ThomBassmonkey

Has the singer seen that clip? What did he say if so? It's not really avoidable that he's pretty badly out of key. It does sound like it could be that he's not really going for it though, maybe he's still unsure of his voice if it's his first band too. You should do another video in the same way, but tell everyone to imagine it's a gig, so get everyone to dance about a bit and put on their gurns, then he might get into it a bit more and go for it a bit better. If he's in total denial and thinks he's brilliant after hearing that, get shot of him. He's clearly not very good if that's his best effort and it'll just make you look bad if you're part of "that crap U2 covers band" (which is what people will think, most people will judge based purely on the vocals).

I didn't think they had crap drivers!

I haven't played any of the basses and I'm not saying that they're exactly like the Gibson but better, I'm saying that in my experience they're built to a consistently high quality (unlike the Gibsons) for significantly less money. Obviously if you're after *that* combination of woods and electrics that the Gibsons offer, then you should go for a Gibson. I'm completely of the mind that if something plays well and sounds good (even if it's not perfect to your tastes) it can probably be tailored using EQs to fit with what you're doing. Unfortunately (and annoyingly for me) the shop doesn't stock many basses at the moment, that should all change soon though and I'll be able to get my mitts on some of the Tokais to try out first hand (I think we're just going for a Jazzsound and EB0 style from Tokai to begin with).

I can't really agree with that, the shop I sometimes teach at stocks Tokais and we've never had an instrument from them that's been less than stunning for the money. They've been incredibly consistent in quality and feel. Admittedly that's the guitars (the shop's in the process of moving at the moment, they'll be getting some basses in when they're settled) but there's definitely no arguing with their QC. My MIJ is a stunning instrument with a briliant finish and it plays amazingly, one of the best LP style guitars I've played. It's still fully stock too (apart from minus pickguard now) and the RRP is a good £500 less than the cheapest Gibson LPs. By comparison, we saw a chinese £200 LP 50th copy ann guitar (complete with fully marked up Gibson case, even a spare "Gibson" set of strings in the case) go through a while ago. It was a great copy to be fair (even down to not having routing on the back, which that specific Gibbo model doesn't) and the guy who bought it owns two "real" Black Beautys. He said the £200 copy out-played both of them, which cost over 10x the price each.

I'd pick Tokai over a Gibbo anyway (just personal preference). Tokais are far cheaper for instruments that aren't really any inferior to the well made Gibsons, and that's if you get a well made Gibson, which is very hit and miss from what I've heard recently. I have a Love Rock (LP copy) and it's simply awesome. I got it for a steal too as I bought it from the shop I teach at sometimes and it was B stock (very slight smudge on the paint near the neck IIRC, certainly a smaller mark than the screw holes from me taking the scratchplate off).

I prefer natural ideally, after that it depends on what the colour is, I prefer more natural colours. The problem I have with colour is that my main band is strongly colour oriented to red, a green or blue bass (two that I've been looking at) would look odd when the stage is set up totally in red and black.

I'm eyeing up a couple of lovely basses at the moment, both are good basses for fair prices, but they're both oddly coloured (which is why one in particular hasn't sold I suspect). Personally, it puts me right off, and it must do other people too, but since people don't tend to post their negative opinions on for sale threads, I thought I'd ask here. Of course there's always the option of a re-finish, but when you had £2-300 onto the cost of a bass, it stops being a good deal.

I did send him a message last night after I noticed the Aguilar thread, just had a look on [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showuser=672"]his profile[/url] and he's been online this morning so he's obviously seen the message and has no intention of sorting this out. Oh well, you live and learn. At least it wasn't a huge amount of money.

I started out on a 4, then moved to 6 then back to 5. Now I couldn't manage with a 4 string bass, even in the band that I only really use EAD on, I'd still feel constricted on runs without the B and G strings to start/finish on, even though there's no parts of the set that rely on them. There's so many variations on basses because everyone likes different things, if you find a 4 feels more natural but you like the extended range of the 5, maybe you should look into 5s with a thinner neck or string spacing. Or maybe even wider string spacing so that it's nearer the spacing on a 4 (assuming the 5 is narrower).

