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Yes, I've noticed exactly this phenomena more frequently lately. I used to think it was worse when I was gigging in a room with dreadful acoustics or I was on a hollow stage, but I'm reluctantly concluding that maybe it's just aural fatigue due to age............ my hearing's still good but I'm not really confident I could be trusted on a fretless now.......... 😳👎

Hi! It's been a while! So i was listening and playing to lots of symphonic metal and decided to get a 5 string bass... But i find the flappiness of the low B (even with the heaviest strings i can get) annoying. I've also been playing with a 7 string guitar and while going 'krung krung krung' is kind of fun, it feels redundant because once you start getting into drop-A territory, it's just like yeah, get a bass. I like the sound of a 4 string tuned DGCF and I wondered if going DGCFA on the 5 string would be fun. And it is! But i'm scared of how tight the strings are, so i tuned it back to normal again. I've been looking at the lightest 5 string set i can get but it still has a 105 low string which i worry would snap and take my eye out! Is there a formula for working out string gauges for tunings? Or has someone here tried this? Thank!

I'm at an age where i just don't miss or need it when gigging. To be honest i've always had strict views on drinking at gigs and when in my 20's it would be one beer before the gig to calm my nerves and then a bucketful at the end. No driving in my early 20's as i had no car licence until i was 26. Dave

Tonight's

Just a pint of bear before a long geeg. Cheers.

Apparently, eating a banana will register a small but appreciable amount of alcohol in your system!

a banana ? Having checked my facts its 22mcg/100ml. Altho we have a "zero tolerance" it can't be true zero because of what you say that some foods and things like mouthwash will have alcohol in them. I think what they mean is that one beer or one spirit could in theory put you over the limit but its not exactly very clear on the website. Dave

Absolutely. Maybe folk have read some of the threads I’ve written, I don’t know. I haven’t paid more than 150 quid for any of mine. My first one was £50!! £400 is madness.

14.5 is all im seeing.

I just tried the Stem Splitter on my new M4 iPad Pro. Blown away that it split a 2 1/2 hour rehearsal in under 5 mins. I do wish it had Guitar and Other, rather than lumping the guitars with keys etc, but the speed is nothing to complain about. Still waiting to try it no my M1 MBP. I use the demo so need to wait for a new version.

I’ve got the Bell catalog from 77 , here’s the fender page

Hypgnotised - Simple Minds (Pink Floyd reference there)

I'm not sure what you mean? Perhaps, I should say that it is my understanding of how the body metabolises alcohol. I'm not too bothered about what people believe about issues like this, just the biological facts. I don't want people believing that they are OK to drive after a few beers, then killing someone on the way home!

I guess I had a different experience. In 1978, I was at university, but also gigging 2-5 nights a week. I was taking home about $150-300 a night. I bought my 63 Jazz for around $250, then a new RD Artist for $800. School and rent was cheap. I sure wish the prices were that kind today.

Quite. Though it did involve a posh new set of strings, as well as a lot of work on the fingerboard, nut, bridge and soundpost. My guess is I'll be brilliant and famous by this time next week then. Happy days.

Well done Lawrie 👍

In 1973 a brand new Fender Precision in natural ash with a maple board was £252 (I know - I lusted over it!!!). It was more than a quarter of my annual salary. If I was now on 40 hrs a week (under 21 yrs old) at minimum wage (£8-60 per hour), I would be earning £16,512 per annum - so on that basis an 18 yr old me could afford a £4,100 bass guitar - thus team built Fender CS (or the far superior Musicman, which would be even less). Bah - the youngsters of today don’t know they’re born lol!!! And before a series of excruciatingly stupid political decisions, following which the exchange rate crashed (thanks Nigel et al) you’d have got these basses for an even smaller proportion of your salary (although the Musicman would have not been as good as offered these days - they’ve upped their product in line with price increases - the Fender’s still the same, just pricier). And please don’t use those CPI calculators - as everyone (should) know, they only work on certain average products and most certainly not luxury goods (high quality musical instruments fit into that category). Just try putting the price at say 1996 of a two bedroomed terraced house in the south and see what the calculator claims it’s worth, based on inflation and then compare with reality…….. in the immortal words of Fleetwood Mac “you might not get the answer that you wanted to” 😀 (Post script - CPI doesn’t include housing costs I think - do the same with RPI - similar outcome I think!!)

Ok thank you so much everyone. I have tried my wifes IEM's which are the same make and it's not happening (though I kinda hear it struggling). I've also gone through studio headphones and every other headphones I can find in the house and it isn't happening. I just assumed it was me... wow... that makes me very happy Thank you! I'm still going to get someone else just to double check they can hear what I can through my IEM's but hoping its just that. Then I am going to invest in a better pair of IEM's!

The Storm - Big Country

Ouch.

Ha ha, you've singlehandedly driven up the market price of Sunn Mustangs 😁. I check in on it earlier today and it was £230 I think. Then when I looked near the end and saw it at the top end of the £300s I thought folks were getting carried away, then it ends at over £400!😲 Madness I tell ya! Madness 😁

In 1987 I went to buy a Fender Precision. It would have been £325 but they didn’t have any in stock. A pint back then was about 65p so that was the equivalent of 500 pints. A pint now is around a fiver and a US Fender Precision is £1800 - equivalent of 360 pints. So either Precisions or pints have got cheaper!