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Alas, I knew him well!

A Squier. No question. Frankly any type of Squier. Just so long as it's a Squier. Of 231 BC poll respondents, 93.51% said that you could do pretty much anything with a Squier. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of these important facts on my 50th and had to make do and mend with a Sandberg. I guess if I hadn't come across this ground breaking piece of research about Squiers, I might still be tempted by a Yamaha BBNE2 (black or white but probably not the limited edition grey). But no longer, only a Squier will now do...and frankly I don't even care even if it's been relic'd. At heart it will still be a Squier.

I know the subject of hearing protection has been done to death, but it still bears repeating regularly I think. I’ve had a bit of tinnitus since gig going days when I was younger, which was made worse by my first practice after deciding to join a band a couple of years ago at the tender age of 48 having forgotten how chuffing loud an acoustic drum kit is, and I’ve used generic plugs ever since. Move on a couple of years and I’ve just got some ACS Pro 17 earplugs. Not had a chance to try them out properly yet, but doing the same "test" as I’ve done with the different generic ones I’ve used (ACS and Alpine), i.e. listening to some music through full over the ear headphones, all I can say is “wow!". I was quite nervous about parting with £140 quid for these, but they really are a world apart from the generic stuff. It may not be absolutely 100% perfect, but it is 99% - it essentially is just like turning the volume down. To be fair I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say they’re not worth the money, but for anyone thinking about going the custom molded route and, like me, wondering whether it’s worth it for the improvement over generic plugs, I’d say absolutely yes - do it.

I think the most important thing is to use something to protect your hearing, and I'm sure the generic ones do the job fine. If you can afford the extra for custom ones then the difference in fidelity is pretty marked. It did make me wonder, though, why the difference is so marked - if you can get a reasonable seal with a generic plug then could they be made with better quality filters? Mind you, the filters are £50 a pair if you buy additional ones. I've heard that it can be a problem, in particular for singers. Fortunately (for everyone concerned...) I don't sing. On top of that, I have absolutely no stage presence, so breaking into a smile is about as animated as I get when I gig. I tried smiling with my new plugs and all seems well. Now I can go back to my customary scowl!

Does this count?

One can go quite a long way down the 'alternative materials' route. I have a set of these; they're environmentally friendly, and very good indeed... Aerodrums ...

I stacked up the templates so far and it actually gives an idea of what it will look like!! One more template to go then I can start cutting stuff.

50 is long gone... but on my birthday last year I had a little day trip up from Manchester to the excellent and dangerous Promenade Music in Morecambe, and came back with a Michael Kelly Dragonfly fretless acoustic 5, for half list price with a new set of chrome flats thrown in. I know there's not much love for acoustic basses here, and the look of this one is a bit Marmite (someone on BC at the time described it as "looking like a tart's handbag") but the build quality and tone are excellent, and I love the feel of playing it. https://michaelkellyguitars.com/en/products/view/dragonfly-fretless-5

Have received the Labellas and very happy so far, nice low tension, feels comparable to Ti jazz flats, tone is nice but strings are only 24hrs old so will need more time to break these in

Fair enough, since she'd just launched into the PA speaker.

New wife for your 50th. What is this 2 bass nonsense?

If I could drop £5K on new ears to get rid of my tinnitus which is beginning to make it tricky to actually play then I would be flogging vintage kit right left and center. I am not joking. £140 for being able to play for the rest of your life is absolutely nothing. Just peanuts. And if you do not like the isolation but play with a drummer or guitarist who has no restraint, and we all do, then get over it and look after yourself. Until you have tinnitus then it is just something which happens to idiots. When get that 'oh :(' moment it is just too late. It is not if but when it will happen. No, really.

I once bought a 1967 Volvo 123GT from a chap in North Devon. Whilst on the phone to him asking his location (pre mobile phone and Internet days) he told me, "A small village called Woolsery", he pronounced it 'Woolsree'. No matter how much I studied the map I couldn't find 'Woolsery'. I said, "All I can see in that area is a place called Woolfardisworthy". "That's it" he said, "Woolsree". Turns out 'Woolfardisworthy' is pronounced 'Woolsree', who knew? Even the signposts up there have Woolfardisworthy, with Woolsery bracketed underneath on them.

