BigRedX

But do they all have exactly the same pickups/pre-amp/hardware/construction? If the bodies and necks are made of multiple pieces of wood are all the joins in the exactly the same place? The problem I have with trying at attribute a tonal characteristic to a single element on a solid wood instrument is that there are simply too many variables present to be able to isolate a single wood type as having a particular conic characteristic.

For me it's every single Fender bass (and guitar) that came into my local musical instrument shop in 1979. Not withstanding that fact that the entire shipment was in three colours - dull 3T sunburst, sh!t brown, and "we couldn't be bothered with the last coat" slightly see-through white. They seem to have every single fault that late 70s Fenders were notorious for - wonky three bolt necks, over-generous neck pockets, excessive weight, and a generally poor standard of fit, finish and seemingly no quality control. If I'd been the manager rather than just a part-time helper I'd have sent the whole lot back to Fender and told them where they could stick their sorry excuses for musical instruments. I think the only member of staff who looked happy was the freelance guitar tech who realised that he was going to be on a nice earner trying to get these instruments into a state where they could actually be put on display to be sold. It also wasn't helped by the fact that in the previous two weeks they had also received shipments from Ibanez and Aria whose instruments were not only superior in every respect but they came out of the box playable and perfectly in tune (and had a cheaper RRP IIRC).

Visually everything about that instrument is nasty IMO.

Of course most of Mick's playing with Japan was done on a Travis Bean TB2000. He didn't get the Wal until around the time of the Tin Drum recording sessions.

While the extra business of Mr Squire isn't too distracting, this new arrangement is seriously lacking bottom end so they'd need some other instrument to fill in down there. Maybe a bass guitar? 😉 Out of interest and because I haven't listened to any Yes since 1975 which Yes song does the bassline come from for this mash up?

They are most effective on chords of 3 notes and more, and as you say in helping to compensate for intonation differences between plain and wound strings. So lots of use to guitarists with sensitive ears. I have a Peterson Stroborack tuner so I had a play with sweetened tunings when I first got it. TBH I couldn't tell any difference between the sweetened tuning and the normals one on the bass.

There is no tone wood science when it comes to solid electric instruments. There is speculation, heresy, and urban myths, but no actual science.

Or it could be a duff new string. It does happen. If it hasn't sorted itself out in the next day or so, get in touch with @D'Addario UK on here.

And how is that working out for you in terms of sales? My experience selling records and CDs of the various bands I've been in is that we've made back a bigger proportion of the money we've spent when we have actual physical product then when it's simply downloads and streaming. Add to this the fact that almost no-one buys downloads anymore and the revenue from streaming is negligible for bands whose following is just a few hundreds rather than tens of thousands. And as a punter, if I've enjoyed your band, and I still have some cash in my pocket at the end of the night there is a very good chance that I'll buy a copy of your record or CD if you have one available. Buy a download the following day even if I've remembered who you are and where to get it from? No where near as likely. Listen to you on Spotify? Probably not more than once. So thats somewhere between £5 and £20 depending on the format and what the band have decided to charge for an album as opposed to 0.45 ¢ (which is roughly what I get for each Spotify track streamed). Put another way a listener what have to stream a 10 track album in its entirety 15 times for the band to get the same revenue as they would for a single £5 CD album sale.

TBH it's not such a big deal anymore in this digital age. Anyone with a recording and a spare $50 can get their music up on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc. Of course if you are talking physical product, then it does take a bit more financial commitment, but I suspect that most of us who have played in originals bands have at least a box of unsold CDs or vinyl lurking somewhere. I've still got several hundred copies of the D i c k Venom & The Terrortones album along with a box or two of just about every other record and CD I've been involved with. In fact the only releases I don't have multiple unsold copies of lying around are those that were paid for by someone other than the band whose music was on it. That for me is the proper test of a band's worth - can you persuade someone else (not a friend or family member) to put up the money for you to make and release a recording? EDIT - A note to the mods. Can you please do something about the stupid American-entric profanity filter, that won't even let me type the name of one of my previous bands properly?

For the OP here's a sensible answer: Go to the Keyboards & Synthesis section of the SOS forums. Lots of knowledgable people there including some pro players and people who are keyboard techs for pro players.

IMO MIDI connections should be made with XLR cables only. It's the only serious and reliable option.

