BigRedX

I would have thought that the shop-based second hand gear market has been pretty much wiped out by the internet.

[quote name='thegummy' timestamp='1508602547' post='3393264'] Was looking on Reverb for used Americans - seem to be around a grand though, a bit OTT for second-hand in my opinion. Came across this - will this give a good aggressive P tone? [/quote] Probably. It will depend on how much the body mass (and construction) of that body against a standard P-bass body affects the tone.

[quote name='hen barn' timestamp='1508916659' post='3395248'] I like a more powerful bass, more cutting. I use a status bass as my main bass. Just having fun putting this together . [/quote] And you can't get this by adjusting the controls on your amp?

What do you want to get out of "active power"?

Which era ACR? If it's early on (first 2 or 3 albums) you could also fit into a more 80s industrial scene, as well as that skinny white boy funk. What worked for The Terrortones when we were first starting out was to hit up any vaguely similar bands on social media and find out where they played locally, and take it from there. Might also be worth looking at gig swaps too.

Cocktail sticks work better than matchsticks as they are made from harder wood. IME the problem with the Schaller screws isn't the length, which always seems plenty long enough where you consider that the screw goes deeper into the strap button on a Straplock and consequently more of it goes into the wood; but the fact that the screws tend to be thinner than those used for normal stop buttons. Which is why the cocktail stick method works so well.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1508344638' post='3391543'] I got a message from the Amp Tech at Ashdown this afternoon. Repair completed, [color=#000000][color=#1F497D]Hi Mick,[/color][/color] [color=#000000][color=#1F497D]Your amp is all sorted and ready to be shipped back to you.. One of the power amps was playing up and shutting down at high[/color][/color] [color=#000000][color=#1F497D]volumes.. \I have replaced it with a brand new one.. Lucky we still had one..[/color][/color] [color=#000000]All FOC...can't ask for more than that...Great service.[/color] [/quote] Glad to hear that you got a good result from your interactions with Ashdown. It's a pity that they couldn't be so accommodating for all their Superfly users in the past :-((

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1508839928' post='3394718'] If you're good enough to be noticed, get networking. That's the only way. [/quote] I think you need a bit of both networking and ads. The fact that I was known form my previous bands and therefore people know that I was serious about my music helped, but I wouldn't have joined either of my current bands if it hadn't been for placing and answering ads, because I wouldn't have known that the bands in question were looking for a bassist and they wouldn't have known that I was looking for a band.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1508838154' post='3394696'] And yet look at how many people still enjoy them! For me, there's nothing more pleasing than a good P-bass, so why would I want anything different? I've been round the houses. I've had all the active doo-hickies (still do!). I've owned graphite necked basses, hell I've owned an all graphite bass. But I've returned to the tried and trusted design because it works best for me. The sound works for me. It's ergonomically comfortable for me. Any change would just be for the sake of it. But each to their own! [/quote] As you said each to their own. There's plenty of people who like the original Thunderbird too and apart from maybe sorting out the original 2-piece bridge so that it has enough travel to intonate the more modern string designs, don't think that it needs any updating either. Personally I don't find any of Leo Fender's designs particular ergonomic or comfortable, and that's just as much to do with familiarity as anything else. I'd been playing bass for over 30 years before I even owned an instrument that owed very much more to Fender's designs than being a fretted, stringed instrument tuned E-G an octave below the guitar.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1508833735' post='3394643'] Explain... [/quote] Pretty much everything about the necks (and to a lesser extent the chunkiness of the bodies) which are all about low-skill, low-cost manufacturing with the technology that was easily and cheaply available in the 1940s. Leo Fender did a good job back then, but technology and manufacturing techniques have moved on and a lot of the compromises he had to make for the sake of hitting his price point with a workforce that were not luthiers is unnecessary these days.

These days I think focusing on the actual instruments rather than the music that they make is a mistake. Unless you are able to use it as a gimmick in the way that bands like the White Stripes and Royal Blood manage to make very ordinary music seem interesting because they don't have a "conventional" band line up.

