lemmywinks

This one looks like it has had minimal effort put into it tbh, I expect a fair few of us have done a not so great defret at some point in our lives (I have!) but if you had a large workshop full of tools then you could easily make it good again. Get rid of that filler, saw out the fret slots, tidy up the chips and fit proper wood inserts would be an option, just using rosewood dust and glue would be another. These things don't take up too much time and aren't particularly difficult if you have the tools and space, even getting one of those furniture touch up pen sets and matching the filler to the fretboard would improve the look of it. My cheapo fretless acoustic bass is originally a filler job and it looks a lot better than that one, in fact the colour is matched so from 1m away you can't tell it's not an unlined board. All done with just rosewood dust, glue, sandpaper, touch up pens and wood stain.

Without having bass through the PA you're stuck regarding monitoring really as you will have to provide the FoH as well as your own on stage sound. I'd probably just go with the traditional bass amp at the back arrangement tbh. Subs don't have to cost the earth, we picked up a pair of RCF subs on eBay for around £500 the pair. They're big and heavy but were cheap and make your bum vibrate when you sit down within 10m of them. A good compromise might be to try a single sub and find the best location for it, half the size/weight of a pair and you will be able to use smaller, more convenient monitoring.

Why would your knuckes impede your ability to tune a Fender style bass with its massive tuning keys? Surely you turn them with your fingers and your knuckles don't get in the way of anything, in fact reducing the size of the tuning keys (paddles?) and making them an awkward un-ergonomic shape would make them more difficult to use would it not? Especially if you position the G string tuner pointing away from the player so the hand is forced into an uncomfortable angle. I don't really get this "for blokes with big hands" nonsense, I'm tall with big mitts and it's just not an issue and never has been. It's not like being a big bloke suddenly means you have no articulation in your digits and have to resort to flailing around like an uncoordinated maniac hitting musical instruments with your knuckles and elbows or whatever.

For the same price you can get a brand new Classic Vibe fretless Jazz: https://www.gak.co.uk/en/squier-classic-vibe-60s-jazz-bass-fretless-laurel-fingerboard-3-colour-sunburst/923634?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI19nYm_H65QIVSbDtCh2nEwXtEAQYASABEgJR7_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Two of the tuners have the backplate hacked and all of them have the tuning key bodged into a Mickey Mouse head, his new thing seems to be making the tuning key progressively smaller from E to G which doesn't make any sense. Seems like another solution to a problem that doesn't exist and an excuse to alter a bass for no real reason.

Yeah, about half a tub of it by the looks of things!

Also looking at the string height at the nut and again on the fretboard pic above it looks like that action at the 12th is seriously high whereas it look like it will buzz like hell at the lower frets as it is so low. You can see half his workshop under that E string. The G string is pretty much touching the fretboard: I don't think he knows how to set instruments up despite the bluster.

That defret: The height of those grub screws: The biro! Also it's now PCSGC, the S stands for "special" according to the description. It certainly is pal, it certainly is.....

Would probably be a simple job to add a passive tone rolloff before the bass signal goes to the preamp. All basses with an active/passive switch should have this IMO but it's not something you see too often, mind you an active/passive switch itself seems to be uncommon too.

I've also had them pay for a new driver before, did quite well out of the deal and upgraded to a Deltalite shedding the bulk of the cab's weight in the process!

I appreciate this as a few years ago when I had a lot of basses through the door I used to sneak larger parcels through to save money (yeah I know, I'm part of the problem!), IIRC they had limits which were slightly too small to fit a full size bass with the neck on. Will definitely be checking for any radical differences in the future. UPS charging that amount to handle what is essentially a slightly larger box is nuts though.

I wasn't advising to do it if you read the post.

Ah right, is there no way to just get the monitor mix on an iPad and get faster basic functionality on a bigger screen?

The My Fader app rather than Master Fader? Yeah that's all I'll need rather than the whole desk app, the Ipad Mini 2 is the same spec pretty much as the 5S I think but with a higher resolution display. Apparently the latest supported OS is 12.4.3 for it. Ideally I'd want a small tablet rather than a phone so I can stick it on a mount in a convenient place for quick access. If 5.1 is released then I can run that on my Windows 2in1 hybrid which I already own and flog whatever Apple device I have.

It's literally just for changing the odd slider a handful of times over the course of a gig for my personal monitor mix, the minis seem to be a bit cheaper locally and on eBay for one in decent condition (ie normal wear but hasn't been thrown out of a moving vehicle). I've checked and a regular one would fit in the laptop pocket of my gigbag. Ideally I don't want to spend much on something I don't actually want and was hoping I could get away with being tight and buying a cheaper old tablet. In fact ideally the existing tablets I own would be supported! Besides I'm worried that if I buy a more modern Apple device I'll start wearing skinny jeans and will have to grow a rubbish beard.

