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An update for those interested in these basses. I've just spoken to my contact at Korg and he's asked me to let you all know that there is limited stock from the first production run of the Icon series basses coming in to Andertons, GuitarGuitar, @Bass Direct and one or two other UK/Eire stockists (inc X music in Dublin) in the next couple of weeks. If you definitely want one - you should make contact asap with one of these shops and get yours reserved! The main bulk of deliveries of the new Icon range will arrive early in the New Year and you will see many more of them available then, along with a proper promotional push. Regarding some other questions that were asked here and on Facebook groups: Apparently there are still more Pulse II basses on order and should be arriving soon. To the best of my contact's knowledge they have not ceased production of this model or the Ethos at this stage. There are no confirmed plans for a through neck version of the Icon yet. All production is concentrating on this new bolt on range for now. For those asking about left handed Icons.... there may well be some in the next production run but nothing confirmed yet.

My teacher had a greenish Tobias 5 at the time they were built by the master himself. Cost an arm and a leg, but sound was nice. String spacing wasn't for me, 17 mm. Neck profile was special, asymmetric. Pretty nice, to be honest.

The Toxhards, Die! Die! Die!

@Rob MacKillop check also Tom Kennedy - Just Play! His recordings include standards. This particular record is played with a double bass. In others (Basses Loaded, points of view...) there's electric, too. I think Brian Bromberg has some standards played with a double bass, although he is more known because of his electric (and piccolo) work.

Beato is engaging. Not many people can do that naturally. The 3 presenters on SBL are engaging. Also Mark Lewis is very good. All of them have 3rd party producers. It wouldn't surprise me if Danny has a producer too. Certainly a lot of the clips use a cameraman. These are people who make sure every word they say is important to the subject and relevant. That's very hard to do. I've tried it and from maybe an hour of content you can eaily lose a ton a useless material and trim it down to 5 minutes. And mostly need to then go out again and re-record a shorter better scripted version. I don't think a lot of YouTube creators have a producer who can criticality assess and cut out the waffle.

This is why I never switch on any of my musical technology until I have a really good idea of what I want to do with it.

Does anyone else find themselves crippled with option paralysis when faced with these newer MPC's? I just find them so incredibly (over) complicated and distracting to the point of being un-musical.. I just seemed never to get anything done with them. I used to have the MPC Live and latterly the MPC One (both sold) and found the same issue with both of them I find I get a lot more done with my MPC 2000xl's and Isla S2400 which i use just as drum/percussion sampling drum machines/midi sequencers, recording all my instruments straight into Logic

The neck pocket on my Squier VM Bass VI was plenty snug enough. In fact so much that I chipped the finish trying the get the neck off to fit a shim. The biggest problem for me with all the Fender/Squier designs is that the neck is way too narrow. Mine is narrow compared with my guitars never mind something designed to use with bass strings which are twice as thick. OoI what is the string spacing at the nut (E to E centres) on the Vinterra version?

Usually by dancing around the actual content offered by the clickbait title for the first x-1 minutes of the video.

I'm not sure, but I think I read somewhere that advertising revenue only kicks in once a video has been viewed for 'x' minutes, so folk clicking, then closing, would earn nothing. I may be wrong, but that would explain why the videos have to keep viewers interested, at least for 'x' minutes.

Silly would be committing to a long tour without being sure of the demand.

AI yes. Slop? You'd have to listen to it and decide rather than make assumptions. I found it quite good. OK, there is a big debate about AI in music, but at least the people behind this are upfront about it. It's a cover, not someone hoodwinking us with a made up band with AI music. Any song can be re-imagined in a different genre, and this is a good way to do it and possibly bring new people to the music of the original artist.

Creators are pushed towards long form content. I want concise information most of the time, I bale if a longer video can't get to the point. I find Rick Beato good at keeping me engaged because he fits in content not filler.

You've done the right thing - tried both and gone with the one that felt better. Congratulations, it's a beauty!

I find it much easier on guitar than on bass. Probably because the guitar parts tend to follow the rhythmic structure of the vocal more closely than the bass does. And for many things, being a bit more avant-garde on guitar is fine and doesn't ruin the pulse of the tune. I started singing and playing at pretty much the same time - when I was introduced to James Hetfield in 1986/7 when a mate shared some TDK cassettes! I wanted to do that. So very frustratingly I can play fast metal on guitar and sing at the same time and have great trouble playing simple bass and singing at the same time! But generally, it's all about spotting things that line up with strums and vocal beats and using them as anchor points with flexibility in between.

@RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE retirement is great, thanks for asking! I have never been as busy, it’s like I used to go to work for a rest re: MPC started using it eventually, once I had time, which you may think is an odd thing to say now I’m retired I watched a whole load of videos then realised a lot where before they did a major OS update, back, chipping away But, I’ve been spending more time with my DAW, getting everything work over midi in a way that makes for an easy life That includes my old Novation Ultranova, a Roland SE-02 I bought last year to use with the novation circuit that I had at the time and a Korg minilogue XD, because I’ve always wanted one Also have an Arturia keystep and a Behringher X-touch controller which is the last thing to connect it all runs through a Tascam Model 16, which was another retirement treat, a mixer upgrade from my 12 channel Mackie so next I’m going to throw the MPC into the USB hub and see what happens, now entering the world of midi clock with so much hardware, not something I’ve got involved with before I saw the Live III, probably makes a lot of sense for what somebody already called a ‘power user’ I suspect a few months in, as a mere mortal, I will only just have scratched the surface life is good 😊 Tony

i was checking out the squires ...a couple or red flags being the potential intonation issues on the low e and some kind of acceptance that the neck pocket was a little open to neck swivel on the secondhand one i checked out ( maybe some would consider this a positive feature?) ...so i ended up paying about twice as much for a vinterra ...hard to point to any one particular thing other than to say the vintera just felt and played and sounded better ...why? i have no idea ...maybe im just imagining it since i didn't have both side by side to compare at the same time but it does seem to ooze quality...

Four ten inch speakers as oppose to two - assuming similar quality - will more than likely make a difference, you`ve reduced the "bigness" of the sound by half, same as if you`d paired your LM800 with a 210 rather than 410 there would be an impact of the size of the sound. One thing to think of, although you`re having difficulty hearing the amp when playing @Suezee, did you get the opportunity to hear the mix of the band out front. Sometimes just elevating the combo and getting it off the ground can work wonders. Re another cab, double up on whatever format your combo is, if 210 then get the same cab-wise.

Also Remember , Decibels aren't a linear scale , so if something is 10 DB more than another thing it's a 10 fold increase in sound intensity So when one of the guitarists or the drummer goes its only 110 or 120 and a Jackhammer is usually about 80 DB 😉

This is a pretty good starting point;