I think the underlying thing is that stuff is worth what people pay for it. So long as people aren't being ripped off (to be honest, I'm all for people being able to publically post "isn't that a bit much?" so long as it's politely written and not "wow, that's a rip off" or otherwise rudely put, I've PM'd one person tonight myself saying his asking price is a bit high) then I don't see the problem. If you bought your MIJ P for £25 and I wanted one, I'd happily pay a fair price for it. If I found out that you'd only payed £25 for it, I'd be frustrated that I missed out on it but fair's fair. If it's a fair price you can't really argue about it. I think if someone bought something off here absurdly cheap then re-posted it soon after at an inflated price, people would (and have in the past) notice. Ideally instruments that are sold cheap stay within the community and good deals get passed on, but it's the real world and especially in the current situation, it's not always practical. I wouldn't begrudge anyway making a profit, but it would make me less likely to buy the item in question, though it wouldn't stop me if the price was right and it was something I was after.

Yeah it's up, it was jmanfunk.

Bought a Warwick Thumb off him (twas a while ago now, but on the back of another thread, I've been encouraged to start a feedback thread for him). After setting up the bass B-G (he had it E-C) it turned out the neck had some problems and needed some serious work, I contacted Jay about it, letting him know what happened and he agreed to cover half the costs, so I went ahead with the repairs. It turned out that the problem was more serious than anticipated but luckily the Luthier stuck to his original quote. I sent Jay a scan of the reciept and have sent several emails and PMs via this forum but he's ignored them all, so as far as I'm concerned, he still owes me half the money for the repairs. He's still active in selling equipment on here (in his latest thread for an amp for sale, it was a bit shifty in it's self: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=109924"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=109924[/url] ) so I guess people should be aware of what happened with me. Of course if he resolves it, I'll update, but it's been several months since I heard from him so I'm not holding my breath.

Tell ya what then, I'll put up a thread now, it's a little late (I bought the bass months ago) but I guess better late than never.

Thanks mate! I'll keep that in mind hehe. My experience of Ashdowns is based on the various Electric Blues and MAGs of the world, I've always found either the bass is up and they sound muddy, or you have to cut the bass frequencies right out before you get any kind of definition. If I ever run across a MK in my path I'll give it a fair listen though.

He doesn't have a feedback thread, I did post a topic in general a while back when I was trying to get in contact with him, so anyone searching his name should see that. Plus if anyone looks through his for sale threads, in his most recent one he's still bumping up the thread after agreeing to a sale so he can get the money faster, I'd hope that'd be enough warning that he's a bit of a shifty customer (though he did manage to sell the amp in that thread).

[quote name='gjones' post='1037179' date='Nov 26 2010, 12:04 AM']I haven't yet bought or sold anything on the BC forum yet but scan the marketplace for basses or amps regularly just in case I see something I may be interested in. I like to think people who join BC are genuine enthusiasts and musicians but when people join and from day one start to offload bass after bass I do get suspicious. Why not have one marketplace for occasional sellers and another one for commercial dealers at least that way everybody's cards are on the table and you know who you're dealing with from day one.[/quote] There's the affiliate's forum for commercial dealers. I've been stung buy someone on here, bought a bass off him that turned out to need serious repairs, which he agreed to contribute towards, then after sending him a copy of the bill I haven't heard anything since and consequentially really struggled to cover the bills (he even lay low for a while, he's recently started posting again and has recently sold something else on here which is worrying, I've sent him another message, but I'm not holding my breath).

