chriswareham

Reverb started as a very US centric website, and in many ways it still is. What people outside the US often miss is that in the US people expect to be able to haggle and pay less than the listed price. That's true of things that would have no chance of being sold for less than the asking price in places like Europe. So a lot of the prices on Reverb reflect the starting point the seller expects to have to take offers below. People who do not understand this then think "wow, my <insert item> is worth <insert price>". The other problem, and one that is true of websites like eBay as well as Reverb is when researching prices sellers usually look at the current listings. They rarely look at the sold listings to see what people are actually likely to pay. When I'm looking to sell something I check the sold listings, and then price at the high end of what the item has sold at but with the option for people to make offers. Then of course you get the chancers saying "it's only worth half what you've listed it for mate", (and it always invariably has that "mate" at the end of a sentence like they're doing me a favour). I just ignore the chancers and hope they see the item's actual sold price when it invariably sells at the list price or just below.

Fairly similar experience to Paul S above, with the added bonus of the singer actually pointing out how Spinal Tap it all was. Asked at short notice by a promoter we'd done plenty of gigs for to support to a band playing in Camden. We arrived in time to find to find neither opening or headlining act had arrived. Nor had the sound engineer. The latter eventually appeared looking totally hungover, and he proceeded to explain that someone had stolen all the DI boxes the night before while he was too drunk to notice. Not good as we had a drum machine and several synths. No soundcheck for us, as the headline band finally appeared and had a major strop at being initially told they'd also have no soundcheck. As a result the venue opened late, and the opening act went straight on. Despite being told to cut their set from 45 to 30 minutes they played their full set and then leisurely packed up. So we go on stage without even a linecheck, set cut from 45 to 30 minutes. I press the start pedal for our drum machine and... no drums in the monitor plus a distorted mess from the front of house speakers. I proceeded to play by watching the blinking light on the drum machine to try and stay in time. That meant I missed the promoter frantically trying to get my attention. Turns out he wanted us to stop after 15 agonising minutes. The headline act wanted their full hour, which would have taken the venue over it's curfew. He ended up getting the soundman to cut us off mid song. I jumped off the stage, and walked through the audience only to find the door to the dressing rooms locked and I didn't know the code. So I kicked it down and proceeded to reduce the dressing room furniture to matchwood. The security guy was called by the panicking promoter, only to be told my reaction was perfectly reasonable under the circumstances (turns out the security guy had seen us several times before and realised something wasn't right with the sound).

I have a Trace Elliott BLX combo, which I actually like even though I get the impression they were not highly regarded when new. I'm planning on giving that a test at the next rehearsal with the Stingray and a Boss CE-3 chorus I've just picked up on fleaBay.

Absolutely. I knew someone who voluntarily agreed to being sectioned, but was close to being committed without their consent. It was a battle for them to get out once they felt better, since a lot of people soon relapse.

Did a rehearsal on Monday night, first one with the Stingray and also the first without our lead guitarist (who as I write is playing his first show in Barcelona fronting legendary US punk band Dead Boys, the lucky sod). The sound of the Stingray through a Boss flanger was immense, and on many of our songs actually made up for the sound of two guitars we've been used to. Then I check my email today to find that Jamie Stewart of The Cult had taken the time to reply to a message I sent him. He confirmed that the Stingray and a Boss chorus was key to the sound I was looking for, although he says he preferred the Ampeg amps he used later to the Trace Elliot ones he was using in the early Cult era.

The band Section 25 were named after one of the sections of the mental health act. I was also in a band called Section (3) that took similar inspiration. Both refer to conditions where individuals can be placed into secure facilities against their will.

That sounds familiar. The drummer wasn't known by the name "Belle" was he? A legend on the London alternative music scene who unexpectedly passed away in 2023.

I have a Brandoni constructed Eko semi-acoustic bass guitar. Fantastic instrument, and I got the opportunity to tell Roberto how much l love it shortly before he passed away. In the early 1990s his instruments would occasionally appear in Macaris music shop in the London's West End, which is how I came by my one.

Amphetamines maybe. A fair bit of research has gone into using them for military applications, ever since they were first produced in laboratory conditions just over a hundred years ago. They were used extensively in World War II, particularly for air force personnel by the Axis and Allied forces, as they increased endurance and attentiveness. Studies show they can improve reflex responses and awareness of stimuli, although at the cost of increasing levels of paranoia and eventual fatigue when usage increases beyond certain thresholds. An interesting case is the Finnish soldier Aimo Koivunen who accidentally took a massive dose of German supplied Pervitin while on a mission behind Soviet lines - it resulted in a week long period where he evaded capture while frankly off his tits. Didn't seem to do any serious damage as he went on to live into his seventies, but he did father nine children so I guess it may have impacted his libido 🙂

Many thanks for the responses! I've been pondering my options and based on some of the comments decided to buy a Ray 24 which seems to have a recreation of the 2 band pre-amp from a Stingray from the early 1980s. After changing the strings on my regular bass this evening for a set of stainless steel Rotosounds I think that also plays a big part in capturing the sound I'm after along with a modulation effect. I experimented with a bunch of effects, and came closest with my ancient Frontline rack mounted thing. The modulation offers either chorus or flanger and seems to be a clone of Boss circuitry. With careful tweaking of the manual and feedback controls on the flanger setting I got really close to what I'm looking for even on my passive bass.

