paul_c2

Hmmmm, raises more questions than answers really! The value attached to the names Wharfdale, Albion and Steve Grindrod have to be taken with a (large) pinch of salt. Firstly because these items AREN'T coming from the era where those brands earned their good reputation, they are later on once that brand had 'value' and was effectively sold-out then attached to a Chinese-manufactured product of some kind. And secondly because this isn't your usual scenario. I am sure history has examples of where a previously-good brand transferred manufacturing to China, with variable results. No doubt in some cases there was little/no drop off in quality, or maybe even an improvement - a known brand dictates the specification and build process, and a third-party Chinese manufacturer pretty much does what its asked to - manufactures something to that given quality. But this isn't the case here. They were manufactured - these things exist - but then they were placed into a warehouse, and stood for 8 years. That's not normal!!! Why? Nobody knows, but something weird happened, eg there was money owed, they got held/not released, something wasn't right with the items themselves, etc etc Sure, the prices are a bargain - a big bargain! For some, its worth taking the punt. Will be interesting to hear how these turn out long term!

Two points: 1. If you learn poor technique, it can be self-limiting. It may hold you back, or give formidable barriers later in your musical development. Or it might not be an issue, eg if you're happy just to plod along playing root & fifth, etc. 2. There's only two kinds of learning: self-taught and guided. If you are self-taught, there is always a danger that you are reinforcing poor techniques, doing it wrong, not doing some aspects you should, etc. It is human nature to subconciously put to one side, those aspects you don't want to do etc. A good teacher would know this, be able to identify it, know if its an issue and correct it in good time. Its a case of "you don't know what you don't know".

I wonder if this is a case of "first you have to learn the rules, before you can break them". Of course its not required to play the actual riffs exactly right, but I think there's a value in learning them more/less properly (and memorising them......), with an added bonus of being able to come up with your own variations. Sometimes the essence of a groove or song is due to the delicate timings between the different instruments (they may be all playing the same rhythm, or it may be different to one another), in that case it would be good to preserve this. Another common thing in music is that you'd play a tune "straight" the first verse or so, then on additional repeats you could alter, maybe quite markedly. But laying down that initial groove would be important. Also I've observed that with well known tunes, when they are rearranged, often it is a case of "less is more" and a radical rearrangement is not that well received.

As I understood it, this ISN'T the case - "winning" an eBay auction is NOT a contract to buy. Ie if you go to collect the item, you are not obliged to pay/take the item and you can't be sued for breach of contract or whatever if you decide on seeing it you don't want it, or pull out completely etc. Of course, eBay would like you to complete the transaction, and in 99% of cases where there is no further issue such as misdescribed, then it would plainly make sense to go through with it - after all you wanted it right? But that when it comes down to it, legally, there isn't the obligation to do it. Happy to be corrected (but please don't simply quote the eBay rules - of course they want you to....and their rules say so!)

As above, really. What SHOULD happen, and does happen in most amps, is that at some point the gain/volume/whatever is sufficiently turned up on bass guitar, (maybe pedals etc), amp stages and the amp is now at maximum power. Notes played softly are loud but clean; notes played harder are (in reality) no louder (although your perception might be that you hear them as louder) but have some kind of clipping/distortion/overdrive. If your bass and amp are unable to achieve that then there's something wrong, somewhere. For example a fault with the bass wiring or the lead, or the socket contact is dirty, or maybe one of the pots on the amp is dirty. Any normal amp, on any normal bass, shouldn't need an additional preamp to achieve its full volume.

It almost sounds like there's a wiring fault or poor connection either with the bass or simply the lead, which means the input is only a fraction of what it should be. Worth properly testing before spending money on another amp or preamp!!!!!

Having recently(-ish) bought a Fender, after much searching, I can relate to this - it is tedious to have to manually filter out the Squiers from the "real" Fenders. No disrespect to Squiers (my other bass is a Squier). And if BC adverts are misdescribing Squiers as Fenders then I'd expect the powers-that-be to be able to address the issue.

The buyer is probably another antique dealer.

What amp did you try it with?

What did it say on the advert, for payment options? Was cash on collection mentioned?

Acoustic, or for choir? They are very different things - well it depends how you define acoustic. Its to do with the attack. In general, if a piece of music is predominantly guitar-based with a lot of the rhythm coming from the guitar strumming or riffs, then its not going to translate well to other 'instruments' which don't have a similar attack such as voice/choir. But it might be okay on piano/acoustic guitar.

