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Further to my previous comment, I should add that I'd much rather watch Danny than the smelling-your-own-farts w4nkery of Berthoud etc. I get nowt from that stuff (YMMV obv).

I did the 'Boss pedals on a Boss board' thing a while back and it was... alright. I like the BC-1X compressor and still have it on my main board (and the TU-3 is in the cupboard) but I sold the rest of the pedals as either I was bad at using them, or they weren't inspiring me to try. I didn't like the plastic board either.

I know Danny a bit. He used to live above a bar that I used to go to occasionally and now he's moved to the next town, I bump into him every now and again in the supermarket. Funnily enough, the last time I saw him, he was asking me about the tribute band I'm in, rather than talking about his more illustrious online career! He's actually a nice guy, even shorter in real life than you might imagine and a very good bass player! I don't really bother with online bass influencer types as a rule, but his clips are OK / mildly amusing. I do agree with some of the things he gets on his high horse about, especially the Mohini Dey / AI thing.

If I were into pedals I would try and do that. But even carrying one Sansamp around I now consider to be a mammoth task.

The band I had to leave back in March (due to me having a brain-bleed stroke) has been very supportive since then, kept in touch about my recovery and since then have asked me to do 5 or 6 dep jobs with them covering gigs my replacement on bass couldn't do. Latest was last Friday 28th November at a private party in a nice pub in Sherborne. It's gratifying that I still remembered the chords and arrangements for all the numbers I used to do, and could busk the new ones, although I must admit 'Fairytale of New York' unrehearsed was hard going - never played it before and frankly never liked the original! My short sax set (One step beyond, Geno, Tutti Frutti) went down well too; I suppose sdditional saxophony is my unique selling point! Following on from one of the other threads on this forum, the other band members would clearly like to have me back, and were thinking about hiding some gigs from my replacement so I could play them instead. I must say I felt conflicted - I would love to gig regularly again but I've had this sort of thing happen to me in the past but the other way around. Hmm... advice please!

I started out with the Moog grandmother ..then dfam…then Minitaur ..then very recently a Mavis ..and a Moog sound studio accessory kit ! Wow ! 😬 Tbh I thought I’d stop at the dfam , but the Mavis was going for £150 ..so I got it ! Of course this led me into purchasing the Moog sound studio accessory kit ! Only because it was b stock and just over half price so that one power supply does it all ! ( plus the mixer) 😮‍💨 What this now leads to is whether I should get the subharmonicon to join up with the DFAM , and basically having the Moog sound studio without the artwork or playing cards , dice and exploration pack ! One thing about the dfam and subharmonicon is that they have templates , and the sound studio doesn’t . I assume that the equivalent is in the Moog sound studio booklets . From what I gather , the subharmonicon is a bit marmite and mostly negative . I can’t get the mother 32 as the grandmother is superior . Having the subharmonicon would mean ( I think) the grandmother on its own or with the Mavis . It would mean no more Moog stuff which isn’t a bad thing .

Said a quick hello to him at a Janek Gwizdala / Ian Allison workshop in the summer where he was in the audience. He came across as a decent bloke, no different than he is on his videos, and yes he had a few cans of bitter with him.

Thank you for the explanation, I understand now that it's mainly about the practicalities of applying the paint. I've used Tuffcab on some baffles (as it was all I had around at the time) and agree it's tricky to get a consistent finish on the edges next to the grille batten with the roller. I also fit the port before painting, but as you say it's all hidden behind the grille if one is fitted anyway.

double post

I had pretty much the same experience. Initial disdain (for quite some time) and then at some point I got the joke and warmed to him and his sense of humour. I'd much rather watch him and his dipstick-lick-schtik than the wannabe technical virtuoso types endlessly trotting out that grating double-thumb run down the G string.

And now some colouring in >>

Body and neck >> Getting everything lined up nicely >> Body meets neck >>

The battens around the front edge and the holes for the port and the speaker mean it's not that easy to apply the Tuffcab. Painting it black (I used rattle can matt black on the ones I built) is much easier, and if you're putting a grille on, you can't really see the texture anyway.

