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AliExpress asked me to send the unit back (to China!?) before they'd refund me. Got a QR code, took it to my local Royal Mail sorting office in town, they printed the label and I noticed it was some place in Hounslow. Got the refund immediately though. To replace it, I found a used "the t.bone IEM 75" on Reverb and offered £60 + postage, accepted. They are £139 new on Thomann (£10 less today though!). It's got a lot more hiss than I'm used to and isn't bassy. Will see how this goes, but my WP-12 days are over.

Don't shoot yourselves in foot on the basis of "apparently". Misunderstandings, quoting out of context etc do occur. Make sure you're sure. If you are and you cancel the gig, much respect! 👍🏻

Feeling a bit out of sorts tonight. Tail end of Covid and stuff. But the gig went ok, not packed but reasonable, the audience liked it. The band were new to the place but I've done several gigs there before. I put my cab upside-down* on the bench rather than on the flags to reduce boom, and I still had to brighten the eq. Got caught out by a couple of arrangements that don't follow the originals, not that anyone else noticed. Tuned to drop d for the wrong song, so had to go back up to E for the next, then down to D and back up again... all by ear as without my tuner, which had fallen on the floor. Also managed to pull my lead out of my head while spinning round looking for the tuner. Was to boomy to use the Squier Jazz with mutes on it, but it does look pretty. Amazing tort scratchplate for an ebay cheapy! *updide down ment the ports weren't blocked and it sat on the flat top, not wobbling on three legs.

I feel for you, that's cramped! And people eating at table not usually going to want loud music. Am surprised they took an extra £2.5k, that's massive.

Absolutely horrid experience for the first half of ours tonight. Was set up in a tiny corner of a pub, using our own PA and having to lug it around tables of people sat eating dinner. Tiny stage where I could either bump my right elbow on the crash cymbal or the headstock of my bass into the singers back. Venue was completely unequipped to have bands on, even down to them not having a single plug socket anywhere near the "stage" area. Still we plowed through - even with people still sat eating half way through our first set and not a single member of the "audience" (who I suspect were there for their dinner and had no idea a band was on tonight) seeming like they cared. One blast of In Bloom later and suddenly the 60+ year olds weren't so keen on eating their meat and mash. I don't even know if people loved it or hated it - I think general ambivalence was the mood. The bar manager was happy though - he reckoned they'd put about £2500 more behind the bar than the average Saturday, so that's something. It was very much a case of having to be professional and make the best of the situation. I'm not in any rush to play at that venue again though truth be told. I think when they said they wanted bands on, they really meant they wanted an acoustic actually to play background music while people tucked into their carvery or whatever.

The tall one on the left is the TC RH750 in a 2x10 enclosure. That usually sits on top of the small 12" TC cab in the middle. (The cab has a spare BH250 head unit plugged into it at the moment.) I have another 12" TC cab in the garage, so I can use the RH750 with the 2x10 enclosure and both 12's if I really need to move some serious air. On the right is a BG250 2x10 combo (with the tool box on top.) Unless you play with the very loudest pub bands, I'd recommend the BG250 2x10 combo. It's got a lot of poke for it's relatively small output. I was actually thinking of selling the BG250 combo, as it's not being used since I got the MarkBass combo. So I also have a MarkBass 2x10 500w tilting combo which is very good, although the sound is very processed and not as sweet as the TC amps (more gritty sounding?) and much lighter to carry (17kg as opposed to 28kg for the big TC, which luckily has a built in wheeled trolley.) All in all, my favorite sound is the big TC RH750 2x10 with one extra 12" cab. It's compact enough and has more than enough power for most situations. It's bloody heavy to haul in and out of the house/car. The Jazz basses sound at their sweetest through either of the TC 2x10s. I actually have three distinct sound presets on the RH750 - 1. Status/Stingray, 2. Jazz Basses, 3. Precision Basses with a couple of notches of the on board compressor added, although I don't have a Precision on the fleet at the moment.

Last night was a gig with a difference, I knew almost everyone in the audience, it being one of the local walking football clubs I used to play at. The event was their annual summer dinner dance, but there's usually double the number of folks and tables. Because of the personal connection, I especially wanted the band to do a good job and for me to play well. Whether it was because of the extra banter and focus on me by the band and crowd, I was distracted and definitely didn't play as well as usual. Had a good laugh though! The venue is good, acoustics not bad and looking out into its golf course. Bit of a walk to get our gear round to the back door. The band wanted more folks there too obviously but the atmosphere was friendly and fun. All the gents had a lady with them. Small gear error. Left home in a rush and forgot the fly lead for my bass so, the wireless dongle went direct in the jack socket. We got to the venue at 7, played for nearly 3 sets with short breaks over 3 hours and away by half past midnight.

