flyfisher

£621 bid! Hopefully the winning bidder is taking as much pi$$ as the seller and won't pay up. I've paid £15 or so for a DVD of a concert before, but £600+ for 10cc of 'atmosphere' - give me a break.

This sort of thing happens all the time, in all walks of life. I can see no point in wondering what might have been . . . after all, another possibility is that you might have been killed in a car crash on the way to T In The Park. Anyway, how come no-one in the band told you about the T In The Park possbility? They must have already known about it if they were able to announce it on the day after you left the band.

Yep, there's a big difference between the physical cable arrangement and the electrical circuit arrangement.

Seconded. I bought some parcan lights and everything was as described. Also good communications, very helpful and flexible when arranging to meet up and a thoroughly nice guy to boot. Exactly as a BC deal should be. Thanks Nick. Cheers, Mike

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1341649413' post='1722196'] Is that you knob or Mark's hanging out on the bottom picture ? [/quote] Hardly 'hanging' is it?

IoW is now looking even cooler. Nice one.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1341564713' post='1720910'] Don't use up valuable desk space for these....use an Ergotron arm to suspend them over the workspace - they're great. [/quote] I've thought about buying such things but it's taking the pi$$ when some bracket metalwork costs almost as much as the screens.

If you regularly carry gold bullion it would make the car a more likely target for ne'er do wells. The gold itself might not be covered by the insurance company but damage to the car would be, hence the likely contents of the car are of 'material interest' to the insurance company. OK, gold is an unlikely example, but expensive music, photo, video gear, etc . . . . . . ?

[quote name='Thurbs' timestamp='1341465952' post='1719387'] This is called insurance 'fronting' and if found out ("why is there a bass in your car?" "why are you rehearsing so far from home?" "what is the number of one of your band members / rehearsal space?") you will get 5 points + fine for no insurance (as will the registered keeper if not the same person). Then getting proper insurance will be pretty tricky and pretty expensive. [/quote] 'Fronting' has been a big issue with parents insuring their kids cars and naming the kids as a named driver. This can save loads of money but will almost guarantee a lot of investigation if little Johnny is involved in a claim. But if you're up-front with your insurance company and discuss things openly then you may be surprised. My lad's car is insured in my name and I add him to the policy as a named driver during his uni holidays (he doesn't take the car to uni). During these times he is really the main driver and because I was concerned about 'fronting' I discussed this with my insurance company (Direct Line). They said this was no problem. First, they said that many parents of uni students do this and DL accepted that the student was not the main driver over the whole year. Secondly, because I had disclosed this then it was recorded on my policy notes as being OK, plus all conversations are recorded anyway. Thirdly, when they add a named driver to a policy for a temporary period, they automatically assume that they will be the main driver for that period of time. While I'd agree that insurance companies have a bad reputation for getting out of paying claims I also think we have to play fair by them as well. Indeed, by disclosing all 'material facts' actually makes it [u]harder[/u] for them to wriggle out of a claim.

Might depend on your insurance company. The golden rule is to always disclose such things as they are deemed to be 'material facts' and failure to disclose them could lead to problems in the event of a claim.

[quote name='PTB' timestamp='1341383163' post='1717893'] I'm late again. Hope this is on the iPlayer......... [/quote] Me too, but fortunately it is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01kkn74/imagine..._Summer_2012_Paul_Simons_Graceland_Under_African_Skies/ If anyone doubts that slap [u]can[/u] be a good thing, check out You Can Call Me Al at 1:23:20. Great stuff.

Seven Nation Army - White Stripes Living In The Past - Jethro Tull

I sometimes think it's more difficult to find a bunch of people who can actually get on with each other than it is to play an instrument!

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1341320504' post='1716928'] They're [i]your [/i]bass lines, chief. If you don't like 'em, change 'em. The genre is just an excuse - but whether you're painting your funk fingernails, or sewing on some sturdy elbow patches for the local jazz festival down the Dog & Badger, you own the lines; compromise, by all means, but don't settle for crap. Personally, reading it, I think you're suffering from [i]Basschatitis - [/i]it's a condition, often foreshadowed by symptoms around feelings of inadequacy, as users bump into other users, who have played [i]longer, [/i]who know [i]more[/i], and who have [i]read some books[/i], which were very f***ing boring. A modest man can succumb quickly to this condition: he can start reading some very boring books, as both means and an end; he can start talking about want to become one with the instrument; and often be found musing over obscure musical frameworks. The only known cure is to go and have some fun. Because that's what it's all about. Not fretw***ing; not reading a book on theory; not listening to someone yack on about how they supported a guy who once tuned Jaco's bass and had a 5hr bass solo in his set. Just, plain and simply, about having fun and [i]the pleasure inherent in the enjoyment of things[/i]. If you don't like the bass lines: write some more fun ones. If you don't like the band: find a more fun one. [i]Ad infinitum[/i], etc, etc. [/quote] Lots of wisdom there. Being at ease with oneself and not being impressed or feeling inadequate because of others is the root of true contentment. As far as I'm concerned, the only real rule for life is 'Do No Harm' but after that do whatever makes you happiest.

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1341316291' post='1716791'] I give in to it when I can afford it without compromising anything else I want to achieve. A sound rule which has worked for me. [/quote] That has always worked for me as well.

