SimonK

Quick question - is it OK to bring stuff to try and sell on as well? I have a drawer full of pedals and a couple cabs (not in the drawer) that I never quite get around to listing anywhere?

Does anyone use one on bass - I never have!

Count me in - although would prefer to avoid rememberance Sunday if possible... Will there be a gear list in due course?

...if their are ladies in the band have a discussion about what to wear (or at least what colour shirt!)... I know it's a stereotype but I've never had that discussion forced on me by male band members!

Thanks for that - used the five string for three (out of five) songs during a pre-Sunday practice last night and was getting the hang of it by following the tip of always hitting the E on the fifth fret. Just going to bring the five string and the fretless on Sunday morning which will hopefully stop me chickening out this week!

I think I've mentioned before we have this coffee shop in my village: https://www.deveroast.com/about although Pete prefers to talk about coffee more than music! I also suspect he's still getting a lot of royalties as the coffee shop is suspiciously high end....

One of our own - haven't recorded it yet but it's essentially a 12 bar blues with a couple odd turn arounds added for interest. We also do a walking bassline on the chorus of the old classic "You are mighty".

Chickened out today and although I had the five on the stand next to me ended up using the four for everything. Problem is we did a set where the first song had a walking bass line which I wasn't confident enough to do on the five, and then there wasn't time to switch bass's between songs. Mind you I suppose it will come with time - playing again next week...

So I just got myself a lovely Warwick Streamer five string, and have tried to use it twice at church to not much success. Firstly the extra string destroys my intuitive landing on the right notes (without thinking), and then I'm finding the notes below E so low that I can't hear them properly. So this week my aim it to play almost everything on the four "normal" strings, and only bring in the fifth on the rare occasion when something might want a lower accent of some sort... but this feels like not making the most of the instrument... Does anyone else use a five string for church/gospel? How do you adapt from playing on a four?

..them EQ knobs on the bass can be quite helpful for things like this - or just get a GEB-7 or similar to tread on when you switch between the two?

I thought it was an excellent example of really professional playing, managing a lot of things going on at once in a format that was both rehearsed but also flexible in terms of where the music was going at any point. All in front of a lot of people and being streamed/recorded. I also believe she is only in her early twenties so her grasp of both the music and technology is impressive. I play with some pretty good musicians and while granted we seldom rehearse, we don't get close to the complexity of the arrangements shown in the videos.

Yes... but... she has one of these: https://empresseffects.com/products/zoia I've just spent the last hour going down the rabbit hole of how this is the only path to happiness...

The first video wasn't - I think she uses the same pedal board for guitar and bass.

Here's the picture and description so that we have this very unique amp on the thread for posterity! "This is a very unique amplifier. It started life as the head section of a 1 x 15 Trace Elliot combo amp, which i bought at the Bass Centre in Wapping Wall, London. Eventually I removed the amplifier and took it to Trace Elliot's in Witham, Essex. They replaced the power caps and fitted it in a sleeve. They also added a 'Zorbal Network' circuit so that a second speaker output could be added. Finally they fitted a GP12X preamp (solid state) to the amplifier. I spent a very pleasant day at their manufacturing factory while they did the work on it. (I still have a copy of an invoice for the work). When they tested the output with an oscilliscope it gave a reading of 272 watts. It has a typically clear powerfull Trace Elliot sound. Sadly I am selling the amp as I am moving abroad."

Yes I was also just trying to work out if I can get to Southend but bloody London gets in the way for me... probably not worth it due to the six hour drive for me sadly...

She's scary good - and a pretty accomplished lead guitarist as well. I keep getting her videos in one of my feeds.

Both my wife and I have gone through this with our own businesses, starting off using mates rates and "I feel guilty someone is paying me to do something I like doing so I will only charge a token amount", then realising that there is enough business coming in to make a proper go of it, but then realising that in order to have a business the fees need to be three times higher than the original mates rates we were charging. This then leads to awkward conversations, but business (and living) costs money, and at the end of the day people (society?) will lose access to expertise if they do not pay enough to maintain it. I think this is a particular issue for the arts (and in this thread luthiers) in that there seems to be a reluctance to adequately cost the (music) services being produced.

I think there is a difference between running a professional business where you do need to stick to more rigid policies just so the business survives, as opposed to being a hobbyist making a bit of money on the side, but primarily doing it for the love of it. I think if it is the latter that you are doing you could come up with some sort of guarantee period, something like so long as the customer can inspect it at time of purchase they can get a full refund for first 14 days, 50% for up to a month following purchase, but then only warranty repairs (probably worth defining carefully) for up to a year afterwards. Unfortunately I think for this first "problem" customer I would just bite the bullet, take it back, and chalk it up to experience (albeit I would only refund what they paid - no more!). Then next time ensure you have the returns/warranty policy in writing and agreed to.

Sorry to hear this - especially given I work very close by (I'm often at the Queen's hotel in Southsea). I've seen this post while (avoiding) sorting out my own invoices and quotes (not music related), and was just struck by how most of us would probably never do any normal work without formal quotations/invoices, and yet for music this is so common - I don't think I've ever had more than an email/text message agreeing payment, albeit I am very much on the amatuer side of things. Hopefully your agreement is/was a bit more robust!

"that" guitarist 🙂 !!

As a regular train traveller I've found the limiting factor is more what I can carry/cart around. Even on a busy train you can just stand in one of the bike areas with your luggage if there are no spare seats to stack it on.

Alright not a bass player, but I thought very much in theme with this thread - pesky pedal board power supplies!!

Awesome stage presence - isn't quite the same with only IEMs!!

...and that was a bit of a disaster! I don't think I fully appreciated how different a 5 string Warwick feels to play compared to the four string Stingrays that I have been playing for the last twenty years. I really struggled for the whole gig adapting to both the five strings, but also the entirely different feel of the thing. I'm hoping that if I persevere things will get easier as I do think very different instruments can inspire in very different ways, but adapting does seem to be a bit of a challenge. Most notable was quite how big and chunky the stingrays felt to wear after playing the Warwick, albeit the Stingray necks are much slimmer! Mind you the Trace sounded as equally awesome with both - didn't change any settings as signal level, EQ etc. was all fine or at least nothing I couldn't tweak using the controls on the basses alone. Every day's a school day even after 35 years of playing!

Yes I visited PMT in Portsmouth for years and it just got more and more disappointing until it died a rather predictable death. Even a visit to Andertons is not quite as exciting as it used to be mainly because if I want to buy something I normally source it second hand, and while the boutique section is fun to have a gander at I don't think I would ever spontaneously buy something that expensive (famous last words!). I think the trick to bricks and mortar shops is to diversify. I like "Guitar and Beans" in Leiden, and as others have mentioned this is not the only coffee/music shop combination. My business plan would be to open a second hand musical instruments plus coffee (not second-hand!) shop, probably aiming to get 80% of the revenue off the coffee by making it a place for muso's to hang out, although it would probably need to be in a University town to be succesful. Having it big enough to run live nights and maybe have a small bar would probably be needed too. Sadly there is simply too much available on line for a traditional retailer to survive selling new gear anymore.