Dan Dare

There's a Tecamp 2x12 in the classifieds (not belonging to me or anyone I know). It's in Northampton, too. Worth a look?

No, they are a business. They (and most other businesses) don't really want your old kit. They offer low in the hope that you will take it away and sell it privately. They have to clean it, set it up/remedy any issues, offer a guarantee and see it sitting on the shelf with their money tied up in it until it sells. They'd rather not do that. If you don't want to make the effort to sell privately and want the convenience of trading in, it costs you. What's wrong with that?

A pleasure. Hope it was some help. If you've gone for the Eich, that should serve you well and be plenty powerful enough and you can always use your fx to colour the sound to your taste. I suggested the Bass Gallery as your profile says you're London based. If you're in Northampton, you could take a trip to Bass Direct in Warwick. Not a million miles away. Go on a weekday when they're not busy and you can play with/try stuff to your heart's content. Cabs tend to be more of a personal choice. I'm a PJB fan/user, but I don't think they'd be the best for your intended use and you'd need a lot of them to make a noise (I run up to five their 4x5 cabs depending on how loud I need to be). I like their clarity and the slight warmth of my AG700 complements them well. Whenever you audition cabs, do take your amp with you so you know how they will work together. Have fun.

You are looking to spend proper money on good quality gear. You simply have to try them. Don't listen to us or buy on recommendation alone. Fwiw re. your comments: Aguilar TH500 is more coloured and a little less powerful than the AG700 (which I use). The AG700 is not totally flat/clean, but then nothing really is. It has only slight warmth, in my experience (even with the dirt knob full up, it's still not really coloured). Whether either/both would be any improvement on your DG is something you'll need to find out by demoing them side by side. Given that you never usually get back anything like what you have spent when you trade up/in, it may be most cost effective to keep the DG and use it 'plain'. There's no law that requires you to use all of its features if you don't need/want to. 12s don't necessarily give you more bass/body than 10s. They may (depending on quality) push more air, but efficiency and cab design is just as important. Again, you need to try stuff to find what works for you. A trip to a well-stocked shop (you're in London, so the Bass Gallery in Camden is an obvious suggestion) looks to be in order.

Some helpful instructional vid's on YouTube. Have a look at them. I've never come across heat shrinkable cloth.

A sideways move. Not worth doing. If you play guitar, use your guitar fx for now.

I'd say it's a Jackson. A 3 rather than a 5 from the look of it 😉

I'd say £100 is twice what it's worth. I sold a mint Studio 110 a couple of years back on the 'Bay and got around £30 for it. Offer them £50 in January when business is slow if you're still keen.

Cleaning a bass? My good man, have you taken leave of your senses?

This. Shops are in business and need to make a decent profit in order to keep the lights on. If you want the convenience of a trade-in, you have to accept that you are going to get less for something than you would if you sold it privately. If you really don't want to sell it yourself, asking a shop to sell on commission is probably the next best thing. They will probably be able to get more for it than you would, although they have to offer a guarantee, clean and set it up, etc, which will eat into what you receive. Probably not the best time to sell an instrument right now, with everyone spending their spare cash on Christmas baubles. Do you really need a new bass right now?

A colleague I used to work with, who did not drink for religious/cultural reasons, insisted that we should go to a dry premises for team social events - Christmas lunch and so on. When I pointed out that I was not forcing her to drink at a licensed premises, whereas I was prevented from doing so if we went somewhere dry, there was talk of "discrimination". Sadly, others were frightened by this and caved. I just dipped out of social occasions with them from then on if she was going. Thank Gawd I'm retired now and don't have to navigate that b/s.

Since when were they ever making music?

I'm surprised to learn the percentage is as high as that. Given that most people either loathe or, at best, can't be bothered about most of the music they hear, the band may be limiting it's potential appeal a touch.

This

Blimey. So someone wants to have a vegan band. Not my cup of meat, to quote Bob Dylan, but who cares? I wouldn't want to be in it, anyway.

