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Before my hands toughened up , I used to put surgical spirit on the blisters. I have Presto Lights on now, which seem to be a lot kinder than the Lycon I started off with.

New Bass Day! Just got delivery of this beautiful looking M2000 Trib GTS edition which looks the biz with trans black flame top and white binding. It sounds great too however after trying to set up the action to match my L2000 Trib which I've been playing for 10 years now I've concluded the upper half of the neck has a slight ski jump slope. I've read a few posts about this same problem with these later Tribs. Seems the QC isn't the same as some of the earlier ones. I like the action nice and low. So my question is, has anyone successfully flatted the upper frets with a file or stone to rectify the problem? Any advice on set up, other than 'take it to a sprofessional'?

What were you expecting? Why did you buy it? It could well be you don’t need it. I got mine because i wanted an Ampeg vibe through the combo’s i use at rehearsals, and wanted a bit of OD and modulation all in one small box. The GP-5 an 50 provide exactly what i need. I don’t bother using either at home as i use other things.

Thanks. Now maybe we won't have to see any of those ridiculous "Paul McCartney should buy Hofner!" posts.

I missed my second-ever gig on Saturday for reasons explained a couple of weeks ago. Some of you asked to be updated, so today is as good as any. I had a CT Prep scan on Friday to map out the affected area for radiotherapy and give you a few pretty tattoo dots (my first ever tats - not that I wanted any) so they can line you up in the machinery consistently every time they blast you with radiation. Radiotherapy and oral chemo start on Monday, 5th Jan, so at least we get to have a relatively normal Christmas with the family. In the meantime, I need to make a few new habits in preperation of a 5-week, near-daily slog of hospital visits. I need to hydrate more, and turn up to sessions with a full bladder - so I'm trying to drink a pint of water first thing in the morning (easier said than done) and keep a water log with an app. Using hand cream daily, which I've never had to before, to mitigate the chances of neuropathy. And my diet has to change again to low fibre and low gas (to avoid trapped wind), which will make for a boring few weeks of food, certainly a challenge for a couple of food lovers such as me and my chef wife. Good news is we have a gig next week that I fully intend to do. I just need to be sensible when it comes to mixing with people. The last thing I need is to catch a cold the week before starting treatment.

So I bought one of these wondering what all the hype was about….. I’m still wondering to be honest? It’s decent for guitar I guess, but bass? The presets are ok at best, and I’ve come up with a couple of my own modulation variations, but I’m a bit underwhelmed by it so far? I’m old, and haven’t really delved into NAMs and IRs etc…. (I actually didn’t know what that meant), so I’m wondering weather this thing might not be my bag…. maybe some Xmas experimenting might make it grow on me.

One more thing to try. These days it shouldn't necessary with most ethernet devices being auto-sensing, but since this is essentially a peer-to-peer wired network it might be worth checking if it can be made to work with an ethernet cross-over cable rather than just a standard patch cable.

Just had a quick play on with pitch shift set to -2 semis fully wet, and GX10 seems to comfortably handle taking down the low E by a couple of semis in terms of a usable-in-the-mix bass. What are you finding with the ME-90B?

Some of mine

Sorry to hear this news Woody, please give Sabby a hug from me.

Nice 90s Britpop feeling to it, Andy. Great work!

As with all things, the number increases as time goes on... For me, it's the £2000 level at the moment. I have basses that are in the £3-4000 bracket, but I'd consider £2000 upwards to be an 'expensive bass'. Of course, it's all down to your personal circumstances, but the Fender range is a good place to start, with the entry level American stuff now starting at 14-1500, and the full Corona-ese stuff now nudging the £2000 barrier and upwards. Anyone else remember when the American Standards were hanging on shop walls priced at £700? They seemed unattainable at the time, too!

Did you ever get that brass nut?

£1k for me is about cut off of a pub-gigging bass. Their marketing team has probably got to me, but I take the prices of a new Fender Precision or Jazz as the benchmark as most of other Bass brands probably take them as a benchmark too (if you were manufacturing a new 4 string passive Jazz type Bass in Indonesia you'd probably be paying close attenntion to the Fender equivilant prices). Squier: £300 Standard: £550 Player: £1,000 'Player' type signature models: £1,500 Professional: £1,800 American Ultra: £2,200 'American Ultra' type signature models: £2,400 Custom Shop: £4,000 As far as their marketing goes, anything under £1,000 is relatively mass produced and beginner/budget. £2k is where they aim at the sort of gigging musician/professional level - relatively expensive but a workhorse Bass for weekend warriors to play in pubs, >£2,400 is when you get to what they'd market as expensive and high-end quite exclusive and collectable sort of things that don't get played in grotty pubs. Personally, I'd buy second-hand and £1k is about the limit where I think you get the most bang for your buck (A decent condition 'Player' or Japanese or 'Professional' sort of Fender level), less than that and you often need to spend money doing upgrades or putting up with things like un-level frets (just a professional fret leveling setup can cost about £300 nowadays so it's a bit of a false economy getting cheaper basses sometimes). More than £1k second-hand gets diminishing returns in terms of technical and playability improvements and is where I'd start getting paranoid about taking it out to pubs.

It's a long time since I've had blisters, but electrician's tape was my usual remedy. I think Mark King did similar, if so I'm in good company!

For my current band I only own one bass that is suitable. At some point next year I'll probably buy another one, but it will most likely be exactly the same model but in a different colour. I'll then decide which one I'll be playing and which will be the back-up based on what I am wearing on stage.

As I've been using it for practice and the tree is in the same room, here's a festive one.

... and a very prog Xmas to you! (Yeah, that thing's a classic already, and the thread title did indeed nearly give it away. A prog Xmas can only be this or Rick Wakeman in Santa's cape, and I prefer this.)

And I'm of the unpopular opinion that they all do the same job. Now, which one will make me look fancy tonight?