I've had lots of problems with so-called pro audio gear using computer cables to join it together. My particular bug-bear is Cat5e cables. I had lots of these which are roughly 20 years old and have performed perfectly well for that time connecting all the devices in my home/office network. However when I start using one to join my Line6 Floorboard to the BassPod and it fails within a couple of months of weekly gigging and rehearsals, as do its next few replacements. Finally I went out and bought some very expensive versions made with Van Damme coilable Cat5e cable and heavy duty booted RJ45 plugs. These have lasted quite a bit longer but even then one of them failed after a couple of years of moderate gigging. On the other hand I have (1/4") jack and XLR leads made with good quality components that have lasted for getting on for 40 years, without any attention. Because of the sort of music I am playing these days, I find myself sharing the stage with a lot of bands using computer-based set-ups, and it always fills me with dread when I see them assembling their systems on some rickety stand, joining everything together with consumer-grade computer cables. Conversely our laptop is housed in a flight case with all the required peripherals - audio and MIDI interfaces, DI/Isolation boxes, PSUs, bolted/screwed/cable-tied/glued in place. All the flimsy computer cables are contained within the case and connections with the outside world are made with XLRs via a front mounted patch panel. It takes seconds to set up and has proved to be completely reliable.

Because like all high end basses they are different instruments made for people who want something specific that only a Fodera can give them. If you want a Wal or a Ritter or an Alembic you buy one of those and not a Fodera. If you can't get that then you are obviously not the sort of person that these basses are aimed at. If all you want is something with strings capable of playing low notes you'll probably be fine with a Squier.

Is MIDI over Bluetooth sufficiently latency-free? Audio over Bluetooth is unusable for real-time applications. I'm still not convinced about the durability of personal computer standard connectors and cables in a gigging situation. None of them lock properly and all the cables are thin and weedy.

I would imagine that in order to do this, you would have had to strip down the bass and if the bass had a bolt-on neck you probably also removed that for the finishing process. Can you categorically say that simply the action of disassembling and reassembling the bass didn't contribute to the change in sound?

Every studio recording with the possible exception of the most basic of home demos will be compressing the bass at some point, whether or not the bassist in question has compressor in their personal signal chain. Also every bass player's sound will be subject to some form of compression if: 1. They have one or more valves in their signal chain. 2. They use an effect or amplifier with a "drive" control. 3. Their bass sound also goes through the PA.

And less ugly than most Warwicks too!

I have a feeling that at least one of them has free delivery. And £330 for 100 is very good. That's what we paid 5 years ago for white print on one side only of a black shirt.

I hope that the OP would question what exactly it was about this Fender copy that made it more desirable when compared with the hundreds of other Fender copies that are far more easily available .

Most T-shirt printers offer a range of styles and fabric types and it's up to the customer to pick the one they want. If you buy band T-shirts have a look at the one that you like for quality and see what the brand is. All the T-Shirts I've had done in the last 10 years have been on Gildan Softstyle which IMO is a compromise for feel and toughness, while still being good value for money. BTW you need to be looking at an run of at least 100 T-shirts in order to get a decent unit price and have a good range of sizes to sell.

I don't know about backdrops - when my bands have had them in the past we've always made them ourselves. However there was a thread about them recently so if you do a search you should find it. For T-shirts do a search for local fabric screen printers, you may find someone offering a really good deal. If not try either Awesome Merchandise or Shirty Something. Go for good quality T-shirts - there's nothing worse than a band T-shirt that has faded and looks ratty after a couple of washes. It's always hard to work out what sizes you need, but IME it doesn't matter what proportion of your audience are skinny hipsters, the people who buy band T-shirts always seem want Large or bigger sizes.

Are you sure the pickups are humbucking? The size of the casing is no real indicator of the type of pickup contained within, especially on budget instruments. Even my Warwick Starbass II with it's massive pickup covers they are only single coils.

I don't think that they are SuperSteps, because the ball end of the string isn't taper-wound. They look to me like ordinary LaBella Steels (used to be called Hard Rocking Steels) but for some reason these are much harder to get in the UK, which is why I think Strings Direct are trying to sell you SuperSteps. Personally I've given up with LaBella Steels, because although they are very nice strings, they no longer make one of the gauges I like (45-135) as a set, and because they are difficult to find and expensive when you can get them. I've switched to Warwick Black Label which are very nearly as good and about half the price.

Not wanting to rain on your parade, but having had a look at the Jericho Guitars web site, all I can see is yet another Fender copy bass. I can't see what is so special about it.