molan

My lead guitarist uses an Epiphone Les Paul for heavier rock songs and a US Strat for the rest. The big difference he made to his LP was to upgrade the pickups, wiring, pots, sockets etc. He went for Fatboy PAF pickups, really nice units and great service. His totally transformed it, powerful, bags of sustain, killer solo tone and great for raucous driven rhythm parts. Overall cost would be over the £300 budget but some upgrades to a good used LP type guitar could make a huge difference

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1400525518' post='2454678'] Many thanks Barrie, do all those events need catering staff? Must admit, I would LOVE a bass with LED's on the fret board! [/quote] Henley has a Roux Brothers restaurant on site (well, it does for the music event the week after the Regatta). If you can get a job you can stay with me, I'm walking distance from the Regatta site The bass I used has little wraparound LED's so not full front facing. Still looks cool though and they are genuinely useful on a dark stage.

The major determining factor in international shipping is usually insurance. If the value creeps over £1,000 then a lot of shipping agents won't quote. Germany is anything from £35 to £75 or even as high as £100 if you hit the nasty combination of heavy weight plus high insurance value.

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1400499708' post='2454346'] Lights on the BX700 look great on stage and are helpful as well. Can I be an honourary Southerner please ? [/quote] Any time Karl - you may need to attend Wimbledon, Royal Ascot, Henley Regatta and possibly Glyndebourne to be fully accepted though

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1400433609' post='2453812'] question... is it switchable voltage at all? [/quote] Official blurb says: "[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]Auto-switching AC input functions for either 120V 60 Hz or 240V 50 Hz" [/size][/font][/color]

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1400434909' post='2453840'] Molan. Well Barrie, I know you live in the south, so, allowances made. I thought the statement "the back lighting is a boon on stage" kinda covered that [/quote] I was referring to the fact that it just looked pretty rather than actually being useful I was actually gigging on Saturday with a bass that has LED's in case you are struggling to see the dots on a dark stage. Our overhead lights were nice and bright but I still used the lights now and then just because i thought they looked kinda cool. That's what us shallow southerners do I'm afraid

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1400334828' post='2453022'] How do the carvin amps sound with the preamp gain cranked - can you get a decent edging-into-crunch/dirt sound out of them ?. I'd like at some point to be able to move to something like a single midget/super midget based rig and it seems there arn't many micro amps that can deliver a really decent amount of real power into 8ohm. It seems at the moment that we have some amazing small/light cabs around that have the power handling and displacement to do almost anything yet few lightweight amps that can take full advantage of them. [/quote] I think the valve is there to add some warmth rather than as an overdriven stage. There's a little bit of drive kicking in if it's cranked all the way up but I would say it's anything like a classic valve amp. The core tone is powerful and clean and relatively 'modern'. I'm not entirely sure why the valve/SS button is on the back - I have a feeling it's really designed as an 'emergency' alternative if the valve fails rather than a tone-shaping option. In fact this happened to someone a couple of weeks ago. The valve was damaged in transit but he was still able to use the amp by bypassing the valve stage

The locking AC lead turned out to be a US spec only feature but this wasn't known until the amps arrived in the UK. It's possible they may develop a UK (and European) version and, if so, will supply them to existing owners. You forgot to say that it lights up and looks super cool on a darkened stage

I've worked with a few tribute bands and they were uniformly excellent. The oddest one (which I won't name just in case their bass player is on here) was a group, half of whom, turned up in character and maintained it all evening. They introduced themselves to us as if they were the original band members and all evening said stuff like "this is a song we wrote back when we were in LA in '85" or "here's a number from our last album" etc. It was all very strange! I've been to see a few trib bands as well and mostly enjoyed them. I guess I prefer the ones based on bands that are no longer in existence rather than current ones that are still touring.

I had an early Jedson Les Paul copy once - virtually unplayable, neck like a banana It became a byword amongst my muso friends for the worst possible quality. Anything that wasn't very nice was described as a bit 'Jedson'. I'm sure there were a lot of better ones though!

My favourites are the Nordy (as mentioned above) or the Aguilar 4J HC. Both sound great and are hum cancelling

Here's your answer : http://basschat.co.uk/topic/235209-fs-diamond-bass-comp-price-drop/page__fromsearch__1 Check the OVNI review

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1400104750' post='2450933'] It does sound really bad when you put it like that. A lot of folks wouldn't dream of spending that amount on a whole bass, let alone on the options alone! [/quote] That's why I was asking the question At the start price it's a great bass that fulfills a specific need and, in my opinion, there's nothing else out there that compares. At £1,600 I'd say it's relatively expensive but not specifically 'high end'. The options are all functional rather than cosmetic but adding them send the price spiralling. So the question was about whether adding expensive options to an instrument elevates it to 'high end' status or not (as per the OP's question). I'm genuinely undecided about whether I'd call it high end or not. It's definitely a custom instrument built to very exacting standards by a specialist builder but, without the high price of the options, I'm not sure it's what I'd call a really high end bass.

How about Status - do they classify as a high end brand? I picked up Streamline yesterday to use for one specific gig this weekend and was totting up the cost and it comes in at about £2,600. The core bass is a ail able at £1,600 but it's carrying about a grand's worth of options that I'd consider to be pretty 'high end' so maybe that moves it from relatively functional into more of a 'luxury' bass?

I've played a few 33" 5's and they've felt really nice and sounded great. I think if you buy a well mad instrument then you don't have to be as concernd about scale lengths. I rehearsed win a 32" scale bass tonight (only a 4 string though) and I really didn't notice any huge tonal difference between it and my regular 33.3" scale gigging bass or one of my standard 34" ones

Just a quick note on the 'age' factor. The most recent Fodera I sold was to a student. It was a £12K instrument and he's worked several evening and part time jobs, gigged in covers and function bands plus loads of private teaching to be able to afford it. It will be his sole instrument for all his playing He's an amazing player and I'm fairly certain he will become a professional player of some description. And yes, it did have a very expensive top and gold hardware In the last year I've sold another Fodera to a music student (this was about &5K) and a fretless 5 string Wal to another. There's definitely some young guys out there throwing everything into pursuing a career in music who are prepared to buy what they believe to be the very best instruments they can afford. Personally I think these guys deserve a lot of respect and not the derision they seem to attract from some quarters.

Thought I'd Google and see what the first thing was that came up: "Appealing to sophisticated and discerning customers"

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1399927945' post='2449138'] Going into your shop next week if it doesn't sell soon [/quote] Just thought I'd give you a free plug first

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1343133697' post='1745773'] who needs drummers?! [/quote] I sat in on a gig recently with a guy who was her drummer on many gigs he was seriously good. Great 'feel' player and a nice guy too. We even got to play Valerie