Oh, that's tempting. I think I bought a Yamaha BB1200 from you, which I used with a Joy Division tribute until I got tired of too many people saying I should be playing a Rickenbacker (I'd point out Hooky's clearly playing a Yammy in the Love Will Tear Us Apart video and before that he actually played a Hondo rather than a Rickenbacker, but to no avail).

I played a Stingray for almost twenty years, having bought one when I first started working full time after college. It was my dream bass since several of my favourite bassists used one - Barry Jepson of Southern Death Cult, Jamie Stewart of Death Cult and The Cult, Simon Gallup of The Cure and even Peter Hook during his Revenge / Monaco phase. I then switched to a Greco copy of the Rickenbacker 4003 about five years ago, and sold the Stingray. Fast forward to now, and the while the band I'm in suits the middly honk of a Rick style bass I think the tone I was originally inspired by would fit even better. So I had a look at what's out there in Stingray land, and I'm confused. It used to be that the choices were straightforward - four or five strings, two or three band active tone controls. Now there seems to be a bewildering array of Stingray models and no amount of Googling seems to provide an explanation. So in short, I'm looking to recreate the kind of tone from the Cult's early performance of Horse Nation. I know that solid state amps (Trace Elliot) and chorus were also a factor, but I'm wondering what models from the current Stingray range get me close without spending more than I have to. So do the Ray 4 models have the same kind of pre-amp as the more expensive Sterling or full fat Stingray models? Do the two or three band active tone controls have a difference in terms of what sounds you can get? I would prefer to go for something like a Ray 4, Ray 24 or Ray 34 rather then the frankly eye watering cost of a US made Stingray but don't want to end up with something that disappoints if I can't get the right tone. Advice very much appreciated!

I had a few lessons with a guy that did that. A session guitarist called Peter Maxim, an incredibly softly spoken man who taught me things I'd not normally play like the bass parts to Bill Withers and Ian Dury songs.

Peavey 3620. Two 18" Black Widows and two 10" Scorpions in a single mahoossive cabinet. I'd trust that thing ... trust it to give me a hernia that is.

I saw a comment on a computer forum saying "never trust a computer you can lift". My version of that is "never trust a bass cabinet you can lift".

NAMM, but not directly bass related, unless you count the amount of FM synth bass sounds out there on recordings. Behringer demo their working prototype of a Yamaha DX-1 clone with additional filter, LFO and envelope cloned from the Yamaha CS-80. I used to hate all things to do with Yamaha DX synths, since they're a sod to program and the presets were abysmal. However, there are thousands of free patch banks floating around on the web that prove FM synthesis really is amazing if you can work out what the algorithms do and how modulators operate on carriers. Fortunately they don't predict it to ship until next year, so I don't have to find room for one just yet.

I'm another one who learned Peaches by The Stranglers as my first song on bass guitar. And like someone else who has already posted it was on a Marlin Slammer that a friend had let me borrow. Dead strings, action a mile high and it weighed a ton!

Mesa Boogie refuse to provide schematics, service manuals or spares so techs tend to hate them. They're also not very easy to work on because they're very complex and the cabling inside makes access to most of the boards a nightmare. It seems they want all repairs to go through the mothership in California, which is somewhat ... inconvenient ... to anyone outside the US.

Which it would. Microsoft can be criticised for a lot of shoddy software development, but one thing they have been very good about is backwards compatibility. I've seen software written in the 90s that still runs on Windows 11 without modification. It's also why you may see multiple versions of C++ and .NET libraries installed on a typical Windows system.

In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary, come again?

Regardless of whether it's a manufacturer issue, the consumer protection laws state it's the vendor who is responsible for dealing with a customer's problem. It's then for the vendor to deal with the manufacturer.

Security or stability fixes can cause issues, although Android does a very good job of isolating the low level stuff that usually gets updated for these kinds of changes from the higher level libraries an app developer works with. But my experience of dealing with code written by less competent or just downright lazy programmers is that if you design something to be idiot proof, the universe will design a better idiot.

If the app support is advertised by the manufacturer as a feature, then it would make an interesting case for testing the applicability of the Sales of Goods Act and Consumer Rights Act. The laws in these kinds of areas are usually interpreted from the perspective of what an "ordinary" member of the public would mean them to be. So it would come down to whether a court decides that support on the current version of the most popular mobile operating system of a major feature is reasonable from the perspective of the purchaser of such a device. Edited just to add, based on my own experience developing software that includes Android apps, Mooer would have access to the beta and pre-release versions of any new version of the operating system. They don't have to scramble to catch up to changes only after a new version is released.

If the app is broken on current versions of Android, then the guitar is definitely not working as advertised. I'd take this as a warning to not buy any "smart" devices, since you're relying on the manufacturer to provide updates as the app platforms evolve. Most don't produce an update after the initial, often buggy, release. Others go out of business, and the device loses some or all of its functionality as the remote services it requires disappear. Same goes for software bought on a subscription model - it's the dream for software companies, as it generates a lot of repeat revenue rather than a one off purchase. Something like the subscription option for Roland's Cloud offering, where you'll lose all access to your virtual instruments or effects if you can no longer pay. Even if they offer an outright purchase, that's usually just for a license key not the software itself, so cannot be sold on even if it's an add on for a hardware device that you wish to sell it with.