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But it isn't necessarily. The satisfaction of producing a professional sounding song using AI as a tool for me has been just as good as sitting for hours with a guitar or bass to come up with a single element of a track. You are mastering a new and different craft if you are using it to do more than just writing a prompt to produce a funny song about basschat. I have spent days on a single as yet unfinished song using AI so it isn't just here's a sentence and out pops a masterpiece.

Where do you find these 😆 Looks amazing !

Wishing you all the very best.

Yep .. my favourite flanger & I’ve tried quite a few .. still got it

Thanks. Thinking about upgrading from my Studio 24c... The LT's caught my eye...

I am reminded of The Hitchhiker’s Guide… You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts compared to London. All joking aside, Greater London is fricking huge and South London (born & bred here) is a particular PITA to get around.

I made three good purchases in 2025. First of all the LFSys Monza, which I wrote about elsewhere on this forum. What’s strange about it is that it’s FRFR, yet the sound is just wonderful. I’ve also owned other cabs from a well‑known English builder, and those performed very well, but I’ve never had a cab that naturally sounds this good. My second-best purchase is an Origin Effects Bassrig Super Vintage. I use it as a DI to the FOH. It saves me from hauling around fragile tube amps, while you can hardly tell the difference in sound. It’s the perfect combination with the Monza. My third purchase is a Japanese Fender P from the E‑series (around 1986). I already owned one, and it has been my main bass for ten years, even though I’ve had much more expensive American Ps. Because it’s such an ultimate (personal) match, and because they’re rare, I bought another one as a backup. The serial numbers are almost identical. They could have been built in the same week or month; the wood might even come from the same tree.

I bought my first Panda FI Mk1 off a fellow BC'er back in 2018 - he and I have stayed mates ever since meeting up at a service station in time honoured fashion to buy/sell the goods. Never quite gelled with that or the subsequent several I bought! I always thought that this could be a great product (and fed my thoughts back to Peter) as and when: - they improved the tracking (done - v4) - came out with a more compact pedalboard friendly model (done - v4 VIP) - made this user friendly for bassists who wanted some great usable sounds out of the box and allowed for better on-board editing - looks they've cracked that with v4.5 The MXR Synth provides all that too and has demonstrated the level of demand for the above. But for an extra £20 the FIv4 provides a more capable synth engine, many more presets, and the ability to deep dive with a bespoke computer editor for those who would like to have that option. Feels like a no-brainer to me, and it's great to be able to support a home-grown product championed by one of our own. VIP just ordered 😊

Combined with the added frisson of being able to alter the construction of your fingers. 😳😖

Last night, Limehouse Lizzy at Stamford Corn Exchange Theatre, full house, the band performed brilliantly, they have now been active for 33 years. 👍

On The Road Again - Willy Nelson

@sifi2112 maybe? I think?

Always surprises me when eBayers (and others) put "Location = London". Big place, London. Very big. Really very big indeed. In terms of travel times, it's the equivalent of giving your location as "somewhere in the Midlands". I'm in Harrow, NW London, and I can get to Birmingham faster than I can get to Catford or Dagenham. Not really a rant, as such, more a vague musing about how inept some sellers are.

You're far from the only one who feels this way! I read a very good piece the other day which was built around a similar argument: that an awful lot of tech "solutions" are trying to convince you that you shouldn't need to put any effort into writing reports, reading your emails, deciding what to eat, or even making music...when actually, the sense of reward and satisfaction is far greater when you've put in the hours to master your craft, work through the mistakes and the dodgy first drafts. That far from being an inconvenience, the process is the point. Not to spaff out an album and push it to market as quickly as possible, but to take the time to work on something you'll be proud of. (Plus, early studies suggest your brain is far healthier if you don't use AI as a crutch, so you were probably wise to put those hours in after all!)

Is this some kind of hybrid air guitar thing? An air guitar with substance and noise?

Do you feel the same about software engineers who have spent years training, getting a loan to see them through uni and can now be replaced with ai generating code at the press of a button? Or about language translators who find their work drying up, or ai assisting doctors with identifying cancer cells that they would have missed when looking at scans? Sure this is going to make life difficult for original songwriters looking to break through, no question! But it's already happening. Do you ever use ChatGPT? Ai is not performing music live to an appreciative audience who don't want a hologram playing for them, so your time and the rest of our time and effort learning an instrument has definitely not gone to waste! And there's nothing stopping you having fun collaborating with pals writing music - if it's decent, people will want to listen to it when you perform it live - something ai ain't going to be able to do.

I really don't but obviously didn't intend to be insulting. If you get joy from music crafting songs and performing them with your friends AI doesn't change that at all. Why should the joy from music creation only come from the way a particular group define it to be ? The processes are different but the end point is the same.

I was going to just order a black pick guard but I’ve just seen this vintage mint green colour with a wide bevel, this could work couldn’t it?

If Colin Furze made musical instruments?

I've been an Ashdown fan for many years. I love their customer relations, I love the visual side of their amps, I love the philosophy of their creations - although their ideas are not always intuitive. I had one of first hundred of Little Bastard 30, although I've decided to mod it and later let it go to get my first real vintage bass I missed being part of the family. I briefly had ABM300, which I stupidly sold. Recently I got myself a little present ABM 400 NEO was briefly made around 2014, I guess in quite limited quantity by Ashdown UK Custom Shop. It is equipped with EVO III Preamp and class-D power amp combined in full size rack mountable case with around 8,5 kg of weight.