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Oh! That would have been bad. Good thing you stopped that.
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Not “upgrading”. But I did leave my fretless at a luthier’s, who said he could make it play better and sound better.
That’ll be interesting. I’m supposed to have it back by Tuesday.
Which will be a problem, because I’m also expecting my MIDI keyboard on Tuesday.
So, if you find me here on Wednesday morning behind a keyboard, with a fretless on my lap, and bloodshot eyes in my eyesockets, send me off to bed.
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It is now Tuesday, and I picked up the fretless this morning (taking all intelligent lockdown measures into account, which was interesting).
It has become a completely different instrument, in terms of playability. Neck straightened, nut filed down considerably, action lowered considerably, intonation now correct, electronics reviewed. I’ve played $600 fretless basses that weren’t this good.
And the sound?
MWOOOAAAH MWOAH MWOAH MMMWWWOOOAAAAHHHH MMWOOAAHH!
I know what I’ll be doing the rest of the day.
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Good to hear, @peterhuppertz . . . 
It’s really great when something works out the way you hoped it would 
Cheers, Joe
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Lanny,
I’m an absolute bass beginner (B2B module 2) but what you said about spending money on learning instead of equipment is SOOO true. I have two examples. I consider myself an expert skier, former PSIA instructor and current NSP Alpine Patroller… And so frequently I’ll see someone with absolutely terrible form on super expensive equipment. I want to grab them by the shoulders and tell them to sell their $1000 skis, get a $400 pair and spend $600 on lessons! In the end they would enjoy every run so much more if they had more skill instead of great equipment.
… and after 24 years in the military, I shouldn’t even get started on “tacticool”.
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I guess I have to upgrade my old PC laptop to something new so which would be the more flexible platform for all the bells and whistles discussed on the forum, PC or MAC?
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For a laptop, for lots of reasons, I would always choose a Mac. Mostly it depends on if you have other windows software you would want to use on it. If so, a windows laptop might be a better choice. I vastly prefer Macs myself though.
If you go with a Mac, in addition to most DAWs people mention here, you could also go with GarageBand (which is truly excellent for a free piece of software) or Logic, its bigger brother, which is one of the best and most easy to use DAWs out there. While still having the option to use Reaper like a few of us do 
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Thanks @howard. I’m sorta leaning toward the Mac , but I just wanted to hear what others had to say.
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Spot on!
You guys must have money to burn.
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I am still using a 2014 macbook pro. It’s still fine, no issues whatsoever. The additional cost up front has more than paid for itself.
Also, AppleCare is by far the best warranty in personal computing.
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Coincidentally, I am still using a 2014 PC from ASUS, and a 2015 Dell laptop. They’re both still fine, no issues whatsoever. There was no additional cost. The Dell power supply failed after 20 months, but it was replaced without questions.
Coincidentally, we found out what AppleCare is worth when my wife’s iPhone screen caved in after four months. She wasn’t the only one with that problem. It may be different in Japan, I’m not sure. But in Europe, we were told to suck it up.
I consider Apple products to be seriously overpriced fashion gadgets.
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That’s very weird, because my experience with AppleCare is you generally just walk in to a genius bar and walk out with a new (refurbished) phone. I’ve done this twice myself (mic jack issue on two different phones - I guess I am hard on mic jacks. Of course, those don’t exist any more on Apple devices, a legit gripe and once with my wife’s phone for a battery issue. For the battery issue they said next time just call us and we’ll ship you a new phone and an envelope to send the old one back in.
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Oh man… you should read Apple’s Dutch warranty statement. It’s comic relief of the first order. Unfortunately it’s in Dutch.
A synopsis:
Under European consumer law, a warranty period of 2 years is mandatory.
Apple’s statement:
Apple Distribution International of Hollyhill Industrial Estate Hollyhill, Cork, Republic of Ireland (or their successor) (“Apple”) warrants that the Apple brand hardware product and accessories in the original packaging (“Apple product”) are free from material - and manufacturing defects when used in accordance with Apple’s user guides, technical specifications, and other published guidelines for the Apple product, for a period of one year from the date of purchase by the original end-user / purchaser (“Warranty Period”).
Now, of course, they are aware that this violates consumer law.
