trainers for anyone other than the drummer would be easy to follow. However you'd be surprised by how many couldn't or wouldn't do this. Remember that for the night you are on stage you are part of the band and you are in part responsible for maintaining their reputation both sonically and often visually.

Thank you @LowB_FTW

Are they decent quality? That's a bit difficult to tell from a handful of photographs taken by the maker that no doubt show the best of the instruments in question. They look well enough made, but how can you really know until you have taken the plunge and bought one? As for the price, they are being made in Italy so, unless you are also in the EU, shipping, VAT and import duty will bring the final amount closer to £1350 in the UK for most of the examples shown on the Reverb page, and it you don't like it once you've actually tried it there is then the hassle of sending it back and reclaiming the tax paid which is no longer as straight-forward as it used to be. Personally I think that's a bit expensive for a Fender copy by someone who is still relatively unknown.

Never worked with my Etherwave Theremin. If we plugged it into the PA and there was no signal at the desk the culprit was always the PA's DI100 box. Swapping it for the EMO DI box we carried would sort out the problem every single time. AFAICS the way that the earths of both devices were wired would cause the DI100 to effectively short the output of the Theremin.

IME DI100s have an earthing system that can cause some instruments not to work with them, especially anything with a non-standard PSU.

No I have little interest in Fender shaped basses and even less in fake aging. However the reason for my initial comment is that it seems to me the market for Fender copies is already massively over-saturated at every price point from Harley Benton all the way up to Celinder and similar, so I have a morbid interest to know what each new entrant in this market thinks they can add that isn't already available. After all the Fender bass is now getting on for 70s years old with no significant changes to the two core models for about 50 years, and they were created with express intention of being simple to produce using 40s technology and relatively unskilled labour, which means that pretty much anyone with a workspace, tools and modicum of woodworking knowledge can make one. If I wanted a Fender copy with fake aging there are already numerous sources for one - off the top of my head Limelight, Nash and even the Fender Custom Shop, and I'm sure there's more than that; and for one that looks new the choice is almost endless. So what does this maker bring that hasn't already been done before?

No electronic device is 100% transparent, so by all means for this application start with something inexpensive and if the results are satisfactory then that's all you need.

Does the world need another Fender copy with fake aging? And if so what makes this better than all the other Fender copies with fake aging?

IME unless you are also a prolific song writer with plenty of drive to enable you to organise the other musicians, you are better off joining an existing band.

I've gone the other way. My Helix is so much an essential part of my bass sound that it really doesn't matter which bass I play through it they all come out sounding very similar.

Depends on the construction of the guitar, scale-length and tuning and the amount of processing applied. The 28" scale Baritone guitar I had that was tuned B-B produced wonderfully rich sounding chords even in the first position. That was with a fairly clean sound. On the other hand the 30" A-A tuned guitar I tried was only useful for individual picked lines.

I had a very similar experience although in my case it was more down to the fact that my parents really didn't approve of pop/rock music. Had they thought otherwise I might have ended up with a Rickenbacker or something with a John Birch logo on the headstock. I ended up making my first electric guitar in the woodwork shop at school when I should have been studying for my A levels and was brought home at the end of the school year as a "fait accompli" much to my parent's disappointment. My first bass was bought out of my university grant money and still required that I eat frugally for month. When I finally had the kind of disposable income needed to fuel my musical instrument habit I went mad and spent a considerable amount of money on a fully equipped home studio and all the toys required to fill it. Most of it's gone now, but as I said it took 50+ years to properly scratch that itch.