BigRedX

I've bought 6 musical instruments from Japan. Four from Ishibashi which came by post and attracted the usual VAT and import duties; as Doctor J says allow 25% on top of the combined item and shipping costs and you won't have any unpleasant surprises. The other two were bought in person (in Osaka) and I simply walked through the green channel at the airport; although in retrospect I believe that this was the right thing to do as neither item was over the much higher personal import allowance for travellers returning to the UK.

Thanks. Although compared with my previous originals band who were doing 35+ paying gigs a year it's not that impressive.

There are 4 versions of the Magnum bass, two different body shapes each with two different on-board electronics. There's also the semi-acoustic Typhoon Bass from the late 60s/early 70s.

Personally I find in insipid pastel colours that Fender like to use far more objectionable.

I didn't even realise that the carry case was also able to charge the transmitter and receiver without needing to be attached to a PSU. Except when I am using them, the Transmitter and Receiver live in it permanently and at some point in the day before a rehearsal or gig, I simply plug the carry case into a suitable USB charger plug and keep it plugged in until the orange lights on both the transmitter and receiver go out. I've owned my NUX system for about 6 months now and it's been used about 30 times. At the moment it takes about 15-20 minutes to charge everything ready for its next use. This is after a typical 3 hour practice and the device sat in my bag for the rest of the week.

Just in case anyone was planning to attend our gig supporting Aurelio Voltaire at The Chapel on 5th November, if you haven't already purchased a ticket, you won't be able to get in. The gig is now completely sold out and based on what has happened at previous sold out gigs there there will be no admission without a ticket.

Just in case anyone was planning to attend the Hurtsfall gig supporting Aurelio Voltaire at The Chapel on 5th November, if you haven't already purchased a ticket, you won't be able to get in. The gig is now completely sold out and based on what has happened at previous sold out gigs there there will be no admission without a ticket.

If you need to watch a video to get a sound out of an ARP2600 then it's probably not the synth for you. Firstly it's not like a fully modular synth where you can't do anything without patch leads. There are default signal and modulation paths that will get you started simply by turning up a couple of level controls and opening the filter cut off. Secondly the default routings are clearly marked on the from panel. Anyone with a reasonably logical approach can see this and understand how things work. Finally it's a bit limited really. I'd expect to need at least another pair of envelope generators and a dedicated LFO to make the most out of any patch that required the use of leads to defeat the default modulation routings.

You really can't make any meaningful decisions about colour when viewing a digital photograph on a screen. Maybe if both the viewer's screen is hardware colour calibrated, the photographer had correctly set the white point on their camera and the forum software has correctly adjusted for any embedded colour profile, the resulting image will be reasonably close to what you would see if your were looking at it in real life. However 99% of the time at least one of those variables will be wrong or neglected.

In the late 80s the band transport was an ex-coal board minibus with benches down each side in the back. All the gear went in the space between them and those unlucky enough not to be able to sit in the front (usually myself and the drummer) spent most of the journey sliding up and down the benches as we went round each corner. Also since everything in the back was on display someone always had to be in the van whenever we stopped for food and toilet breaks.

As someone who was a massive fan of The Human League in the early 80s (I even sported the Phil Oakey asymmetric hairstyle in 1981) but I was never in a position to see them live back in the day. I finally got to see them play 10 years ago and while it was enjoyable, in hindsight it re-enforced the feeling that I'd missed out by not having seen them in 1980. These days the line up is Phil, the two girls and a 3 session players. The set list is mostly taken from Dare and the 2 subsequent albums (that's what the majority of their audience want). They played one pre-Dare song (Circus Of Death). From what I've read since seeing them I doubt if the set list will have changed much, main variable being which early song they do as a part of the encore. I think the only way I be tempted to see them play again would be if it was the original line up with Adrian Wright doing the slide show playing Travelogue and earlier material.