Dunno about EUB but, if the sound is similar to a DB, have you tried the obvious ... Fishman Platinum Pro?

Three ply white (with a black central ply) would look great, the black pinstripe outline of the pickguard would look understated, very smart I think 😊

And yet the BBC on-air staff pronounce Newcastle as if they are but recently returned from an elocution seminar led by Mr Jimmy Nail. I would welcome a scenario where BBC presenters were required on pain of death to pronounce British place-names exactly as does the gnarliest-accented local. It would be most entertaining, particularly the football results. Snozzle. I like it.

although... they dropped the ~ from the N... the 'real' Spanish name would have been Ibáñez

Moulded earplugs bought from a qualified audiologist is the way to go not cheap but priceless if you value your hearing and wish to help avoid tinnitus

I've just been listening to The Art of Fallling Apart and This Last Night by Soft Cell, a band who during my teen years were seen by many as one of the most subversive and depraved bands around, yet despite the recurring themes of sex, drugs, emmotional abuse and self destruction there was not a single swear word in any of the lyrics. Just goes to show that some wit and badly worn mascara can be much more threatening than any four letter word.

Mate you've seen nothing yet lol

Radial make good DI boxes.

We'll have to think about that, we'll get back to you in time...

Oh you Wal owners, stop it! The one thing the rest of us console ourselves with, is the lack of the second mortgage

Good question. 12" would seem logical but I'd really want to try the 15" version. The three way model slips outside of an agreeable weight limit. The 15" 2 way version comes in at around 25Kg which is do-able for an all-in-one meaning that all of the backline can just stay at home. Also benefiting from feeding in keys (HPF'd) and vocals for a bit of spread at the back of the stage. I would dearly love a pair of Barefaced FR800's, they'd be amazing and would replace my BBII's. The Yamaha does have a pair of inputs and the onboard DSP, accessible from the back panel could possibly be a big thumbs up. Oh and the angled cabinet for monitor use is a plus.. yes I do have a stand here for angling cabinets upwards, but I have so many silly fiddly things to deal with on stage already it's wasting time and patience. Yup, for some gigs, I wanna turn up with my Helix, Monitor(s) and a box of leads.. or less ha ha!

Please don't get me started on "could of / should of" - it's HAVE as in could HAVE, should HAVE, etc. Grrrrrrrrrr! (turns green and starts ripping his jeans and shirt).

Yes that’s the style. I have to put new bolts on the drivers this week so will take a picture of the actual drivers.

They are both original Eminence drivers with U shaped magnets, however one has been re coned by Wembley Loudspeakers.

Ah, yes. Saw these on the Yamaha Website a few days ago and thought they looked rather nice. I say go for it, @dood! Now the question is, how many inches?

Even if it was my dream band, I would never audition for a band advertising for a base player. It's just a principle thing - if you can't spell the instrument, you sure as hell won't respect the role!

Holy Necrothread, Batman! Finally found a P I want to keep - battered, obscure 70s Japanese replica, black, black, maple, DiMarzios. Ruck as fock, it is:

Pedant alert, although I'd never say it in a guitar shop it would be pronounced Eebaneth in Spanish.

With a new plastic nut costing less than £10 it's not worth arguing. Parking outside a good solicitors will cost you more than that.

Mrs WB had this beautiful ACG made for my 50th, but it was a bit too heavy for me. So we sold it, and bought my first Franz instead. She's very understanding is Mrs WB!

I imagine it’s the auto cucumber on mobile phones that changes it!

Although my 50th is long gone, if I were treating myself to something it would be an early Stingray fretless.

Mine a few years ago before I sold them.

My 408 has recently been joined by another 408 and then a 406 which I’ve just finished restoring. I’ve put a thread inbuild diarys.

