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Myself and @cd_david spent a couple of hours this afternoon in the company of a '72, a couple of '73's and a '78. The verdict? They're all fantastic.

I have a Mercalli 4 in metallic copper fire which I bought in January of this year. I bought it unseen and unheard (!) and after a tense six month wait, it finally arrived. I liked it so much I bought a Decision P two months later. These are fantastic basses and live up to the hype. There are exceptionally good value for money, are finished really well, light weight and sound amazing. The blend knob is so simple but effective. It really does give a good tonal sweep. I suppose I tend to favour the Merc over the Decision as those pups are very powerful and can need a bit of taming when using IEMs but it is an absolute beast of a guitar and great fun to crank up at rock gigs. Best money I've spent in over 25 years of playing bass, after my my Mesa Subway rig.

I've just removed the La Bella's and put some Dunlop Flats on my P bass and it is a revelation. The strings sound consistent and even and there is a nice feeling tension. So far so good.

I do Weddings and events for a living. Firstly, if you dont hold your ground, venues will take the proverbial as shown here. If you throw a ' sorry we are all organised now, and its impossible to set up in the evening's youd be amazed at how quickly they can reconsider. That aside, tips for getting done in that time scale are: 1. Have all your equipment un cased and ready. 2. Make clear straight away when you go in the room that the priority is that the staff clear the area you need first (or be prepared to wait 50 minutes whilst they amble about working it out...). 3. Be very friendly with the dj when you meet him, be courteous and work together, it's easier for everyone then. 4. Try to stop guests coming back in the room when they start to wander around and filter back in. Once 2 or 3 come in, they'll all follow and you'll have a room full in 10 minutes. 5. Only play music and let the dj play music when you are 100% ready. When guests hear music for over 2 minutes and the lights are down, you'll attract everyone in. 6. Remember it's not the end of the world if you struggle for time. Do what you can do in the time scales and be confident knowing you couldn't do more. 7. Enjoy it.

You're going to love it! I made a little vid this afternoon of what it's like when it's turned up REALLY loud...

There's another alternative - two feet at the front and one foot in the centre at the rear. Triangles are stable (hence three-legged milking stools).

Nothing sounds like a Ric growl and along with it the iconic 50s design is the reason why it’s lasted so long and will continue to do so. Here’s my little friend...

What's not to like 😁

That's not a shim, it's an emergency roach.

Believe me, it didn’t feel like a short time to us!😆

Sleep. Well, that's my guess, at least. I find that I can practise something as much as I like on a given day with only marginal improvement, but if I get a decent night's sleep and come back to it then it's somehow just there, much as you described. Something to do with the brain consolidating information and strengthening neural pathways blah blah blah...

Tonight, jointing the top and trying to learn how to wire a push pull pot I thought about adding a second pickup, but have now decided to experiment with a series/parallel switch instead. Onwards and upwards

Had some time today to update my V1 to V3 which has been sitting on a shelf gathering dust. My goodness this has come along way in a very short period of time. It was good before but this is now excellent.

I find it's the opposite for for a simpleton like me. I leave it all flat, and BOOM! It's perfect! ha ha.

Bass player is killing it! 👍

It is lovely! Here it is with its brother-in-arms:

Our singer turned up without a mic stand at one gig, and it happened to be the one gig where I was not in my own car (where my spare one always resides). Made one with a mop handle a chair and gaffer tape. As above: always have at least one roll!

These are fvckin’ splendid!

Always carry Gaffer tape. You can't prevent every possible failure or problem. Even if you do the traffic could get you. You have to improvise etc. I saw John Mayall using a combo for a PA when his broke. Tower of Power did several gigs without a bass player when Rocco Prestia was hospitalised on tour in Europe. Our singer didn't show on a gig and the 3 of us took it in turns to sing the songs. We couldn't sing and didn't know most of the words but we got by. I've done gigs when the drummer didn't show and one when the drummer and guitarist didn't make it. We were a bass and a singer strumming an acoustic guitar. We got an encore!

Went last year and this year. To be honest I don't think I'll go again. Open-space workshops surrounded by bass and guitar amps is as stupid as it sounds. The other workshops in separate rooms were very interesting. I expected to find much more to try and in a way that it is easier for everyone to sit down and try stuff.

I am in the same situation. My solution for the stupidly loud bands was to buy a second Super Compact. The modular approach just seems more logical to me.

'The difference between a strat and a telestrat is more emotional than actual yet people do find that one gives them something that the other doesn't.' The opportunity to write more B.S. perhaps......?

@Pete33rd Beware of the SkinnyMan! He is a wicked man and involved in all sorts of untoward activities in Cleethorpes and environs.

Agreed. I'm much older, and have come back to playing the bass after a ten-odd year break from music. I'm a much better player now than I ever was before, which is largely due to the help and wisdom from the folks on this fine forum. I hope you enjoy it here as much as I have (and still do). Welcome to the jungle! (sorry, couldn't resist a GnR pun 😃)

People coming up to me midsong, while I am singing.. If I can hear them, I pretend they are not there til the end of the song. Then I speak to them. However, there should always be an exception: Slade at Manchester Rotters 1979. A punter (me) gesticulates frantically at Jim Lea during a song. Seeing as he knew me to chat to at sound checks he didn't ignore me. "Oi, Jim. Your bass rig is belching smoke". An Acoustic 360 power amp was overheating. One of the crew just pulled it out of the rig.

I've taken the plunge. WB-100 on its way....