I think the 1st gen Mini has worse specs than the 4th gen standard iPad too, would a Gen 2 Mini be bearable?

Yeah looking back at the T&Cs they have a £15 "manual" fee for doing the admin so they're waving that to pay UPS. Seeing as they're emailing you to claim the money and haven't taken it automatically (6.1 in their T&Cs) it would be tempting to just stop replying as they will probably write it off, there's always the chance they could pursue it though which will be more of a ballache and expense than the £116. This will be a drop in the ocean to the amount of unclaimed extra insurance people take out on their parcels every day so it's probably a numbers game to them, hoping most people just pay up when they get the £116 offer. At this stage I'd be getting proper advice if you have any legaly minded friends.

Can you try and phone them? I've had to do that before and once you get past the 1st line of customer services and speak to someone who can make decisions they are/were very good. Surely they'll be able to see how ridiculous the £116 charge is for a parcel which was no more than 20cm out at it's largest dimension. I wonder if they are paying that £116 to UPS or if they get a different surcharge for oversize packages.

Seems if you book UPS through Interparcel for a 15kg box of that size the cost is £141.43 which is astronomical, we get pallets delivered on trolleys for under half that: https://uk.interparcel.com/quote/courier-quote2?quote_key=rkHNTCMPnave9LkATiFH If you had used Parcel Force the excess would have been under a tenner. Btw the £116 figure is the actual price you should be paying as that's the difference between the original fee and the above one, they've stuck an extra £15 charge on it, probably to give themselves some wiggle room to get you to pay up. Tricky situation really as you had given the dimensions of the parcel you booked to the seller and he disregarded it.

Nice one thanks, do you use the old Mini or a more powerful iPad? I'm just concerned about it not running well on obsolete hardware. I will hopefully be using v5 with my old Bay Trail Windows 2 in 1 tablet rather than Android, tbh I have no qualms about buying a better Windows device as it will get used elsewhere and would replace a current unit. Tbh I don't really want to buy Apple or Android tablet just for this as I don't use them really, all my tech is Windows or Linux apart from my phone. I do have access to our keyboard player's iPad but it's a bit of a faff to reach over, unlock it, switch monitor mixes and change levels mid gig, would much rather have my own which is unlocked and easily accessible.

Had a quick look and you are correct, they want you to pay them extra money to get it there within the specified time period you had already paid for. Great company!

Have a look in their T&Cs to see if there's anything about when they are contracted to deliver it within a set period of time, reasonable delays etc. If you think you have a claim and aren't getting anywhere then ask to speak to someone higher up. I sold an acoustic a few years ago and the courier tried to deliver it to the recipient's workplace multiple times late in the evening (like ~8pm) when it was closed, I checked their T&Cs and found this was against their own stipulated hours and rang CS only to be told I would have to pay to ship it again with no refund. I asked to speak to someone higher up as was rudely told I would get the same answer but miraculously after less than a minute of speaking to said higher up I was issued an apology and full refund.

Looking for a cheap (and hopefully temporary) solution to Mackie not providing support for non iOS devices with the DL32R, noticed you can get the original Gen 1 iPad Mini for about £50 used but I'm not familiar with Apple stuff and am aware they like to cripple old devices. Is this still ok to run Master Fader or will it be sluggish as hell? Don't want to run anything else on it at all, will just be used for that one app and then sold when Mackie get their @rse in gear RE software support.

I use (or rather used as I have to go in ears now) a Fishman pre straight into a powered cab. The signal chain is pretty much the same just without the cabs being potentially specifically tailored for bass. It's still bass > preamp > power amp > speaker, just in a slightly different arrangement. I preferred it in all honesty but my favourite sounds have always been clean bass with a bit of compression straight into the desk.

There's generally lots of love for Sire on here and pretty much everywhere else where they get mentioned! I gig a V7 5 string as my main bass and it's been fantastic, there's not a sound I want that I can't get out of it just by using the preamp which is outstanding on a bass in that price range. The stock hardware is functional and gets the job done but if you're used to nicer stuff on other basses you might feel like it is too much of a cost saving measure especially if it is your main bass, I did and upgraded the tuners and bridge with Schaller and Gotoh units respectively. No brand snobbery, just wanting something I really like to have no drawbacks really. A few people have had snapped intonation screws on the original MkI bridge but I'm not sure if they changed it for the MkII.