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We had a lovely gig last night, in what must be a unique venue, The Heron Theatre, Beetham, Cumbria. It's a grade 2 listed building in a small village, run as a charity entirely by volunteers. It serves a large rural catchment around south Cumbria where there aren't really many other venues of its kind. It was sold out well in advance at £15 a ticket. Great people to work with, nice dressing room, free tea, coffee & beer! We ran our own PA but spent the time to get the sound right and it really did sound great in the room as well as on stage. The audience loved it and many of them told us so. They are booked up June 2026, but we'll get another date after that. Rob

Yes, MarkBass amplifiers tend to make vintagey, wooden basses sound very gritty and growly. I get a completely different sound from my MarkBass 210 tilting combo than from my TC Electronic stuff. MarkBass tends to have a very boosted, yet honest sound. You hear literally everything, whereas the TC's are very smooth and sweet sounding, but heavily processed.

I guess that is it. These are specs that I can take or leave. The 34.5 scale length intrigues me though because I struggled previously with a 35” so need to try one.

Although tbf you'd expect a capture to respond much more like the real thing when you push the input in most cases.

Here’s the response to Trump from the American Federation of Musicians -

This is the onboard model of the SVT, same with the GK. It could just be a capture under the hood though I suppose.

Mule-man - Soundgarden

Muffin's Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship

Isn’t that the nature of captures vs models? captures the SVT again with the gain up a load to have a more gainy version?

Welcome Summer - hope you find your dad's bass soon 🤞🤞🤞

Cake on Me - A-Ha!

32" scale- Hobgoblin did a 5 string under their Ashbury range, with a Belcat preamp. It was in their catalogue for a while (but not now). I had one of the first batch off of the production line, having asked Hobgoblin if they could start making them. The B string was a bit dull and thuddy, compared to the E to G strings. Body was the same size and shape as a Lowden O series guitar and easily manageable as a gigging instrument. I played both that 5 32" string, and a 34" Washburn 34" for years, before I even realised that the scale lengths differed! 34" scale - Boulder Creek. My current acoustic bass. Surprisingly manageable for something of that scale length. Much more control of the tone from the preamp, which includes a phase inverter and a tuner. A set of Thomastik Infeld (spelling?) strings gives a rich B string with sustain that matches the other strings, and the authority to "own" the low end. I preferred this bass - it was all-round a better instrument. Only the Covid19 lockdown stopped me playing it in my acoustic band (and it is now for sale on Basschat...).

Pudding On The Ritz - Irving Berlin

According to Alex at EMG, nope as the magnet is 77.5mm long. Some of these might then suit the SR375, providing the early reviews online are good, which I'm not really worried about as I've yet to use an EMG I didn't like.

Thank you! In bass news, I’ve been learning a couple songs from the Pixies and the Cranberries.

In Da Club - 50 Cent

Just in from a gig. I dep for this rock band and the gig was at a pub I've never been to before. Parking was ace. Double gates into a spacious yard and a short load in through the back door. These small things make a gig so much nicer. I set up and did a line check. Despite everything being on its usual settings, the bass sound was monstrous. Maybe too loud I thought. It was a raised stage and hollow as far as I could tell. I use a cab isolator anyway, but the sound was HUGE. The opinion from those out front was that it wasn't too loud, so I left things as they were. Truth be told, I'm not a massive fan of most of the songs this band do. If I never play Long Train Running and Play That Funky Music again, it will be day too soon! The said, I did get to play Black Velvet for maybe the second time ever and that sounded great. I take repeated calls of 'one more song' after the encore as a good night. We left it at that. For the most part my signal line was: Shuker JJ Signature Precision > Darkglass Microtubes 900 v2 'Euryale' > Barefaced Big Twin Gen III Some effects were sporadically deployed.

Just back from another outing at the Reivers Sports Bar in Galashiels. A bit quieter than last time but we still had a few folk up and dancing. It was someone's birthday, so the Altered Images song made an unscheduled appearance. This was the first gig since I added the Thumpinator to the pedalboard and it made a hell of a difference. Tone was much more punchy and clear. Deffo money well spent. Rig: Sterling Stingray 5, Eden WTX264 into an Eden 210 cab. Pedals as shown: Footwear by Primani:

Mine neither - it's pretty much gathered dust since this thread was posted. Maybe time to put it back to stock, curb the sentimentality, and find it a new home.