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I think I saw those videos: his main conclusion was that the HNB3 needs a real neck pickup, and a bridge pickup is underwhelming. Simply moving the existing humbucker up was a good start, but I think it could use more. Still thinking about it.

Now looking for a natural colourway before going this route haha I just posted in items wanted

Tie Your Mother Down - Queen

Pics seem to be broken 😔 Si

Never say never: personally, at 55, I've got more choosy about the gigs I do, but I couldn't stop it. Load in / load out can be mitigated almost entirely with modern lightweight cabs (or going ampless if you can) - now, if the appetite has waned a bit, cut back the gigs a bit and recharge with something else (hell, gardening...?!) I practice more, explore other genres, record more and jam on Jamulus a lot (which generates more leads for recordings and gigs hehe)... but don't say never again on gigging: you'll come back to it. That's only my opinion mind!

This is a personal review and very subjective but I'm going to try to give some useful info in case anyone wants this kind of thing. Disclaimer - I bought these by mistake, I really wanted the nickels. Score 6/10 Packaging - good. No plastic at all. Nice. Fitting - no problem, they are just the same as any other string Feel - okay, as far as coated go. I prefer Elites as they feel more natural and these have taken me a few hours of playing to get used to. I'm not sure if that's me wearing them in or my getting used to the coating but the first couple of hours were really odd and my timing was rubbish but now we're getting on okay together. Sound - hmmmmmmm. This is where I was NOT happy. I'm comparing with the original fitted Dingwalls on my bass and my only criticism of those was that the G string was a bit lacking in oomph. The Dingwalls were gutsy, bright, rich and stayed vibrant for a few months which I didn't used to find with their own brand. So. By comparison these DRs are much weaker sounding. They have decent low and and a nice ping when you attack them with slap or a pick but finger picking they seem really scooped and lack the midrange that cuts through. They also sound like a pice of wire rather than a string, a bit fence-ish. I was so put off I checked the packet and realise I'd bought stainless steel strings by mistake. I've never had them before but I won't ever buy them again as they are not to my taste. However. It was my fault so this will be my sound for the next few months! To be fair, with a bit of playing in the tone is levelling off and I'm warming to it a bit, but I'm going to ask the team at Bass Direct if I can swap the other set for nickels.

I'm fortunate in that I get paid to do one of my hobbies and so I put up with the superfluous hassle that goes with it. It would be great if I shifted to musicianship, but then all of the superfluous hassle would shift there too... I'm not sure I do: music production is now and the music industry has become quite diversified with the shift away from large organisations. Social media, Bandcamp, and so-on mean it is way easier to get your product out than in the past. I haven't done it because I am not motivated enough to do so, but if I wanted to I could, without even leaving my house. I guess there's 1 in 10,000 artists who makes it (ie. earns a good living); would increasing that (even doubling it) yield anything significant? Would it encourage people to spend more on the arts? The thing about the money for war is that it's loans rather than a slush fund; it took decades after for the UK to pay for WW II.

Well, some good scavenging there then! Will keep facebook fullerton marketplace busy for a while!

Looks like a lot of the stock from the factory - bridges, tuning machines, pick-ups and misc. parts/electronics - as well as a bunch of BBE Sonic Maximisers and other outboard pre-amps.

The problem with a universal basic income is that someone has to pay for it. We're already taxed at the highest level in decades and the current government are actively increasing taxes (even before the upcoming budget!). Whilst it's easy to denegrate people by posting strawman arguments postulating probable DM headlines about "woke" and "scroungers", what happens if money earners decide that they'd be as well jacking it in and becoming "musicians"?

I saw them at Knebworth in 1976, they were third on the bill behind Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Rolling Stones, but that was in the days when festivals were full of great acts, all on the same day, and all on the same stage. Those were the days!

Oh Bondage Up Yours! - X-ray Spex

Took both my USA Lakies for a swing last weekend with my ABBA tribute. Still can't get over how incredible these two basses are.

Hils have said I can order a black pickguard for the HNB5 through Anderton's so it will be interesting to see how much it costs. There are some good YouTube vids of somebody changing pickups on a HNB3-they even put jazz pickups in it ! I decided to keep the stock pickups on the 5 - thought they were fine given what it would cost to replace them and the effort involved. I put LaBella super polished strings on it which I hadn't used before - the sound of rounds and the feel of flats and was really impressed. I ended up with some really nice tones.

We organised a 4 band gig at Whiskers in Newquay on Halloween. It was a bit of a shambles, but turned out alright in the end. First up, the sound guy was meant to arrive at 5. He showed up at 7. We were expecting the first band to go on at 7:30... Everyone says that this guy does this all the time and it's to be expected. He runs on "Cornish time" 🙃 This doesn't happen in Bristol! Punters were leaving because it hadn't started. The first band finally started at 8:20. Then, you know, we're alll running late, you'd think the bands would try to keep to time, right? Nope, the first two over-ran by about 10/15 minutes. Changeovers were SO SLOW. I never understand why it takes some people so long to get off stage. Everyone says it's "Cornish time", we call it unprofessional. It was just as well that the venue had a 2am licence. We had planned that we'd be on at 10:10. Didn't end up going on till 11:45, finishing at 12:40. To their credit, a fair number of (very drunk by now) punters did stick it out and seemed to really enjoy our set. We even had our first mosh pit! I did struggle a bit with fret markers while wearing sunglasses for my costume though. I used to find it alright in the hip-hop covers band. There were also a few mistakes, but I'm putting that down to tiredness. I'd had a few late nights trying to finish mixing our new EP and then early mornings because I have a 3 year old! Gear was Dingwall Combustion -> Boss GX-100 -> Laney Digbeth DB-500H -> borrowed Vanderkley 210. Got some shonky phone videos too. WhatsApp Video 2025-11-01 at 11.21.17.mp4

What was skipped? (for those of us that can't get more than 2 seconds through a Sapko youtube!)

Sire U5 probably a better fit. Squier Mustang classic vibe is another option.

If I brought a motorbike in and dismantled it on the kitchen table, I suspect parts of my anatomy may be dismantled as well and distributed far and wide. The ply is nice ply (in my limited experience), the two things I've done differently are: Buying a guide rail for the circular saw. Massive change in cutting wood and it's now simple. Buying an 80 tooth circular saw blade and putting it in the right way. You can actually burn your way through plywood with it the wrong way, so I'm told. I of course didn't do that at all. Nope not me. Also moving the saw blade up so it's only cutting 12.5mm makes it a little friendlier and I can use some old wood as a base rather than my 40 year old Workbench. The second cab will be better again. Also the weather forecast is for six days of constant rain 🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️ so this is likely to be the only can this week Rob

I guess Fender decided it was more cost effective to chuck the stuff they had no intention of using rather than pay to store it while it could be sold off? I can kind of see the logic for the bridges and pick ups which probably have limited demand and might take a long time to sell on if they had a lot of stock but you'd think they could shift the pedals and other electronic items fairly quickly in a fire sale scenario.