Unfortunately the internet has made it far to easy for time wasters to waste your time. It might be worth exploring the traditional avenues of printed ads in musical instrument and record shops, at least you are more likely to attract people who actual want to be in a band rather than those that just think they do.

It seems strange that the luthier has gone to all the trouble to "improve" the Thunderbird, when there still plenty of things on the Jazz and Precision bass that could also do with improvement, but his take on those seems to be identical to Mr Fender's.

In Isolation played in at Wharf Chambers in Leeds as part of the Goth City event on Saturday. My second gig with the band and the first running the backing from my MacBook rather than their ancient and badly ageing Minidisc player. Everything went well and we were on the bill late enough in the evening to attract a decent size audience. One small hiccup with setting up, I had to go through every permutation of leads and DI boxes in the backing part of the rig before the PA guy would acknowledge that it was one of his XLR leads that was dodgy and not any part of our set up. Why is that? I'll post some photos if I can find any decent ones, but the few I've seen have the band almost completely obscured by smoke/dry ice...

Hallowe'en is on Tuesday this year so there probably won't be that many gigs in the UK on the actual night. In Isolation played last Saturday in Leeds at the Goth City event which is the closest I'll get to a Hallowe'en gig this year, The reason it wasn't this coming weekend is that it would have clashed with the WGW which is always on the closest weekend to Hallowe'en. I'll be there in the audience, but unfortunately not playing.

[quote name='ash' timestamp='1508688770' post='3393812'] For the buyer - the customs charges are paid but there's a handling fee by the broker, it tends to cost about twice as much as normal customs charges would be however they do go through quicker. [/quote] They also have a maximum shipping size hidden away in the small print of their T&Cs. Many bass guitars in a hard case will exceed this. Beware.

The XLR output is balanced line at DI level for connecting direct to mixer for recording etc. Unless you are connecting to another piece of equipment with a balanced input you should use the standard unbalanced output as you won’t be gaining any advantage from a balanced output. Also IME the balanced output doesn’t work unless you also have a jack plug plugged into the other output to activate the circuitry.

IIRC Eko did their own reissue of this bass a few years ago. If I was on a proper computer i’d be able to check and post a link for you.

Thanks Dad! However IMO over £50 when you factor in the shipping cost is a lot of money for something made by Behringer - especially since it doesn't include the PSU and the headphone output is a mini-jack which is not always robust enough for live use in my own experience. The reviews do seem good though, and according to the Behringer site it is "built like a tank". Maybe it will be worth trying in no-one comes up with an alternative?

For anyone who has been following this and is interested, I have a fix that works for me. I'm running the main stereo backing out of outputs 1&2 on the Saffire using unbalanced cables into an EMO dual channel DI box with ground lift switched on (with the ground connected I was getting a nasty buzz through the rehearsal room PA). I'm then running the click track from output 3 on the Saffire to the Yamaha Headphone amp using a special lead I made up that has a TRS jack plug at the end which plugs into the Saffire with nothing attached to the R terminal and a standard TS jack plug at the end which plugs into the headphone amp. Everything worked fine at last night's rehearsal, and there was no bleed through of the click track into the main output. The gig is on Saturday (Leeds Goth City Festival) so hopefully it will all still be working fine then. I'm looking at a long term solution that will allow me to run a completely balanced line system and hopefully not have to rely on custom-wired cables to make it work. I've been recommended an [url=http://artproaudio.com/isolators/product/dti/]ART DTI box[/url] for floating the main outputs to the PA while still maintaining a balanced connection, and then a headphone amp with a balanced line input for the drummer. This is where I am struggling. A quick Google just reveals lots of HiFi units and USB DA converters for headphones. What I'm looking for is something gig-proof, and simple. Built to the same standards as the EMO and ART units. Anyone got any recommendations?

