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Dosh delivered 😄 SUGGESTION: As some of us might be able to come down on Saturday evening. Is there a Basschatter playing a gig nearby on the 10th somewhere near affordable accommodation (e.g. a Travelodge)? Would be good to make the bash into a mini break.

Awesome things. Is there a noticeable difference between maple and rosewood fingerboards?

I don't disagree regarding the bands you've mentioned. I'm a big Primus fan and bought LC's Vivid on day one, but have any of them written anything better than Stargazer, Stairway to Heaven or Bohemian Rhapsody? I think not. It was mentioned earlier that voters had up to 3 (I think) choices. It really doesn't explain how a lot of the very weak material got in at all. I mean Teenage Kicks - WTF? No Greta Van Fleet I notice 😂. No Blackberry Smoke. No Zappa either, which is criminal given what is in there. My next gigs are Kurt Elling at Ronnie Scott's followed by The Aristocrats. Music is the best!

I bought mine this week - traded in cash plus my Stomp XL that’s probably done 100+ gigs with me in the last year so it’s a bit of a leap of faith, but I have to say it’s knocked my socks off - everything about it is fantastic. I hope over time it’s going to get a larger array FX as I did used to love going through the Stomp and finding some random drive or delay etc that I’d never looked at before that suddenly nailed a sound for me, and it’s not really going to be the case as much on this as there’s not huge amounts of stuff on there in comparison, although if you take the guitar stuff off the Stomp and just count Bass stuff they’re probably pretty comparable Game changer for me has been the NAM player - found some cracking captures on Tone3000, my favourite being the Kasleder Albatross Fuzz! https://www.tone3000.com/tones/kasleder-albatross-30490 Also the DCX Bass: https://www.tone3000.com/tones/origin-effects-dcx-bass-28027 And I’ve been liking the B-Side Gain from the Jad Freer Capo: https://www.tone3000.com/tones/jad-freer-capo-31244 Any suggestions of other NAM captures to look out for would be very welcome. The Alabatross fuzz has some beautiful low gain fuzz settings, which if you save it as a NAM Pedal (rather than Amp or Misc) you get a blend control available so you can tweak it to give you a really sweet always on low gain fuzz tone, I’ve combined it with a LPF for an easy to switch on ‘vintage tone rolled off’ sound. I did similar on the Stomp, but this sounds SO much better

Hurt So Bad - Linda Ronstadt

That’s a bit of an unfair generalisation. I often listen to planet rock ( the gambling ads do my nut in though) but I’m just as likely to listen to 6music or give something new a try.

There's certainly nothing wrong with modern music, bands now are as good as they've ever been. Its the dinosaurs who listen to Planet Rock who just won't listen to bands they don't know. Its their loss, there's a whole heap of new music they'd probably love if they were more open minded. Discovering new bands is something I love, finding they have a couple albums for me to check out and enjoy and hear new, good stuff. I love Sabbath, they've probably influenced every band I love but Id probably only put one of their songs in my top 10.

Ultimately if you did this with Absolute Classic Rock you’d probably get a similar list; their playlist is very heavily stuck in those decades and the more modern takes on “classic rock” which PR plays don’t get a look in (Those Damn Crows, Florence Black, Massive Wagons, even Alter Bridge and the lamentable 5FDP). I bet if you asked the Kerrang radio listeners to do theirs, that’s when you’d get a bit more variety. They seem to focus on 90s onwards, with a smattering of classic Sabbath, Maiden, Ozzy, Van Halen etc. It’s through Kerrang that I discovered I’d missed all 25 years of Billy Talent (bloody love that band now) and Rise Against (same) and learnt more about a lot of other bands I knew from one or two songs only. It’s all incredibly subjective, and ultimately the PR raison d’etre is to play the older “classic” rock, hence that’s what the list will provide because that’s why the listeners tune in.

I also like the idea. I am a Ukulele player, who recently got a Flight short scale bass to play along with our Ukulele club(s). im finding it difficult to work out volume levels / comparison of 15-20w battery amps. Such as Joyo DC-15B and Scuru S8B and Blackstar Fly 3 - the later I already own.