Have you played another Jazz before? The first time I played one, after another bass (with humbuckers), I was surprised at the lack of low end. Its quite a different and distinctive sound. But over time, that sound has kinda grown on me, and going back to the other bass it now sounds boomy!!

Is this a case of "a fool and their cash are easily parted" or should we be feeling sorry for anyone who doesn't understand how to recognise a fake, but is willing to take a £200+ punt on a very beaten up guitar on its hope value once (extensively) renovated?

The audio interface will be seen by the computer as an audio input AND an audio output. What's probably happening is that when its plugged in, its selected by default as the output. It makes sense, since its undoubtedly higher quality than the laptop/computer's sound card. But you could set the audio output as the normal computer one if you wanted to (if its Windows 10, rightclick on the volume control next to the clock, Open Sound Settings, Choose your output device.

No, but the signal levels are mismatched such that you'll have little or no signal; or if you do manage to turn it up, the noise level would be very poor. Hence, why you need an audio interface - it will convert the instrument level to a digital signal eg USB.

5 cats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just to throw a spanner in the works......do bassists need a (powerful) amp at all, any more? I'd have thought a modern sensible approach is to keep volume levels on stage down to a sensible level (for many reasons, including hearing loss) and let the PA do the grunt work for FOH. We bassists have an advantage that this can be achieved with about £20 for a DI box; where a guitarist would need to have their amp mic'd up; and a drummer would need at least 4 mics to capture their sounds properly.

Aaaaah, that's what "antique" condition is! The scale seems to be immaculate-excellent-good-fair-poor-antique.

I play in a couple of different groups etc and this Christmas had 5 xmas gigs of various detail, some on French horn too. But the main one which I'd been planning for, any worrying over, was Chester Big Band's first appearance at Storyhouse. Organising ~25 people is a not insignificant task. A time-change late on and various other factors made the run up to the gig fairly stressful for me! The guy who was due to do the sound had to pull out at short notice and we actually ended up pretty much buying a PA a few days before the gig - and I had to do the PA setup as well as the bass stuff. But, we had the gig today and it went brilliantly, it was fairly busy and all positive feedback so far; and hopefully some more work to come off this one too. My personal highlight was doing the (famous) solo line in the James Bond theme. Without a thorough soundcheck I had to guess at the setting on my boost pedal, I overdid it and because of the way I hammer (literally) the strings to achieve the kind of twang tone, I ended up filling the Storyhouse with slightly overdriven bass/solo riff!

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and (eventually, when I can afford it) just go for an acoustic double bass. They seem reasonably affordable and available, say compared to acoustic bass guitars or EUBs. And you don't need to worry about "it sounds really like a double bass" because it IS a double bass and does sound like it! I know its a little vain too, but there's nothing quite like the look of it too, in certain scenarios.

I came across this video in my browsings: Yes, its metal; and its drums, but I don't mind admitting I found it useful - kinda as a double-check I understood things right.

Is there "something" in the way it plays? Like no other?

The Flat Earth Society claims to have 20,000 members globally.

I've read the thread and I can relate to buying amps, having bought many recently - 50% by trying out and 50% 'blind'. A bass amp is basically impossible to fully demonstrate on a YouTube video. Its like many other physical things, there's no real substitute to its, ummm, physicality. Reviews are still useful but only to the point of mentioning specs, opinions of others, etc so you might be able to eliminate one from your shortlist without needing to seek out a real demo which might involve a trip of many miles to a different-than-local shop, etc etc I'll also add (somewhat negatively....sorry!) that you can't really demo an amp in a shop either. Well, at least not in my experience. As others have said above, there is no substitute for actually using it with other instruments playing, in a live situation. I suppose one thing which is semi-useful is you can A-B two different amps and get an idea of what its like compared to another though.

YouTube could properly moderate their comments and other areas (ie pulling down unsuitable videos etc) but it doesn't really make commercial sense to do so, since it doesn't really have much of a benefit, vs the costs of doing so. I guess so long as they do just about enough to keep the advertiser's money flowing in, that's okay. I think people themselves need to take more responsibility that the internet is effectively unpoliced in some areas, YouTube comments being one example but by no means the only one. So, either take the comments with a pinch of salt, or don't read them, or don't focus so much on getting involved with arguments on them. Sure, moderation is necessary....but in moderation.....