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Truck Still Works - Brad Paisley

They don't syringe now, rather they use micro-suction. Also, it is not done on the NHS anymore. Look around for a competent local person or even Specsavers. Around here, you can pay anything from £50 for two ears to £80+. It is a game changer, I need it done 5/6 times per year.

I'm aspiring to one day become 1/16th decent.

43 years and counting. You'd have thought I'd be half decent by now. 🙄

I tried a number of shorties at one point but did not find them comfortable for some reason, a shoulder injury meant I had to go down to a U Bass, and it was surprisingly good, as in usable. As it improved a bit, I tried my 34" and could reach the third fret, I calculated that to be like the first fret on a 30". Hence the arrival of a Hartwood Delta. I love it and will use it in anger for the first time at rehearsal on Sunday.

+1. Kick is big bottom, not much low bass or mids, but with an upper midrange for the 'click'. Mids on the kick not only compete with the full mix, yourself included, they compete with the toms and snare.

This works if you have one. When you have three they’re often a source of discussion and disagreement, particularly when someone comes to stay.

Same for me with my guitar strings, although for bass strings I use bass direct because Markbass make my favourite strings. FWIW though I don’t like bright strings and prefer an old school tone.

Fifty years ago, I went to the Royal Veterinary College in That London, and was in International Hall. Back then I played guitar, rather better in my head than in the real world. In the first week or two there I encountered several other musicians - a drummer, a guitarist, and one of these wretched multitalented people who played guitar and keyboards, and could sing too. So we started a band, and as we had an overabundance of guitarists, no bassist, and I (as I did have sufficient self-awareness to realise) was a worse guitarist than Sam, I decided to take on bass duties. Needing a bass, I went to the Fender Soundhouse, where they had recently had a fire and coincidentally Hayman had just gone out of business, so they were flogging off Hayman parts. I did initially get the parts for a doubleneck 4/6 but something didn't fit, so I took them back and got the parts for a 40/40, which remained my main bass for several years. We played a practice gig and then a proper gig, both at the hall of residence, for which we got paid £100 (this was in 1975, so a well-paid gig by today's standards). I dropped out of university soon after that gig, and went back to playing guitar in the bedroom for a few years until I bought a house in Tamworth and thought I'd see about joining a band. I advertised myself as a guitarist/bassist and got recruited by a local band, and have been bassing ever since, with the odd hiatus.

Fear of a White Egg. Great name for an album...

A doublebass is a beautiful piece of furniture in the corner of a room, a conversation starter, social status elevator, somewhere to hang decorations at this festive time of year, you can even play it if you're that way inclined. The reasons to own one far away outweigh the reasons not to. 😉

I irrationally fear White Eggs. If I open a box of eggs I need to see nice brown eggs, white eggs prolly come from alien chickens.

I placed an order for mandolin strings with Strings Direct on Saturday evening. They arrived this morning which I think is pretty good service over the holiday break - so a 👍 for them from me!

The first lot of five strings like this and the BB5000 seemed to have really skinny string spacing!

There is also the Roland V-Combo VR-09-B and some Crumar models may fit in your budget, but most of them are without internal speakers and only 61 keys... The Roland is priced new around £600, so certainly in your price tag second hand.

This ☝️ I think a lot of people have bought it because they get all gassed up by the YouTube videos, but then realise they don’t have any particular need for it in a live setting. Tracking wise I found that it wasn’t as good as I thought Ian Allison made it look and said it was but I don’t blame him for that - he was pretty transparent, his technique for it is just flawless. The tracking is still good, but you do have to play a certain way. For simplicity and having the main sounds a gigging cover/wedding/function band bassist is likely to need at your fingertips the MXR absolutely kills it, that was a very astute piece of design/marketing. People don’t necessarily understand filters and square waves etc and so find the C4 and FI overwhelming, I don’t think it’s necessarily that the MXR is better than either of them (I’ve never had an FI to comment - the FI sounds top drawer in the examples @Quatschmacher posted up earlier in the thread) but the C4’s editor certainly baffled me and I ended up getting rid fairly quickly as I just needed a couple of tones for certain tunes and had neither the time nor the inclination to bother to work it all out. The MXR is set & forget if you want it to be, and that suits the majority I think