`Twas a no brainer for me, I had the lovely chaps at Alpher build me a Cobia 5 string (still the only one in the world), my choice of everything and the serial number is my birth date, cool as you like!!

I'm keeping myself busy at the moment with this. Bwahaaahhaaa!!

Our drummer *is* a metronome. His tempo is so consistent I was recently able to mix and match bits of the multitrack from three different takes of the same song. Was impressed.

Acton Unusually, this time it is me who placed the advert. Dispirited by how many auditions for other peoples' projects have turned out to be fiascos, I decide to try starting a band myself. With a drummer friend ready so that we have a decent rhythm section to build on, I advertise for a vocalist - guitarists are easier to find. Once I've weeded out the obvious flakes & fantasists by email, I'm left with one decent candidate for the role, so I invite him to my studio in Acton for a try-out. He's keen to accept, and he also knows a really great guitarist he'd like to bring along. He sends me some links. MMM, the vocalist, has some YouTube showing him doing a pretty impressive Van Morrison at some sort of open mic, he seems to be an intense, focused sort of person. VVV, the guitarist, is apparently an American now based in London, whose self-published album (recorded in New York) is available on Spotify and contains some very nice guitar work. When the two of them arrive at the studio MMM is very much as he appeared on YouTube. VVV isn't, and things go all to stinky poo very quickly. Actually he isn't American, and his name isn't VVV. He's a Spaniard called JJJ. Huh? What's going on here then? It turns out he loves Americana so much that he'd wanted to record his first album in the States, under an American pseudonym. OK, so far so weird. We try to play a simple blues and it very quickly becomes obvious that JJJ (the artist formerly known as VVV) is no great shakes as a guitarist. In fact, he's pretty rubbish. He explains that he didn't know the song. Erm ... it's a blues mate. What's to know? We try another song. Same result. Well if you can't play those because you don't know them, why not tell us a blues that you DO know. "Fine", he says, "let's play Red House". We wait for the famous guitar intro and ... he plays something completely different. We ask him, what are you playing? He says, I'm playing Red House. No, we say, you're not. Ah, he says, maybe this is a different song called Red House. Game over. Insert new coin. As we're packing up I ask JJJ about his album, and how he'd set about recording it. Simple. He'd recruited a bunch of NY session musicians to play on it. That, plus a decent sound engineer, had produced quite a good album. Having shoo'd the pair of them out of the studio and then wet ourselves laughing, I call MMM the next day and ask if he'd like to meet for a beer. I explain that there's no future for any band with JJJ in it, but that we haven't had a chance to hear what he, MMM, can do. Would he like to come back for another try, this time without his mate JJJ? He accepts the offer, so I call up an old friend to play guitar for us and we set the date. MMM arrives and we play the first song. I wasn't wrong about his Van Morrison persona - he's got that whole Brown-Eyed Girl thing down to a T. We play another song. It sounds ... erm ... just like the first one, that strange barking, almost-coughing delivery, very gruff, very distinctive. Very repetitive. As long as we're playing material that works with the that vocal style, it's sort-of OK. When we try a pop song it just doesn't work. When we try a gentle blues it's horrible. We point this out to him and suggest that he tries a different style occasionally. He reacts badly, says that's the only style he can sing, in fact we get the impression that he's not even aware that other singing styles actually exist. All very odd. The session breaks up in some disarray and it's not looking good. Next morning, MMM emails me to apologise for both his performance and his attitude. He explains that he has a serious problem with autism and is at the far end of the spectrum, but that he's being treated for it. Incidentally, he has now signed a recording contract (!) with an agency looking for new talent, and would the three of us like to be his backing band? I make my apologies and leave ...

Latest purchase, 220 Head and 402 cab. I love the slimline cab, some of the others are just too deep and bulky, but this is a great little rig. All original, and fab condition. Has the wooden pedal too.

I was in a punk band once called The Premature Ejaculators. The name just came really quickly