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1036186' date='Nov 25 2010, 12:16 PM']I never wore mine under my chin, although I did wear it relatively high. I have never had any problems with balance or weight though, it was very comfortable to play for long periods. Compared to some basses that don't carry their weight well (like a P bass or a Thunderbird) it felt like a feather![/quote] +1 on this, I have a Thumb 5 and it has no neck dive (with a proper strap) and is comfy to play for long periods. I wear mine roughly waist height, lower than it'd be if I was sitting. Ashdown amps in general, I find terrible. They're insanely popular not because they're good but because the market is totally washed out with them. Almost every bass shop has some Ashdown gear available, even Fenders aren't as common. They're also very cheap. Unfortunately they're not the most reliable amps and I can't even get a usable tone out of them. All IMO, IME etc.

We usually throw something together in Logic specific to the gigs when we play our home venue. It varies madly from one gig to the next, it's often fairly dancy with a rant of some kind over it. We also almost always open with the same track.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1035528' date='Nov 24 2010, 07:51 PM']For [b]bilbo/doddy[/b]- If Im following the staff in C time with quarter notes I presume I should pluck, Slap, Pick or whatever 4 times in a bar and I should just be letting it ring out for the duration of a whole or half note? (unless it says stacato etc obviously). The book has confused me a little with the way the flags are shown for practicing timing of 8th and 16th notes, If there is say a D with a stem and 1 flag how many plucks should I do, one but at the timing interval required to fit it where 1 8th or 16 would go? That seams right to me but in the section to clap along with it just doesnt seam to work although obviously the rythms are set out very uneven unlike a piece of music to try and get you to understand,But I dont! Ta[/quote] I think you're looking for something like this, right? Since they're the "American" names for the notes, see Bilbo's post for the English names. Worth noting that every time you half the legnth of a note, you add another flag, as you can see in the difference between the quaver and the semi-quaver (both in the note and the rest). A hemi semi quaver would have 3 flags, a hemi demi semi quaver 4 and so on. Also a dot after the note adds half of the legnth again to the note, so a dotted crotchet, is worth 1 and a half crotchets, or 3 quavers.

How do castors compare to the GPs? I have castors on my cabs, but because they're pretty sturdy wheels, I doubt they isolate as well. In saying that, they're big cabs and I don't think I could justify spending £80 (the cabs are 59x47cm and I (will at christmas hopefully) have 2 stacked with the head on top) for not a lot of difference (bearing in mind I don't play a lot of hollow stages and have the castors which go some way towards isolation). Maybe if I could fit them on the £40 one but I wouldn't feel safe with a full stack on one of those.

It's immoral, but it's totally up to the seller and you're either involved in the sale or you're not, if you're not, you shouldn't really be commenting on the thread at all. Only exceptions are positive (which can still be annoying the seller) or if the seller has a history people should know about (there's one person on here that I have issues with as a seller that other people should maybe know about, but I've not posted on any of his for sale threads...yet). The flip side is that if someone buys something off here then doesn't get on with it, they should get the same money they paid for it, though unfortunately that's not the way the world works. People pay what they think an item is worth. If someone sells something cheap, they have the choice to say no to a buyer they think only wants it to make a profit.

Bi-amping. On two levels, mainly the control of the tweeters being put on the front of the amp, but also the separate amp for the tweeters having it's own small advantages (such as the tweeters not sapping power from the woofers). Micro heads, I don't own one myself, but I can definitely see the advantage of them.

haha, just wanted to explain I'm not actually starting to think about what to upgrade. Well if you use an outboard pre-amp, won't you still be using the same on-board pre? So the onboard pre will be affecting the sound before it gets to the outboard, hence "tainting" the sound of the outboard? There's no way I'm changing the sound of my amp, I love my GK rig (as per my signature), I was just using it as an analogy so the Eden would relate to the Sadowsky (judging from what Zero9 hinted at about them sounding transparent earlier on this thread) for example. I'm just into keeping a unique sound, but within what I think sounds good. I love the sound of my Warwick into my GK and really doubt that I will get a "better" sound using other pres or amps (though I'm looking for a nice MM/MM pup bass for a "different" sound), but I'm purely curious at the moment as per my initial question, it boggles me that people just have to guess what sounds best when they're spending so much money on pre's.