nekomatic

Now we’re getting down to the real crimes against customer service!

In a market economy, we must conclude that that’s the price at which the demand for Marcus Miller matches the supply of Marcus Miller.

Wait, you can get pink Fender bass cases? Nobody told me this!

Thanks for the replies (and apols for not searching for the Markbass ones). Sounds like I should take a deep breath and try some Elixirs next time I feel rich.

I haven’t a clue! I kind of know their first album a bit but that’s about all. I’m aware this is a gaping hole in my musical education so I’m starting at the opposite end and will maybe fill in the middle bit over time…

Soft Machine at Band on the Wall next Monday for some jazz-prog head nodding.

I see that Bass Direct list Mark Bass 'LongEvo' coated strings in stainless steel or nickel, and Ernie Ball also have coated strings although I can only see those in nickel - all at a little bit cheaper than Elixirs. Can anyone comment on any of those?

What @Phil Starr said, but just for reference since this was discussed: any capacitor you do connect across the mains should be a ‘Class X’ type, which is rated for that purpose, not just any old cap. You can get the cap+resistor combo in one package, sometimes called a ‘snubber’, e.g. https://cpc.farnell.com/ampohm-wound-products/fe-sp-cr23-100-100/contact-suppressor-0-1uf-100r/dp/FT00711

That's a fair point, as making a design change inevitably results in unexpected further difficulties, time and effort. Unfortunately in my experience, so does keeping the design the same…

17 and 14, and it seems like about half an hour ago that the big hairy 17yo was a sweet little 9yo. Pause. Santa: 'What colour unicorn?'

Arduino-compatibles are cheap, aren't they? Get a second one, have the first one shoot the data you want displayed to the second one over a serial connection or something which will take a millisecond, let the second one write it to the LCD in its own sweet time. Maybe there's a neater way of doing it with interrupts, or with the second core on a Pi Pico or something (I dunno, I never got into Arduino as it looked too much like C) but you can save that for the second revision!

Capacitors in parallel behave like the sum of their values so I guess you wouldn't even have needed to remove the original cap, just solder an extra one across it with the capacitance value you wanted to add.

So I did go, and… it was brilliant. I'm still buzzing! Superb house band, it would have been worth the trek out just to listen to them; everyone really friendly, including house bassist Gavin, and well organised; really good players getting up, including rhythm section - so I felt stretched, but in a good way, and some people even said nice things about my playing which I'm sure weren't completely deserved but I'll take them! Only really came off the rails on one tune but nobody minded and (as per @Geek99's thread) that's how we learn. The only thing wrong with it is that I have to wait a month for the next one!

Getting your behind kicked at a jam is never fun - been there! - but it teaches you ten times as much as bashing through an easy tune with no upsets, and infinity times as much as not getting up and putting your behind on the line in the first place, so good on you. You'll be back. Carving out the time to play when you've got responsibilities at home can also be a tough one. I'm only just managing it now the kids are teenage!

Which? have a detailed article about your rights as a consumer, based on which: As a consumer your rights are against the retailer that sold you the item, rather than the manufacturer You have a right to a repair or replacement, or a refund if that can't be provided, if the item was faulty at the time you bought it In the first six months it is up to the retailer to prove that it wasn't faulty, and they can't reduce the value of a refund for fair wear and tear After six months it's up to you to prove that it was faulty when you bought it, and the retailer can deduct something for wear and tear You have up to six years from when you bought it to make a claim. Warranties or guarantees are something the manufacturer or retailer may offer on top of your rights, but if a warranty is specified when you buy something then it is part of your contract and you have a right to enforce it against the party that offered it. That's my summary of the Which? piece anyway, any lawyers please correct if necessary…

Is it just me or does the Press Pass pretty much do nothing whatever you do with the knobs?

I’ve never used one but should the Fishman Platinum Pro be on the list? I don’t think it has aux in or headphone out, but it looks like it does the other stuff, and people seem to rate them.

Sympathy, and take all the time you need. The internet will wait.

I like it!

They replied that bassists are positively welcomed because they never get any and the house band bassist would be very happy to have a break for a couple of tunes 😁 Not sure if I can make this month's, but as soon as I do go along I'll report back here!

My point (if you'll excuse the continued detour) being that the gadget pictured appears to be using a programmable microcontroller IC, that contains tens of thousands of transistors, can execute hundreds of steps of complex logic and can probably communicate by half a dozen interface protocols at megabit per second speeds, to do just this simple job: wait for the button to be pressed and if the relay is off then switch it on, else if it is on switch it off. If like me you learned electronics in the late '80s this is absolutely ridiculous overkill, like hiring a helicopter to go down the road to the shop (or something) when the 'appropriate' way of doing it would be a 'flip-flop' logic IC consisting of a few dozen transistors that did just that job and nothing else. Of course nowadays the PIC is so cheap and so easy to program that there's really nothing at all wrong with using one like this, and of course someone who learned electronics in the '70s would probably call me lazy for using a logic IC when they could do the same job with individual transistors. It's just hard to shake off one's prejudices sometimes!

A 16F PIC microcontroller to implement ‘divide by two’ logic. The world’s gone mad I tell you!

By automatic operation of sod's law a friend has chosen 18th May to get married, so I'm not able to make it. Gutted - I was getting really excited about seeing some of those basses! 😭

Well that's prompted me to drop a line to the Facebook page for the jazz jam near me, to check if bassists are welcome and if so whether I need to bring an amp (and also what sort of charts people usually play from) - so if they reply and say yes, I'll have to turn up, won't I? That's the Hot Jazz Jam at the Royal Oak in Mellor incidentally, in case anyone else knows it, or indeed is the house bassist there

I was very interested in the GPA-100 until I read somewhere that it seems to reduce its bass response significantly at higher power levels - I thought it was on here but annoyingly I can't find it again. I was aware of the GSS Sumo range but until now I hadn't spotted their Bulletpack, which looks intriguing - uses an external power brick (booo) but the unit itself is tiny, and 100 watts into 8 ohms isn't too shabby.