lemmywinks

Judging by the video I don't think he is!

He makes all of those sound terrible.

Loving that description! Are they not hats? They are energy domes!

Just look at the state of that....

That's a BCer isn't it?

The sound they make is down to them having a combination of a piezo pickup, bronze strings and frets. A fretless acoustic bass with nylon coated strings sounds closer to a double bass than anything else I've tried. When that bass had frets and those horrid bronze things it also sounded scratchy and zingy, now it has an excellent "woody" (cringeworthy adjective but can't think of another one) tone, you can also dig in closer to the neck without creating too much noise which is something you can't do with the bronze strings and piezo combination. Just swapping the strings for something more suitable will make the sound more appropriate for the body style, unfortunately this is something you can only hear after you've already shelled out on the bass and a new set of strings.

Your best bet is to try our a few and find one that sounds reasonably loud and deep. The better ones I've used in that regard (irrespective of price) have been various Washburns and my mate's Samick. Usually they come with bronze strings which sound bright and clanky when coupled with a piezo that doesn't cost the earth, for a more authentic acoustic tone try nylon coated strings, less volume though. I still use an old cheapo Ozark acoustic (I bought it almost 20 years ago in college ) which has been defretted and fitted with black nylons, it's a lovely sounding bass and sounds far more like a db than an electric fretless does despite what others on here will tell you. For anything other than accompanying a classical guitar you'll need amplification though, I've used a small JBL powered monitor, a little Hartke A70 combo and a mini bass rig (MarkBass/EA) over the years. Would probably just take a combo or monitor out of convience. Most people will tell you how useless acoustic basses are but I've played mine regularly in various situations for nearly two decades so if you have a need or use for one then satisfy your curiosity, there's worse things to spend your money on. Keep in mind if you want that "acoustic" sound then the fretless/nylon combo is probably the way to go.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1969-GIBSON-CUSTOM-V-BASS-made-in-USA/173032499873?hash=item28498a6aa1:g:QOIAAOSwo4pYRdkf#viTabs_0 Our German friend again.......

I had the 5 string version, later ones had black hardware IIRC. Played well enough, body was bubinga I think, preamp was terrible though with that brittle tinny treble frequency all budget preamps had at the time. A cheapo Artec or something would improve it tenfold. Paid £50 for it and sold it on here for a similar amount #nocrook

Irrelevant, on pretty much every online trade group I'm a member of backdooring other people's deals is considered the lowest of the low, as bad as scammers and an instant ban if caught. Not the brightest idea to come on a bass forum marketplace and admit you try and scupper other people's bass purchases on the sly.

So you tried to sabotage someone else's eBay purchase to snag it for yourself? Wow.

I have an empty BFM Omni 10.5 knocking around, not sure if the Delta is compatible, I know Deltalites and Basslites work well as that's what I've had in it previously. Great cab and pretty light though.

Thanks for the opinions, seems like it would be wise to give it a miss until I can try one out at a rehearsal.

I'm looking to switch to a single compact multi effects unit, has to be small and the effects have to be good quality. Obviously this one caught my eye as it's tiny, however with it being a cheap plastic unit I'm a bit worried about the overall quality of the effects. So.... What's the compression like? At the moment I'm using an EBS Multicomp (blue and black true bypass version) and I like the sound of this - no noise, no loss of low end and sounds natural even at higher settings. How does the Zoom compare? What is the envelope filter like? Does it do that deep burpy sound (Now Do U Wanta Dance? style) or is it a bit anaemic? I've watched Dood's review of the X version on YouTube which was good but obviously tries to cover a lot of what the unit can do in a short video so there wasn't much focus on individual sounds. The only Zoom unit I've had before (a cheap thing with an expression pedal) sounded cheap and overly "digital", I would prefer something which sounds similar to using a standard pedal board setup without all the cables and power supplies. And also fits in my gigbag pocket. Also is there anything similar to this? I'm clueless with multi effects in case you hadn't guessed! Thanks in advance.

Gumtree and local Facebook groups are full of timewasters in every category, I've been let down several times from no-shows which is frustrating when you've set time aside for them. Nothing you can do, just move on. If you're feeling mischievous offer the seller full price then don't turn up to collect several times

[quote name='Bastav' timestamp='1473433181' post='3130218'] This one [url="http://www.ebay.com/itm/TONE-MONSTER-AVT-Acoustic-Preamp-Bass-Guitar-SA4B-UST-Under-Saddle-Pickup-/182273359593?"]http://www.ebay.com/...-/182273359593?[/url] I have no idea if it's any good but we'll find out [/quote] Nice one thanks.

