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I wouldn't have bothered trying to talk with Pirate, I'd have just called the fire service right away. They'd confirm the place was safe, or not. They would then contact Pirate.

Decent rehearsal on Sunday, and Shout is in the set list for our gig in Wakefield which is good. Still enjoying the practice studio in general but at one point there was an awful eggy smell that put us off for a few minutes, so next time I'll be booking a room away from the toilets (nobody in the band claimed responsibility, which they would have if it was one of them!). Looking forward to the next gig because it's been a few months since the last one.

I just keep finding myself with such poorly treated instruments - not that I'm the best person to be bringing them back to life, but hey I'm learning, and I can't make it any worse than this, right? So as the franken-reggae bass goes through multiple obsessive stages of paint before being finished off, this guy comes in. The plan is for a straight up punk P bass. Think single volume knob, bright colours. The body, I'm told, is a Greco from 70s/80s. This checks out, I have a few Greco basses around and it makes sense. It has the pancake body construction and weighs an insane amount. The pickup seems to be OK. I have a neck with a pointy headstock coming from Korea (an old Samick I believe, it should fit). First order of the build is to strip the finish, remove those broken screws, and fill that hack job cavity. I will update slowly as parts start to arrive, and as I work on the other project. This is how I received it (pickup also included) Stripped, screws pulled, and epoxy resin to fill the hole. Bridge as I was checking it lines up with original holes (of course it does). More coming!

I very much enjoy the original, but definitely prefer this cover by Yola.

You might find the information in this 'blog' post useful. It would appear that FX is not a great problem; less sure about tap tempo. Worth a read through..? What Jessie Did Next blog page ... Hope this helps.

My experience of Pirate echoes many of those already stated. Was a user from the beginning and rarely had a single booking without some kind of issue. To be fair to Pirate, the vast majority of problems were just down to people being tw@s! Unfortunately Pirate didn't account for this in their business model. Problems I experienced: Other bands not finishing soon enough to be out of the room at the end of their session (me paying for their time to pack their sh!t up) Other bands leaving trash randomly lying around the room Other users blatantly smoking cigarettes or vapes or dope inside the building (probably the cause of multiple fire alarms) Multiple fire alarms disrupting sessions with similar lack of protocol for investigation as above Arriving at a session to find all the equipment stacked up in a corner of the room Arriving at a session to find some of the equipment broken, missing or not as expected (paid for when booking) Difficulty trying to talk to a human when something goes wrong People and their mates gathering outside studios making lots of noise and generally being antisocial Problems I 'had heard' about which may or may not be true: People renting large rooms and holding all night parties for their mates People renting rooms to play music and take drugs People renting rooms to take hookers to People renting rooms to take hookers to AND take drugs AND leave dead hooker in room A couple of years ago Pirate contacted all registered users asking for them to upload scans of their passports. At this point the party was over for me. They didn't get my details and I started using another studio. No regrets to be honest. Like a lot of things; it was great while it was, then people came along and screwed it up for everyone...

Thanks guys, some good advice. My mic, a Sontronics Solo, has a high output, the other two, one SM58 and one XM8500 are lower. However once the gain is set I can use the channel meters to ride the virtual faders to achieve what I want. I rather think I sing louder than our lead vocalist so I need to be aware of that, and put guitarist will not get close to the mic 😔 We had a disaster last gig (see how was your PA) and I have wrestled control from the lead singer, with the backing of the rest of the band. I will let you know how it goes on Sunday/Monday.

I love it! Glad it turned out to be everything you hoped for, it looks fantastic.

Great colour! And an amazing gift.

Hi all, Just took delivery of above, 69Ib of pure heaven on castors. Considering the age (17 years old) not bad condition. Trying to gather as much info on known faults, just in case! Pete

That's all quite true of course. It just seems to be the case that the experiences I've had live are sadly not of the conspiracy theory ilk. In fact, one time a couple of years ago I was filling in on bass for a mate's band. The bloke actually said the exact words "pre eq DI only." He then refused to take the xlr of my sansamp. Then he soundchecked the whole band except me as I refused to give him a dry signal and didn't put it through the PA. My mates complained quite vociferously at that and it really wasn't great. The promoter then came out with the nugget of wisdom that "he knows what he's doing." Yeah, right. In an ideal world things would work as you suggest. Alas, it just hasn't been my experience.

Yes, not sure why they went for a side jack.

I’m quite often alternating between lead and backing vocals on the same gig. If I’m singing lead I go in close on the mic; for BVs I back off to around 15cm (6in).

I love the sound of my Joyo BadAss, but it's only 50 watts. In all honesty, it sounds better than my Orange Terror. It doesn't seem ridiculous to think about the potential for re-casing it, substituting a class-D module for the integral Class D output amplifier. Or even building my own valve front end. The £10.999 500W modules on Amazon are probably not a good idea for long life. I see that Profusion sell a 700W ICEpower module with power supply for £223. Price doesn't seem to be strongly correlated with power, so presumably there are other differences (such as robustness, e.g. SOAR protection, thermal performance, efficiency). This 500W module looks like it could be suitable: https://gb.profusion.uk/uk/icepower500asp Does anyone know which of the ICEpower modules are widely used in class D bass amps? Or indeed any thoughts on the practicality of this approach? (I grew up with a father who repaired TVs as part of his business and I have been building my own amps etc. on and off for 50 years, so I'm unlikely to kill anyone).

I'm bound to have recounted this before. In the early 90's Spinal Tap were promoting their album Break Like The Wind. As part of the promotion, they came into the studio where I was recording at the time. From the moment of their arrival to their departure, 3 hours later, they remained in character and were simply hilarious.

Must admit i do love the shape of them. Think if money wasn't an issue i would have one in my collection along with a MM Stingray, G&L L2000, WAL, Alembic, 1960 P bass and a Jazz, Overwater Progress 4, Gibson Grabber/Ripper, Kramer DMZ, Status (original graphite version), Vigier and so many others. 🤣 Dave