Al Krow

Having traded my lovely Ibby SR1825 for a Berg NXT cab back in 2021, I've come to realise how much I'm missing it and how fab and relatively untiring having 16.5mm string spacing on a 5 string bass is! But trying to find an SR Premium 5er used has been quite the task! Think I may finally be about to strike lucky, yaay!

Maybe I've been lucky but I've sold almost as much bass gear on eBay as BC, over several years, without any issues. eBay (and fBook market and Gumtree) gives us access to a whole different set of buyers/sellers who are very often not on BC, and sometimes stuff that is not shifting at all on BC will get snapped on eBay. Just looking back at what I've sold and, over the past couple of years, big ticket items (basses, amps and cabs) I've predominantly managed to sell on eBay. Maybe we've got an older, wiser set of bass players on BC who already largely have what they are needing with the bigger ticket items? I do take the point that eBay protects buyers over sellers - I guess the key piece of advice would be to check their feedback scores, which is available on eBay just as it is on BC, and message them to get a feel for whether they are genuine and not and, when possible, with bigger items to see if you can meet them in person to do the sale - which also saves on the worst bit of selling bigger items, the packing and couriering! 😊 Not having to wait for the 80% off fees from eBay, and them now going one better and making all sales 100% off has got to be very welcome?

Well having started this thread some 30 months ago, appears I'm nearing the final couple of laps! Sold the last of my amps and cabs today (a rather nice Fearless F112) - end of an era for me! But a good opportunity to use the cash to upgrade the PA with some better speakers (RCF 912A --> 932A?), a decent digital desk, and maybe a budget subwoofer. Ooops, I think I may have just spent the proceeds a couple of time over 😅

Have to fess that @prowla's issue about the proximity of the right foot switch to the encoder was very much the one concern I had about the more compact design, which does otherwise look great! The worry is that in a live situation it would be easy to angle your foot wrong and snap the encoder switch. I can see why you've gone for that design, though: you've basically taken the exact layout of the existing pedal circuit board (which makes complete sense!) and put it in a smaller housing. When you say similarly designed pedals - can you think of others that have a similar layout with stomp switch right next to a dial switch? Hmmm...may need to rethink moving on my current housing v4, while this one gets a bit more road testing to see if this is actually going to be a real problem or just an imaginary one!

Oh I completely missed that happening. When did it / will it come out? Any differences between the larger and more compact pedals?

Oh that is a very neat compact version of the FI! Is at a @GisserD enclosure? Good luck with the op on Monday!

I'm really not sure

It's a great tuner, for sure, and LEDs perfect for dark stages. Best? No idea! But as a super easy to use bolt on to a compact and cheap multi-fx, what's not to like?

If you get a chance to have a listen that would be much appreciated!

Any noise issues? I found the Boss LS-2 added a little bit of noise to the signal chain, so if this doesn't then that will make it doubly interesting!

I can highly recommend Alex - he's an excellent bass player and thoroughly professional in his approach.

Well that one's going to be back in demand, haha!

Enjoyed that a lot! Great job!

Good post! But would a bit of hair dye count as being anything "too much" to hide those greys? Is it any different to (mostly) women wearing make-up which no one gives second thought to ie has become a completely social norm? Are we applying different rules and standards to men and women in critiquing one group but pretty much expecting it from the other?

The Nux are great, particularly with the low interference 5.8 gHz. I tried mine at an open air gig a short while back and my IEMs gave way long before the Nux did. Well actually more accurately the Nux didn't, even 100m down the track!

Thanks John, I've actually gone for the G2-4 (the guitar edition) not the B2-4...largely inspired by your post above regarding the android app 😊 Liking the prospect of the cleaner / more open sound you are getting. I suspect down to the upgraded chip set. The B1-4 is definitely a little muffled, particularly with the noise reduction fx added.

@JohnDaBass managed to snaffle a B stock Zoom G2-4 for £82 from Bax. Be interested to see how I get on with it - given it doesn't have the bass specific models on it. I'm mainly using the B1-4 for tone shaping / preamp duties and the G2-4 effects list includes Parametric EQs which should get me where I need to be, plus it has the usual pitch shift, modulation, and hopefully usable dirt (Rat fx) plus drum, looper, tuner, aux in But it's more compact form factor vs the B2-4, Android editing (not yet available on the MS-60B+ or B2-4) and more current chipset vs the B1-4 means it's definitely worth a punt at that price!

Sounds great and I wish you every success! Being in a hobby band can and should be a LOT of fun! For sure. We're all coming from this at different angles, expectations and pressures. And, as you say, if you've been booked to do a wedding then you absolutely can't be in a position to let the wedding couple down! For semi-pro or pro musicians, there's going to be a difference in expectation from bandmates and clients alike, both as musicians and as band leaders. And there will be many in such crews who will have taken the brave step of making (and teaching) music their "main" thing in terms of trying to make a living from it, while doing part time zero hour contracts to keep the roof over their heads. And that brings a whole different perspective to being in a band and a band leader.

Gotcha. Out of interest how many gigs a year are you guys doing and are any of the band reliant on income from the gigs, or is it more of a purely fun / hobby band, and gig fees more bonus "pocket money"?

This is very true and very much how our singer feels when one of the "core" band is missing. Personally I enjoy the variety and different approaches of talented musos who feel they are part of the band and all have something different and useful to contribute which gets shared across to whichever line up is playing. What do you guys do when one of you can't make a gig, do you just have ad hoc deps coming in?

I totally agree with this! The way it's panning out for us is that we've ended up with, in effect, two line ups to make sure we generally have a crew who are fully up to speed with all our material e.g. if one of us needs a weekend off for whatever reason. Also means we can take on the odd function while having the second line up at one of regular pub residencies, without having to p*ss off the pub by cancelling on them. It's led to a bit of insecurity on the part of the original crew, but equally there's definitely little complacency and we're all expecting the best from each other at every gig. Someone said to me you won't get any serious football team with just 11 players in the line up, which I thought was an interesting analogy.

Oh that is exciting news - could be a game changer for both the B2-Four and MS-60B+

"Is running a band really worth it? I think the short answer is it really should be!! Playing a key role in enabling both yourself and your bandmates to make great music, playing a fantastic instrument to appreciative audiences: should be massively rewarding! But dealing with endless admin is never fun. Figuring out how to avoid musical burnout, and keeping things fresh / not getting jaded can be a challenge, and has certainly been for me over the past year. Having like minded and enthusiastic bandmates to help share the load makes a big difference. Also easier if you all have the same goals e.g. is this a primarily a hobby band or are you aiming for something more semi-pro? How many and what type of gigs (e.g. pubs vs functions) and working out what leadership style is going to work best to get you there e.g. band-ocracy or band-tatership or something in between? These words are from a fellow BC'er, on another thread not too long back about BLs, which I found had so much wisdom: 1. Be respectful 2. Good communication 3. None of us are making our millions so it needs to be fun 4. Make bandmates feel valued if you want them to stay