Just out of interest what preamp did you buy for the piezo?

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1473334187' post='3129176'] From Royal Mail's website: [font=arial, sans-serif][size=4]"Any parcel assessed as being liable for Customs charges will also incur a [/size][/font][b]Royal Mail handling fee[/b][font=arial, sans-serif][size=4] of £[/size][/font][b]8[/b][font=arial, sans-serif][size=4]. Any goods imported into the UK over the value of £15 are liable to import VAT. Gifts between private individuals over the value of £34 are also liable for VAT".[/size][/font] [/quote] My mistake the £34 was for gifts, it's £15 for normal goods. I'm pretty sure that limit used to be around £20 a few years ago?

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1473333824' post='3129168'] Dealing with the HMRC is always a nightmare. [/quote] Yup. I had to send a faulty item back to China last year and claiming my duty and VAT back from HMRC was the most painful part of the whole process, that's including speaking to the vendor in Shenzen who spoke barely any English. I filled out the form 3 times and sent it Signed For and it got rejected each time because they didn't process it properly, eventually I got a phone call from someone with a brain and after explaining the situation he cleared it and sent me the money. Completely useless. The silver lining is I was able to buy the same item the week later for £20 less and it got sent with standard mail so no charges, £64 saving!

The allowance for VAT is £34 and for Customs Duty it's £135, not sure you should have paid anything at all: https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

I use a USB powered mini desk, probably the best option if you want to use it with a Windows laptop or tablet, it's one of these: https://reverb.com/uk/item/2635070-refurbished-behringer-xenyx-302usb-premium-5-input-mixer-and-usb-audio-interface-full-warranty?_aid=pla&pla=1&gclid=Cj0KEQjw9b6-BRCq7YP34tvW_uUBEiQAkK3svfJiqKSCMmkDqZCTVCEFGaXnMjWtxrqlbM9dRYIB7S8aAm9D8P8HAQ Had some cheap Sennheisers but recently picked up a pair of bluetooth heapdhones from Aldi (with 3.5mm jack aux in) which actually go a fair bit deeper and sound clearer. The main advantage for me is cutting down on cables, The desk uses just a single USB cable for power and also uses this as a line in. I have a bluetooth adapter on the way from China to cut out another cable too so eventually it will be a single guitar lead and a short USB cable. I hate cables but want the flexibility of a desk so I can quickly boost or cut volume levels or low end on seprate channels. It also functions as an audio interface, has a switchable aux in on channel 2 (with seperate 2 band eq like chanel 1) and works with my Windows tablet. Before this I used a small desk but that had a bulky power brick and required a seperate aux in cable so wasn't as neat. I also had a Korg Pandora PX3B which was very portable but sounded lifeless to me, handy little thing though.

In terms of space ours sit nicely behind the PA speaker stands and don't take up much extra room. Our PA stands are massive things though so YMMV. The stands in the Thomann bundle go very high and the lights are powerful enough to provide a proper colour wash over the entire stage which we like. Lights are one of the areas lots of bands cheap out on to their detriment, they add a lot to the experience from a punters' point of view and all your gig photos will look tons better with proper stage lighting, a dark room with lighting also helps fill the dancefloor earlier. It's great that it costs so little now and doesn't cook my bald head like back in the pre-LED days.

We bought two of the Stairville bundles from Thomann initially as a stopgap until we could buy better ones, however after using them they're staying. They come with good quality stands and hard foam cases which was a massive surprise as for the money we were expecting barely usable stuff. The lights themselves put out a serious amount of colour and look fantastic, they definitely don't perform like budget lights at all. They're more than enough for any gig where we do PA ourselves and to be honest would cope well in most places we play, in fact for smaller pubs we just take one side. https://www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_clb24_compact_led_parbundle.htm £310 for both sides, we added the controller too.

[quote name='Grassie' timestamp='1473007984' post='3125996'] Here's my newly acquired 4 string - lovely thing to play. Only gripes? Gloss lacquer on the neck, frets could do with dressing, bridge saddles are surprisingly sharp on the corners. That's it. Oh, and [i]that[/i] headstock. But the good stuff out weighs the bad by [i]a lot. [/i]VFM x 10. [attachment=227081:Sire MM jazz.jpg] [/quote] I have the same but thr 5 string version, it's incredible.

Metallica's best sounding bass player by a country mile, some nice fretless lines tucked away in there too. Mind you I bet even I would struggle to make his gear sound bad!