Having seen the guitar in question up close, for anyone other than Rory Gallagher to play, it would require a serious deep clean. Luckily for me it was safely secured in a sealed display case. Maybe the National Museum of Ireland are hoping to be able to use it to clone him when the technology is there?

Went to see IST IST at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham last night. Probably the best gig I have attended as a punter since The Last Cry just over a year ago. I discovered the band fairly recently so I was unfamiliar with about half the songs they played, but it really didn't matter. Everything was engaging and the fact that I didn't know a lot of the songs was in no way an impediment to enjoying the gig. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the support band. Not to my taste at all and apparently they have been support for the whole tour which is strange because musically they had little in common with the headliners.

The GLDX16 looks fine if you already have a traditional pedal board with spare capacity on the PSU, but that certainly doesn't make sense for me. I don't need a tuner - there's already a really good one in the Helix. I would need a PSU for the receiver and AFAICS it's not on a locking socket which means I'd need to have a pedal board which suddenly means everything takes up more floor space on stage. I'll stick with my cheap and compact NUX until I have a major problem, hopefully by which time I'll be playing bigger stages and have bigger band transport for all the extra equipment.

For me one of the big advantages of the NUX system is that both the transmitter and receive are completely self-contained on the jack plug. My Helix is essentially my pedal board, I really didn't want a completely separate device taking up more floor space, as this can be at a premium for some of the gigs I play.

I don't get this. I'm always pleasantly surprised if there is a preset or two on a programmable effects unit or synth that gets close to a sound that I want, but I always assume that first thing I'm going to have to do is to make a basic default patch that I can use as a starting point for all my other sounds. Without this the device is essentially unusable.

That can't be right. I use mine continuously at rehearsals which are about 3 hours long, and when I next plug them in the recharge the LED meter is only showing one segment down from full charge.

That's the one. I got mine from Amazon.

I've got a NUX 5.8GHz system as well. It has been used for 6 gigs, including two outdoors and one on a large stage, and about 10 rehearsals without any problems so far

As someone whose done a lot of recording, I won't deny that using a click track, especially when a recording to a DAW, has lots of benefits when it comes to post-tracking edits and changes of arrangement, because they make life a lot easier for the recording engineer. However it is also undeniable that a fixed constant tempo can suck all the life out of a song. With my previous band before any recording session we would practice all the songs with and without a click to see which version worked best. In the end the recordings were split 50/50 between those that were played to a click with constant tempo and those that needed a more flexible approach to timing. Without sticking the tracks in a DAW and beat matching them, I doubt whether anyone could tell which was which. In my current band that uses computer-generated drums quite a few of the songs have programmed tempo changes to get the right feel.

Not always good practice IMO. Song songs definitely benefit from a constant steady tempo. Others need that push and pull that only a tight well-rehearsed band (or a pre-programmed viable click) can bring. Good musicians will instinctively know which method feels right.

Similarly I have 3 EMO passive DI boxes bought second hand over 30 years ago and still going strong.

I take it everyone posting here will be keeping these pedals forever? Otherwise prepare to be mocked in the eBay forum...

My "bits and pieces" are split over 4 bags but it's all entirely logical. 1. Instrument case. Contains the instrument, it's strap and spare strings and tools specific to that particular instrument. 2. Helix bag. Contains the Helix and all the leads needed to connect it to the instrument, FRFR and the PA, plus wireless system for the instrument. I have all of these with the Helix because I use different instruments for different bands but I always use the Helix so it makes sense to put all the extra bits in with the Helix to prevent me from turning up to a rehearsal or gig with something missing because it's in the wrong instrument case. 3. Big Bag o' Leads and Tools. Everything that isn't in the two other bags. Mostly spares for the above and leads for connecting up the computer that does our backing. Also DI boxes for the synths. 4. Personal bag for stage clothes. Merch float and SumUp card reader are in with the merch. Every bag also has a couple of spare picks in it, so there is no chance of finding myself without one.

I've done 21 so far this year with another 5 definitely to come, plus anything else we get offered in the next two and a half months. That's playing in two originals bands.