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YES! I always loved this theme - and the theme to The Bill. As a young'un I couldn't quite figure out what I was drawn to... but looking back, as a bit of a fan of prog, it was the 7/4 time signature of the main section!

I had a similar experience to yours - bought a small PJB combo, liked what it did and decided to try a full rig. You can certainly do it, but it won't be cheap. They will deal with fat tones happily, but you'll need a few of those small drivers to shift enough air in a live situation. The good news is that they often come up used and, as they are often bought by jazzers and non-headbangers, they are usually in good shape and have not been caned. They cut through very well on stage in my experience. However, I am playing in a soul band and doing functions, pubs and clubs. I am not competing with heavy-handed drummers or guitar players. Your situation may be different. They also project well into a room. I used to play in the house band at a local jam night and it surprised me how well my two PJB 4x5 cabs filled the space when I listened to others playing. If you want to make a bit of noise, especially with fat, low-end heavy tones, you will need a few drivers as I mention above. I have five 4x5 PJB cabs and run three or more of them when I want to shift some air. They are inefficient, so you will need powerful amplification. If you buy the PJB powered cabs, that will be taken care of, but if not, you need at least 250W per 4x5 cab to get them singing. I'm not so keen on PJB amps. I find them a bit too hi-fi. I use Aguilar and/or Carvin amps, plus a PA power amp if needed, which give me the warmer, more old-school tone I prefer.

ME too

Yeah, I think that's fair. It does put me off trying the regular Super Polished as the gauges for those are higher and I definitely don't want more stiffness / tension. I'd describe the feel as either a smoother round or a lumpy flat! I really like the feel. Just wish I could get lighter gauges.

Here is my Squier jazz in classic sunburst and tort. It started life as fretted, but got a Fender pau ferro fretless neck during covid lockdown. It has a lighter set of tuning machines fitted, though I forget what brand (they were in my guitar tech's spares bin). The neck pickup failed recently so I had DiMarzio relentless J bass pickups fitted and better quality pots & jack. It's my only bass guitar, so I've spent a bit getting it exactly how I want. I play a fair bit of double bass so my bass guitar is setup in that sort of style - including XL chrome flatwounds.

Sick Amps in Harlow is fairly easy to get to from NE London and I can recommend them https://sickamps.com/ having used them this year.

The value of any instrument will always depend on how much potential buyers are willing to pay, as well as the usual things - make, condition, etc. Unless your local-ish music shop specialises in double basses, they are probably not the best place to go for a valuation or to sell it. In your shoes, I would Google something like "double bass dealers uk" and contact a few of the names that come up. Ignore any shops that sell electric instruments. I just tried it and places like Bass Direct and the Bass Centre, which sell mainly or exclusively electrics, appeared, but there were also some double bass specialists. Speak with a few and get a feel for what they think they can get for the instrument. All will charge commission - they have to set up an instrument, put right any issues before sale and offer some kind of guarantee - which will not be pennies. Fair enough, given that they have to make a living. If you have a quality instrument, you are still likely to realise more by selling it through a specialist and paying commission than you would by doing so privately. You could also contact a few auction houses that specialise in musical instrument sales. Avoid local outfits - the sort of places you see on programmes like Bargain Hunt - that auction mainly bric-a-brac and house clearance stuff. Google "stringed instrument auctions uk" and you'll find some.

This is an interesting insight - I feel quite similar about the Bassrig Super Vintage. I've struggled with dialling in sounds I really like at home, but in a band context it's totally exceeded expectations, to the point where we only used the Bassrig DI from a recent recording session, despite having some pretty decent additional options to blend in from a cab mic and Radial JDI.

Hay Tonight - CCR

HI all, I recently got a Phil Jones BG-110 20w 2x5 combo for practice at home and am SO impressed with it. I am now tempted to get a full Phil Jones rig. Maybe just one of their powered monitors to amplify the BG-110 or maybe a bigger combo. I'd use it for small to medium size gigs and maybe recording too. I am thinking of getting power up to 250w or 500w. I want to know: How well they stand up to fat bass tones (from a '79 MusicMan Stingray or an AVRI62 Jazz Bass)? How well they cut through a mix on stage? Whether they have enough headroom to cope with small-to-medium gigs? What are your thoughts and experiences of Phil Jones gear? Thanks.

That is going to make most of the classical repertoire "rather difficult" 🤣

Down On The Farm - Little Feat

I switched from using a spectracomp to a Boss BC-1X. There were two irrational prejudices at work here - first I decided to go to an all-boss pedalboard in a attempt to put a constrain on the pedals I buy so I don't purchase a lot of different pedals that do the same thing slightly differently, and the row of LEDs on the BC-1X show that the compressor is having an effect on the sound even though it may not be very obvious.

My take on it: LT= LighT. It was the first euro model with weight relieving (before the Classic) RST= yeah, RoaSTed CST= CuSTom Don't seem to remember what LX means to the original Euro, as it was already 35" for a few years with the pre-LX Euros (for the 5ers anyway) so my take is also that it has to do with the sandwitch body and fancy tops that were introudced (spalted maple, quited maple, zebrawood etc) Stuard did say that one of the reason for changing to the sandwitch is that the supply of suitable maple wings were dwindling. I'm pretty sure the XL add for the NS-5 means 35" i.o. the original 34"