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I have an irrational prejudice against stainless steel strings. Who on earth likes the things?

My favourite album of 2025 was 'NOBODY'S GIRL' by Amanda Shires, just a superb release John 😎 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxm7mgSgV0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GmoXcuBETU

Personally and with some personal experience I'd say the link between creativity and drugs is mostly nonsense. People with the creative spark have it whether they are taking substances or not. Just because in previous decades a lot of successful and creative bands were known to take drugs it does not mean that that the drugs made them succesful and creative it's just a classic example of correlation does not equal causation. Although the myth that drugs were responsible for the creativity probably encouraged more musicians to experiment to see if they could unlock some sort of hidden potential. In fact generally when you look more closely at the history of a lot of these bands the excessive lifestyles were far more disruptive than they were positives for the careers concerned and in many cases were directly responsible for bands either breaking up or, members being sacked or, in the worst cases, band members not living to make more music.

Thomastik Superflexible aren't a low tension string, they're a steel core string with fairly high tension. They're one of Thomastik's older designs, named because the core is braided steel rope which is more flexible than a solid steel core, but the standard Superflexible set is still comparable to something like Spirocore mediums. Though there is also a Solo gauge intended to be tuned a whole tone higher, that will be relatively low tension for steels at standard pitch. So I don't know that what your experiencing is a "low tension strings" issue, or that changing to a different steel core string would solve it.

Flu Moon On Monday - Duran Duran

There were three guitarists AND they were on coke... I just shuddered thinking of the sheer amount of egocentric fretboard w**kery going on in that room 😁

My top 3 - not in any particular order: Wolf Alice - The Clearing Cardinal Black - Midnight at the Valencia When Rivers Meet - Addicted To You

That said nowadays, companies building valves/tubes are quite sparse as most of them have now disappeared: JJ in Czech Republic (JJ, Telefunken), New Sensor in Russia even if it's an American based company (EH Gold, Electro-Harmonix, Genalex Gold Lion, Mullard, Sovtek, Svetlana, Tung-Sol), Psvane, formerly Shuguang, in China (Psvane, Shuguang), Western Electric in Serbia (former Ei Niš factory), but it's an American based company (Western Electric). That's all, except a few very small manufacturers "building" to order or only for themselves. All others brands you encounter are simply rebadged valves/tubes or NOS... So knowing this, you can buy your ECC82 valves/tubes here: https://www.hotroxuk.com/matched-valves-links-page-12ax7-6l6-909-0/12au7-ecc82.html?product_list_order=price And your ECC83 here: https://www.hotroxuk.com/matched-valves-links-page-12ax7-6l6-909-0/preamp-valves-12ax7-ecc82jj-12ax7m-hot-rox-uk-1885-0.html?product_list_order=price Using the same brand for both of them is the best.

Well, as i have no experience with building basses, I told Martin how I wanted the bass to sound and play & asked him to use his expertise in selecting the best woods for that purpose, rather than me choosing random woods because they look pretty. Same with the electronics, I did specify a John East preamp (which he agreed would work well with the woods) and then he's going to look into some soap bar pickups that sound best with the John East and match the tone i described.

Agreed, in lots of ways.

it looks incredible. If I was to go down the luthier build route again, I know rather than dictate the wood top I’d be enquiring with what they have first. Sometimes they have something extra special that can surprise you.

Times have changed. In my experience kids work far harder at school and uni and take it all far more seriously than my generation ever did. With fees at over £9000 a year, rents at an all time high etc University is a £30000 plus commitment. For parents it’s tough and the pressure on students to succeed is immense.

I only know that it has a birdseye maple fingerboard, that was the only thing i specced. I also asked for a body that was slightly wider than the standard Flamboyant 4 string...

Lovely, what's the specs?

Sei bass incoming, should be finished either this month or Feb...

Aye, that was my thoughts too. Couple of year back some 'singer' from the early 90's got in touch, said he'd found a tape and if convert to MP3 would I like a copy. Out of politeness I said OK. Wished I hadn't , awful fails to describe how bad it was🤣 Crazy thing, by the early 90's I'd a serious alcohol problem. OK my playing on the tape wasn't great, pretty shite, but compared to the hash head guitars and drums it was acceptable 😀

Yup - my generation got it free and pulled up the drawbridge after them. Utterly disgraceful!