Congrats, they are nice sounding amps

I'd concur on the Queen thing. NATO was the last decent Queen album, but I'd say Sheer Heart Attack was their absolute peak. Again though, it's all subjective. My brother taped SHA for me and I listened to it endlessly, along with Sweet's Sweet F*nny Adams and Sparks' Kimono/Propaganda albums. Time, place and circumstances account for a lot. Would they stand up now? If I told my teen nephew to go at listen to them? Probably not.

I remember one of my more knowledgable musician mates saying of my TRB6 ".....the sort of bass played by NYC session musicians". That pretty much says it all 👍

I’m in the market for a new iron so it’d be great to see what people are recommending in 2026. 👍🏻

Aaw come on W, I think you know more than enough where my musical tastes lie. 😏 'Rock' music (along with all it's sub-genres) is simply too all-encompassing to capture within 500 songs, but you have to admit the inevitably of the tracks peppering the top 20/50. I have a mate called Pete (bass player too), lovely bloke, a few years older than me, who would look at that top 20 and all those wretched power ballads and go, 'Yep, yes, absolutely, yeah, Christ yes,' at pretty much everything in there. He wouldn't be considering, or be remotely interested in Alkaline Trio or Fishbone or Jane's Addiction or The Beths or Momma or XTC or Steven Wilson or Pavement, Primus, Living Colour, Veruca Salt, Jellyfish, Smashing Pumpkins (and so on), as these bands simply aren't on his radar and to him they don't represent rock in it's purest - 1970s/1980s - form. The stuff, as a guy nudging 70, he grew up with. The Planet Rock 500 is like those wretched NOW! compilations; it's the songs Neal Kay would spin before the lights went down for the headliners at Hammersmith Odeon. It's awful populist rawk, filtered down to it's lowest common denominator; Queen (and I love early Queen), Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden. The only one that suprised me was Rainbow's 'Stargazer at #3. The only reason Alter Bridge are at #8 is because the station probably play it a lot, because sure as hell, Pete wouldn't have just plucked that one out of the ether.

So I recently re-entered the world of the Precision with the purchase of one of the new American Professional Classics. I currently have the following amplification… TC Electronic RH750 in TC 2x10 enclosure + 2 single TC 1x12 cabs. MarkBass 2x10 combo with 1x12” extension cab. Backup TC Electronic BQ250 head unit. Usually the RH750 stays at home - even with its built in trolley, 28kgs is a lot to haul around, despite the full rig sounding great, and having the on-board compressor which makes the Precision sound fantastic. The MarkBass system sounds fantastic for my more modern-sounding instruments, like Status & GB, or my Jazz Elite, but for the passive Jazzes and Precision it just sounds too artificial and highly processed, despite the best efforts of the ‘Vintage’ filter. So during the Xmas holidays, I spotted an Ampeg Venture V3 on offer in the sales with £200 off RRP, so I did the usual research and found it made a sound I might like. It arrived earlier this week, and it is very good indeed. Rather than ploughing yet more money into Ampeg’s highly expensive cabs, I’ve jury-rigged a dual 12” system with the extension cabs from both of my main rigs, and oh my, does it sound good with the Precision!

I wish I could take full credit for the neck. It’s a very good Chinese one which I have reshaped the headstock and given a lot of love to the back and fretboard. Necks is my next hurdle to jump. Bodies are very forgiving and it I suspect you could strap a bridge and some pickups to a scaffold board and it would play but necks make or break the build. As @Kiwi graphite ones and the multitude of manufacturers that build in China demonstrate, necks being produced there are excellent with only the usual fettling a new neck needs. By using quality manufactured necks, I can ensure consistency, quality and keep overall build costs down. This allows me to concentrate on custom building gorgeous bodied, fantastic set up and playing basses which I can offer at a non boutique price point. I mean, after all, I’m not doing this to be the next Jon Shuker; I’m a chap with a full time day job who like pottering around in his workshop, trying to not lose a finger on bladed machinery and sanding stuff😂. I have no pretensions that I will ever make money from either building basses or playing in my band😆

Free community music festival in Komedia in Bath last night. There were a lot of musicians who made me feel very inadequate. Crooked Snout, Mute TV and Kill Mirror Image were all amazing. The headliner, Meryl Streek is an Irish solo punk vocalist. Its just him and a backing track but he really puts on a hell of a performance. Very angry and tells stories with his songs. He's starting to get some decent success and last night was the start of his British tour. We chatted with him after the show, top bloke, loves what he does.