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I can testity that doing a festival on a stinky hot day with a bad chest infection is/was madness. Vid of me looking like a drowned rat I was sweating so much....But I did it for the band (said the hero)..haha. Shuffled off the stage, jumped straight in the car - home. But yes it definitely pays to keep fit and positive when there's a line of gigs on the horizon.

It could just have been someone using the eBay recommended pricing, which is hardly ever accurate but may well have just used a standard USA Stingray as the template.

Well, my personal view is more nuanced than that; some people here I have met in person, some I haven’t; some I consider friends, some I most certainly do not (and BTW there’s no correlation there!). Most interactions here have been positive but some have not. I don’t generally expect anyone to do me any favours just by dint of our mutual BC membership, but then IME most people here are generally decent and I would try and help a fellow BC’er if I could. I have had some experiences over my time here which call that into question, including a recent fairly substantial purchase which was very much not as described, but like anything, there are risks and rewards. My view is that if someone parts with something without any express caveats or conditions applied to the sale, then I’m free to do with that item as I will. I’ve certainly seen items given away with the proviso its to help those in need, or to help education etc. Obviously in relation to this particular instance I’ve clearly been the beneficiary of good fortune, but equally I took a risk it could have been a complete nail and fit only for the bin and wasted £50. The seller could easily have done what I did, with the same result. Not sure why that is morally objectionable. (I spent a very pleasant afternoon with Hamilton at Bowspeed who talked me through the history of the maker, value, possible sale options and recommendations, and I also talked it though at length with some orchestral string players I know before offering for sale, so it’s not a price pulled out of thin air. I’m also pleased to have been able to support Bowspeed as well - it was amazing spending the time in there and listening to the decades of acquired knowledge).

Yes I find it off-putting in all honesty but you have a point that it could have been genuine ignorance. Because it was a viewed item by me the Ebay algorithm went to work and fired the e-mail.

Great to see something filling the void left by the end of AI. Presumably small production runs, premium materials (all that wood) and the cost of importing from the US will make it an expensive choice in the UK, but I'd love to try one.

Good buy and schlepping it will help keep you fit 🙂

Can't Buy Me Love - Beatles

It did seem a lot! Mind you, it’s been around for a few days now with no bids.

Hi David, Thanks for this. I didn't quite follow your final para - grateful if you could clarify for me: If the singers are getting the pre fade signal in their IEMs (which as we have said will help give them a constant IEM level independent of any adjustments we make to FoH levels), but the fx/reverb is only being applied at the post fade stage, then won't the reverb be present in just the FoH and not in the IEMs at all if we set it to pre fade? If I have this wrong and the reverb will still be heard in the IEMs, albeit at post levels, when the IEMs are set to pre fade, this should actually be a decent compromise!

I don't do owt specifically to be gig-fit... However, in order not to be completely broken when I reach my late 60s (not too long now!) - also having two herniated discs - I do a morning routine of exercises involving crunchies, press-ups, Pilates stuff, Yoga stuff, Mars Bars and a Flake plus squats, some weights etc. And about 5 times a week I walk up our local hill, which is about 1000' climb. And when I can be bothered I go out on the mountain bike, and go climbing and/or mountain walking. Bass wise, I do various hand and wrists stretches as part of my routine, as well as doing an hour or so practice every couple of days.

I’m a little you get but the gym has been transformative for me. Especially as I was lucky enough to get a trainer to design a plan. Resistance bands, too, are really fantastic exercise.

That's a great deal. I owned an Ashdown EB 150, which was a beginners combo similar to your's, with a 15 inch speaker. I used it for years and partnered with another 15 inch cab it could be really loud. I still really like the Ashdown sound.

Hi Ian. Stentor make good, reliable and affordable instruments from what I can tell. I have one and it’s well built and sounds good. It’s limited in terms of the tone, but when someone with talent and skill (not me) plays it, then it sounds great. The pickup here is a good one and the bass looks in good order. The bodies are small which can be a blessing if you’re not as tall as me, but you may find the sound isn’t as strong or loud as a bigger bass. Set up is important. It may be perfect but more likely it’ll need a tweak so factor that in to your costs (and inconvenience). Looks good to me. If you want to play rockabilly on it I’d look for a more affordable and durable ply bass.

Thanks for the replies, as it is presumably the tips that cause the sound attenuation is it really worth spending a lot on iem headphones or should I focus my money on getting a selection of tips? All I really want is to be able to hear myself and to protect my ears from the loud volumes that are typical of playing a gig.

I'm afraid that I find exercise bikes deadly boring. I really need to get out on the MTB again, even if its just on the canal towpath. The trouble is that I find even the slightest hill a bit of a problem now. Lifting weights is the best thing to do, especially as you get older and you start to lose muscle tone and your bones become weaker. I pay £16 per month in gym fees these days, which I by any account is very good value!

Not posted on here for a wee while now but i've been using my WB-100 for best part of this year so far and i'm loving the tone with my Sandberg VM4 thru both my Mesa SW210/115 rig and now with the Barefaced 212 cab i bought few mths back. It was originally bought as a stop gap until i managed to get my Mesa TT800 amp but tried the WB-100 again early this year and realised i just love a full valve amp. One of the reasons i stopped using it was that i was getting a bit more distortion than expected and found the overall volume was limited because of it. What i found was that it was my pick up height that was the issue on the VM4. I dropped it a touch and the level of distortion appears to have almost gone completely except when really digging in. This allowed me to get the WB-100 gain up at a bit more and the overall volume is now more than adequate even for larger 200 seat capacity venues with no PA support. At the moment with the BF 212 my settings are :- Gain @ 11-1 depending on how i feel on the night. Bass @ 11 Mid @ 2-3 Treble @ 11-1 Master @ 11 - 1 Dave

Bargain that, well done!

Also, you’re on the IOW. Message me if you wanna try my Fender P5/Yamaha PJ5!

I like a Fender P5, and IME, they’ve been great. Rather than a super clear, solid low B, I’d say the B is uniform with the rest of the bass. It sounds like a P bass. It’s not a Lakland, and won’t have that B. I also have a 5 string PJ that I play with P pickup solo’d, it sounds great. But it’s not a P bass, in feel or sound.

Johnny come lately... the new kid in town!

Does it out you off the buyer though? It’s either going to be a complete chancer or someone who doesn’t really know what they have and have now lowered it after being made aware. Both scenarios I find off putting for a purchase.

MIDI over USB is not the same as traditional MIDI using DIN cables which is a peer-to-peer connection. USB over MIDI requires one of the devices to be the "host" This usually means a computer or a dedicated USB Host device. Unless either the Zoom or the MIDI foot controller are capable as acting as a host device you will need something between them to do the job. As usual Zoom don't tell you much about the USB MIDI capabilities of the MS60b+. Some of the Disaster Area pedals might work but the couple I had a look at don't appear to be host devices.

All Out Of Love - Air Supply well, that didn't last very long ...