All this has been very useful. Thank you, folks. Going to the "what", and taking Phil's advice Lighting to make the band look good - yes. Lighting to allow the band to see what they are doing - yes, definitely. Lighting to improve the audience experience - yes. Ease of use for total noob. Ease of set-up. Expandable for the future. Easily transportable. The band I've just come of had a t-bar with, I think, 6 PARs and they pointed in different directions, some flashing colour to sound changes, others just lighting the band. Here's a link to some video from Saturday night. It's a very typical venue layout, the stage area was generous for a 4-piece. How would you go about lighting that if it was your band?

Body shape cut and rough edge contouring >>

Top wood chosen, Splated/Flame Sycamore >>

Honestly, they sound pretty much identical. The feel is significantly different though; I've always found the carbon fibre neck a bit 'sticky' compared the to the sanded maple neck. I've also now realised that every single one of my basses has a maple neck/maple fingerboard (apart from my currently out of action Warwick)

This build diary is WAY overdue, as it approaches the last leg of the journey. As most of you know, I'm a HUGE fan of Alan's work, having played nothing but ACGs for over 15 years now! I have nipped and tucked a lot of what I need and want in a bass, as I've gone along, and as I've developed as a bassist. I've settled on 31.5" scale as my preferred scale length, having gone 34", to 36", to 34" to 33" on the way, and I'm officially a 6 string player, who dabbles on 4. Anyway, as with a lot of my more recent basses with ACG, this started as a sketch. I'm a huge fan of Alan's Finn SC Classic shape, having owned several, but I felt that it was a little large for a shorter scale, so the crayons came out >> The spec then started to creep >> And here's the spec we came up with >> Sona 6 String 31.5" Scale Hidden Set-neck Construction Spalted/Flame Sycamore Top Mineral Stained White Limba Body Wenge Accent Veneer Ash/Wenge 5 PIece Neck Plain Wenge Fingerboard Body and Neck all stained Black, with a kinda of reverse linear black burst on the top ACG RFB Pickups in 40mm casings, bridge pickup in a measured "sweet spot", neck pickup, not too far forward East Uni-pre 4K Preamp Hipshot Type A Bridge - Black Gotoh Resolite Tuners - Black 50mm Wide Nut 16.5mm String Spacing Flat/0 Radius Fingerboard Work commenced early 2025. More to come.

Apparently it's obligatory to look him up on the interwebs, as otherwise you are being wilfully ignorant. I didn't know who Melissa Auf der Maur is and thought I would find out about her and her great career-defining basslines in episode 2. However, the only thing I found out was that I didn't want to listen to any more of her work.

I’ll jump in on this too. I’m 61, and I’m still fronting an original heavy rock band, the same band I joined in 1982. Were recording a new album and it’s sounding absolutely awesome, very pleased with it, and live were better than ever. My voice is still holding up, and young people who come to see us love the stuff, it’s old school, like their dads listen to, and it goes down pretty well. THAT SAID…….. a month ago, my best pal lost his battle with cancer. He was 59 and an amazing metal guitarist. I helped lower him into the ground to the sound of “Where were you?” By Jeff Beck. In January, my mum died. No great surprise, but still, you know. In February our drummers wife had a heart attack and died for 10 minutes. Somehow, they revived her and she survived, but unfortunately with severe brain damage, so he has his hands full looking after her. The band, keeps him sane. My point. If you’re young and you’re reading this, be all you can be. Take nothing for granted, don’t waste time being miserable, do the things that make you happy, with the people that make you happy, play music, love music, all music, and most of all, KICK ASS. If you’re old and reading this, all of the above also applies to you, x2. F*** getting old.

Well, not really. The audience are much further away than me from my backline and are getting a mix of the front of house PA sound with perhaps some of my backline too. It ain’t the same sound as me standing in front of my cabs. 100% agree with seeing what works for the room tho - I do the same and go as far as my lead will allow during sound checks to get an overall idea. As you say, it’s the overall sound that matters. But to return to the OPs query, I was just trying to suggest some areas to explore for sorting his sound. As I say, I’m just going from my experience and fully expect others to have different ideas.

...am I the only one to hope that those tattoos on his fingers aren't the permanent type?

@Greg Edwards69; Best of, old chap - look after yourself and focus on a smooth recovery. I'll look forward to your first post-treatment gig report.