OutToPlayJazz

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='710179' date='Jan 12 2010, 04:25 PM']Given that you're a professional bassist can't you write those costs off as business expenses though? Or has the tax man told you your strings are too expensive and threatened an audit? They did that to me over (totally legitimate) telco costs last year.[/quote] Gear isn't usually a problem. It's all tax deductable, thankfully! The only thing they do ask for proof of from time to time is the business mileage. I just show them the car's odometer. The last time I showed them my three year old Octavia with 142,000 miles on it, LOL!

[quote name='Sarah5string' post='710165' date='Jan 12 2010, 04:19 PM']Here's what I got.. Boss power supply for my distortion pedal - £28 Patch Cable £1 Ear plugs £13 dickies 'pick pocket' £5 = £47 and last set of strings I got was £27..... :\ ouch. and OTPJ, I love it... best money I've ever spent on a bass.. it's my baby Got a band audition on thurs too [/quote] Great news! Best of luck with the audition, Sarah

Heh! I know the feeling, Sarah. I'm just about to do another string order with Status for six four string sets and a couple of five string sets. I use the DR Fatbeams on my other basses and they're getting expensive - Two sets at a time comes to over £60 usually! At least you have the satisfaction of being better than those ego-maniac guitarists! How're you getting along with your lovely Edge Pro, btw? Rich.

I played one at the Gallery recently and came back mightily impressed. It was a lot nicer to play than the Sadowsky 5's they had in. Candy Cola/Maple has to be the one to go for Rich.

Hi discotim, welcome to the forum. It's a bit of a trek for you, but perhaps it'd be worth a run up the A1 to Doncaster & visiting Electro Music. Dave Ryan is the manager there and he's always very helpful and carries a large stock. Tell him Rich (OutToPlayJazz) sent you...

[quote name='Mecklenburg' post='709860' date='Jan 12 2010, 01:10 PM']Rich, I went to see the Panto last Friday. I went with a few friends as one works for Sheffield Theatres we all got free tickets and went to the after show party. I commented several times during the show that I thought the bass player was excellent and so did my friends, so congrats!! Damian Williams is hilarious! Was nice to see Bobby Knut too, he did the 1st panto I saw when I about 4or5! As for my musical new year, my main band is finally getting good supporting acts in the local area in really good venues and we're getting paid, releasing our own album and appearing on a New Order Tribute CD. 2nd band just got together for a jam last night (just me and a drummer) and it went really well, even had someone from the practice room down the hall way come in and comment on the bass sound I was getting [/quote] Thanks for the good press, mate! I did wonder if any basschatters would be popping in at all during the run. I didn't go to Crucible Corner afterwards on the Friday, but a couple of the band dropped in. Glad you enjoyed it, anyway. Yes, Damian is a diamond. He's very Tommy Cooper-esque in a lot of ways. He certainly had us laughing to the point of tears on a few occasions. He's a great visual comedian. I think he has a great entertainment future as well as his current tv series on Sky1. Rich.

[quote name='0175westwood29' post='709396' date='Jan 11 2010, 10:21 PM']nope its not so your probs right! my bad andy[/quote] Ah, I see now - Yes, yours is the black one, isn't it? The painted or stained models seem to get the gloss neck treatment, but the natural is horribly unfinished and rough to the touch. Rich.

Obviously a lot of the sound will depend on pickups, electronics & cleanliness of strings, but yes the wood does have a lot to do with it. Some of the differences will be in the age of the wood, how long it's been seasoned, as well as the type of wood. I live about two miles down the road from D4Dve. We both have Status S2-Classic 5-stringers. Both identical specs with walnut tone blocks, same guage strings and setups done by myself. Dave's bass is about five years older and has a maple top. Mine has the myrtlewood top. I've a/b'd the two together and the difference is astounding. The maple bass is punchier with a much more pronounced top end. The myrtlewood bass is much more hifi across the range but a little less bright at the top end. Is it down to the top wood? Who knows!

And there was me thinking, "What a lovely old hymn. Perhaps we should ask the Vicar to come and listen. More tea, Vicar? And perhaps another cabbage sandwich? What? Oh earplugs! Yes please!"

Lovely collection, Andy. I've still got my eyes on your Eclipse Ltd. Stunning bass!

