Prosebass

I would consider this [topic="48917"]Fernandes JP [/topic] that kennyrodg is selling. I can vouch that the bass is excellent in condition , playability and tone plus Pete is a great guy to deal with. And its a whole lot more interesting than a Standard Jazz and better built I would say plus more versatile with the P/J pup configuration. Paul

All the best Steve. I have been looking into it myself as a possibility in a year or two. Property is a steal over there compared to Blighty and I can draw a private pension in 3 years so all I need to do now is get Picobass off the ground as a viable business and I may see you over there in a few years. Are you going to Wellington ?

Q-Tuners.......transparency , amazing frequency range and the same output as many active systems without the hassle. They faithfully reproduce what is actually happening on the bass leaving you to fine tune the tone with your amp. Many people just use a volume control with them on the bass. What you will save in electronics / routing etc will more than pay for them. Also they can be very fine tuned for output with the adjustable set screws. Plus they look awesome.......[url="http://www.q-tuner.com/bl5.shtml"]BL-5 Q-Tuner[/url] [attachment=25268:head.jpg]

[quote name='Spoombung' post='487851' date='May 14 2009, 01:15 PM']So did I: [/quote] Looks like the build photos were photo-shopped as I suspected all along......

Not long now Kev

My new year resolution was to stop buying magazines and I have kept it up so far. They are just an advertising vehicle and I find they very rarely have anything to interest me. I am certainly not missing them and at £3.00 - £4.00 an issue have saved quite a bit of money.

I've just read most of this and don't get why there is an argument ! Many respected bassists have no reading skills and many have who are also arrangers, writers etc. As an example my brother is a qualified piano teacher who does recitals and is honing his skills to become a concert pianist. Put a bass in his hands and he is useless. Indeed he knows where all the notes are but there is more to playing bass than just that. I play bass for fun and he is amazed at what I play without me even thinking what notes I am stringing together. Surely there is room for what I would call technical players and the alternative feel / groove players. As long as you are happy in what you do does it matter how you achieve it ?

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='476964' date='May 1 2009, 01:04 PM']Also remember that the inherent low impedance of a passive bass has its issues. For example, the length of cable you plug is will make a difference to the sound (due to the capacitance of the cable) as will the input circuit of your amp. None of this will be a feature of active instruments. In some circumstances this might matter to you.[/quote] Indeed even more variables , which just goes to enforce the fact that these comparisons are actually quite pointless. If it sounds good then stick with it, if not change it.....but remember there is no holy grail out there.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='476866' date='May 1 2009, 11:48 AM']The passive Q-Tuner pickups in my RIM Custom 5 seem to have all the upsides of the active EMGs and none of the downsides - wide frequency response, low colouration and just an incredibly big fat punchy honest low distortion sound. Yes, they're expensive but if you bear in mind that you don't need a preamp I think they're extremely good value. Alex[/quote] +1 on that I have used Q-Tuners in a few builds and the output from them negates the need for an on-board pre-amp and I would love to use them as standard on my new short scale designs but cost comes into play especially with the current exchange rates. There are also a lot of other variables in the chain and its not just a case of passive or active. As has been mentioned taking huge chunks of wood out of the body won't help tone ( unless its a correctly designed chamber for a hollow body) and the quality of pots / cable and jack socket can make a difference as will correct star earthing. I am personally going down the passive route with my new builds , the "Gazzumper" that has now been sold was a good example of how good a passive bass can sound with a few simple touches. Both pickups were 4 wire humbuckers with coil tap switches and just a volume on each pup and an overall tone. The volumes were quality 500k pots the tone a 250k and a .47uf Cap , change the values on any of these items and you will affect the overall tone. Muddyness is usually a combination of poor pots and wiring combined with poor pickups and for a lot of manufacturers it is easier/cheaper to put in an active circuit rather than design the initial passive circuit correctly. Obviously this does not apply to East / ACG filter circuits as they are properly designed and matched to the pups, but like the old adage "you pays you money" etc...

[quote name='51m0n' post='473526' date='Apr 27 2009, 05:29 PM']Hadley does and always did sound like Richard Cheese to me.....[/quote] I think he has been taking Club Singer lessons off Vic and Bob

Why not ? if you are in a high energy punk / thrash band , the mosh pit is full and everyone is frantic then go for it if you think it fits the performance. Why is it crass and setting a bad example ? its your gear to do as you please with. May not be very fitting with an MOR / AOR or Jazz set but then everyone will be sat down at those gigs (audience will be too old to stand for any amount of time) so not very apt in that instance. People attach themselves too much to possessions and in a way smashing things up makes a positive statement that these things are transient and unimportant in the greater scheme of things.

Another possible route is using a Behringer V-Amp Pro , a decent power amp and a lightweight high power cab. I have one mated to a Inter M R300 amp (300 watt bridged into 8 ohms) I went for this amp due to its 8 ohm bridged setting and run it through a single 12" 300 watt cab that measures 14" x 14" x 12" (home-made with a Skytronic 902.442 300 watt / 600 watt peak driver ) although there are quite a few good 12" or 2 x 10" commercial cabs that would do the job. Total cost of my setup was £58 for the V-amp, £50.00 for the power amp and £40.00 for the cab (all bought second-hand) Having tried a few heads recently I much prefer the V-Amp with its amazing amount of variation and fine tuning plus if you add a Midi - controller pedal you can use quite a few different settings in a live situation. The V-amp also gives you the option of wet / dry DI output to your desk and even SPDIF if needed

[quote name='4000' post='465811' date='Apr 18 2009, 01:22 AM']I don't expect people to fall at our feet, I just want to play a gig. Why should I have to play covers? It's like a painter having to make a living copying other people's paintings. Bollocks, basically. I used to be in a different originals band and we played a couple of covers, but no-one knew they were covers. We went down a storm 99% of the time, and the most popular tracks? Our own. It all depends where you play and who you're playing to. I'd sooner give up playing live altogether than have to play covers for a living. Unless of course I was playing Space Ritual in its entirety. [/quote] +1 on this , exactly my attitude when I was playing gigs. With arguments like this I like to quote Billy Cobham [quote]When I put something together I think of the people involved, the musicians and whether we can enjoy an involvement, a relationship and help each other evolve a bit more. If people enjoy it, which we hope they will, and the musical respect and admiration we share is there, then I think those are the factors which lead to the best kind of music. That is really all I am interested in , to play the best possible music.[/quote] amen.....

