Lw.

MIM have definitely got better in the last couple of years of production - when I was looking to buy I thought the current MIM standard was very good quality. I'm not sure if all the sig models are made there though (in answer to your question), I've not followed them as I don't really get the concept, nothing wrong with them though if you like the look.

I'd say wordpress - it's an easy blogging site that you can use then link to your soundcloud/bandcamp for the tracks. The thing I like about it is that it's not a social media site, it's basically your site without the pain of coding/hosting & stuff - you could spend £15 and get your own address too so you're not having to advertise for them on your flyers etc...

I know about the writing & royalties (I'm a royalties accountant) - the fee I'm talking about is what some labels call artist partnerships, though some just leave it to the management to sort; artist partnerships are mostly treated like sync fees (ie 50/50 label/artist) and they're of a decent size (completely separate to any royalties that may be applicable). I know that John Lewis pay them too as they've been churning out these same adverts ever year for a while now.

I had the same problem with my Warwick - you can pinch the sting with a decent pair of mole-grips or pliers quite easily - nothing to worry about.

It's an interesting article, I find it hard to believe the 8k figure though; she'll have been paid a performance/contracting fee for doing the work from which she'll have got half less management/lawyer fees. I obviously don't know her fee but I know what other artists of her size have had and it'd work out at way more than 8k and that's before royalties (which is what the article seemed to be focusing on). The subject as a whole; one hit won't make an artist much, especially if it's from their first/only album as their sales royalties will go to recoupment. From what I remember it takes an artist about 3 decent albums to become recouped and so start earning money from sales but in all honesty; even out of the really famous groups - most won't have made much money. The whole thing gets a bit depressing if you only look at the financial side - it's good everyone is into it for the artistic merit instead ;-)

The market place here is a bit of a weird one I find; in other walks of life 2nd hand gear sells for between 50%-60% of retail (for none vintage) but here (or the bass world in general) some really nice stuff struggles to sell for 50% and other not particularly special stuff is listed nearer 80%. I agree with a lot of the points people have said above; money is tight so people want a bargain but others also need the High prices as they need the money too.

Upload your photos to Photobucket then link to them when you're writing your classified ad on here (in the market place). Cash Generators is the worst option, even ebay is better than that!

I understand the physics of it, ie someone lining the drill up wrong or the body not being straight in the clamps etc... I obviously don't think it's acceptable. Though saying that; I've never made a bass so can't comment on their procedures though part of me thinks drilling holes in the correct position should be one of the easiest parts.

Sorry to hear about your poor NBD experience - no one likes it when you're really looking forward to something for ages then it's not perfect (as a Fender CS should be). I can understand bridges being drilled wrong but how can a neck move once bolted in place?

Which of the two fender high mass bridges are we talking about here? The one on the american standards looks really nice to me, the square chunky one from the modern player is less to my style but I guess more like a bad ass...

I think the brand as a whole for bands is important but I've never really been won over by a band because they have a nice logo but I'll accept that it can be a good thing to have one. Album artwork is quite important, or it at least needs to not be bad.

That Ashton stack on the first page is doing very strange things to me. A valve amp is now top of the list for equipment I need - going to have to start searching for a bargain!

A lot of real estate given to pickups! Good looking set though - OW would be my fav out of the three.

I'm pretty sure I've seen their last ever performance twice before. Line up does look good though!

I've been happy with my simple Focusrite 2i2 - easy to set up with lots of support on their website, sound is good and feels relatively sturdy.

It might be useful if the Limelight owners in the room could upload some sound samples... One of the stumbling blocks when I was looking at buying one was that I didn't know how their pickups sounded or the tone in general (the other being the lack of 3TS). I'm sure some of the potentials buyers would love to hear them!

Worth thinking about what kind of sound/look you're after too - the Ibanez is a good modern styled bass. If you're going for classic styles I'd look at the Squire VM Jazz. You can't really go wrong with the Squire's at that price point, though if you did a bit of reading around & searching you might be able to pick something a bit more fancy up in the classifieds on here...

Devils advocate; how do you know they were nice basses to start with? As far as I know you can't get a non-relic'd Limelight... I think each to their own. I've never bought a relic'd instrument but I think these Limelight ones look great - esp as they don't all have the exact same relicing on every bass like other brands do.

I've horded quite a few bits of kit for years but last year decided on a change of approach; from now on i[size=4]f it’s not getting used it goes. [/size]Doesn't[size=4] have to be used regularly, but if it performs the same job as something else that I used more then I don’t see the point of keeping it, then the money can be put towards something that will be used more or performs a job that you can’t currently do (be that sound/style/range etc…).[/size] That approach has helped me clear space in the house & gave the money to buy something nice, though obviously there’s nothing stopping you keeping all the basses & just getting more!

I've had a Korg GT-3 tuner since I very first started playing, used it in all situations from recording to live - have I been doing it wrong & playing out of tune all these years? I have been tempted to upgrade to a nicer one, though for no reason other than to buy myself something nice while I'm waiting for a suitable Jazz to show up.

Two nice ones have gone through the classifieds recently - they do look really good. Taking the fender template & applying exotic woods seems to work really well!

I've been looking at Fenders too (still waiting for a suitable one to pop up in the classifieds) so understand your pain, although I've been looking at and playing LOADS of Jazzes I guess the same principals apply: The American standards are lovely, incredibly well put together & sound very good. Whilst they do cost a fair bit, I think it is justifiable if you really want new. The other US models are also nice but as you go through the various next-step models the price rockets & I'm not sure if they're really worth it. MIMs are quite good too - I think if I hadn't played the new American Standard I'd have been perfectly happy with the MIM standard, whilst they may lack a tiny bit of polish, it's not really a big thing. I also played a few of the other MIM models, some were very good but I was really disappointed with one (annoyingly it was the one I really wanted to like), but one bad one out of maybe 5 probably isn't too bad - just play before you buy. Played a couple of new Squires and I have to say they've improved massively from their 90's/00's counterparts, but you can tell the difference (and not just the extra grand in your pocket). They're nice budget basses - I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to someone that's looking to learn the bass but I wouldn't say they're a realistic option if you're looking at the nicer basses. Not played any of the licensed parts basses (warmoth etc..), but I should probably admit to having a dream at the moment of having a new spec American Standard body (with the custom shop pups) and putting a flash Warmoth neck on it... Those are my opinions, others will obviously disagree with some of them.

You'll struggle to get the Fender Jazz tone out of a Warwick - I've found them to be completley opposite ends of the scale (which is why I'm after a Jazz for when the Warwick isn't appropriate). I don't know about the Rob Allen/acoustic sound. I can't really think of many Jazz-y basses that come off-the-shelf in dark woods but someone on here was selling a [I think] Mahogany jazz they'd put together with parts from Warmoth which looked pretty nice. You could probably pick that up & put a fretless neck on it for less than your budget...

Hmm maybe I'll email him again - I like the look of his work & want an early looking jazz but it needs to be sunburst for me!

Nice looking bass - d[size=4]id you spec that out? [/size] When I contacted them a while ago they couldn't do sunburst, do you know if this has changed?