[quote name='blamelouis' post='709249' date='Jan 11 2010, 07:53 PM']Stop boasting [/quote] I'm not - Just sharing my good fortune and wondering what work the other players on here have lined up. It always seems to me that we spend far too much time talking about the gear and not about what we actually do with it.

Is yours the natural one, Andy? If so, I'd imagine I played a bad one. It was awful.

I've got a pupil who has one of the sub £200 ones and it's a great bass for the money. Lovely gloss neck, grunty sound and great playability. More recently I played the pro in the natural and while it's a great sounding and highly spec'd bass for the money, I didn't like the rough-arse unfinished neck at all. I'd still go for the cheaper one. Lovely instruments.

Nice S2 you have there, molecule. Your point on the effects pedals is also duly noted. I've been playing S2's for over twenty years & have never found I needed to use any effects with them at all. They have such a clean, hifi, growly sound that it's just not necessary. I finished five weeks of professional pantomime with my main S2 4-string yesterday. These pics have been up elsewhere, but here's the pit view...

I've just finished five weeks' worth of professional pantomime at the Sheffield Lyceum theatre & it's suddenly dawned on me that the daily 120 mile round trip to Sheffield I've been doing since forever & perpetual life in a dark orchestra pit is now at an end and I'm going back to my old life tomorrow morning, instrumental teaching in schools as well as my other professional playing commitments. It's a sort of weird feeling, as I've been doing nothing else but getting up and going to the theatre & coming back to sleep for the last few weeks. (Weather permitting!) The panto was excellent & although Toyah Willcox was the big name, Damian Williams (the new guy on "Are you smarter than a ten year old?") kept us on our toes and laughing our heads off for the whole run as the dame, "Nurse Nellie." The whole crew from Sheffield Theatres and Evolution productions were excellent, apart from the constant problems we had with the sound engineers, but that's to be expected when you put your sound into the hands of incompetent morons, I suppose. The playing new year is looking rosy with a lot of shows in the diary, sixty big band jobs leading to a tv series already booked & a repeat booking for the same band on next year's production at the Lyceum, Peter Pan. Has anyone else got an exciting bass-playing year coming up? Rich.

To use the Clarkson analogy, if you were in a top function band at a London glitterati party and you were trying to impress Kiera Knightly, you wouldn't be playing a bass like that.

One of the guys on the EBMM forum or TB has one in a lovely olive gold sparkle. That's a special looking bass.

Normally I would wade in here, but Pete Academy has already put the pro-Wooten point quite eloquently enough. Interestingly, I loved the "seen in a pub" comment in the original post. It made me laugh with incredulity. Just think it through... By all means feel free to not like something in terms of personal taste, but once again don't lambast one of the greatest musicians of our time if you can't equal or better his ability. Remember, if you're going to talk the talk, make sure you can walk the walk... As I said, I'd usually wade in but I'm more interested in chewing up and spitting out dickhead sound engineers at the moment who seem intent on f*****g up my [and others] sound. What part of "step away from the mixing desk" don't you understand, you moronic individuals?

Blues (and the precursor, Ragtime) are the foundations upon which all of our popular music is built. The basic chord useage of I-IV-V and the use of the pentatonic scale/minor blues scale are the building blocks for practically all popular music. As an accomplished classical player in my late teens/early twenties I learned to improvise at blues jams. I learned a lot of valuable life skills through "The Blues."

That Jazz is looking great, Wayne. Unless you looked closely at it, you'd swear it was a 75 reissue that cost squillions of your Earth pounds!

I used to fit my 4/4 into one of the original Fiat Puntos on a regular basis. I was most impressed by the Fiat Panda diesel we had a couple of years ago. That swallowed three electric basses in flight cases, a Warwick Triumph (EUB) & my two part MarkBass rig amongst other equipment boxes. It's amazing what you can actually get into a small car.

[quote name='LeWynX' post='688622' date='Dec 18 2009, 06:39 PM']Here it is then : OK, let's first show that nice fluffy branded gigbag, since it is part of the package and kinda comforts you for the disappointment of not getting a hard case with it ( who'd complain for that price anyway? ).[/quote] That's a stunning bass you have there, mate! Love the quality piece of ash body as well. Definitely not a budget bass by any means, that one!