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Thank you my good man, I owe you a fondant fancy next time I see you. 👍

That's fair enough.

I bought a pedal from Tom - it arrived super quickly and really well packed. Top bloke - thanks Tom!

There's probably more custom bass luthiers out there now than there has ever been, but most of them are pretty small scale operations. Yes, the majority of the market is still FSOs, but you're starting to see more interesting instruments working their way into the limelight - the rise of Dingwall has been a big deal in that regard. Ibanez continue to be pretty brave with their designs, considering they're a mass-market manufacturer. You're not seeing so much of the alternative-material instruments, although you've got the likes of Klos picking up the baton dropped by Status when they stopped making aftermarket graphite necks, and it seems there's quite a big market out there for carbon-fibre acoustic guitars from the likes of Enya and Lava. At least, in the UK, we've got the likes of Shuker, Sei, Overwater and GB still making great custom instruments, although it's very sad (but understandable, given Rob's desire to retire) that Status have had to downsize so much.

The Pirate Midi Polar Max is based on this open source project https://github.com/Builty/TonexOneController/tree/main I thought I'd seen something similar to this. 10% of sales go to the person who manages the code, which is good. If you wanted to save money, you could (if you were so inclined): Buy this https://github.com/Builty/TonexOneController/blob/main/HardwarePlatform_Waveshare4.3B.md Buy 2-16 pedal switches plus this board https://www.sparkfun.com/sparkfun-16-output-i-o-expander-breakout-sx1509.html Buy this for Midi https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-Reciprocal-Hardware-Automatic-Converter/dp/B082Y19KV9 Build yourself a case Download the firmware and test it works though I'm not sure how much money you'd save TBH as all of this takes time and I would value my time at more than it costs to build this, but it's neat and you can still plug in extra pedal switches such as the Chocolate. I did have one question for any Chocolate owners, I didn't think that the Chocolate supported switching through pressing C & D together. I will have to look again and perhaps there is a firmware upgrade. Rob

Not wanting to labour the point - but the print/insta generation thing applies to us buyers too…

This is true. I’m in a covers and original band. The former is mostly booked by the set list (we play blue note jazz stuff). The originals band is done by an agent.

Imo the tonex is worth ten times what it costs. It's outstanding value. But one before everyone sussed and buys them and prices go up.

Also need to change those knobs. Maybe cream ones?

For me, the whole boutique passive Fender but not made by Fender fetish is getting a bit out of hand. Thousands of dollars for a bass sounds like...a Fender but I suppose with a bit of a story to it and some snake oil thrown in, if that's what you're really after. That's fair enough, let the buyer beware, but what I can't take is the guys who think they would be doing me a favour selling me one of their basses for mere money in return. Trust me, there are some out there. At least G&L were honest about what they were offering and Leo's heritage. They actually did have some worthwhile innovations on the Fender designs and they could and should have been a lot more successful with them.

Nearly there - just need to find some bolts to hold the amp in. Got feet on the side opposite the handle so it can stand on end, too. This B&Q plywood is shit, though - not using that again!

I'll light the blue touch paper....we've all done them...grim NYE gigs at social clubs to families! Tired kids up too late, families sick of the sight of each other having spent a fortnight together. The band has agreed to 3 sets, involving dredging up seldom played songs. The attendance issue being; who will last until Auld Lang Syne, despite the cheap beer?

I Mist Again - Phil Collins

Transfer of faff - in one case it is you doing it, in the other case is someone else doing it! It probably could but it is a free plugin that we didn't write that does it.

I have no issues with companies doing business, but when they try to extract every last penny from you, it starts to grate. A bit like Ryan Air when they floated the idea of charging £1 to use the toilets, or BMW (was it BMW?) now building cars with heated seats in to all their cars but you pay for them on a monthly subscription. BMW's view is that you can always choose if you want heated seats and not pay for them if not, but the cost of making the car is already incurred, they are now trying to to extract out a monthly or annual charge for a heated seat. So I could have brought the car outright, but still paying five years later to have a warm bum. Thankfully, most car companies have little idea of real security and somebody will hack into the system and charge you a £100 for a lifetime of warm buttocks. Sometimes it's a fine line between what is acceptable to me and not, other people will have their own views. Rob

But IME the biggest difference in the approach to getting a playing gigs is whether they are "standards" or music the performers of written themselves. The actual genre is a lot less important than that.

Mainly that's because faithful renditions are what sells or at least gets them noticed. Give folk a familiar design but with a fancy finish and souped up hardware, they spot what changes you've made easily enough. Original designs tend to confuse rather than attract. Patrice Vigier thinks it took 20 years before he sold one of his fretless guitars, Torzal still appear in "WTF is that ?". A recent WTF which made me smile was some Who fan in Australia deriding a Buzzard Bass.

Hazy Shade of Winter - The Bangles

Or Baroque, Big Band, Folk, Free Jazz, Gospel and more. All of these, whether covers, 'standards' or original have distinct differences in the approach needed. The Venue World is not as 'black or white' as you seem to often imply.