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I hope that program makers also remember that some of the most memorable bass lines ever weren't written or played by bass guitarists - cf I Feel Love or Der Mussolini.

I just don't like external PSUs. I don't think that they are robust enough for gigging use when used separately. They are OK on pedal boards and in racks where everything is wired up once and then not touched again and are clamped and cable-tied in place so nothing can move in transit. The failures I have seen have all be on the low voltage side, usually the cable becomes worn and fails. The cabling and connectors when exposed and not hidden away in a rack or pedal board are fragile especially compared with an IEC mains cable. Also the low voltage barrel connectors don't lock in place, so if they are not part of some permanent installation it's too easy for them to become disconnected mid-gig. The Strymon Zuma looks great but it's too big and I don't plan to need to run any other effects so pretty much overkill for my requirements. I have a One-Spot adaptor somewhere. It used to be part of my previous rack set up. The only thing that worries me is that it was the only point of failure ever in that rack, because the wall-wart part doesn't fit as snugly into a 13amp socket as a typical UK plug and had worked loose in transit, and then bass vibrations through the rack caused it work further loose mid gig causing both my wireless receiver and Thumpinator which were at opposite ends of the signal path within the rack to fail mid song. At the time it wasn't obvious what the problem was so it was quicker to bypass my rig entirely and go direct into the PA. The One-Spot was replaced with a Thomann multi-way adaptor that connected to the mains via a standard UK 13amp plug and cable before the next gig. The reason I'm going for the FI and not one of the other filter pedals is that it appears to be able to do the one thing I have been missing from my setup which is the apply a filter effect to the input audio signal but control the cut-off envelope modulation via MIDI note information. So basically all I'm doing is providing an audio signal and MIDI control is doing all the filter shaping. Other than the VCF I don't intend to use any of the synth facilities at all. There are just two things that worry me: 1. The computer editor shows a full ADSR envelope for the filter, but I can't see it anywhere in the block diagram on page 99 of the manual, just a selection of the AD and AR envelopes. 2. There doesn't appear to be a controllable VCA after the VCF. On a normal synth there is always an envelope controlled VCA at the very end of the signal path. This is because you have more sound shaping options if the volume envelope and the cut off frequency envelope are separate. In fact there doesn't appear to be any envelope controlled VCA in the input signal path. This might be a major problem for the sorts of sounds I want to produce. Ultimately I think I'm going to have to buy one and send it back for a refund if I can't get it to do what I want.

Thanks! Yeah, just got a small metal enclosure drilled and wired it. Stereo jacks on the inside so I can be flexible on ins/outs. I also appreciate their efforts. I got it a bit wrong as the sockets broke contact on one of the sides when you put the jack in and had to re-do half of the connections 🙄

Dear lord, what's the latency on that?!

Give me Hooky's playing over virtuoso jazz widdling any day. Take Mark King, the absolute master of slap but produced some of the most insipid songs ever made. It truly is all about context. Looking forward to it though whoever is on.

Nice solution! Like the patchy - I'm guessing that's your own design? I just made one for my filter board: Gave me an appreciation for guys like Bright Onion - enjoyed the process, but weighing up the cost their service is a damn good one.

As an ex-rugby player, appearing naked in public is actually far, far less embarrassing than playing something I've never heard before. Far too many pictures to proof it as well, and it's got to the stage, that Zoe, my long suffering partner, simply sighs when yet another old picture surfaces. I also have a crap ear for hearing and am in awe of people who can listen to a tune and work out the chords as they go. I can't do that and suspect I never will. I'm doing a song writing course in Kendal and the lady who teaches it can listen to a piece of music and then just play it on the guitar immediately afterwards, and play it very, very well. I sit and watch her and wish I had as much talent as she has in her little finger. I have to repeatedly work at learning a song, its hard work. I do like the idea of a common song book though. Never thought of that. I would have a songbook of stuff I know and then other people can use it Admittedly its going to be a thin songbook at the start but it is a start. Rob

Completely agree on the whole muso nonsense. But it’s got to be Waiting Room over Turnover surely!

Thank you I actually used to play this many years ago with a Blues/Folk trio but I just used to play along to it following the chords with no idea what I was playing but it always went down well.

Thanks

The dark textured neck wood sounds like wenge to me.

Oh well, The Bass Gallery were kind enough to reply to my slightly mad request as to whether they still had any info on file about the bass. They don't! I'll never know exactly what it was, but I can console myself with the fact that it is probably worth even more now and still out of financial reach!

It's a confidence thing, I've rarely jammed along to anything and I hate being out of control. I've not got a great ear either. Playing something I've never heard before without even a chord chart sounds to me about as embarrassing as appearing naked in public I used to run an open mic night/jam session and was looking to build up the idea of a 'great song book' which as an organser would have helped me to get as many people as possible on stage and performing. I always liked the idea of getting sole musicians/young musicians the chance of performing with other musicians and was gradually building up a house band to support this. Sadly the pub relaunched as a gastropub just as we really got going.

Okay. Quick update. I took the scratchplate off last night and had a look under the cover. Nothing on the preamp but it's all nicely installed - very tidy. Having a good close-up look at the top it's going to be an incredibly thin layer of flamed maple as when I look at the thing in profile where it's been scraped clean and you can see the indivdual laers you can't actually see the top at all - it may look like there's a deep top in the photo but the grain of the body almost goes up to the varnish. Must be paper-thin. Anyway. It's fine. I took the action down a few notches as I prefer things a bit lower and it's very nice. Plays great. Sounds okay, you just have to back everything off a lot, so if the bass is 10%, mid centred at 50% and the treble at centred at 50% you get a really nice tone out of it. Whack the treble up and it gets very stingrayish indeed. A lot closer than a bass this cheap has any right to do. The strings on it at the moment are perfectly serviceable - seem to be odd ones from different sets but that's fine as it sounds and plays perfectly well. I may keep an eye out for a set of cheap flats at some point and throw those on - could be a fun exercise but I really have no plans to do anything else to this bass as it's really just a beater.