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I can never understand why people wear hats in cars. Especially the driver, I always stay well away from them. Same goes for country singers and cowboy hats. And anyone who wears a baseball cap when not playing baseball. (I have a couple of those). Oh yes, and bass players with the bass just above the knee when standing.

Ha! My garage told me just now that my turbo has died. I will not be buying anything new for a bit. But I am still interested

This all relates to buying bass equipment, because in America the sticker price may be less on some gear, but you have to factor in the wider lifestyle you would be living in a completely different society. Would you be reckless enough to spend a substantial portion of your savings on bass-related purchases if you and your family didn't have the kind of safety net we enjoy in the U.K? Would you be able to enjoy what you bought? When I first moved to the States and got my own place to live I was having the time of my life. The only problem was I kept getting charged for everything by everybody at every opportunity. Phone company, utilities, building maintenance, college tuition, medical, dental. And if you don't pay them they don't deal with excuses, they just cut you off and /or sue you for payment. America hadn't got the memo that I was only there to enjoy myself. They treated me like a regular person, not the carefree celebrity I really was. It was one of the most salutary lessons of my adult life. I still find it hard to forgive them.

Same here. The thought of Trace Elliot gives me nightmares. In the mid 80s I was in a band who got a publishing and development deal (I don’t think the latter exists nowadays, but it was essentially a pre-record deal where a label would fund gear and studio time, and have first dibs on you if you developed into what they were after). Trace Elliot were quite the thing at the time, so the first thing I did was ditch my perfectly fine Marshall 50w amp and 4x12 speaker for a snazzy, all singing, all dancing Trace Elliot rig. 250w amp, with UV light, a fan you could switch on (and off!), various bells, whistles, and a graphic equaliser that gave you the biggest smile you could ask for. I got to the first rehearsal and carted in my new rig. The band and sound guy crowded around, then slowly shuffled away in silence, leaving just the drummer, who, after about half-hour of witnessing me frantically move sliders up and down, and twiddle various knobs, said bluntly, “that sounds sh*t, can you get your old stuff back?!”. It did, and I couldn’t…

Not sure if it counts as a 'great deal' but Softube just announced their Equalizers plugin. It is essentially Softube's own version of the Fabfilter Pro Q4/Sonnox Claro/name your graphic EQ. The main benefit to the plugin is that if you already have any of Softube's EQ plugins, then you can load these into the Equalizers plugin so you can use a Softube Neve/API/Trident EQ for 'broad tone shaping' and use the graphic for for detailed corrective work. The graphic EQ includes dynamic EQ and mid-side processing. You can then manage the EQ within a single plugin window, at least that is the idea. It is very smart, at least in concept. Launch price is £69 or £87 bundled with your Softube channel strip or EQ of choice. The bundle options include the ridiculously expensive Softube EQs which get sold for up £250 individually (I can't even imagine paying that for a plugin). So if you really really want a very expensive Softube EQ this is the most cost effective way, even though it is not particularly cost effective. I tried the demo, just because I own the Softube British Class A (Neve) channel (I got it in a bundle for £40 or so) and use that on most stuff for half-arsed, 'that'll do' post tracking tone shaping before I sent the tracks off to somebody who knows what they are doing (I am better/less bad at setting up mics and tracking than I am at mixing) Also, you can't add drive or compression within the Equalizer plugin. If you want to add in preamp/console saturation/compression then you have to load another instance of your Softube EQ of choice which to me kinda defeats the point of the 'single plugin' basis. I am better off using a regular channel strip and Claro or Pro Q3 because with Neve and API type plugins, the saturation and colour is a key part of the sound. Worth a try if you have a bunch of Softube EQs but I don't think I need it and not even worth considering if you have no Softube plugins and already have a decent graphic EQ.

I bought a very expensive compressor being of the belief it would somehow revolutionise my tone. Hahaha. Snake oil.

When Scott Devine goes on and on ad infinitum about being 'in the pocket'. Ugh! I assume you mean playing together, tightly and rhythmically? My keys and wallet are in my pocket. I play in time and right in the middle of the beat. When playing in a Big Band I play on the leading edge of the beat to pull the brass players along. We don't need silly buzz words and catch phrases.

Even better you can split the signal by frequency on the stomp. There are youtube vids on it. Does a couple of other things too.

Can you add effects to either of those paths? Also does the HX inc drives that will just add a bit of grit to top end as opposed to full blown OD? Off to research.

You can create parallel paths on the Stomp, apply EQ to each to give HPF and LPF, and recombine them at the output or send them to separate outputs.

There has been a development 🤠 I'm going to keep it under wraps until 15th September 🤐. Just because I'm un poco supersticioso 🤫

Can't beat colour coding. As everything's XLR-XLR it doesn't really matter but I've adopted a system of orange = FOH, yellow = monitors, and whatever you've brought for mics (singer red, 2nd guitar green, me purple). Also I have two lengths of IEC cables, 2m (colour coded red using insulting tape) and 3m (colour coded yellow).