flyfisher

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1390227425' post='2342801'] For anyone getting rid of old computers that contain working hard drives, make sure you scrub them of all data or physically destroy them to prevent some unknown person collecting personal information. I've just taken an old laptop to my local recycling centre and used 'Darik's Boot and Nuke' (that you need to run from a bootable CD) to destroy everything on the hard drive [url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/?source=pdlp"]http://sourceforge.n...an/?source=pdlp[/url] [/quote] Good point. I had wiped the entire drive and reformatted it before loading a new install of ubuntu and had hardly used it since, so I'm pretty sure it's safe . . . especially to a good BCer.

Cheaper, better - it's all subjective isn't it? Perhaps you're seeing the demise of one aspect of the business (outright sales) and the rise of another (service and support)? Change doesn't mean all or nothing. I doubt this is a problem that only affects music shops though and, personally, I would say that local councils are a big part of the problem because of excessive business rates and restrictive and/or expensive parking charges. The business rates contribute to the higher costs of the goods and parking is just a huge hassle in many towns these days. So, as a potential customer, why on earth would I bother to drive into town, struggle to find a parking space, or pay for the privilege, then walk to the shop in the rain only to find that they don't have what I'm looking for in stock - and if they do it will be more expensive than online (for perfectly understandable reasons). Instead, I can make myself a cuppa, sit down at my PC in the comfort of my own home, find what I want and order it within about 10-15 minutes. When it arrives (usually the next day), I can try it out at my convenience in the comfort of my own home. If I don't like it I can simply send it back and get a full refund. Those are the options available to consumers these days and it's quite clear which one they are increasingly choosing. So what do councils do when faced with high street shops struggling and going bust - yep, increase business rates and parking charges in a futile attempt to maintain their revenues. It's not too difficult to see which way the tide is turning.

Right. Bad news, good news, good news, bad news. Bad news - I can't find the P2 PC anywhere. Perhaps I threw it out, I didn't think so but really can't find it. Good news - I found the Dell Dimension XPS T600r (P3) PC. Good news - It works and is running Ubuntu (Hardy Heron, so quite old). Bad news - I think the PSU has just died I was using the PC for about 20 minutes when it just quit on me, just like a power cut, and now I can't restart it. The PSU is supplying the standby power, as indicated by a motherboard LED being on, but the power switch is doing nothing. I've re-seated the various connectors but no luck. I suppose it could be a motherboard fault preventing the 'startup' signal being sent to the PSU, but I suspect it's more likely to be the PSU itself. I recently had to replace the PSU on my server PC after it had been unused for about three weeks and it failed when powered on. This PC has not been powered up for at least a couple of years. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare PSU so can't really do anything else. You're still welcome to it but I appreciate you might want to change your mind! Let me know what you think.

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1390156311' post='2342081'] It's a shame there aren't more customers like you. We had a gent today who came in, unlocked a guitar on the wall (ie helped himself despite 2 of us asking if he was ok or needed help etc, to which his response was a flat 'no'). He then dropped the guitar (acoustic) cracked the back, passed it to me and said 'here *passes instrument*... Sorry', walked out of the shop and so we now have to recoup the items cost despite the damage which he hasn't paid a penny for. Personally, I think it's this kind of issue that is killing the high street music shops. They can hold less stock so don't get bulk order discounts plus staffing costs and damage of stock pushes the price of instruments up and makes it so difficult to compete. [/quote] I don't doubt that story and others like it are huge problems for music shops. But the internet is often described as a 'game changer' and this is exactly the sort of thing that happens when something better comes along. How many of us keep a horse and cart for our travel requirements - after all, they're still available aren't they? Once upon a time they were the pinnacle of transport aspiration but were eventually superseded by something so much better that the vast majority of people chose the alternative. Sure, change sometimes adversely affects some people, but if that change is not to the benefit of the vast majority of people then it won't happen because people will stick with what they know. I don't think people were forced to give up horses in favour of the internal combustion engine - they chose it because it was better. What other reason was there? It's the same thing with high street shops versus online shopping, or email versus handwritten letters delivered by the royal mail, or warm comfortable shopping malls compared with trudging all around town. Times change. If they didn't then we'd all be living far poorer and less comfortable lives.

Excellent advice - and not just for bass playing either!