[quote name='markdavid' timestamp='1508413706' post='3392003'] This ones easy , Epiphone Flying V , this bass looked amazing , sounded really good..... but it was when I tried to sit down to practice with it, if you have ever tried sitting down to play a flying v you will know that it is just horrible, it took me all of a week before I moved it on [/quote] Sitting down? What are you like?

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1508314768' post='3391225'] Agreed, Even though I'm not real well versed in the originals scene in any specific part of the UK. However it seems like the local originals scene here in my neck of the woods is weak. You really need to travel. Blue [/quote] IME it's got nothing to do with your local music scene being weak, It's all about reaching your audience. These days for originals bands the performance is the product and not something to promote the recording (a complete reverse to the way it was from the 1950s to the turn of the century). Even if you are based somewhere which is teaming with music venues for originals bands, if you want to develop eventually you will have to get out an travel to increase your audience.

I haven't properly heard any of the latest electronic drum kits, but back when I was last playing in bands using electronic drums (10-15 years ago), by far the most convincing electronic cymbal and hiatus came from an original Clavia D-Drum kit and brain. Even at the time on paper it was supposedly less good than the competition, but for sheer playability of the sounds it was miles ahead.

Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz. I was playing in a band whose music was calling out for some fretless bass and to that end I'd bought a cheap Acrylic Bodied Wesley that had already been de-fretted for £70 off eBay to get me started. I'd seen nothing but positive reviews for the Squier both on the bass forums and in the musical instrument magazines, where the overall tone was that the VMJ fretless was just about the best fretless bass you could buy for under £500. One Saturday I spotted a Squier in a local music shop, and after half an hours playing I paid my £209 and went home with my new bass. Unfortunately playing in a music shop for half an hour is not really a decent real-world test for any instrument. The first thing I noticed when I got it home was that it didn't hang comfortably on the strap, and I had to pull the whole bass over in order to reach the G string machine head - something I never had to do with my 36" scale Overwater. Next I discovered that in comparison with all my other basses including the cheap Wesley, the Squier sounded thin and weedy, and in rehearsal with my band I really had to pump the volume up when I used in order to be heard. So I embarked on a round of upgrades. First came the Badass Bridge which made a slight improvement, followed by a J-Retro pre-amp, that allowed me to overdrive the input to my amp in all sorts of new and "interesting" ways, but still didn't make the bass sound as full or fat as my other basses. Finally a set of Bartolini pickups which were supposed to be darker sounding than the standard J-style models started to get me into the right ball park as regards sound, but by that time I'd get fed up with all the other short-comings of the bass like the huge (in comparison to my other basses) body and the awkward neck joint that seemed to be constantly in the way when I was playing up the neck, and the fact that for me it just didn't hang comfortably on the strap, and so I went back to playing the Wesley until I go the opportunity to buy a second hand Pedulla Buzz at a very attractive price. I'm sure that there's nothing actually wrong with the Squier, but 3 decades of playing basses that owed very little to Leo Fender's designs - Burns Sonic, Overwater Original and Gus G3 - meant that I wasn't ready to step into the past and put up with design issues that even the Burns, originally made in 1960, had improved upon.

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1508311652' post='3391191'] The problem is that an originals band has no real purpose if the members are weekend warriors. Yes, you can make an EP or even an album but unless you are going to commit to the publicizing/touring you will sell diddly squat. [/quote] Actually so long as one or more members is taking care of the non-musical sides of the band during the week, an originals band is perfectly OK being "weekend warriors" as that is when all the decent gigs are on. From experience unless your band is capable of filling a 200+ size venue anywhere in the country (or is on tour with a band who is) there is absolutely no point in playing other than at the weekend. Perhaps Thursday and Sunday can be considered given the right venue and other acts on the bill, but the rest of the week forget it. What originals bands do need to do is promote the hell out of themselves at every opportunity and be prepared to travel to get the worthwhile gigs and realise that there is more to being in a band than a ability to play the songs they have written. If you can't put on an entertaining and memorable performance at the same time, then there is little point unless you are doing it simply as a hobby for your own musical satisfaction (although that last point also applies to covers bands).