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='464855' date='Apr 17 2009, 11:50 AM']I had this trouble once over dog barking. The prat next door (who was one of the most irritating territorial gits I have ever met - and he was only in his 20s) wrote to the council, they wrote to us saying they were monitoring the situation. We did nothing because we felt the complaint was unreasonable. That was the last we heard of it (2004). The world is full of what are called 'vexacious litigants', inveterate complainers who have nothing better to do than seek exercise power and force their values onto others. They usually do it anonymously because they lack the social skills to do it to your face. These people are ill-equipped to live in close proximity to others and should go and find a cottage up a mountain somewhere where they can live in silence and without someone invasing their vast acreage of personal space. You have a right to make reasonable noise and it sounds to me that you are being reasonable by stopping at an reasonable time, not playing there every day and not playing too loud. Most councils would agree with me. I wouldn't lie awake worrying about it.[/quote] oh dear looks like I am a 'vexacious litigant' I approached a neighbour regarding his dog barking (all day whilst they were at work) only to get verbal threats and abuse off him. So I went home and phoned the council who wrote to him and the dog barking stopped , well 90% of it anyway. Who decides what is reasonable ? why if your life is blighted by moronic neighbours and their actions should you move ? Summer bbq's , parties , dogs barking at postmen , low level band practice, all fine in my book, but there is a flip side to this and not all those who complain (including me) should be classed as inverterate complainers. Noise pollution can really blight some peoples lives if they work shifts, work from home or have young children. I work in my workshop with power bench tools (bandsaw, planer, drill etc) but only do so between 10 and 5 when most people are at work or school. In your case you should monitor the noise level yourselves and make a judgment on whether you would be annoyed by it. Mind you if you are playing Jazz I'd complain even if you were quiet......

[quote name='Shonks' post='464154' date='Apr 16 2009, 05:14 PM']I wouldn't.......dont!! [/quote] +1 to that... never got cover / tribute bands.....

A 5902 from 1964. Why ? my first bass given to me by my brothers friend in 1976 . I stripped the body and french polished it and added a Gibson Grabber style style scratch plate. When the headstock snapped for the 3rd time I retired it and cannot remember what happened to it. [attachment=23820:la_c_5902.jpg] My Bruce Foxton impression with the bass back in 78.... [attachment=23821:IMG_0581.JPG]

pm'd

[quote name='Buzz' post='459376' date='Apr 10 2009, 03:24 PM']He has a guitar shop, it's not a big jump to fetish equipment from there, probably some of the same customers. And I concur with Prosebass, one of the petshops in my home town has closed recently, the reason is that the owners of the building put up the rent so the business become unprofitable. Now all that's there is an empty shop, that strikes me as stupid on the owners part, as instead of having rent at X, they wanted rent at X + Y, but instead they've now got 0 coming in from it and will still be paying some basic outlay on the building. Some people are just too greedy.[/quote] A lot depends on who the Landlord is and if they own adjacent properties. A general price hike will affect all the Landlords properties as they don't like to have tenants on different rates. I personally think they are in collusion to keep prices up. You never see them having a sale. ! Here is an example from when I was in retail. I looked at a shop that had been vacant for 2-3 months in a town center development. I was told the rent was £40,000 PA which I could not afford. I offered £20,000 for 2 years £30,000 for year 3 and £40,000 for year 4. The Landlord who developed the site said the rent was non negotiable and if I got a lower rate everyone else on the development would want the same and it would be dangerous long term as the property would be seen to be less desirable if the rent was lower. It was empty for over 2 years......... Britain is fine is you belong to the rich elite that runs everything. Otherwise you are just disposable labour for them as a lot of people are finding out at the moment.

Where does Dudley Moore fit into all this ...?

Shame to see this, although you will note from the lack of comments from the forum that most people don't give a f**k ! The BBC gloom and doom mongers reckon on 140,000 retail establishments going bang this year. Generally the reasons are not lack of sales but extortionate business rates and rent. I have a few friends in retail and indeed was in it myself until 2008. The only ones coping at the moment either own their establishments or have a very tight reign on the accounts. Internet based business is also struggling with the onset of a price war pushing margins ever lower to the point that soon very few independents will exist. One of my friends has a very successful ebay based guitar and bass parts business and he is feeling the effect of large companies coming into the market with their economies of scale pushing the prices down. Thats fine you may say things will be cheaper to buy but at what cost ?

Looks good , great to see someone doing their own design and don't be influenced by others do it as you want it with as many bass clefs as you like... I've been doing some single cut design drawings and like yours they all turn out looking like a sperm whale...

I'm still buying up old copies of International Musician from the 70's and 80's. Best magazine there has ever been to give a full spectrum of players , gear and the industry as it was back then. My new years resolution was not to buy any new magazines and I must admit I don't feel like I am missing anything.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='453510' date='Apr 3 2009, 04:55 PM']Gotta watch those charismatic German leaders though.[/quote] Its not been the same since Helmut Kohl retired