Do you play any other instruments? A change is as good as a rest.

Here's one about Wales Dave. I've never seen it either:

Rick Beato's channel is one of the finest on Youtube.

To be honest, I'm utterly amazed that the phrase..."GIT TAE F**K...!!"...not to mention the tone that it's normally said in, could be taken in any way other than intended...!!!!

On the other hand, some of these bozos are sources of great band stories for the years to come. Last night is a case in point. I'm playing DB in a rockabilly trio (at The Oddfellows in Apsley, in case you know it), just about to start the third set, when a mid-40s lady walks up to me. Here we go, I think, do we play any Abba. She points at my DB and says, "Is that a harp?". OK, this is a wind-up, right? But she looks perfectly serious. No, I say, it's a double bass. "A double bass?" says she, "I didn't know about them." Yes, I reply, it's a double bass, and usually when people ask about it, that's because they think it's a cello. "No", she says, "I thought it was a harp. What does a harp look like, then?". I ask her if she's familiar with Guinness. She looks startled but says that she is. I tell her to picture the Guinness logo. "That's a harp", I say. She frowns, looks around for support, there's none forthcoming and my guitarist is now wetting himslef laughing, so off she totters to the toilet.

I’m liking these at the moment 🙂

Well, I finally lost the plot and did what I knew I'd do the minute I bought the half a kg trace elliot elf amp ..... I bought a 40kg all valve amp to replace it! I've been after one of these for ages. By nature I never really go for the obvious choices in anything - cars, music, clothes - my main gigging amp is a quilter and my bass a g&l, so in a weird way Laney becomes a much more attractive amp for me than say an Ampeg, Trace, Fender etc. I got it in pretty much unused condition and I'm chuffed to bits with it. I've never had a full valve amp before. I've had ashdown abms with the one valve preamp, but nothing else. But this, this has 12 valves! Massive ones at that. The control panel despite looking confusing is very simple. Pretty much all of it is standard, but the panel has extra options in switchable lo mid and hi mid frequencies and boosts and cuts (I love the fact its covered both mids) and a 6 band switchable graphic too. On top of that it has a presence dial, which helps bring the mids and top end more to the fore. Likewise a deep dial which is used to tighten the bottom end. Theres also a one knob compressor that seems to work really well and also add a bit of bite. The tube option has both a tube drive and a tube level, so you can get more out of the tubes at lower volumes. Now, heres the brilliant bonus....not only does it have an awesome valve section, it also has a fantastic fet section, so you can run it just fet, just valve, or have a combination of both! Love it! I'd wager this is also a fantastic saver should anything go wrong with either section. Simply switch to just the other. Sound wise....gees, its unbelievable. Paired with my laney n410 it's really really powerful. Even at its lowest level, with the bass guitar turned right down and the pad button in, I can feel the bass vibrate through my legs! Real real heft if ever I felt it. Gorgeous tone so far, with lots of tone shaping options. I simply cant wait to get it in a practice room soon!

They used to have a teal one in the Bass Gallery years back, which I used to play every time I went in. Fabulous neck. Unfortunately I don’t get on with forearm chamfers and the one on that is pretty extreme, which I found pretty uncomfortable. I toyed with buying it - nearly talked myself into it several times as I loved the neck and the look - but the chamfer was a deal breaker. I also don’t really get on with carbon fibre sonically. I mostly play with a plectrum and find that, IMO, cf basses sound much better with fingers (YMMV). Don’t get on with piezos either, for similar reasons, so sonically it wasn’t really for me. I’ve had 2 Rickenbacker 4001CS Chris Squire signatures, a ‘96 (bought new) and a ‘91 (bought used). I bought them because I think Chris’s bass is possibly the best looking bass ever; I didn’t expect them to make me sound like Chris. The necks on both were sublime, particularly the ‘91, which had one of the best necks I’ve ever played, maybe even THE best. Both sounded very good but darker than my preference; I didn’t know at the time that the pickups were way hotter than vintage and the pot values different. These days I’d change everything out for vintage spec. The ‘96 was the heaviest Ric I’ve owned, which is why I sold it, as it coincided with my first back injury. The ‘91, to be honest, was probably the worst built Ric I’ve owned. In the end, neither sounded as good as my vintage basses, although with hindsight it’s possible that with work they could have done. But they looked absolutely stunning and had lovely necks.

Purchased

You’re right, I haven’t! But I do feel a strong affinity with Scousers. Plus, I live in the Home Counties, for my sins.

Just not a big enough accident.

Once again this needs to be shared....I have painstakingly done this for quite a few of the tone prints, but this is supremo..As I discovered, if you peruse this most excellent chart, you will see a lot of the 'artist' toneprints are identical, or near identical to other toneprints. A wealth of information is gleaned off these charts to understand why they sound different. I find most of these unusable..for instance the Captain East..extremely high ratio, very fast attack and quite fast release. Thanks again whoever painstakingly made this chart! A huge effort! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hXzZJpWvOxw16SE5acvy5FKGmN83VQFdqRyJwLLHJ4c/edit#gid=0

Nice one!!!

Surpised Damon Albarn has not snapped it up then...

I’m loving the labella LTF’s 🙂

OK I'll join in - I chose this because this was the first time we'd played this song in over a year! We hadn't even rehearsed it - it was a spontaneous choice for a second encore at Wave Gothik Treffen in June in Leipzig - the biggest gig we played this year.......the keyboards temporarily failed during the middle8 - it makes me question if rehearsals are actually necessary.