BigRedX

But even if you are going for the artisan image do it well and it look like you've put some effort into the look of the product as well as the music. I have a copy of the original Kid Carpet "Sh!t Dope" EP which comes in a CD "wallet" made by folding up a piece of wallpaper and sticking typewritten bits of paper to it. As an artefact, it looks fantastic and completely matches the home-made from toys feel of the music on it. OtOH I have several very obviously home-made CDRs from unsigned bands that are just cheap and nasty with no ideas or effort gone into the presentation. Unlike the Kid Carpet CD I probably won't bother keeping any of these when I complete my next round of uncompressed digitisation of my music collection.

But IMO it's also about having the right tools for the job. And the right tool for this job is a Roland TB303 (or a sequencer and sound module that sounds like it) and not a bass guitar. I've just had a look at a few "bass covers" of this song on YouTube and while the players are all very accomplished and have got playing the bassline down pretty well, none of them have come even remotely close to the sound on the recording, which is equally important in getting the feel of the song right.

If you need a power conditioner in the UK then there is something fundamentally wrong with your mains wiring and you should get a proper electrician in ASAP.

Having had another thought about this, I'm reluctant to suggest DIY print on demand unless the OP has some serious graphic skills. For me and I suspect a lot of people who buy physical product, one of the main attractions of this over simply getting a download is the packaging. So unless your creative skills are up to designing something extra special and then being able to produce it perfectly yourself every time someone orders a copy of the CD, I'd be tempted to leave this to someone who can do the job properly. For me a CDR in a jewel case with a home printed cover an insert simply doesn't cut it as a desirable item. Besides I know from experience that cutting and creasing tray inserts by hand to fit perfectly in the jewel case base isn't the simplest of jobs.

Print on demand doesn't work for CDs because the production process is too complicated (especially compared to books where PoD works very well). If you really don't think you can justify the cost of a run of 100 manufactured CDs, then maybe do the PoD demand yourself at home. Buy a decent inkjet printer that will also print directly onto CDs (Canon do them for under £100) and a cake of printable CDRs.

Gigs. From experience all the bands I've been in have sold far more CDs/Vinyl/Cassettes at gigs than all our on-line sources put together by a factor of about 20. Make sure that you have an attractive merch display set up with the price of your products clearly marked and someone to stand there and serve people all the time, because your main selling time will be immediately after you have finished playing, when many bands are too busy putting away their instruments and/or clearing the stage for the next act. Every minute at this point in the evening when there isn't someone on your merch table is potentially another sale lost. For on-line sales use Bandcamp, and have the links clearly marked on all your social media pages and your band website. If you've got the skills make a merch page on your band's website too, although I've found that more people prefer to buy on-line from somewhere like Bandcamp even if the same products are cheaper on your website. You only need to have your CDs for sale on line in one place. Don't use anyone who wants to take actual copies of your CD for them to sell. IME you'll never see your CDs again or get any money for them, and you certainly won't get as good a deal as Bandcamp let alone selling them from your band's website. For digital downloads and getting onto the streaming services whichever Aggregator gives you the best deal for your projected sales. I use CD Baby and Catapult.

I like it too - in fact it's one of my all-time favourite songs. However I have no desire whatsoever to learn how to play the bass line, especially when I could program it up in minutes and it would sound exactly like the recording. If I was going to play learn anything from that song it would be the piano part.

Personally I can't see the point. You'll never sound as tight as the bassline on the recording and that's before you consider that the drums are most likely a Roland 606 drum machine (and the "xylophone" is one of the patches in the Roland SH09/101 manual).

I don't see what the problem is. If they are being offered at more money than a new version would go for and people are too lazy or stupid to do the research then that's their look out. I own two deko instruments. One has a slight design fault that means the bridge is not as adjustable as it could be. After 18 months I still haven't found what is supposed to be wrong with the other one. However from what I've read on here some deko instruments do have significant faults, so I suppose if you are buying with the specific intention of selling on, then you are taking a risk with every purchase. TBH there's very little being sold as dekos that are actually worth the potential risk involved. Unless it was something extra special I probably won't be buying another one. Most of the instruments being sold are cheap already, they are just very ordinary instruments at a very bargain price (but only if there is nothing wrong with them).

Minging

Are these being sold by Baz from The Doghouse venue?

You should be able to do via the MIDI socket.

As a punter I don't think I'd want to see ANY originals band play for 2 hours. I'd find it unbearably boring. Even bands I've liked for years that have 4 or 5 albums (at least) of decent material to draw upon, would be hard work after the first hour.

The Sound of the Fairlight like lots of electronic musical equipment is a product of the technology not being completely up the demands being placed upon it. The original version had 8-bit sampling with half a second maximum sample time was completely down to the fact that it was the best the technology of the day could achieve. Peter Vogel even had to design and build his own D-A converter from discrete components because there was nothing available off the shelf back then. In many ways it has parallels with guitar amplification. None of the designers of the original guitar amps wanted distortion. They did everything they could to minimise it, but now of course almost every guitarist wants that overdriven valve sound and guitar amps are deliberately designed to allow this.

Have a look at The History Of Japanese Electric Guitars. However a quick skim through my copy hasn't revealed any that are obviously 34" scale. TBH part of that 60s garage band sound is short scale bass.

Is there any ergonomic rationale for shape of the the Tensor?

The Fender P shape only looks right because you've had years to get used to it.

Two accounts? One for what you really want to listen to and another for stuff you need to learn.

I'm not surprised that the G doesn't fit. IME 5 a side headstocks are cumbersome enough, I can't imagine one attached to a 36" scale bass. My Overwaters were all 4+1 layout, and the headstock was still slightly compressed from the standard Fender size, to make everything a comfortable reach.

Not helped by the fact that on any of the songs with piano, the keys left hand is doing the standard solid bass line, leaving the bass guitar the noodle about in the space between the keyboards and guitars. Unless your band is replicating the keyboard parts exactly, I've found the best way to get the song sounding even close to the recording is start by emulating the keys left hand and then add as many of the bass guitar licks as you can while still keeping it solid at the bottom end.

Surely it's all sequenced synth - probably done on something simple like a Roland Bassline?

But that's the way it always is with high tech musical devices. If you want to be at the cutting edge you have to pay a comparative fortune. If you are content to wait and just be a "me too" you can buy in for next to nothing. Of course by then unless you happen to be a complete genius or happen to stumble upon some brand new way of using it that no-one else has exported so far, you'll have been left behind creatively. I had a look at the App Store page for the CMI. I can't say that it impressed me in the same way that the E&MM review of the Fairlight CMI in the early 80s did.

What's the machine head arrangement of your bass?

Do I need to download the new version of the HX Edit software separately? EDIT: sorted. I did need to download the most recent version of the editor, and finally managed to work out where it was in the big list of updates for the Helix.

Intersteing interview with Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel founders of Fairlight Instruments, talking about the development of the Fairlight CMI and other projects they have been involved with. Over 90 minutes long but well worth the time to listen (you don't really need to watch the video, it's all static headshots).