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Dear Diary - Moody Blues 😁

No gigs all month after a busy period At least I get to see plenty of gigs, Cardinal Black last night.

Is anyone going to be driving through Reading so I don't have to sit on a rail replacement bus for 45 minutes? Just for the records.

I'd expect nothing less from you people from the home counties

Well the Cort GB Short scale bass arrived, I bought it from Jimmy Eagle in Glasgow last Monday and they set it up and posted it Tuesday, express 24, due to the ineptitude of Parcelforce it was delivered on Friday afternoon. I didn't get a chance to look at it Friday evening so not much time with it before our gig Sat, initial impressions were very good, the fit and finsh is perfect, fret ends smooth & lovely feeling roasted neck. The controls feel solid and have centre detent's for the eq knobs. bbot bridge is adequate and nut slots filed well. Tuners are smooth and do the job well. It was set up before delivery so just needed a few minor teaks to get it perfect for me, the truss rod adjustment wheel at the heel of the neck is a joy and it was easy to get the action low with no fret buzz. The bass weighs exactly 7.5lbs and balances perfectly on the strap, it feels solid and the neck is comfotable, I did roll the fretboard edges as it is a fairly flat board with 15"radius which helps with the feel. The stock strings are not great so I changed them for a set of D'addario nickel round wounds. I used it for the whole gig, the Markbass preamp is great and the humbucker is like a small musicman pickup, positioned a little more forward from the bridge than a Ray. It has a 3 way switch for series, split and parallel, seies is a big fat slightly edgey tone great for the rock covers we do, the split coil uses the rear coil of the humbucker and has a similar tone just a bit cleaner and brighter, the parallel is a clean tone with less mids. With the 3 band eq a lot of tweaking is available, I played throuh a Trace Elliot motion b preamp set flat into an Ashdown ABM600 again everything pretty much flat using the series setting on the bass and the preamp for minor adjustments for different songs the cab was a Laney 4x10 with Celestion Neo drivers. I was very pleased with sound I was getting, it was fat, powerful and smooth and sat well in the music and was easy to make small adjustments on the go. The black side dots are difficult to see on a dark stage so I will fit some luminlays For a bass that cost £299 the quality and spec are really quite amazing, I will use this bass a lot, it is an equal to my more expensive basses and the short scale is great for playability and the smaller pubs we play in.

Well, that whole conversation on P basses has made me want a HILS HNB3 in Ivory really bad... My other bass is a Yamaha TRBX304...

My best purchase was my Spector Euro 4 LX from a member of this forum. Not only does it look amazing but it feels great to play and the tones I can get from it are brutal. My worst purchase was a Behringer sansamp clone. The first one didn't work at all, the replacement just sounded crap. The worst drive sound I've ever heard. Nothing like a sansamp

Vigier, the fingerboard has a preset relief carved into it which means it's thinner around the upper frets than in the lower ones. It's completely unnecessary because if a player wants high action they can tweak a truss rod. But a preset neck relief means there's no way to make the action lower than the relief.

Does it make you talk sh!te about other musicians, too?

Bass direct had a social media post showing lots of them in stock - might be worth checking there if you want it quicker.

I use a 4" wide Pinegrove. I bought it to solve the slight neck dive on my Spector (it has a grippy suede liner that helps prevent it slipping), but I find it very comfortable. It's thick leather, decently padded and very nicely made (in the UK, with UK-sourced materials, too, which is a bonus).

Everyday I Write The Book — Elvis Costello

I do like the look of the aura pearl but a 5 would be much better.

Funnily enough, a 10cc lyric popped into my head half an hour ago, and I realised where Trump had got the idea for the White House ballroom from. The very first line of the song...

I know it depends on the band and how loud the players are, the size of the space you need to fill and whether you have PA support, but I don't reckon a 1x10 or even a 1x12 would be loud enough for a rock band. Modern gear is unquestionably much more efficient than a lot of old school stuff, but there are limits - the laws of physics, Jim and all that. If you have a reasonable amount burning a hole in your pocket, you really should go and try/audition some gear. I appreciate that there may not be a wide choice in the Highlands, but buying on the basis of recommendation alone is often a route to disappointment. Rumbles are a standard recommendation, with good reason. They are portable and good value. However, they do sound a bit generic and I don't think one would improve on what you have. If you like your MAG 210, keep it. 22kg is hardly a behemoth and a quality folding trolley would make life easier and cost far less than new gear.

I do brew beer sometimes tho…

Ah yes, being unforgivably Anglocentric. It’s all those years being told I live in the Midlands!