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Squier CV and VM series have been around for a while now. For £300, you can buy a fantastic instrument off the shelf.

I find sending a short, friendly email every few weeks with quick updates or stories works best. Too much spam feels annoying, so I keep things light and personal.

Caught up with Paul Turner and Rob Harris at the Jamiroquai gig - Glasgow Hydro - Wed 3rd Dec

It's a 9v battery power supply. No need to plug into anything at a gig. Just charge up and go.

There's an ACG Krell headless at the Bass Gallery that I'm quite intrigued by here. I've owned an ACG Retro before so am aware of the build quality and playability of Alans work. I've never owned a 32" and have thought about dipping my toes in those waters. As I live at the opposite end of the country its hard to just pop in and try it out. Has anyone been into the Gallery and actualy played this bass and can offer any insight?

I think I'll drill the holes, fit the t-nuts, put some sacrificial M3 bolts through, and then cover it. I want to get the speaker working as I have another to assemble and want them done for Xmas.If the covering has to wait, I'll accept that. Rob

It’s amazing that such good instruments can be made for this amount, with the difference in quality between these and their big brothers not being as much as the price tag would suggest. Starter instruments when I began playing really weren’t up to much at all, whereas nowadays these could easily be first but kept hold of and gigged regularly instruments.

The list should have details like: - brand, possibly the original manufacturer, too - material (Ni, SS, bronze, tape...) - tape/flat/ground/round wound - silk colours - string colour or coating - ball ends - piano string design - round/hex core What else?

I have an Ampeg stack and a wee Markbass cat D CMD212 combo which sounds amazing. I also had a Helix which had an Ampeg SVT and 8x10 cab simulator. I have to say, while you can somewhat replicate the tone of big bass stacks in miniature, you can never really get the feel of them. The way they pulse the air, the harmonics, the bloom and the trouser flapping. Whether or not you think your tiny amp sounds like a big amp, it kind of does, but really doesn't. It's like looking at a video of an OLED TV though an LED monitor. For recording or hifi pop, yes I agree a small amp will do. For driving rock, funk, blues and metal it really isn't the same. Modern live music calculus says that you should mix everything through FOH, but not everyone wants to sound modern.

Did you get issued a mandatory flat cap and t'ferret? We will get back on track though Rob

There are lots of individual topics here about string brands and models/types. I suppose AI could make a compilation of the topics so far. I am not that familiar with AI, that it would be quick and straightforward way for me to ask for results, but is there someone that would do us all a favour? (I am too old to learn old tricks. For me these new ones are even more complicated...)

Me 😆 I do love a big, full fat, monster of a valve rig... I'm down that way in Jan, have made a bit of low offer which they've accepted on the basis of no one else buying it in the meantime which suits me fine.

Oooo, I've been there. We went up t' top o' Ingleborough one holiday. None of this is relevant to a firewood bass though

I've been doing some nerding on Nord Electro 73 prices new vs second hand: V1, 2001, ? Now £600 V2, 2006 £1,400. Now £900 V3, 2008 £1,500. Now £1,000 V4,2012 £1,600. Now £1,300 V5 2015 £1,700. Now £1,400 V6 2018 £1,900. Now £1,600 It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of financial difference to buy new or second hand if you plan on owning for 10 years then selling as they start to de-value more once they are a few versions old. If fact, buying new is perhaps financially better in some ways. e.g. a 13 year old V4 today = £1,300, in 10 years it'll be worth roughly £700 (if it is ballpark equivilant to a 23 year old V1 price today), so that'll cost £600 for 10 years use. V7 is quite overdue, if history is any guide then it'll be about £2,200 and would be worth roughly £1,700 10 years later, so that'll cost £500 for 10 years of use. A selling point of the Nord is how well known they are and how well they hold their value. I think the Viscount Legend One 73 is still my favorite though (and is a bit cheaper at £1,555), but I imagine that if I went to sell it after 10 years there would be a much smaller market and probably more devaluation than a Nord. But in an ideal world I'll still be happy with whatever I get and it'll last me longer than that.

Seems perfectly acceptable to me... I live in a small village in the Dales, sometimes it feels like the village that time forgot. In fact you can see my village here in this YouTube video from 1962. Apart from the cars, it looks exactly the same. I live just before the house that you can see the side off on the right., One of our gateposts can be seen, but not the house. Just about everything else is identical, though the trees are 60 years older and taller.

Maybe he's like artwork - the point is often to start a conversation not to like it!

Absolutely, Alan has always been more than happy to entertain ideas on further customisation, something that is only possible due to him doing EVERYTHING without CNC. Many luthiers out there use CNC for a lot of the work, then finish things off by hand, which means they can only build from templates and are way less flexible - nothing like that happening at ACG Towers!

Not doom, more stoner and other things, we play in Eb standard! Syncolima example tune

I was so impressed with Alan's willingness to chat endlessly about ideas and alternatives, completely happy to alter his existing designs to accommodate whatever mad ideas I might have had. My Krell fretless has a mahogany central block and ash wings, an idea that came from my MM 20th Anniversary SR5, Alan just said "sure" and got on with it. The quality of his work is second to none.

And it’s a very good bass.