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My 2003 CAR Bongo has the full-size tuners (the other ones I owned had the smaller, lightweight tuners). Even compared to that, the Sterling ones look wrong, like the tuner shafts are too long.

It'd get us out of the "tariff trap" - almost all the wood that's used in the construction of the guitars comes from either Canada (spruce, maple) or South America (mahogany, rosewood). We might have to stop making guitars with Brazilian rosewood entirely because of the tariffs (we also use East Indian rosewood on some of the cheaper instruments). The stuff from Canada is partly covered by the existing USMCA deal (the updated NAFTA deal from Tangerine Palpatine's first term) but not entirely. Having another facility in Europe or the Far East would bypass all of this crap for rest-of-the-world sales. We used to have the old Sigma range made in the Far East (various places, mostly Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and Korea), but we sold those off back in 2007 to some German company who now make cheap, Temu-level sh*t using the same brand name, which is a travesty. One of the best acoustic guitars I ever played was a Japanese Sigma DM-5 (basically a D-28) - every bit as good as the US-made instrument.

The Bongos had full sized tuners for the first 20 years in production. Not sure why it's a weird look as it was the only look all that time.

Seasoned musicians but mentally is a whole different ball game. 😂 Serious nice guys who have kept in touch with me for a few yrs now after i sold them my lighting rig during Covid. Basschat is great for making good friends. At some point i'm gonna see that band. Dave

Hi guys, I spotted this on Bass Directs website, it’s a pretty thing but going from the description it strikes me that this bass is a bit of a basket case bitsa - https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/product/fender-precision-bass-1962-sherwood-green-refinish-pre-owned/ I’m in now way affiliated with them just seems a lot of money for what it is? ” 1962 Fender Precision Bass for sale, this bass plays beautifully but is made up of a few different parts. Replacement alder body, originally had a bridge pickup too (filled and refinished in Sherwood Green) 1962 Fender neck, had an ebony fretless fingerboard fitted at some point, but now wears a rosewood fingerboard, there is evidence of the fretless side dots on the neck now. Non original pots, non original pickguard.” What do you guys think?

Well, thats not how it is supposed to work!

I met someone called Ged for the first time after a couple of years on a bikers' email list. "Hi Ged" I said. "It's bloody Jed!" he replied. As there were several of us meeting up, "it's bloody Jed" got deployed a few times. I wonder if Geddy Lee has the reverse problem.

Updated pic with fretless neck attached

Maybe I need an angry parent to make me learn properly! RE the pickup surround - I talked to Tim at Gig.Ink https://gig.ink - despite offering a super cool range of designs, he was more than happy to do me a simple boring white rectangle. He sent 1:1 templates to test and we're all set. The bass looks quite cool with a surround around the bridge, too - so at a later date I might do that, or get surround(s) in other colours, maybe.

If he'd called it the Graphics Exchangeable Format, I'm sure everyone would have been happy to call it Jeff.

I had a bubinga/wenge 4-string Corvette which I restrung BEAD as a trial and decided to go for a swamp-ash/ovankol 5-string Corvette tuned BEADG. With a lighter body and a wider/heavier neck, the 5-string had serious neck dive and I eventually sold it on as I couldn't work with it. Try before you buy. David

It's not plugged in, it's not switched on, it's not turned up. 99% of gear issues solved by one of these and still I get caught out.

We play Sweet child o'mine dropped a semitone (ie in the original key) but I also play it with various others in standard tuning, so to avoid confusion I always play it in the same place and use a pitch shifter to take it down a semitone. At the last gig, the singer didn't have his SG which he has downtuned but he picked up his Les Paul which he keeps in standard tuning. I thought he must have decided he can sing it in standard tuning after all. It only took me two notes of the intro to realise that he'd downtuned the Les Paul, so I played the rest of the intro downshifted on the bass and then switched the pitch shifter on for the verse.

At the end of the day, all tax and NI ends up in the consolidated fund at the Treasury, where it's disbursed. A small percentage of NHS funding will come from NI contributions since it's all coming from the same bucket at the end of the day, but it's budget and allocations is based on a percentage of income tax, VAT and other tax receipts rather than NI. That's why when you get your tax document from HMRC every year, the NHS is a big slice of the pie on the pie chart. I work for a well-known US manufacturer of acoustic guitars and we're seeing a significant dropoff in overseas sales, to the point where we're considering moving some manufacturing out of North America (we currently have factories in the US and northern Mexico). Not only have our instruments become more expensive, people around the world just don't want to buy American stuff. Or, at least, American versions of American stuff - supposedly Fender Japan have seen a big surge of interest in their stuff this year...

Another possible buzz issue is the spring on the bridge if not fully stretched. It seems like fret buzz but actually from the other end of the bass so took me a fair while to identify when it happened on one of my basses.

Thanks for that, I now know what I'm calling my autobiography: A Semitone Louder Use dummy plugs in seldom-used sockets. Saved me more times than I'll ever know.

I'm so glad it's not just me.

I started tagging friends in our posts and making silly behind-the-scenes clips—that got way more engagement than just gig posters. Making it fun seems to help.