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I looked at these last year, started a similar thread to this Got some good advice, ended up with a TC BG208 which is ideal for me and it also saved me some money going down that route Tony

Been setting up a couple of drive patches on the GX10 using the AIRD preamp fx. Managed to find the Orange Stack which I had previously been using on my GT-1000 Core, but not the Fat Tube which others had mentioned/liked on the Core and I was hoping to audition - maybe that's one of the fx not available yet on the GX10? I'm finding that the Boss preset GX Dual Drive (with some added EQ to fill out the low-mids) is my current fav - it's a reach creamy drive! That comprises the OD fx followed by two of their preamps in parallel. What's particularly neat is being able to assign the expression pedal to two parameters on each of the OD and the two preamps (6 parameters in total): the gain and level so that the gain on all three can be simultaneously increased while at the same time smoothly reducing the output levels on each fx so the overall output volume remains even. Combining that with one of the footswitches to kick off/on the two parallel-path preamps and I've got quite a range of drive available via the expression pedal, which will be handy for live use.

Pretty certain there's some Steven Wilson hero worship going on here. I've come a bit late to the Steven Wilson party; I've loved the work he's done resurrecting/elevating the Tears For Fears and XTC back catalogue to spatial audio and Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Welcome To The Pleasuredome Atmos mix is an absolute delight, but (and there's always a 'but'), I find his total output somewhat overwhelming in a musical capacity. So much content to play catch up. No-Man, Porcupine Tree, his solo stuff, Blackfield ...and so on. I own a few albums/BluRays; more recent live stuff (Home Invasion/Arriving Somewhere/Closure Continuation Live) and some solo stuff (The Future Bites/The Overview) and I dip into Spotify for short hits of audio, but just want to throw something cohesive together (Spotify) that I can just stick on in the car, at home etc. My good lady happened to be sitting in the same room when Pariah (from To The Bone) came on - she said, 'I like this,' which was then swiftly followed by, 'I don't like this, there's too many notes,' and I can kind of see her point. Gimme you favourite tracks.

Latest incarnations of my boards. Gigging requirements keep changing, so we have plenty of dirt options on one for the 90’s grunge and alt rock set, and more of a filter focus of the other for the 80’s pop covers.

Indeed. Phil McKnight visited Cort in Indonesia. This is what I would call mass produced. Compare that to the likes of Warwick (playlist from 13 years ago): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4RTxRSp52Y&list=PL23BB5BB96FFBFC41

Using CNC / Mechanisation to build basses is only logical from a viewpoint of quality of manufacturing and ability to reproduce compatible parts. Even boutique manufacturers do this, here is a Facebook post by Roger Sadowsky from back in 2023 talking about his New York Custom Shop basses being made with CNC machines:

Hello, My name is Antoine Lamarque and I build guitars, basses and pickups in Paisley, Scotland. I've recently designed a humbucker for Jazz Bass. They're called 'Short-Range Humbuckers' and they're a little bit different to everything else on the market right now. They were reviewed by Bass The World on youtube which is the best place to hear some sound samples. I'm trying to get them out in the wild so I'm offering a 50% discount on my online store so a set of these pickups is now £97.50 with worldwide shipping included. It's a tough time of year to ask people to spend £195 on pickups from an unknown builder so hopefully the discount along with 30 day returns will be enough to encourage people to give them a try. Here are links to my product page and the youtube review. https://www.lamarqueguitars.com/product-page/shortrangehumbucker

With the advent of CNC machines, I don't think automation defines mass produced any more. There are low volume shops with all the machines. IMO mass produced just means high volume output, fewer choices and, in many cases, reduced QC. There are boutique shops which contract out cutting bodies and making necks. They are low volume and high quality, with many options, but they are probably not defined as hand made anymore.

@RhythmJunky When you've only got a hammer, everything looks like a nail But thanks for the kind words. You are not the first person to suggest either a 3d printed cabinet or a frame or bonding things together. The issue is partly around the maximum size I can print at once, a Prusa MK4 can do circa 250mm by 220mm by 200mm (vertically). Thats fairly standard for most decent printers. Getting larger than this starts to get expensive, so a 350mm x 350mm x 350mm from Prusa is a lot more money. Even that isn't quite big enough for an 8" cab. Going beyond that is even more money. I have looked at 500mm x 500mm x 500mm but they are very big frames, the heated bed is as big as you can go, and even then its patchy. I did enquire with RatRig in Portugal about making a 600x600x100mm printer but they weren't keen at all. Also plastic isn't really a dense material and isn't that suitable for cabinets. I'm definitely at the novice end of the scale here but people want to use MDF and Birch ply or even concrete for the cabinets to avoid ringing. Plastic isn't really suitable, certainly for the bass ports it seems fine and for edges of frames and amp mounts it's OK but I wouldn't think it that good in large scale use. Bonding has been discussed off-line, but I'm not convinced you'd gain anything over plywood. However if somebody has some clever ideas and wants to try, I'm happy to put some time into it. Not sure how much time and effort, but more than nothing and less than an infinite amount I would suspect a honeycomb in three dimensions might be interesting, but I'm not 100% sure how I'd design it and how to bind it. Rob

The wonky angles of the mismatched screws securing the bridge, and the precision of the routing job for the pickups and neck pocket remind me of someone. Surely It can't be 'him?' 🤔