So here is how they solve it:
CONSUMER LEGISLATION
Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty is a voluntary manufacturer’s warranty. The warranty provides rights in addition to rights under consumer law, including, but not limited to, rights in the area of non-conforming goods.
In this capacity, the benefits of Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty complement and do not replace rights granted under consumer law.
If a product is defective, consumers can in particular invoke the rights that are granted under Dutch consumer law, as laid down in the Dutch Civil Code.
Consumers can choose whether to claim Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty or their consumer rights.
Important: The terms of Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty do not apply to consumer law claims.
Visit the Apple website (https://www.apple.com/nl/legal/statutory-warranty/) or contact your local consumer association for more information on Dutch consumer law.
The phrase “Consumers can choose whether to claim Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty or their consumer rights” suggests that ‘Apple’s One-Year Limited Warranty’ offers something that the consumer rights does not offer. Unfortunately, this is not true – the One Year Limited Warranty does not offer any rights that the customer would not have under consumer law. Excep for the one-year period, the rights offered are the minimum they can get away with.
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Interesting. Both here and in the US, AppleCare is basically “something went wrong? here’s your new device”, in my experience. Apple’s reputation for customer service is pretty stellar.
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I got my first MacBook in 2007, a gift from my mom. She got it for Xmas, but gave it at thanksgiving. It was great til the screen went out in 2016.
But in 2010, around thanksgiving, I remembered the AppleCare I never used. I took it in because the dvd rom would jam up when trying to eject @ disc.
I took it into the apple store, showed it to the guy at the counter, he quickly identified the problem, someone holding the laptop right around the dvd rom slot. I recalled that’s the way my (8 year old at the time) daughter carried it like that all the time.
So, he reached into his pocket, pulled out something that sort of resembled a bass pick, and opened the gap a little, and we ejected a disc no problem
Now, this is where the story begins.
He looked at the computer and said “ your apple care ends today. Can we have it for an hour and a half you can pick it up here in 90 min.”
Ok
I went back, and they presented to me a MacBook that looked brand new. I think the hard drive, MB and ram was the only part of that laptop that I gave them. It was a whole new case, keyboard, screen, everything, it looked brand new, and was a bit peppier then it was before.
I mean let’s face it, MAC’s are peppy where PC’s are slow as shit for basic OS things, including power up and down. Well, this one was as fast as the day I first used it,
Is Apple care the best. Yes, hands down.
Including the employee. I never said AppleCare, I would have asked if he didn’t fix the issue with a bass pick. But I would have left, problem solved, happy as ever. I never expected that.
Also, when I got home, and opened the bag the laptop was sent home in, there was a receipt.
Listing the things I mentioned, and more.
Case, KB, Apple screen, etc… $1500. Balance due $0.00
drops here.
Yep, yep, stuff like that has been my experience as well. No idea why it seems worse in Europe for Peter - his experience definitely sounds bad. it wouldn’t be the most surprising thing if there were regional differences.
That said, Europe has MUCH stronger consumer protection than the US in general. We should envy it actually. Maybe Apple sticks more to the letter of the law there.
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Yeah, it’s too bad, sucks to be turned off to stellar products cuz the CS sucks.
Btw @peterhuppertz, I was. PC advocate for many years, built myself many for work and play.
I bad mouthed Apple a lot, calling the overpriced gadgets myself, very arrogant.y, in my case, but when I got one in my hands (my moms new MacBook Pro, back in 2007, after a tiny bit of direction to understand the backward (to PC) OS, it was not 90 seconds later I said to my Mom, I gotta get one of these.
That was around Labor Day 2007. I was living in Phoenix, AZ at the time, near @PamPurrs, and was out for Labor Day weekend, and my dads Birthday.
When I returned to CA for Thanksgiving, she gave me an early Xmas present.
I live in both worlds now, because MT work is all PC, but for my personal devices, and Laptops ( when I have one) are all MAC.
Work is not by choice, it’s by need. Personal is all choice.
But that’s my experience, not everybody has the same
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I actually do all my music stuff on a windows PC (my gaming desktop is way more powerful than my laptop, and after 30 years, mac gaming is still a joke in comparison).
For work or normal usage, other than sheer volume of software, I vastly prefer MacOS to Windows, of course. And especially for supporting others. Even with the improvements to Win10, walking family members through issues with Windows is a maddening timesuck despite being pretty familiar with it.
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