I'd certainly support the 'listen' sentiments above. That was what got me into bass in the first place from a very early age. For some reason I would always pick hour the bass lines to songs and hum along to that rather than the melody. No idea why. When my parents bought me my first guitar it was the inevitable six string acoustic and I used it to play along to the bass lines of my favourite songs. It was a long time before I got my first proper bass, which I also used to play along with my favourite songs, especially improvising my own walking baselines over blues songs. I used to play with school friends as well but looking back it was desperately amateur stuff, but great fun. My first 'proper' band didn't happen until I was in my 30s. So, listen to stuff and play along to stuff and have fun doing it. If you can find like-minded people to play with then all the better.

I remember this sort of debate in Hifi magazines regarding which item in an audio chain was most important and should therefore be where most of the money should be spent. I seem to recall in the 70s that it was all about 'the source' so people were encouraged to spend as much as they could on the turntable and stylus but it later seemed to change to become the speakers! But Hifi is all about 'perfect' reproduction whereas an instrument amp is all about 'tone', which makes a bit of a nonsense about 'rules' because the only thing that matters is the end result. Probable the most important thing is for the amp and cab to be 'well matched', though that could be interpreted in a number of ways.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1389957175' post='2339872'] I found the T600 on the web ([url="http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=XPST600R-1B"]http://www.geeks.com...tid=XPST600R-1B[/url]) but not the other one. According to that site, the T600r has an ISA slot, which makes it ideal for my purpose. I regularly use an old MS-Dos program based on a specific ISA sound card. If the P2 also has an ISA slot, I'd take that too. I'm happy to organize (or pay for) a carrier if you wouldn't mind digging it/them out and putting them in a box. [/quote] OK, I'll try to find it over the weekend and let you know. Do want a screen as well? I know where I've got a Dell 17-inch high-res CRT - it's probably the one that came with the PC come to think of it.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1389965878' post='2340056'] Distant Selling Regs - not happy, return it within a week no problems. Re that though, South Bucks - I`d take a drive/train to GAK and try it out, have a day by the seaside as well plus a good look around the shop. [/quote] That would be my take on it. While there's not much of a financial risk buying online from a reputable dealer these days, a half day spent getting 'hands on' is likely to save much time and hassle overall.

If you have a fair bit of stuff, it might be worth checking for a local electronics scrap dealer - I doubt you'd get much cash, if any, but at least they might collect and save you a journey. I got rid of a load of old industrial electronics stuff (racks, boards etc) to a local hospice. They'll collect anything and dispose of it wherever they can make the most money. They wouldn't take any CRT screens or TVs though, even though they were all working, so they went to the council dump.

I'm pretty sure I've got a Dell XPS P2 333MHz and a Dell XPS T600r P3 600MHz somewhere. I presume they would have 8-bit ISA slots but you could probably check on the Dell website. I say 'pretty sure' because I scrapped a lot of stuff last year, but I think it was mainly CRT screens, and 'somewhere' because we moved last year and a lot of stuff is boxed up. Both were working when I stopped using them. The P2 box has Windows95 on it and the P3 box has Ubuntu. You're welcome to them if I can find them but I don't want to start searching high and low unless you're really serious. PS: I don't mean to take over Barkin's topic and am more than happy to step back if he has what you're after.

Any company that can pay £2bn for a fancy thermostat start-up company can handle something as trivial as controlling the weather. I'm sure there's also a 'cloud' joke in there somewhere but I can't find it at the moment.

. . . when things get too hot, a good design will protect itself.

Good luck with that lot. I've got a similar pile of old PC stuff and it's almost impossible to give away even if fully working, but I hate just skipping it - especially such well-built stuff as those PS/2s. Coincidentally, I've also got a model 30-286 that cost me about £1600 in the 80s

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1389732231' post='2337370'] Quoting Jeremy Wade, radiation appears to have stunted the growth of Catfish around Chernobyl. [/quote] That's probably a good thing. Wouldn't want giant catfish when the normal ones are big enough . . . [attachment=152491:bigcatfish.jpg]

I've been using Photobox for years and have been very pleased with them. I tend to only go for individual enlargements and prefer to print collections in their Photobooks. It takes a bit of time to sort the layouts and any captions but the end result is really good. I've had enlargements printed to 30x20 inches and the quality has always been very good. They also regularly do special offers so I tend to prepare the prints I want and just wait - half price photobooks are worth waiting for.

