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Another rehearsal last night. The last one was cancelled with the sax player being sick and everyone else generally feeling ropey too. Nevertheless we soldiered on and learned a few new songs as well as tightened up the remainder. We are starting to really gel as a band now. Everyone does their homework and it's easy to have a go at new stuff together. This feels really good. We have a good half a set of material built up now with a clear plan on what we want to add. Still in need of a singer... The singer I really wanted seems to have lost interest. These things happen. No other good candidates have come forward. I know a lady singer who has fronted cover bands before who I could contact, and will have a nother push at advertising. Having a very-80's bass on hand has been something I've hopefully fixed. No Aria SBs or Washburn Status available in left handed I caught a defretted Sterling Ray 34 which should arrive today or tomorrow. Looking forward to receiving this! To be fair, all of my basses are 80s appropriate but something fretted and headless would be the dream... So the search isn't over (is it ever!!). Got to focus on getting a singer though...

I nearly bought one of those Hellborg basses. A local shop had one at the time ( around 1997/8)) and it was a a powerful beast of a bass. Apparently Jonas asked Status to make him a bass that was as close to his Wal 4 string as possible, but with one or two tweaks, the 36 volt circuit probably being one of them. My main bass in the mid-1990's was a headed Status Empathy, and I think the tone-shaping controls were essentially the same with switchable sweepable mids ect. My bass teacher at that time had a Wal Custom and when I plugged in my bass into the same amp his Wal was literally about twice as loud as my Status, despite the fact that the Wal was 9 volts and my Status was 18 volts. Maybe the 36 volt circuit in the Hellborg was to address that disparity. Difficult for me to say with any certainty because "headroom" has always seemed like a bit of a vague concept to me, and it's all a long time ago now! In terms of sheer output though, there was no competition. The Wal was way more hot than my Status.

Now, I know I popped off ad nauseum at the price of the Grabber. Because it was effing ridiculous. But I'm not so outraged about this one. Why? Because they seem to have done a better job of this one in the following ways: Functionality identical to the OG bass (in terms of pickups, controls etc.) Strung through the body like the OG bass Bridge is WAY better than the OG bass The pickguard is still wonky, but the silverburst kinda hides it - I think because the pickguard follows the shape of the burst, giving it some context instead of it just floating there I think I'd like to get one, because it ticks all the G-3 boxes which a former (and very regretful) Gibson G-3 owner would be looking for, and while it may well still be a tad overpriced for what it is, it'll be a damn sight cheaper than trying to procure a Gibson G-3 now, or commissioning the likes of Decibel or Baard to make me one.

Just got my tickets... Standing area. Going with a guitarist friend. What will be the split of the crowd in a ratio of bassists, guitarists, keys, drummers? Agree that it's a huge venue for what would be best in a sweaty little club but it's one night only so for me I just think it's too good an opportunity to miss.

I wonder if Wilton Felder ever gigged a Fenton Weill bass...

It looks as though there is a similar guitar handing up next to it...

You shouldn't because the screws on the terminals don't clamp down as efficiently onto soldered wire as they do onto stranded. If you are talking about actually soldering the wires in the mains cable to the contacts in the plug, then the heat required to do this would most likely also melt the conductor insulation on the mains cable.

Welcome, Joe! A question re: your lessons - has your teacher asked you about your goals, and then given you a plan for how he might help you get there? Lessons should definitely be a two-way discussion, but if you feel like you're having to steer things in a particular direction then maybe the balance of effort is not as it should be (if we all knew what to work on and how to practise it then we wouldn't need lessons, right?).

Seems an obvious thing to do in some respects. Does anyone do it? Why shouldn't you, if there's a reason why not.

Mate, respect for the Bach deep dive. Not tried fretless bass yet but run a 5 string in CGDAE for Dowland, sounds lush. For 4 string 5ths grab a thick .135 low C from Kalium, then .100 G .075 D .055 A. Or full cello vibes with Thomastik Spirocores medium, proper growl on fretless. Tune CGDA and the Gm scordatura will rattle windows. Needs high action and solid setup but worth it. Anyone gigged this?

I have friends who play the guitar that feel the same way about PRS. Soulless, lacking character etc. It's all personal though at the end of the day. Maybe the people in the band with you will notice when you play something else and have an opinion about tone, the sound person at a gig or in a studio possibly but the only person who really cares is you. Nobody in the audience will have any idea if you've got a Fedora or a Glarry.

+1 Great range of tones, really liking the 3-way switching, nice idea to have the humbucking through the permanently on mid pickup. I have no concerns over the shape of the pick guard, looks fine on both colour options. Looking forward to some more videos and hands on reviews. Bit pricey though.

Good question. 1: NeuralDSP's Mantra all-in-one vocal plugin. I tried the demo and found it very useful and easy and as someone who often gives up at the vocal stages of writing it got me to finish a few in the 14 day trial period. 2: A good random orbit sander and polisher as I have 2 bodies to do. 3: A set of good Filtertron type guitar pickups. Lollartrons or Oil City or something like that. Nice and twangy and dirty. 4: Some good fretwork tools. Fret rocker, files, that sort of thing. 5: The "never gonna happen" prezzie - I'd love a shed big enough to be a little workshop, with power and lighting and so on. At the moment I use my work desk to work on instruments so I can't leave anything overnight on a weekday as I need the desk to earn money. It's very frustrating. A big shed would be ace. Alternatively my kids could move out and I could use a bedroom!

Thanks for that Rob, I'll listen to these suites when I can have an hour of free time as I really love them. I think I have something like 12 different recordings of these... My all time favourite is the Anner Bylsma version and I quite loathe the first version of Jean-Guihen Queyras complete cello suites recording.

1. Proper vintage Aston Martin DB5 – ejector seat n all 2. Lifetime supply of Laphroaig 18, no blended shite 3. Private island off the Hebrides, windy, quiet, zero neighbours 4. Full workshop, every tool known to man (and a few that ain’t) 5. World peace… or a mute button for the group chat 😂

Has anyone come up with a way of automatically converting Kontakt Player instruments to work with Logic's ES24/Sampler? Having had a poor experience with NI in the past and also having made a decision not to have any 3rd-party plug-ins that require me to install anything other than the plug-in itself, I'm not going to install Kontakt Player, which means that I've missed out on a couple of interesting instruments that have come up recently that I might have wanted to explore.

Thanks for the welcome, all. J: What a lovely reply - thanks for taking the time! You're right about lessons being a way of holding you responsible. At a bare minimum it means I practice when I'm feeling less motivated - though I'm in a hot streak currently (maybe it's a virtuous cycle??) I guess I could be a bit more pro-active with setting goals with the teacher. Maybe he expects me to lead the lesson's direction more than I currently do. Playing with others is a long term goal for me and I know it will improve my playing a lot and very quickly. I'm currently working out scheduling for a jam with a few friends of friends - let's see how that goes. Their stuff feels quite melancholy and incredibly earnest which isn't normally my thing but I'm approaching it with an open mind and good intentions. Thanks, Joe

Can't really remember, but Jonas Hellborg wanted more headroom than the 18 Volts preamp, so IIRC, it's a full blast 36 Volts, not a distributed power.

I have to say I played another Dingwall recently and it sounded a bit generic.

It did. I drove him to the hosptial a couple of times and it was great to be able to help and actually get some proper time with him and my sister - had a few laughs as we drove into UCLH and back. We lost him in August. Two teenage kids left behind. It's not been a great year for our family but they're strong and supported amazing friends - it's been incredible to see people pull together to get through.