BigRedX

That will be down to compression in the valve circuit.

I used sycamore for the neck of my balalaika, and elm (it was the 70s and there was a lot of it in timber stores) for the body of a guitar

Thanks! My comments weren't meant as a criticism. I was genuinely interested in how far you were going to go with sourcing locally as you had switched production to the UK. Also following on from a recent thread on here about where Basschatter's instruments were made, it highlighted just how dependant all manufacturing had become on having quick and easy access to materials and components from all over the world. IMO there is a big difference between made in the UK and assembled in the UK. Good luck to you with the move and thanks for keeping us all updated.

Actually for one of them I did. It was in the late 70s when the information on how to make guitars was pretty much limited to Stephen Delft's series in International Musician and what little hardware that was available tended to be a random selection of parts of dubious provenance kept in a box under the counter of your local musical instrument retailer. One of the instruments I made was a solid electric balalaika and for the bridge to only option was to make my own as there was nothing even remotely suitable available to buy.

As someone who has made my own guitars in the past and used locally-sourced woods to do it too, I think I'm qualified...

A good compressor, properly set up, and maybe used just when you are playing the harmonics. I'd also look at your EQ settings. What's good for your general bass sound might not be allowing the harmonics to shine as much as they could.

From what I have seen, Chowny are no longer in the £500 price bracket, At the upper end their instruments are over £1,000. Also what are the production quantise for the Chowny range? AFAICS their instruments are still in the niche category where bespoke hardware may actually make economic sense. That doesn't answer the question I asked. I know Maple isn't a local tree to the UK. What I asked was is there a wood with sufficiently similar properties to Maple that is grown in the UK and could be used as substitute. If production has moved to the UK because of shipping and supply problems, would it it also be better if as many as possible of materials and components used could also be made and sourced locally, rather than still to have to rely on shipping? And if global supplies are a real problem what happens when the hardware manufacturers decide that it is simpler and more cost effective to just service their local production markets in Asia and the US?

When you play live how does the audience hear the bass guitar? Direct from your rig or via the PA? If it's the first use whichever cab sounds best in the band mix. However make this decision based on what can be heard out in the audience and not from the stage. If it's the second use whichever cab allows your to hear yourself most clearly at the lowest volume when on stage with your band.

So it's still more cost effective and easy to ship hardware from abroad (especially the US) then it is to make it in the UK? I know that no-one serious makes their own machine heads, but several UK guitar makers (Gus, Overwater, and Wal) have other bespoke hardware (bridges in particular) that I would have thought were made somewhere in the UK (I know for a fact that Gus make all their own hardware except for the machine heads and Straplocks). Also is there no locally grown alternative to Maple? Surely Fender only picked it originally because it was cheap and easily available in the US, and not because of any unique properties that weren't available from other species of wood?

How will moving production of the instruments to the UK be affected by the availability of woods and hardware? Will you be moving to UK sourced wood?

For me the real skill in music is in composition.

Does Mark King's choice of amps matter? Unless he's playing small <200 capacity venues, 99% of what the audience hears of the bass guitar will come from the PA and he's wearing IEMs.

You are only able to take a daily look at this bass because it hasn't yet been sold, which suggests to me that it is over-priced.

This used to be rationale for fitting the Schaller versions to all my instruments that required a strap. However I have come to realise that every instrument requires a different length of strap due to either its design or the way that I play it, and therefore having interchangeable straps is (for me) a last ditch backup measure. The only two instrument I have where I could use the same strap for both are the two Gus G3 5-string basses since they are identical in design and they are always used as my main and backup bass for the same band.

You only have to do this if you haven't fitted them properly in the first place.

Except when you buy a guitar with this type of strap lock fitted there is no mention of this required maintenance, and it isn't until the lock fails permanently that you tend to find out.

Just about to go out and see The Last Cry and the Peter Hook And The Light.

Unlike Schiller Straplocks which I have been using for almost 40 years with one failure on a 20 year old item. My one encounter with the Dunlop version lasted less than 3 months before one of the locks failed. They were replaced with Schallers the following week.

Brilliant That would probably do it! Our input needs are: 1. Computer via USB 1 to 3 channels depending on whether we run in mono or stereo plus click when needed. 2. Two keyboards both in mono 3. Bass guitar via Helix 4. One Vocal So assuming we don't need the click for this band (we will when we go IEM) we could get the output channels down to: 1. One for drums and sound effects from computer (if there were enough I'd consider splitting the drums for everything else on the backing and use two channels) 2. One for both keyboards (relative levels set by the mixer) 3. One for bass guitar 4. One for vocals 5. One spare for the click if we need it later. I think the X18 Rack will do that. It also appears to have the advantage for me that all the connectors are on the "front" of the unit so I don't have to give up yet another U on the rack for a patch panel (our current system has all the outputs on the front of the rack and set up is considerably speedier because of that). One final question (for now) how robust are the outputs to being presented with phantom power or will I need to invest in isolator boxes to be on the safe side?

I had my very first Schaller StrapLock failure in almost 40 years of using them the other week. Luckily it was the part that attaches to the strap that had failed (AFAICS the spring that pushes the "lock" into the button on the guitar had finally lost all of its spingyness which meant that the two parts no longer locked together securely). This was on a part that was at least 20 years old and has regular use over this time, so not bad as regards robustness. Luckily the cup nature of the StrapLock held the bass on the strap so long as I didn't thrown too many aggressive poses on stage. I suspect many more "sedate" players would never have noticed that there was a problem with it. The upshot of this is that I ordered a new set of StrapLocks to replace the one that had failed and also the replace the one at the other end of the strap just in case, and like the OP noticed that the part that attaches to the bass had changed. And it was a good thing that this wasn't the part that I need to replace because on two of my basses the button as attached to the bass using bolts into a threaded insert rather than wood screws, so the new button would have been incompatible. I have been in touch with Schaller who have said that this is the way that all Straplock buttons are being made and there are no plans to make any where the wood screw can be replaced. So anyone with a bass made using unconventional materials and uses bolts rather than wood screws to hold the strap buttons on, be aware.