It does seem strange that MB would allow the weight of their cabs to increase when that is one of their big selling points. A few percent is probably neither here nor there but 30% as mentioned above is hardly going to go unnoticed by their customers. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1389781088' post='2337737'] The majorly commercial stuff seems to be fairly simple - it`s easier on the ear, and requires less actual listening to. Maybe this is why the bass - and guitars - are fairly simple, but the vocal melodies carry the songs. After all it`s the singers that sell the songs, no matter how clever we instrumentalists are. And people showing how clever their chops are on their given instrument can get in the way of the vox. [/quote] I reckon that about sums it up. A band full of soloists would be a bit of a mess and its usually the vocalist who is the soloist, backed up by everyone else, with the occasional instrumental solo thrown in for variety. A band [u]should[/u] be greater than the sum of its parts, shouldn't it? Other genres are available though.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1389740858' post='2337530'] . . . . they're great for the audience to sing along with . . . . [/quote] Entertainment for the audience or indulgence for the band? I guess there's a spectrum from poppy-pop-pop (= mass entertainment appeal) right through to prog-rock-style (or unfathomable jazz?) indulgence that's primarily for the musos concerned and it's a bonus if an audience likes it as well.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1389718098' post='2337183'] Good evening, Andy... If this was so, why would the big venues bother with a separate monitor desk for the stage..? No, advice given perhaps with the best intentions, but erroneous, imo. One should have the minimum in the monitors for each person according to their needs (Guitar 1 may want a bit of Guitar 2 to 'lock in', for instance...), but certainly not go for a total replication of FOH. [/quote] I agree. Vocals is usually a given since there is no other stage presence for them but after that I'd say it depends on the stage layout. I don't need my bass in my monitor but the guitarist on the other side of the stage probably will. Likewise, I don't need the guitarist next to me in my monitor, but I like a bit of the guitarist on the other side of the stage. Similar for the guitars etc. So, no hard-and-fast rules as such but ideally you should get whatever you need in your monitor. Trouble is, many small PAs only have a single monitor output so people have to compromise. My desk has two pre-fade auxs that I use for monitoring and I tend to use them to make a left-right stage mix into the right-left stage monitors (if that makes sense) - though we rarely provide a full-on PA ourselves and end up in the hands of the venue soundguy.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1389653459' post='2336702'] Genz is no more, Fender is rebranding Genz, and now the original forerunners of lightweight gear starts to make products outside of Italy and increase the weight? That puts me off the brand completely. Offshore manufacturing is fine and some companies get it right, but MB have always been proud to be made in their Italian factory. Hmmmm [/quote] I don't know the size of the MB set up in Italy but is it possible that they've outgrown their capacity and needed to go elsewhere - in which case Far East manufacturing probably makes sense. They are hardly hiding the fact if they are labelling their cabs as such. Any company would shout about their USPs and keep a low profile about anything ordinary, and manufacturing in the far east is pretty ordinary these days. As for dropping their prices, that's a marketing decision. Price is only elastically related to cost. Apple stuff is not exactly renowned for being cheap because it is manufactured in the far east.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1389694354' post='2336905'] eBay/PayPal are a monopoly, so they can do what they like. I've never understood why they are so hostile to sellers - it's the sellers who provide their profits. Yet it's the buyer who is always favoured in any dispute, regardless. A case of bending over backwards for the buyers while bending the sellers over forwards. Or something... [/quote] Giving the benefit of any doubt to the buyers rather than the sellers creates a 'safe' environment for the buyers. It may be the sellers who pay ebay's commission but it's triggered by a sale and there would be no sales without buyers. Banks and credit card companies do much the same sort of thing because they depend on their customers having the confidence to use their debit and credit cards online with pretty much zero risk of ever losing any money if anything goes wrong. Without that confidence there is no market.

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1389653349' post='2336700'] It's better to regret something you did than something you didn't do. [/quote] That's not really true. If you end up regretting what you did do then it'll be because it hasn't worked out. So that's a known. But regretting what you didn't do is just pointless speculation because you don't know how it would have worked out. Might have been great, might have been a disaster. That's not to say don't take risks, but don't waste time regretting stuff. Whatever you choose to do, just do it as well as you can.

Ah, gotcha. I'm not sure of the DSR time limit but it won't be very long 7/14 days something like that I'd guess - which seems a reasonable time to decide if something is suitable or not.

I don't think there's any need to get trading standards involved at this stage - seems like you just need to contact the supplier and return the item as unsuitable. Distance Selling Regs will cover that and any online supplier will know it. You don't even need to give a detailed reason why you don't want the item.