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One of my students is relocating from the US to Cambridge in September as his wife will be studying at the uni and he's keen to get involved in any sort of playing opportunities that are available. So, are there any open mics/jam nights or similar that he should go to (or avoid)? He's open to pretty much any genre, I think.

Not everyone had that level of natural talent. I certainly do not I respect your opinion, this isn’t talkbass. I just note that I, for one, needed and benefitted from guidance as to the “normal way” to play bass and not get into bad habits.

Listening to some scientist this morning, great bassline on this, I think it’s Robbie

Very very different soundwise. Soundwise in how it feels/sounds it's probably closer to a snappier Nobel preamp block in Helix world - with a EQ block attached. It doesn't add the crazy amount of fat middy saturation Retro Reel adds. When it overdrives it goes grainy splatty. Presuming you're not going for the drive sounds the Closest other pedals aiming for a similar thing for bass players would be the Caveman preamp or that Mantle thing. More EQ options than both, cheaper, with less iron in than Mantle. I still want a Warwick Hellborg preamp, that's the sound of the bit of gear I should never have sold I want to get back too

Geoffrey Hinton talks to Neil DeGrasse Tyson. You may have difficulty sleeping after listing to this discussion. https://open.spotify.com/episode/30xO8jBd3jynb7mOAE1v0O?si=0-buIMDXTBanSOYeEMCL_w&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A1mNsuXfG95Lf76YQeVMuo1

Nice one Leonard, good luck with your entry

If only that idiot Deacon hadn't ruined his sunburst Precisions. He's saved me a fortune.

Nice little look inside the V2 just popped up on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/DVEz6kfks2i/?igsh=MXFlaHBrc3VjYXZhag==

Much sage advice on this thread (as ever on BC ) that I can't really add to. Reading it though, kind of made me glad that when I started on bass, like a great many 16 year olds in 1977 it was forming a punk band in school. We could barely play a note between us, but it was such incredible fun making an unholy noise together, creating something original together and (unknowingly) rapidly developing musically, and also feeling that we were a part of some great tidal shift in music and culture that was currently happening. I did buy a paperback tutor for bass from the early '70's with a flexi-disc, which was the only tuition I've had then or since. It was some help - would have been more if I'd followed it properly. By the time I became a half-decent player I'd (a) learned a great deal about band-craft and gigging and (b) become far more confident as a person - I'd been painfully shy before - which for me personally was the right way around to do it. If starting now, I think my 16 year old self would be bewildered by the sheer amount of information available, and probably depressed by watching the "virtuoso" whizz-kids on YouTube (though my present self would tell him to ignore such cr@p) - not sure I'd have taken that first step to start.

Thats how it seems to me. There isn't too much in it, and my favourite album changes depending on when I am asked, but it never goes past Hold Your Fire

Good call on the bags. A 15" * 15" looks like its c £33 and more substantial than the Boogie Bags.

I just throw a pick at the singer

I'd like to try one but I'm also not quite convinced it would be different enough to the Stomp Retro Reel block for me to justify the cost of it. The Retro Reel block is an often overlooked block for bass. Just set the Wow Flutter control to zero, the tape speed to 15ips and then Saturation and Texture to taste. I like about 2.8 Saturation and 8.3 Texture. Without the Wow/Flutter it is just a brilliant warmer-upper. I have it on most of my patches.

I had a need for a 1U amp and could only get a Citronic. To my surprise, I am quite impressed. It is versatile, not too deep and seems to be quiet in operation. At just under 4Kg it is not lightweight but does the job. It's also on offer at the moment Citronic Power Amp

This is all Paul McCartney's fault!

Blue Aran dropped a link to these on my feed the other day. https://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?manufacturer=JAM_Systems&masthead=Amplifiers&subheadnew=Stereo_Power_Amps I've no idea if they are any good but I'd be suspicious of any amplifer marketing suggesting 2000W @ 8Ω for just under 600 quid.

Or knowing when the song you are playing is totally killing the dance floor on that occasion and how to communicate quickly to seamlessly get out of it in to the next song!

So - depends where you think the sound comes from - it does use an input and output transformer - and one of them is a Lundahl LL1578 - but don't know if that's shooting for a specific Neve Mariner transformer sound. They describe it as two of the Neve preamp circuit in series- with the ability to boost one into the other - which makes sense as it was mainly designed for higher gain overdriven sound. While clipping at the tops of the notes is actually quite nice I don't know if that's how you would be using it. The EQ is described as a non Neve influenced 3 band thing. So it adds colour and a kinda glue to the sound, and I can tell immediately if it's been turned off in transit - but if it has "that Neve sound" I don't know - I think if you want a Neve preamp you would be better off elsewhere - but if you want that transformer textured preamp - with a range of colour added and a very useful EQ it's very good.