To fit the specs given, I'd build my own using: Swamp ash PJ body from guitarbuild.co.uk - order one with nice looking grain and get the control cavity extended. Wipe on some Danish oil for a natural finish. Fender Precision to Jazz bass conversion neck - I was knocked sideways with how one of these necks has transformed a previously ignored bass into one of my favourites Schaller 3D bridge EMG GZR PJ Pickups £10 aliexpress pickguard Hipshot HB7 lollipop tuners gotoh bass string tree & strap buttons callaghan heavy knurl knobs Fender F neckplate Fender pickguard screws Ernie Ball 2815 cobalt flatwound strings self-adhesive copper anti-slug tape The parts should come to under £1000. If you don't want to assemble it yourself, take the bits to a luthier (or possibly an experienced basschatter) to put together.

Just home from a paid rehearsal, a quite well paid rehearsal, as it happens. Played to our wives and the bar staff, essentially. However, we have a few regular folk who come and see us every time we play, and they were absent tonight. When I asked the guitarist where they were - apparently last time we played this pub, the landlady made a comment about one of the chaps ethnicity. This floored me, and since we have a rebooking in December (already arranged) we’re in a quandary I think we’ll cancel the gig, and if we have to explain why then I’ll happily tell the landlady to her face.

I look at the pics every month in the hope of inspiration, but... My creative process (if you can call it that) is incredibly unspontaneous, slow & laborious, ideas can take months to develop & just as long to record satisfactorily. It's very rare that any composition is 5 minutes or less, and although I dislike them, can't play them & obviously have never used them - unfortunately I can't guarantee no bagpipes. So maybe next month...

Mine's more a corner with a Cajon to sit on and a laptop perched on a cab!

More pricey but better finish https://thebassgallery.com/products/yamaha-bb2024-1

Fender Marketing dept. pitch meeting, Corona: "So, any revolutionary new ibass deas guys? We are being called lazy online due to a lack of anything other than re-hashing our two core models for the last 65 odd years." "Have we done an active PJ this year?' "We have?!" "Oh, ok." "How about something, something Vintage?" "Oh ok." "Hmm, too early for another Ultra..." "How about some signature Jazzes BUT they are for indie female players?!" "Oh, we've done that too... ok...' "Ok no wrong answers here, anything goes, let's go!!!" Crickets One guy: "How about a bass that can only be used for scoring a Tarantino soundtrack and not much else?" "Go on..." "Right, a Jazz, probably. But it's a... "Stick a P pickup in there" "Ok, a Jazz with a P pickup, but also let's make it godless heinous and semi-fretless" "Ok guys we're on fire here, what else?" "Give it a weird paint job, a semi-expensive neck bucket and wonky effects, slap a Custom Shop logo on it and charge $15k for it..." ... ... * Single senior executive clapping slowly, before entire board room joins in one by one leading to a standing ovation! * "We'll bring out a MIM or Jap version, followed by a Squier Paranormal line in 6 months and charge $2k" (then discontinue it in 18 months) "We've sorted the company's earning for the next two years guys, well done!"

definitely having you on there. They’ve had two batches in since first one in April. still could be worse, ordered mine from andertons at beginning of may. Told me they had ten coming in a week, still waiting…had the opportunity to go for one from guitar guitar in July when they were available but as I’d already paid in full I stuck with it assuming supplies were being distributed equally

Not really the same place: South Belgium very close to Luxemburg and France borders. Nope, used to be part time, a (very) long time ago, but a lot of people here have a lot of instruments, you know.

I think Zoom expression pedals are wired differently - I couldn't get the 2 expression pedals I already had to work with a Zoom B3 I had unless I forked out for a Zoom one.

Might need just a TS cable (off the top of my head but I could be wrong)

@Russ and @JohnR did you both order yours from Guitar Guitar? I’m probably making a bigger deal that I should but it’s annoyed me they’ve sent out units without fulfilling the preorders. I have an email from them saying sorry if you saw them for sale on the website but we’ve not received our order yet, it should arrive on the 8th. Would love to send them your order numbers to call them out on this if either of you are willing to DM me this info? Again a wholly pointless exercise and I’m glad you both have them, just a little frustrating as I’ve been waiting weeks to order one and will have waited 3 weeks from paying for one when I could have just had one next day several days ago.

There’s a 4024 at Bass Bros, not my ideal finish but you’d be hard pressed to find a better bass at £1500 https://bassbros.co.uk/product/yamaha-bb2024/

Microsoft natural keyboard- not seen one of those in donkeys years

Wowzas. Full time musician? I lived in Mons for a few years recently and your place has a familiar feel about it. I wouldn't consider Belgium a romance country though, even Wallonie 😉)

Probably the right choice!