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The drummer in our band gave us notice that he wanted to leave because we weren't making any money; he had previously played in covers bands and made a few quid every gig... So we got in touch with an old mate who was between bands, he was very happy to be asked to join, so we told old drummer who was pleased, and we agreed that our next gig would be his last. On the night of that gig, while we were on stage actually, we got an email saying we'd been accepted for Rebellion. And old drummer threw his toys out of the pram - accused us of knowing in advance and forcing him out, then stormed off and immediately unfriended us all on FB as did his wife and daughter. He's recently re-friended me, wants to know how everything is going with the band, possibly in the hope that everything's worse without him. Which it isn't - different but not in a bad way, in fact better in some ways, and slightly worse in others... Still, life's too short for ridiculous grudges!

It wasn't a band as such as there was no singer and it never got out of the practice room. The guitarist especially was really unpleasant. We auditioned a singer to do originals. Great voice. After she left at the end of the audition the guitarist and drummer slagged her off for being "clueless" in the attempt she made. I pointed out she wasn't a mind reader as they'd not given any guidance as to what they wanted. A few weeks later I was told that the project was on hold as the guitarist had too many family commitments. The dopey pair forgot about social media though. I found out I'd been replaced a few days later on Facebook. I contacted the guitarist and had my longest swear rant at him. Another band, the singer told us she was leaving after our first gig as she was moving away. We had possibly 2 more gigs before she left which she would do. Next gig, a set list is produced and it's minimal. I said I was concerned there wasn't enough material on it. Was told we'd pad it out with tuning up and talking. I said I thought that was cr@p. All hell broke loose, and ended with me telling them to sod off and I wasn't doing the gig.

When I was younger, I had pictures of BC Rich, Warlocks and Buzzards as my desktop background, so was definitely in to a bit more ostentatious basses. I still like to do things a bit differently. Whether it be a Yamaha BB over a Fender PJ or a Reverend over Fender, that type of thing.

Does anyone else have a problem with this? I frequently hit the wrong button or more that one together, especially when getting to the back row. Happens most often when I'm doing backing vocals and can't look down effectively. The only way round this I can see it to have my mic pointing so that I'm looking down when I sing, which would look weird IMO. I'm actually thinking of putting my Helix at the back of my board and putting my most frequently used (separate) pedals back on the board. Is there maybe an external footswitch that will work for it, that I can put at the front, so I can continue using to use the Helix for these effects?

Just be mindful that often a specific production year of Fender US standard for example, can be used to denote changes to specifications or to define “good” years when being referred to on forums etc. This can conflict with the actual model name/range of years produced stated by Fender. A good example of this, is that whilst the Fender US Standard Precision bass was produced between the years of 2008-2016, they made changes to the specification in 2012 and started referring to this with dealers (to help differntiate) as the ‘2012 US Standard’, even though it was produced between 2012-2016 with that spec (main improvement included a move to a Custom Shop ‘60s split coil pickup). As a result, a lot of people look for pre-2012 or post-2012 US Standards based on the spec they liked, and this often comes in the description of sales posts (despite the serial stating that a ‘2012 US Standard’ was produced in the years between 2012-2016, for example). This is also true of things like Custom Shop models, where specific production years may refer to a brand new, un-reliced model as ‘NOS (New Old Stock)’ or ‘Time Machine’ etc depending on what Fender categorized that level of relic at the time of production.

Be careful otherwise you might end up crafting a lovely lollipop stick

I've owned a lot of Japanese Fenders (including a Japanese Silver Squier) and every one of them was excellent, including a Precision 57 reissue, which had a lovely shallow neck. I now own a US Elite Precision and I much preferred the neck on the 57 reissue. By the way, American Fenders are no longer allowed to have Made In The USA stamped on them any longer, as many of the parts are manufactured overseas (maybe all of them, who knows?).

I should say that you are advised to load settings from the mixer to the device. If you have done that, my advice above will be accurate. The settings are within the XR18 and not held externally.

Check back in a year and you never know, I might have cut it out 👌

Hi pete, I’d keep an eye out for an AVRI 62 or 63 P, they are exceptional basses, I’ve got a 62 and I believe the difference is the 63 has a fuller neck profile where mine is slimmer from front to back which I find comfortable, they also hold their value and are pretty sought after, I can’t comment on Japanese I’ve never had one

I would go mag as long as you're not using guts or similar that don't create a field. My view is that you really want a PUP that produces a different tone to the Realist to give you wider options. I found that using a mag, which gave me very reliable and quite thumpy lows, I could EQ the bridge PUP to give me more highs (and cut some of what were to my ear less toneful mids coming from the bridge PUP), and then tune the balance of the two to get close to the sound in my head. I never get anywhere near perfect, but got close enough 👍

you are dead right mate

I've done a quick look over my morning tea. I'll stick the results up below but before I do can I ask what you want to get out of this? If it is just a cab that is an Ashdown and sounds like an Ashdown then contacting @Ashdown Engineering is probably the way to go. They'll probably provide you with a couple of 8ohm drivers at a reasonable price, the cab will retain it's value and it's sound. @Stub Mandrel's suggestion is a good one and I'm happy to help you set up WinISD if you get stuck. It's free and it works If you want to go ahead with a mod then it's a question of what you want to get out of the mod and how much surgery/woodwork you want to do on the cab. If it has a tweeter you might want to look at the crossover too so it could be slightly more complex than just re-tuning the cab. So this is the initial look at a pair of Celestion Pulse 10's in a 100l cab tuned to 50hz. For comparison there are two other more 'normal' responses in smaller cabs. That's partly to illustrate what we are all saying about the cab being 'a bit big' for the Pulses. Interestingly for a nerd like myself the response in your cab will be almost exactly that of an Extended 3db Bass Shelf/EBS-3 response which is a 'thing'. You just need to know this is the result. The bass shelf works well for bass guitar as the lower frequencies get reinforced by any hard surfaces near the cab but you just need to know that this will happen when you swap the speakers. Green your cab with the Pulses 100l tuned to 50Hz Blue is maximally flat SBB4 resonse in a 65l cab Red is a more typical commercial cab response in a 45l cab

Apart from playing my Mustang these days (weight, sore shoulders etc etc) I'm a P bass guy. I have 2 US ones , my 73 and a P bass special and a coupe of bitsas. One with flats the rest with rounds They all sound like a good p bass should

Literally THE same thing for me. P basses, the perfect one trick pony!