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1341265129' post='1716224'] Slap bass technique can sometimes get a bit of a flaming on here, but if you're excited by the technique, and you really like the sound then go for it - don't feel that you shouldn't learn to slap, or that you are less of a 'musician' for slapping, because some internet people that you've never met tell you it's wrong. [/quote] Good point. My take on the bad reputation of slap is that it's because of all those light-speed slap exhibitionists that favour speed over musicality. But even that isn't really 'wrong' if you really like it. In the context of a good song, it can work wonders - like most things really - but on its own . . . . . well, a 10 second burst might be OK but anything more is bordering on the inconsiderate.

I went to see Buddy Guy at a London Jazz festival many years ago. Turned out that Copeland was also on the bill. Fortunately for me, Buddy was on first because I had to leave halfway through Copeland's set. He's a virtuoso alright but I just couldn't stand what he was playing. But hey, it was a jazz festival so I have no complaints - horses for courses and all that.

How many people change their gear every couple of years?

Blimey - the worms are wriggling out of the newly opened can as I type. One interpretation could be that 'maximum output power' is an instantaneous peak power output measured at 1kHz. You must judge if that's a useful measure, I'd suggest only vaguely in a sort of how-cool-is-your-car type way - i.e. nice to look at by not massively helpful regarding what's really under the bonnet. 'Rated output power' is probably a continuous power measurement meaasure over the entire operating range of the amp. This is what it can crank out hour-after-hour. The "2x" suggests that this is a two channel amp. If I'm right about this then using two 8 ohm cabs is really just one cab per channel and you're suggestion of 2x 150W (-ish) is probably correct (on a continuous power basis). The actual volume created by such a combination will depend a lot on the sensitivity of the speakers. I'm not sure this is a particularly helpful or definitive answer, but then the specs are somewhat ambiguous, as is the question of 'loud enough'?

A step-down transformer is probably the easiest solution, if the unit has an internal US mains power supply. [quote name='icastle' timestamp='1341006846' post='1712893'] EDIT: If it's a really old mains powered one then it's gonna need surgery and probably isn't worth mucking about with. [/quote] Generally I'd agree with that. But if it was absolutely essential to convert it then tweaking a built-in PSU would be a last resort for me. I'd probably just find and measure the DC output of the internal PSU and wire it to a new jack-socket before removing or disconnecting the internal PSU. I'd then use a suitable standard external PSU. So there are plenty of options to consider.

[quote name='essexbasscat' timestamp='1340714880' post='1708439'] It is a bit ambiguous, isn't it ? [/quote] Pretty much. Peak power, rms power, watts etc etc are all rigorously defined things. The problem is music - it's just too variable. Imagine a nice pure sine wave. The peaks are, of course, very easy to measure. Power is a little more difficult. Imagine a 12 volt battery (ie DC) connected to a load that causes 1 amp to flow. The power would therefore be 12 watts. Easy. Now imagine an AC power supply delivering a sine wave of 12 volts peak-to-peak. Connect that to the same load and it will not cause 1 amp to flow and will therefore deliver less than 12 watts. The reason is not hard to understand if you think about the 12v DC source delivering a constant 12volts but the AC source is up and down all the time so it can't deliver the same 'push'. So, to deliver 12 watts of power with an AC source (in this example) it turns out that you need more than 12 volts peak-to-peak to deliver a power equivalent to that of a 12 v DC source. That 'equivalent power' is called RMS watts. So, to get 12W RMS it turns out that we need an AC voltage of about 16.8 volts peak-to-peak (I'm skipping all the detail here!). Another way of imagining this is to think of the power output of an electric heater powered by DC or AC - which in the context of speaker power handling is a reasonable analogy. 12W DC is equivalent to 12W RMS when driven by a sine wave. Which is all well and good, except that a sine wave is a rather special case in that it is definable and repeatable, whereas a music waveform is most certainly not (well, it is in terms of the music, put not easily in terms of the average power delivered by the driving amplifier). So this is why all these highly mathematical and scientific principles become a tad vague when we start talking about 'music power' and the like. It's not that these things are not understood, more that you'd need a lab full of fancy test equipment to determine the precise specifications, but even then it would only apply to one particular waveform - or 'song' as we like to call it. This is just one example why rules-of-thumb can be be a bit vague and very useful at the same time. So, keep your cabs within the ohmage spec of your amp (definitely) and keep your cab wattage ratings higher than your amp's RMS watts rating (preferably - or be very careful with the volume control) and things will be fine.

Even better than that, if their not all there, clever error correction can return the signal to its error-free state anyway (up to certain limits of data corruption). As for over dimensioned transformers, I would have thought that three dimensions would be enough for even the most demanding bassist.

Well, topics about having needles stuck in your balls and your scrotal plumbing being pulled about is enough to lower the morale of anyone I'd have thought (OK, probably not the ladies amongst us).

[quote name='steve-soar' timestamp='1340459373' post='1704732'] Warwicks marketing is world class. On a par with BMW. And their endorsee list is the envy of most bass manufacturers. All they need is Vic Wooten, (they have Reggie) and that would be that. I reckon it's only a matter of time. [/quote] But does world class marketing make for world class products? I'd be more impressed by endorsees if they didn't get any perks and spend their own money buying the product they're endorsing. After all, we all the endorse the stuff we buy, don't we? Pay people enough and they'll say anything - ads are full of examples and it all means diddly-squat really.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1340457697' post='1704704'] Anti-capitalism is an evergreen nostrum among the young, but I always counsel them to try running their rig off two copper pins shoved into a potato before they fully embrace the delusion that being potless is a good thing. [/quote] Kids eh? They never listen. Get them to try a copper pin, a zinc pin and a lemon next time. Much better.