TBH the best delivery service I have had over the past 18 months has been from Royal Mail and Parcel Force. I suspect this is because the same people/drivers service the same area day after day and if you have regular deliveries they get to know the various residents of the area. I've had the Parcel Force delivery driver wait because he spotted me (returning from the Post Office) so he could hand me a parcel (which was a redelivery originally handled by DHL who claimed they "couldn't find my address" and then damaged the parcel).

Right... So if what I want is a single box rack-mount solution solution it's the Behringer X32 rack? I take it the smaller Behringer one box rack mixers are missing one or another important feature from my original post?

Many thanks! Lots to read up on. Initial look seems that on the input/output front is that everything has way too many for what I need, but I suspect this is the price to pay (literally) for all the additional functionality that is essential for my requirements? Regarding stage boxes and cabling. I'm happy to have everything in one place on the stage. Most of the places my bands play are fairly small and even on the bigger stages I can simply chain XLR cables together the give me the lengths that I need. So far the biggest stages we've been on have been the O2 Leeds main stage and Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, and it's only the keyboards (2 inputs) and the vocal mic (1 input) that won't be right next to the rack on stage. I usually set up close to suitable stage box so the outputs won't be a problem at all. The MIDI spec looks a bit basic (my last digital mixer - Korg 168rc which I used in a similar way 20 years ago, was considerably more primitive in terms of technology had a much better MIDI spec). If internal mixer effects returns can be assigned to a channel fader which can be muted and unmuted over MIDI that should be a sufficient workaround. Still confused as to how to use any of these devices as an audio interface from the Mac. The quick start manual for the S32 seems to imply that I need an additional interface for audio from the Mac to the mixer, as the USB socket is for firmware updates only? Edit if I was to keep my existing Focusrite audio interface and use the ADAT connection out of that for audio outputs does that open up the mixer possibilities at all? I also assume that I will still need a MIDI interface connected to the Mac to get the MIDI functions, and that I can't simply sent the MIDI data down the USB connection? Do you have a link for the full S32 manual PDF? The quick start guide I found is VERY basic.

Thanks for the speedy response! Yes. I am happy the spend as much time as required in rehearsal setting the system up, especially now that both bands share the same dedicated rehearsal space, but once I have done this it will essentially be a set-and-forget for gigs. Maybe in the future when we are "big" enough to be able to employ our own sound engineer we can re-visit this so having that in mind would be another bonus.

Having been following the various threads on digital mixers, I think I am ready to have a serious look at a digital mixer for at least one of my bands. However I have very specific and probably quite different requirements from the typical digital mixer user, so I thought rather than hijack someone else's thread I'll start a new one and I can ask my weird questions without messing up other discussions. 1. It needs to work as a multi-channel audio interface for outputting (not recording) audio from my MacBook Pro. Both bands use the MacBook Pro to provide additional backing for the live performance. For one band it has replaced the drummer and them them I just need to be able to send a stereo mix of drums and sound effects to the mixer via a digital connection of some kind (I have USB, ethernet and FireWire connections on the Mac - there is also a Thunderbolt port but I think this is for an external monitor only). The other band, however also has a drummer, and I need a way of separating out the click track that he plays to. Currently I use a Focusrite audio interface and output the backing for FoH as a stereo pair on Channels 1&2 and the click on Channel 3 which comes out of a separate socket on the interface and connects to the drummers headphone amp. I also need the main stereo output from the computer to have all the same routing and EQ options as any other input on the mixer. This probably the most crucial feature and the one I am finding the hardest to get concrete facts about, as it appears that most users want to use the mixer as a recording rather than output device. 2. The controlling software for the mixer itself needs to run on the Mac (Catalina) via a wired connection. I can't be doing with WiFi and tablets/phones in a gigging environment. The computer will be right there, probably sat in the top 1U of the rack holding the mixer, and I have seen first hand all sorts of problems with trying to use consumer grade electronics at gigs, with connectivity as well as general charging/power problems. Anything I can do to avoid this will do a lot for my peace of mind. 3. I need to be able set up "scene snap shots" for each song on the mixer and then change between them from the DAW on the computer. That way when the next track is cued up on the DAW the mixer already has all the right EQ setting and FX routings for the external instruments - 1 Vocal mic, 2 keyboards and a bass guitar going through a Line6 Helix. The ability to control some aspects of the mixer via the DAW would be useful (like being able to add extra echos etc at certain points in the song) but not essential. 4. I want to be able to give FoH the option of either a full stereo mix of the whole band or individual outputs for Vocals, Bass, Stereo keyboards, Stereo Drums, depending on how much time we have available for sound checking and how many free channels the venue's PA has at multi-band gigs. Neither band has a PA (other than the one in our rehearsal room) as all the gigs we play the venues have their own in-house PA systems that we connect to. 5. Ideally the mixer needs to occupy no more than 2U in the rack and I should be able to mount it so that all the input and output sockets are easily accessible from the front of the rack while not hiding anything equally important on the other side of the device inside the rack itself. This is not essential though, but if I can carry on using the same 3U case that I already have, it would be a bonus. What should I be looking at? Will one of the Behringer devices do everything I need? Calling @EBS_freak and anyone else with detailed digital mixer knowledge.