I wouldn't be swayed by reviews, etc. Trust your own ears. Remember most pickups are not actually active. It's the onboard pre' that makes a bass active. In my case, I added an East active pre' to my J bass and found I preferred the instrument in its passive form. The active pre' made it sound more generic, for want of a better term. Bigger sound, more poke and more versatile in active form, but the signature J bass quality was missing. It just sounded like everything else. I returned the instrument to passive form and sold the pre'

humour /ˈhjuːmə/ 1. the quality of being amusing or comic, especially as expressed in literature or speech.

I realise that (did you miss the part where I said I'm a PRS member?). However, a lot of smaller venues or ones where music is only performed occasionally, are not licenced. When we play a licenced venue, we are asked to complete a PRS return, listing what we have played. It certainly doesn't happen everywhere.

True. Strictly speaking, if you perform someone else's song/music and it's still in copyright, you should pay a royalty to the composer, copyright owner et al. Obviously, it's impossible to police or monitor all occasions where this happens and the cost and effort of doing so would not be worth the return. Consequently, effort is directed towards situations where there is some sort of profile, rather than the band playing in the Dog & Duck on Tuesday evening. I'm surprised sometimes when I read my PRS statement and see where payments - often of only pennies - originate. It doesn't matter whether or not there is any financial benefit to the performers. If they are making use of someone's intellectual property, the property owner can pursue a royalty or seek to prevent them from using his/her property. Benefit to the performer is often not financial, in the immediate term, at any rate. It might take the form of pleasing or impressing friends, gaining followers, persuading potential bookers to hire them and so on. The fact that we can and do play music written and owned by others without paying for the privilege does not make it our legal right. It just means nobody has noticed, or that it isn't worth it for the owners to pursue us.

Pour encourager les autres. Exactement.

Have a look at the qualifying statement with the headline figure. It will usually say something along the lines of "400w into 8 ohms at 1khz for xx amount of time". Wattage ratings are pretty inexact, but manufacturers and consumers need some sort of yardstick. Wattage is easy to understand, so watts it is.

No, it wouldn't "mean that the copyright law has been repealed". Repealing a law can only be done by the body that makes the law (a nation's Parliament or its equivalent). However, precedent is important. If artists do not pursue cases of copyright infringement, they could be creating a potential loophole for pirates to exploit. There are many laws on the statute book that are no longer followed or enforced, because custom and practice has caused them to fall into disuse. Formally repealing them would be costly and time consuming and a waste of limited government time and resources, so they are left to languish. Once that happens, it can be difficult to resurrect them. What appears to underlie your argument (and that of others on this thread) is that it's OK to steal from someone, provided the person being stolen from is wealthy and the person doing the stealing is not. Given that we are musicians on here, it baffles me that so many can argue against enforcing copyright laws. Would we feel the same were it our work that was being pirated?

Most drivers can tolerate occasional short term peaks that are higher than their rated input power. Most amps are rated according to how much power they can deliver in short bursts (think milliseconds) at a particular frequency. Their continuous power delivery will be lower, often considerably so. The disparity between your amp and cab is not enormous. I wouldn't worry about it. You'll know if the speaker is struggling because it will not sound pleasant. If that happens, turn down.

Sorry, you are wrong on so many counts. SD's most important point was in his first paragraph, to wit: "One thing that's common to copyright laws in different countries is that if a copyright holder knowingly fails to act on a copyright infringement then a subsequent infringer (?) can use this as precedent to demonstrate that the copyright holder does not defend copyright, ergo there's a loophole for full-on bootleggers to exploit. You can't pick and choose which copyright infringements to go after. You have to go after them all." Read that carefully. If he/his lawyers fail to pursue a case of copyright infringement, they are effectively giving a get out of jail free card to subsequent pirates. You acknowledge in your third paragraph that piracy is rife in Germany. Artists have no choice other than to pursue every case or risk setting a precedent that will enable pirates to ply their trade with impunity. Too much white knighting going on in this thread.

I carry a socket tester for this reason. They're cheap enough. Have found a couple of sockets where neutral and earth have been reversed over the years.