molan

I'm pretty close to all the current market pricing issues and, from what I've seen, the latest batch of price rises are being affected by three principal elements: Firstly there's the exchange rates. This is a really simple factor that has pushed prices of all imported goods up. Secondly, and closely tied to the first point, many distributors have been trying to hold price increases off in the hope that the £ might recover. However, they can't afford to keep doing this and a swathe of increases kicked in over the last couple of weeks. Lastly, and quite interestingly, a lot of retailers (aided by distributors) have had enough of heavy discounting. Margins in music retail have been screwed and ever decreasing over the last 3-4 years. I've seen 'everyday' items in the £400 - £600 bracket turning over at just £10 profit. Most extreme example was new basses that cost £3,200 to import being sold for just £3,250 - these were new stock, not sale items or things that had been sitting on the shelf for years. A few people have simply either stopped selling things like this or just put them back up at margins that will allow them to operate at a basic working profit. There's a few specific brands that have been affected so far - I expect more to follow. . .

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1478351829' post='3168550'] As we know, amps like this are loaded with all sorts of power management bits and bobs, so you can't compare volumes based on watts alone. [/quote] Totally agree. From having tested both I'd say the tiny 200w GK MB200 appears to be a lot louder than the Eden. The most obvious example is the TC heads. The RH450 is only actually a 236w head but appears to sound a lot louder because of the, hard baked, compression in the circuit. So much so that TC decided to just call it a 450w output, lol.

I've owned both, including a GS212 and I'm pretty sure I ran an AG500 into the GS as well. The GS does deliver a very strong low end but can also hit great highs. Paul Turner uses the GS cabs for his major gigs and gets an amazing slap tone from them paired with a DB751 head. The DB is a bit more traditional 'old school' sounding but can still work with all kinds of music. In general I'd say the DB range are a bit more adaptable than the GS but you really need to try and hear both together if you can.

Not a bad price, about £50-£60 off regular street price They are very low output though. Never really understand how some people's 'watts' are quieter than others, lol

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1477812772' post='3164515'] Maybe it was one of those, if it looks too good, it is a ripoff scenario [/quote] He was quite genuine and a nice guy. Simply didn't realise how valuable the bass was. I nearly bought it purely to sell but felt bad about it so alerted him and he got the extra £1,500 for it. I then bought something else from him that he gave me a good price on to say thanks

i wonder how people feel about the reverse situation? It's just as common on eBay for people to sell things way below market value because they don't understand the working mechanism of eBay or haven't researched enough. I've seen lots of amazing bargains that have been snapped up quickly (some by me!) but we rarely see threads bemoaning the plight of the seller who may have been hit with a big loss on his sale. Quick edit - I saw one of these recently. A genuine 66 Jazz priced at least £1,500 below market value. I contacted the seller and he increased the price and told me he actually got a lot more interest at the higher value, lol

The baby GK combos are surprisingly loud and sound good too. The MB112 is my favourite of the bunch at 200w. It's not a huge difference in footprint from the 121P though. Maybe the 110 might work better. It's smaller, lighter etc but half the output wattage and only about 15% cheaper.

[quote name='Lee-Man' timestamp='1477567770' post='3163004'] Agreed. I've got a couple of them (AC 121 lite) for when I'm flip-flopping gigs. Occasionally I use both at the same time. Lovely sound. One by itself is a beast. I can do a one trip lift from the car with two basses in a Mono bag, amp and another bag of bits/pedals no worries. Also it takes pedals quite well. For example when I want a more Ampeg tone I can pop a VT Bass in the front end and it sounds great. The AC feels like a nearfield studio monitor, but much louder. [/quote] I own one of these as my 'go to' combo now. I'd been toying with getting one for quite a while and tried lots of different alternatives from all sorts of brands. Never really found one that offered as much as the AC for lots of different situations

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1477490690' post='3162561'] Shame the 12 Bar had to go though. . Last time I asked when they'd be taking over the hairdressers. [/quote] Is that where the lead guitarist demos will be held?

I'd still advocate giving Joe a call in person. Often a lot easier to understand what's going on by speaking direct than relying on email

We don't use them but it wouldn't bother me so long as the core band sound is live. As a side note - we once auditioned an X-Factor vocalist who'd got fairly far in the competition. He simply could not sing in time - turned out he'd been singing 'live' for a few years but always to a complete instrumental backing track. He had no idea how to 'listen' to a live band and work out his timing. This was on really, really simple stuff with relatively sparse arrangements.

A friend of mine used to have a great haggling technique for his used car business. He'd advertise stuff on a fixed price best offer basis. If anyone tried to haggle him down he'd respond by haggling up. E.g. He'd off something at £5k, potential customer would offer £4,500 and he'd go back with £5,500. Drove some people away but was actually really successful in the long run. He became known as a guy that just offered a fair price for things

Makes a lot of sense for a retailer to just quote a genuine price instead of wasting time haggling. In the haggling marketplace all most people do is stick 10% on the price and then 'allow' the customer to haggle that 10% back off again. In fact it's not uncommon for some people to add 15% on the price they need to sell at and if they then knock 10% off they are better off than simply selling at a genuine price in the first place.

