BigRedX

Where the root strings are in relation to the octaves will depend on whether or not your are a pick player (or intend to be for this band). From my experience with 8-string basses if you play with a pick and use mainly downstrokes having the roots string "first" will make it easier to get the choice between sounding and not sounding the octave string(s). Of course if you play finger style the other way around will be better.

Playing music is not a competition. IMO instrument ability and technique is only important if the lack of it gets in the way of being able to play the songs. Ultimately it's the songs that are important, not any individual musician's technical prowess.

OoI how "authentic" do you expect the rest of the band to be? In many ways Cheap Trick's image is as important as the music, and for the casual gig-goer if your "Rick Nielsen" isn't playing checker-board Explorer-style guitars and either pull out one ridiculous multi-neck instrument or do the wearing multiple guitars for the solo spot, they may well be disappointed. Just trying to put the 12-string bass requirement into perspective.

The maker of the Brooks 12-string is a member here on Basschat and there's a thread on the build of one here.

I think it has a lot to do with the build of the person carrying it. I'm only 5'6" and I hate mine. It is just so uncomfortable to wear for any distance as the the bottom of the bag slaps against the back of my legs with every step, and because the straps are so long due to where the fixing points are it's impossible to shorten them sufficiently to hold the case securely against my back. It's fine for getting the bass into a tightly packed car where it will squash into places a traditional hard case wouldn't fit, and for the sub 5 minute walk from where the car is parked to the venue, but I have sworn I'll never walk home (approx 30 minutes) with it again. IMO for a gig bag this is a major fail.

If I was going to have a 12-string bass custom made, I'd want to pick a luthier who had made a couple already. IME the results are always better when you pick the luthier according the bass you want and doesn't simply ask one to make something that is outside of their normal style.

In a gig what a band does between the songs is as important as what they do during them. Both should be practiced.

For all those singing the praises of the Mono bags. Do any of you use them to walk any distance with the bass on your back or is it just to take the instrument from your car into the venue and back?

Then just play the songs. You're a band. Playing songs is why your audience are there.

They sound like Gotoh locking machine heads. I have on my Gus G1 Guitar. By far the easiest locking machine heads to use IMO. To remove the strings, simply put something in the slot at the top of the post to stop it from turning. A small coin will do fine if you don't have a suitably large screw driver. Then turn the button as if you were slackening off the string and the internal pin will descend releasing the string. When you fit new strings simply pull the string through the hole until until it is tight, and start turning the button as if you were tightening the sting. The pin will come up to grip the string, at which point the whole post will start to turn. You should be able to get the string to pitch with about half a turn around the post which means less dead length and quicker to reach tuning stability. HTH.

IME the problem with all semi-rigid cases like the Mono is that the fit and comfort can be very variable. I have a Mono M80. For protecting my bass, it is brilliant. The case saved the bass when it had a heavy 2x10 cab dropped on it during a gig load out. In a normal gig bag it would have probably caused some damage to the bass and in anything less than a Hiscox, the case would probably have been damaged as well However when it comes to walking any distance with it on my back, it's far too uncomfortable to contemplate. The straps are too close together at the top which doesn't make it very easy on the shoulders, and because of their length the bottom of the case slaps against my legs with every step. I did the 30 minute walk from our practice room to my house a couple months ago, and decided that next time I'll be patient and wait for the bus. AFAICS ever semi-rigid bass hard case suffers from this problem mainly because they are all derived from the smaller guitar designs, and have to compromise between having the straps fitted in the most comfortable places and not making the case too tall when worn. Unfortunately the only way to see if any case suits you is to buy one on-line, try it and send it back if you can't get on with it. The repeat until you find one that you are happy with.

Better is entirely subjective, and will also be dependant upon what sort of a keyboard player you are a what sorts of sounds you want to get out of it. Even for pianos there are a lot of different actions available. Most serious keyboardists will have at least two keyboard controllers one with a piano-style weight and action and another lighter one for organ and synth sounds.

Ultimately though the DK jazz bass is just another Jazz bass and unless you're a bassist and a fan indistinguishable from any other Fender Jazz. As for the Misfits they will have been stolen because of who he is. Right now I'm a nobody. Besides if any of my gear gets nicked I can always replace it.

I've not had to do it myself, but IIRC without the relevant forms customs at both sides have no way of knowing that sending the amp back to the manufacturer and then the repaired amp coming back to you is not a transaction that needs to be taxed on each journey. Technically on return you would be liable for tax on the cost of the repair, but since it should be FoC under warranty there won't be anything else to pay.

Looks. Given that most basses are capable of making the right noises in a band context, for me the most important thing is to have an instrument that has the right image for the band and the music we are playing, and in my personal case this generally means something unconventional. While there are plenty of perfectly serviceable instruments available if you want something anonymous looking, the basses (and guitars) that stand out generally tend to be at the pricier end of the market. I suppose it helps that I don't have any interest in playing covers in dodgy pubs, so I've never worried about having my gear stolen, and TBH the main basses I use are so distinctive that if that was to happen, the thief would never be able to do anything with them other than admire them in the safety of their room. I've owned ordinary looking instruments in the past, but no matter how well they played and sounded I could never really bond with them. Also I spent most of the 80s playing synths and in real terms these days even an expensive bass is very affordable compared with how much I spent on my first decent poly synth. It's all a matter of perspective really.

Probably not a real Schaller then. I had a Hondo Alien Bass that came with look-alike fitted that exhibited exactly what you have described. IME the real ones are almost indestructible. There was one fitted to my mid-80s Overwater that was still working fine when I sold the bass a few years ago.

The Pretty Things "Emotions". Their end of contract album for Decca released in 1967 and at the time loathed by both the band and their fans mostly for the additional "orchestration" that had been added at the record label's instance. I only discovered it in the late 70s, and when I first heard it didn't know anything about its history, so for me it was just another album by a band I liked and wanted to hear more of. While it's not their best album (that's Parachute) it's also not their worst by a long shot and IMO is on a par with the two earlier Decca albums, and it does include some of my favourite songs by the band. When I finally got to hear the versions of the songs without all the additional orchestration on an early 2000s re-release, I was surprised by how little difference there was between them, and in some cases the versions without all the extra instruments sounded weak and only half-conceived. Of course that might simply be down to familiarity, but after almost 20 years I still prefer the versions that were "ruined" by the record label.

Make sure both you and Handbox sort out all the relevant customs forms to say that the amp is being returned for a warranty repair otherwise you all be stung with another round of VAT, import duties and handling charges for the two additional trips the amps will have to make.

Who did you use for your short run?

As has been said first off how small a run are you considering? Last time I looked, Mobineko were the only real choice for anything under 250 units, unless your run is going be so small that you could consider getting a handful of one-off dub plates, in which case I'd be looking for anyone cutting vinyl here in the UK (I'm assuming that's where you are based). However you need to bear in mind that firstly vinyl has become exceedingly hip and demand currently outstrips the production capabilities so you might be waiting for quite some time for your records. Secondly when I last had anything produced by Mobineko all the processes were handled outside of the UK - the label printing was done somewhere in the far east and the actual pressing in France. We had our own custom packaging done so I don't know where the standard record sleeves are made. Now that the UK is no longer in the EU this might not be as straight-forward or as cheap. Finally get your mixes mastered specifically for vinyl. Unfortunately vinyl is somewhat limited with what can be reproduced compared with a CD or digital only release, so it always best to get a vinyl specific master made before you send off the audio files for cutting, as problems at this stage will impact both in cost and time.

IME even with all the correct codes importing and exporting at the moment is a complete nightmare. Also IME US companies are terrible at exporting goods if they don't do it regularly. I spent a good half day jumping through all the required hoops to get my EORI and commodity codes for a job I was working on that required me to send printed labels from the UK to the EU and after all of that they were still delayed for a month until Belgian Customs admitted that they had lost them. Currently I won't send anything out of the UK and I'd be very reluctant to buy anything from abroad unless it was through a retailer like Thomann who sort all the paperwork out properly for you.

In my personal situation, I can't ever see myself wanting to do a reading gig. It's simply not where my musical interests lie. I'm an originals band player and composer, and this is all that really interests me. I would always consider my time is better spent writing more songs than learning a skill I'm unlikely to need. I understand musical notation well enough to be able to write down what I have composed, but even this is a redundant skill since PRS no longer requires composers to submit their works in writing in order to register them. On the occasions where I have been asked to play on other people's compositions, I have either been chosen to produce something in my own style or have been presented with a recording to learn from a sufficient time to prepare before the gig or session (and usually with at least one rehearsal beforehand). If I was making my living as a musician then I completely agree that bing able to sight read would be an almost essential skill. But I don't. As a composer I make more money from performance and mechanical royalties of the songs I have written then I do from playing the bass.

It's not that being able to read "stifles creativity", it's that a lot of musicians who read have never also learnt to play by ear or improvise. Nothing wrong with that. If all the musician wants to to be able to play from a written score then they don't need those other skills. In the same way, that if you are never in a musical situation where you will be presented with music in written notation and expected to be able to play it, then you don't really need to be able to read. I think that sometimes people in the "you need to be able to read music" camp fail to realise that there is a perfectly viable musical life for those who can't read. It might not suit them, but there are thousands of musicians playing in bands who mange quite well without being able to read. Given that most of us on here play primarily for fun or as a hobby that generates some extra income, we generally only have time learn the skills that we actually need, and if being able to sight read isn't one of them, why spend time working on it when there are other musical things you could learn that are of more immediate value? There's also the mistaken idea that being able to sight read is an essential part of understanding music. I can't sight read but I know enough musical theory (and remember that's only theory and not absolute rules) to be able to compose and listen to what someone else's musical ideas and create my own guitar/bass/synthesiser part to go with it.

I doubt that. The last version of Logic that run under Windows was V5 (we're now on what is essentially V10). Emagic were bought by Apple in 2002 and since then Logic has been a Mac only application. Apple have absolutely no incentive to produce a version for Windows. For a start having a known hardware platform makes for a much more stable application. Part of the problem with all Windows DAWs is that they have to cater for a massive range of hardware configurations, and a significant number of problems are due to to this. Secondly Apple use the Mac only nature of Logic to drive music producers towards the hardware platform (which is where they make their money). Logic costs just £199, which considering how many plug-ins you get with it these days makes it IMO better VFM than Reaper (which is free).

There are few enough choices for Bass VI strings without adding extra restrictions by requiring guitar size ball-ends.