I genuinely have no idea of how many basses I own at the moment but there's three that are my 'go to' instruments for gigging. #1 is unquestionably my white Ritter Cora with alder body and maple board. It's under 8lbs so that helps for longer gigs, pretty flexible tonally and, with the slightly shorter 33.3" scale, it's really easy to play. #2 is a tobacco burst flame maple Sadowsky NYC with a chambered swamp ash body and Amazon rosewood board. Again it's very light weight and it just 'works' really well in a live band setting. #3 is metallic gold flake Lull P. Alder body (I think) and maple board. Only passive bass of the trio and the 'showiest' because of the gold sparkly finish. Probably 2nd lightest after the Ritter and another one that just sounds good in a band mix. After these three there's a few others that get gigged, especially recently as I've been using a pair of Fenders - a Flea J and a Clayton CS P. The Clayton has more low end punch than the Lull and is also gold sparkle so may grab that #3 slot soon. At home I tend to grab a Ritter R8 or my Fodera Monarch. The Ritter because it weighs nothing (6.5 lbs) and sits really well on my lap and the Fodera for the super clean and clear tone

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1476879163' post='3157998'] I wouldn't bother 'debating' with someone with so little intellect. [/quote] I must admit that I gave up the conversation after he inferred the only reason I didn't want to gig with a huge Ampeg stack was because I've had back problems in the past. Oh, and something to do with not being to cook like Gordon Ramsay - I got a bit lost with that one 😂

For those of you only using minimal PA - any of you using an SVT Classic with two large cabs as your bass backline?

I've been 'debating' with another bassist on the merits of using a PA for all gigs. The conversation started because he believes that the answer to a decent bass tone, in any venue regardless of size or room acoustics, is a monster Ampeg valve head and a huge speaker stack. His reasoning was that many venues he plays at don't have a decent PA so it's better to just have a massive rig and jack it up really loud. From what I can make out his guitarist does the same thing and drums are just 'acoustic'. He said his band never use a PA but I'm assuming his singer doesn't try to just shout over the lot of them without some sort PA support This all sounds wrong to me on so many levels. With decent modern PA being available at OK prices I just can't understand why anyone would want it have so little control over what their audience is hearing? Of course their are venues with poor house sound systems but it wouldn't take a lot to build a small system to complement what you might be presented with or to just use as a standalone setup. I've played the odd venue where use of the house system was compulsory but it was always of a decent standard. I have this horrible vision of his band with a bass that is crushing people at the back of the room, a guitar shredding people's faces up front, drums that sound dull and thumpy at the low end combined with someone hitting a tin can with a spoon whilst the poor vocalist is desperately trying to get himself heard over the massive on-stage cacophony surrounding him. . .

I asked exactly the same question about a Gallien Krueger head last week as they also say that individual heads are set to either European or U.K. Voltages. Their tech people said it was fine to use their MB heads anywhere across Europe and UK.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1476765276' post='3156994'] Now that I think about it "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" always gets me. Blue [/quote] The first or the second version? Personally I think the second

I've got a vague feeling we found a random tension strap in a store cupboard when packing things up at BassGear a couple of weeks ago. Not exactly sure where it went though Bung me an email at the [email protected] as a reminder (I'm currently out) and I'll see if I can find it.

I saw them at Hammersmith Odeon at their peak of fame. Full orchestra on stage with them I seem to remember. Fabulous live sound, one of the best I'd ever heard at the time.

Having got round to using a Flea signature Jazz at my last gig I thought I should go 'all out' and use a Precision at the next one. Decided to stick with my 'artist signature' theme and used a Custom Shop Clayton P this time around. It was always going to be an interesting comparison because I own, and have gigged a lot, a Lull P that was built for Adam Clayton in a gold flake finish. The Fender CS is visually quite similar apart from the flashy pearl blocks instead of the plain black of the Lull. It was a bit of an odd gig because we played a huge hall to a decent number of people but had a very serious volume restriction in place - the organiser actually jumped on stage during the first number and insisted we stop playing until we turned down (and we're really not that loud!). Anyway, the CS P was great fun to play. It has a J nut but the neck is way chunkier than the Lull and deeper than almost anything else I own. Action is set low and the tiny vintage frets made it a breeze to play. I was able to confidently play stuff without thinking that I often have to concentrate on. The Abigail Ybarra pickups have a lot more low end and overall power than the Lull and balance from strong to strong is excellent. I sometimes find low notes on the G string are too thin and reedy but the CS P was really full and meaty I used the same Monique, Demeter, Bergantino rig as last time with the Flea but the CS P had a lot more depth and punch - felt like I could hear every note really well, especially any mistakes, lol. It's definitely been a fun experience using Fenders live after years of owning them but only rehearsing or playing at home. Will definitely try the P again at the next gig where I'll be able to jack the volume up a bit - plus the gold glitter finish makes it just such a great stage bass Edit - for anyone who hasn't seen the AC CS Precision, here's the full package: