Leaderboard

Busy day yesterday so just sitting down to report on Friday night's gig for my covers band In Like Flynn. It's a new start-up by 4 experienced musicians and our gig count hasn't reached double figures yet. We were playing in the beer garden of the White Hart in Castle Cary for the second time in our short career. Nice venue recently taken over by proper people who you really hope will make a go of it. By the advertised start time of 7.30pm, the garden was full with a crowd spanning 3 generations (come to think of it, I span 3 generations on my own 🙂). Despite a few mistakes - annoying to us but probably not noticed by the punters - it was one of those gigs where we felt we'd reached that kind of comfortable plateau where the enjoyment of playing finally overcomes the anxiety of not being totally familiar with what you're doing. It was the first outing of my active Sandy s-s TM with its Aguilar upgrade through my Ampeg SVT 7 PRO + LFSys Monaco + Barefaced SC3. Absolutely amazing sounds with more than enough tonal flexibility to cover the wide range of stuff we do!! So that put a smile on my face from the sound-check to the final encore. The icing on the cake was that we got a booking for a private function. Life's good!! If you get a minute, visit https://www.inlikeflynnband.com/home and have a look at our show reel.

I've had worse weekends

A trip from Tyneside across the other side to Liverpool for another Eagles tribute gig. Big brewery / shed type venue - lovely room, lovely staff, top-drawer PA & techs. No monitors, so had to grin and bear IEMs. Still don't love them. New MIJ Jazz - with new pickups - continues to be my friend.

Second gig in a fortnight at a WMC near Bradford last night. We've played there before and went down well, so there was no reason to think last night would be any different, and so it proved to be. Our new songs are bedding in well, and the onstage sound was vastly improved over the previous gig so we could all hear each other and ourselves. Not a large venue so I went with the Elf as amp this time, and it sounded great, the first time I think I've used it for a gig since having the Sadowsky preamp in the Sire, and I'm definitely looking forward to doing that again. An appreciative but not lively crowd, apart from a hardy half dozen or so who were enthusiastically dancing at various points, with the other thirty-odd punters remaining resolutely glued to their chairs all night when they weren't at the bar. We lost a few towards the end but went down very well and have already been booked again for next July. A few minor mistakes, but we've become quite good at styling them out now so nobody noticed, it if they did they didn't mind. Back home to the joyous sound of our neighbours having a domestic. Which was nice. Obligatory "last night's office" photos below. I don't know why our guitarist insists on using that stand at every gig. Last night she was complaining that it was just firing at her arse all night so I don't know why she didn't just put the Katana on the stage like I did with my rig and save herself a foot of floor space.

I've been a little neglectful of this thread whilst being away this summer... but the project is complete! Here's a few progress shots... Body stripped and prepared: Primed! Looking waaaay too blue! Ready for go faster stripes Stripes done Big chunk out of the fretboard... Seamlessly repaired... i can't even find it in person. New frets whilst we're at it. And here we go... she's done! Here she is with my other recent acquisition... a 1967 Hofner! I couldn't be happier... she sounds stunning and plays so well. The one I've been looking for for a long time! Going out for our first festival outing together tomorrow (Monday), if anyone is at Twinwood this weekend! https://www.eternal-guitars.com/... I can't recommend Dave highly enough. We've had so many geeky chats about the minor details on this, and it's turned out better than i hoped. His own instruments are stunning too.

Just back from our first gig for 4 weeks due to people being away on holiday, etc. It is always a bit of a job loading into this pub, and as usual when we arrived there were people still sitting at the tables that needed to be moved out our way. What wasn't quite so usual were a new couple managing the place, that were really nice and very enthusiastic about the music. During our time off I'd read a thread somewhere about Stingray active tone controls and how the bass is boost only, whereas the treble is boost/cut. That explains why there is only a centre detent on the treble knob of my Retrovibe Stinger preamp, not on the bass - doh! Anyway the combination of a good sounding room and a better understanding of what the knobs do, lead to a tight, punchy sound that was utterly fabulous. It was hot. Darned hot. And I didn't take my fan - double doh! Still, a bit of sweat makes it feel like you're doing something. Sorry, I forgot to take photos until we'd nearly finished packing away and then it was too late. As you may have gathered it was my Stingish bass (Sterling Sub5 + Stinger) into the GT-6B, thence into the trusty Rumble v3 500 combo. My Converse One Stars have broken in really nicely now, so got the gig tonight. We have a little cluster of gigs this and next weekend, but then it's looking pretty bleak in September. At least tonight's new landlord will be putting a few more in the book for next year.

Bandwidth (not my idea) played at Whitehall Farm in Burnham Thorpe (Nelson’s birthplace) yesterday evening. The place has a camp site, caravan site and glamping, so quite a few punters around. This was a return match after playing there earlier in the year for a classic car day. We knew what to expect, in that the band area is in the front of a converted barn and covered in dust. The audience are largely across the courtyard, where the bar and cafe are situated but about 20 clustered around us on hay bales. I knew things weren’t going to be great amongst us when the lead guitarist had a go at the rhythm guitarist during the set up. He can be pretty grumpy and doesn’t seem to have any filter. Things weren’t helped by the fact it was cold and getting colder (about 12 C when we finished) and we had to play from 6-9. Miraculously we managed to set up in less than an hour (it normally takes longer) but struggled to get the sound balance right. Just to add to the fun, bursitis in my left elbow, which has been coming and going for about a month, had decided to play up and I had a bit of a lump on my left elbow. During the gig this swelled to about the size of an egg. We had been asked to play a dance set, so it was relentlessly fast. Towards the end of set two my left forearm started to cramp up and this spread down to my hand, so much so that I had to play by sliding my index finger up and down the strings as they were all locked rigid. I am sure this was related to the bursitis. Lead guitarist had been giving me and the drummer dirty looks and telling us to speed up already but this triggered a real invective, not said directly to anybody’s face but it was obvious who it was directed at. I recovered a bit during the beer break but it was then back to another relentlessly fast final set. We ended with Gotta Get Out of This Place, which was one of the slower numbers but I was struggling to keep Chas Chandler’s bass riff going, which was made obvious by glances and gee-up gestures. At least the other band members showed concern for me. I came away wondering whether this degree of hassle is worth it for £60! However, the owners are lovely and made sure we got a free drink and our choice of food from the cafe. I probably should have baled at the end of set two but the punters were enjoying it and the show must go on. We did get plenty of positive feedback from the audience, so we can’t have been that slow! Gear wise: Guild Starfire 1 and custom made P/J shorty (long gig axe), Blackstar U700, 2 x LFSys Monzas, Peterson Strobostomp HD. Black suede desert boots (now beige from the dust).

Last night was at the pub closest to my house - the Gamecock in Birchmoor, about a ten minute walk over the M42 footbridge (but about a five minute drive as you have to go the long way round). We got a whole room with a goodly amount of space but not a very big audience - scraped into double figures. However, they were very very enthusiastic and the landlord wants us back, and a farmer who was there said he'd like to get us in to play in his barn.

A while back, I found a hodgepodge with a Fender Roger Waters Precision Bass neck ‘deep in Wallonia’ for a véry good price, and I was already toying with the idea of adding a second P for a while. After some very intense searching, I stumbled on a dusty Italian webshop, where I found an Allparts PBF-CAR body (a colour that has been out of the range for a while). Then I started gathering some parts left & right, with the aim of creating a '64-'66 hybrid without breaking the back. A day with an assortment of screwdrivers, measuring devices and a soldering iron later, this is what came out. It's quite a fierce one. Where my white one with flatwounds sounds very warm and fat, this one sounds diametrically opposite: angry, fierce, raunchy and punchy. I'm happy with it... although I'm still itching for a neck with a veneer rosewood fingerboard, and that neck on a Slab66 body. With flatwounds on this one, and rounds on the '66. - Neck: Fender Roger Waters (44.5mm nut width, maple cap, vintage frets) - Tuners: Gotoh FB-30-LP (the full-size tuners with the large mounting plate) - Body: Allparts PBF-CAR (Alder. CAR with a silver-coloured undercoat) - Pickguard: Fender '62RI (stark white, not mint green) - Pickup: Fender Vintera II '60 (I was very surprised at how good those Vintera '60 P-basses sounded. The intention is to bake in a greybobbin in the future, but this pickup is also extremely good, much better than the Vintera '50) - Covers: Fender ‘Pure Vintage’ (I wouldn't be me if I didn't install measures to restrict playing freedom on my instrument, I just removed them for the photo-opp) - Bridge: Fender ‘Pure Vintage’ - Wiring: Homemade with CTS, clothwire, Orangedrop,...

I love a Sunday afternoon gig, especially when it's outside and doubly so when it's "acoustic". Lots of the usual songs, but played in an unusual way. Perhaps Sir Duke was a little ambitious - I ran out of both strings and fretboard! It was a request/challenge though and much fun was had. There were plenty of requests, and even a bit of dancing. It's great to have a good laugh when playing and there was a decent crowd too enjoying themselves. I even got to drink a pint or two for a change as Mrs Norris drove home. Stagg EUB straight into the Rumble. Converse footwear, O'Neill eye protection

Nice wee afternoon gig for us with the Glam band at Polmont Bowling Club. Sold Out too. To be fair it only holds 65 seated. 😂 Organiser was telling us they had a band in last night Sat and it was free entry but only 18 people turned up yet a Sun afternoon ticketed show and it sold out fast with many folks still asking for tickets after selling out. We have played it 3x before to be fair and it was full. Audience up for it from first song so that was great to see. Even the songs with no dancers we got a lot of applause and cheers at the end like Ziggy Stardust. Was very hot and sweaty even with my large fan. Left the house at 10:45am arriving 12 noon. Start time 3pm - 4pm then 4:30 to 5:45pm. Greggs sandwiches supplied too. All went well and home by 8pm via chippie. Used the Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless and Keeley Comp then Handbox WB-100 and Barefaced 212 cab. Sounded very nice. Dave

"Excuse me gentlemen, is this the five minute argument, or the full half hour..?"

The first one of a two gig weekend today at the Eclipse pub in Loscoe, Derbyshire. We were part of The Losca Festival, a one day event to raise money for local charities. Live music from midday until late in three pubs all within about a hundred metres of each other. We did a forty-five minute set of covers starting at 4.45. Very hot and sweaty, but we went down a storm. I think the audience had imbibed just the right amount of alcohol. Unlimited free food and drinks for performers and we’ve got some paid bookings out of it.

Having owned two Rickenbacker basses in the past I can confidently state that the little sticker is by far the highest quality part of the instrument & is the only thing that stops them falling apart completely.

Another crack converters purchase, this thing was in a sorry state, the electrics were goosed, and it was absolutely filthy. The LEDs still worked on the front, but that’s all gone now…. It’s passive, and I’m not arsed about pretty lights on the dials, so out it all came, and in went new CTS pots, oil filled cap and a new barrel jack…. It’s covered in a rash of scratches, but I can live with that. This thing’s had a life. Had to use 3 black telecast jack cups in the empty control holes where the LEDs were, so that I could mount the pots. Pretty ingenious if I say so myself, they fit perfectly. 3 Ashdown control knobs from an old ABM500 provide the finishing touch. It plays fab, with a freshly oiled fretboard and a new set of Hi Beams. Sounds fantastic too, very pleased with the result, it’ll be gigged asap.

A multi-band charity fund raiser for Dorothy House hospice, for us today. We planned to play an originals only set of Gothic rock with me dusting down my USA 2008 Jazz bass. I have been struggling with the lack of bottom end from J-basses but the addition of the Boss GE-7 to my board was hopefully going to fix this. I also added the Boss IR-2 as I often go ampless. First band on really struggled against a rogue sub-woofer and we immediately started to twitch about our set. Thankfully the second band sounded much better. We took our time setting up on the back of the truck. We’ve added little bits of finesse like roses around the mic stands and burning incense onstage (typing that, I realise it sounds pretentious but it does make a difference to the presentation and it was remarked afterwards that we are very professional in our approach). I thought we played well. The sound was fairly reasonable and my bass sounded immense. My wife said my vocal was getting stronger and we had a fair few compliments - comparisons to Joy Division and Bauhaus, without being derivative - which I will gladly take! One member of the audience hadn’t seen us since school and was very complimentary. A great day and a solid show.

Played a Wedding gig in the beautiful Surrey Hills yesterday. Packed with beautiful, horsey ladies in flowing summer dresses and, doh, their dumb other halves in polo shirts and tight trousers ending mid calf with NO socks and loafers... 🤦‍♂️ Played my Betsy with the GK Legacy and LFSys Monaco so sounded fab as usual.👍😎 Spent most of the night fending off huge hornets that liked the lights above our heads, which kinda ruined our performance vibe a little though.....!! 🐝🐝🐝🐝

*best sounding bass I ever heard. Plays like butter. Selling as I only play ukulele since the injuries.

The opposite of this thread would be 'defend the indefensible' where someone shares a North-Korean reliced, refinished Bert Weedon signature nine-string Encore headless doublecut Precision extra-short-scale lined fingerboard fan fretless with neck heel truss adjuster, fake hipshot ultrazlights, high mass bent bit of tin bridge, fifteen control knob active for four original pickups, a transparent pickguard (with unpeeled film) on the tortoiseshell effect ornate burl antigua burst basswood body with brand new Olympic flatwounds, two ramps, a mute, neck wrap, straplocks, Ricky sticker, Fender branded strip. And a plectrum holder held to the front of the body with an industrial strength sticky pad.

My band played The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival yesterday. We travelled down in a van together, with all our gear in the back. The gig went well, great crowd, but changeovers were tight. We had 30 minutes to get the band before us off, and for us to set up and start. After the gig, I had the least to do, just put my basses away and rush to help out on merch. Anyway, stuff got piled up in the corridor at the back of the venue ready to be loaded into the van. It seems Keira had arrived to play with the band on after us, and put her stuff down in the same corridor. Our rather enthusiastic singer/harmonica player had been diligently carrying gear out to the van, including hers, and some of it was already inside when Keira came out looking rather panicked and then annoyed. There was a Mono bag with her bass, a pedaltrain board (already in the van) and a Markbass TTE amp in a bag. Thankfully, we didn't drive off with it all ! Rob

It definitely devalues the sticker if you take the bass off it.

The things that go on in school staff-rooms nowadays.

Near is better than nothing! We did have a stupidly long sofa some years ago that got 'some' of them on... Half of these have been traded for other things since the below photos, but at least they're 'on' a sofa!

There are not so many amp models in the Anagram, but they are enough for me. The only two I use are the Peggy Bass (SVT) and Leo Bass (Bassman) blocks, combined with the Vintage Microtubes block, just to add a bit of hair on the toes. The Harmonic Booster is also very useful. I also (mostly) use a free IR from Olympic, their B15 cab for the DI sound. I get the tone I want to PA that way. The amp out is without IR. I use my amps mostly as stage monitoring. Coming to effects, I only use chorus, flanger, envelope, octave and a tad of reverb in different combinations. In Stomp Mode I have chorus, envelope and octave on respective foot switch. In scene mode I have the first footswitch clean, the second chorus+reverb a bit boosted for solo, the third is a"synth patch" with octave+envelope+flanger. Mostly I set the BUS compressor AFTER the octave and envelope to tame them a bit, but before the reverb. All other tone shaping comes from my hands and controls on my basses. One thing I may get is the new MXR Synth pedal and put it in the effects loop. Here is my main gig rig; small and very potent. (No! No beverage on rig during gig!)

Just wanted to write about my recent experience with Bass Direct. I've been wanting to check out an Xotic 5 for a while and on Thursday evening I noticed they had 4 of them in stock. I drove up there yesterday and tried them out. I have to say, I really like the new pre-owned showroom. Tried out all the basses through a decent amp, the new guy working there is very nice and helpful, they even let me change the strings around to find out which had the better B string. In the end I came away with the oldest and heaviest of the lot (it just sounded the best to me, although the lightweight one in surf green was extremely nice too) for a very reasonable price. I've been coming here/buying online since 2018 and can say that they have really turned things around in the last two years or so. Really pleased with my purchase and my recent interactions with them.

Monaco vs Silverstone II - Up in front of the 4K cameras this week. Thank you @stevie for the opportunity to review LFSys. I’m looking forward to putting this video together. #LoveBassGear

Just got this from @Tomjbass (cheers bud, good guy) the 1967 Jazz is my favourite jazz - Adam Yauch’s stripped J is my absolute fave. Second to that is Sherwood Green or a gassed off Lake placid Blue to Ocean Turquoise- lollipop tuners, block inlays…so when the Adam Clayton came out, I was looked and thought yeah looks great but for some daft reason signature basses seemed too fanboy. also new too expensive and I’m not a U2 or Adam Clayton fan in particular. But I kept looking at Tom’s ad, and thought it might be perfect for what I’m doing. At approximately 9.5lb a bit heavier than the player 2 next to it but not much. I had the player 2 as a back up the the P bass I’m reluctantly selling - and just had a full set up on it. Luthier ran glue under the frets as a couple frets were dead and a full fret level and dress now it plays brill- but I’m now afraid it’s not going to get played The reason being - did a set up to my taste, oiled board, stuck a tort guard on and been playing it all weekend. The neck has a great silky urethane and a custom AC shape, quite a hard maple and bit neck divey, the frets feel really worn in and rounded edges. So great to play for hours. The best thing though, are the pickups, superb range of tones, if the player 2 had those pickups would be perfect. The heck soloed with birds mute us pure Jameson vibes, and a pick with bridge and 50% neck is brilliant- the time I need for my band. So when my P goes, I’ll be sad but ok going forward with this Jazz. Cheers Tom.

Found this new dealer exclusive shell pink Euro Classic 4 and 5, seems like they have a regular classic version and one with the roasted neck (check the paint / natural finish transition at the heel) Some German and Japaneese dealers have them, though I have no idea about worldwide availability or exclusivity. Cool color and I must say it is a great time to be a Spector aficionado, even if my wallet does not think so.

In terms of "Budget" I'm thinking prices up to £200. There is the criminally cheap HB PB-50 for just over £100 that in terms of fit and finish is remarkable, neck quality superb, and sounds great. I've also got the HB JB-75, but at just over 6 kilos, it's really heavy, but again fit and finish very good and the roswells are enlightening and sound much more expensive. I had the HB RB-414 body was great but was let down by cheap hardware and the bridge pickup was half the volume of the great little Artec neck mini-humbucker, plus I didn't like the wat it was wired in a gibson sort of fashion. I've recently scored a G4M Hartwood Satellite 32" which is another little stunner in terms of quality albeit styling is "left field" I love it. Many moons ago I bought my son a Squier Bronco which I've since inherited, and that little guitar never ceases to amaze me still to this day in terms of quality. All of these mentioned less than £200. Then since I'm such a cheapa$$ I'm going into what I call mid price (others may still call it budget) so up £400. This opens up a whole new set of possibilities. Squier and Epiphone lead the way for me ATM but that's only because of style, I have the Rascal and the Newport both shorties but similarly tricked out with 2 humbuckers each. Each is unique, tho the epi is a bit of a monster to tame when you're setting it up, due to it's bridge, but with flats one the 60's British tones you get out of it is as true as the original. Other notable mentions are the G4M 972 5 string fanned fret (orange guitar), the Retrovibe "Telenbacker" just nudging £400, and last but not least the Sire Z3, which in itself in terms of quality out does everything else with exception of the Retrovibe. I'm not going to say which one is best because all of them have been modded at least in part, but the 3 least modded are the PB-50 - headstock cut to Tele style, Newport - new strings only, and the Z3 - new strings only. I've no favourite make, as quality these days of all new guitars are a lot better than 30 or even 20 years ago.

All the bits are here aside from the scratch plate; it's been a while since I used a car filler product and had forgotten how heady you feel using it in an unvented room 😄

I thought I'd just look up the figures for the sake of clarity. The BB2 measures 56 x 45 x 37cm. The Goodwood measures 52 x 36 x 30cm. Calculating a volume from these dimensions gives us 93,249cc for the BB2 and 56,160cc for the Goodwood. So, the Goodwood is almost half the size of the BB2 - not practically the same size. The weight difference is 4kg. That might not seem much but it means that the Goodwood is less than two-thirds the weight of the BB2. You'll definitely notice it.

The rare occasion they’re all in the same place.

So, Bought this on a well known selling platform a few days ago. It was a warehouse find, and was reasonably priced. Received a call from the seller after order placement to tell me the neck was unserviceable. Just happens that I've a spare Fender 70s neck here, so I gave an offer for everything, thinking I'd fit my own neck. Well, it's arrived in 1/2 hour ago with the original neck. It's fine. Like, it plays lovely. The electrics are pretty crackily, but I'll fit solderless controls / pots that I have lying around. So I really don't know what the craic is with the supposed knackered neck, but I've scored this for a very, very good price. Feeling lucky today, as I've always been after a Fender with block inlays. Cheers

My Little Board seems stable as a straightforward bass board - except I switched out the Mosky Silver Horse for myT-Rex Diva Drive - so I'm playing around with my Big Board: In signal chain order: Landlord Cheeky Pint compressor. It's OK, but clips if I push it hard, and running it at 12V doesn't help, but then I don't need a lot for this application. So it's set fairly mild, as a buffer/boost. Mosky Silver Horse: mild drive / mid boost MXR Bass Octave Deluxe Tone City Matcha Cream fuzz. The last three are old standbys by now Lead Foot volume pedal (at right). IK ToneX One That is enough to gig with, but I'm also setting this up to connect to my iPad, through the ToneX One's USB-C interface. I can run the ToneX One with or without direct monitoring: if without, the signal must go through the iPad, which is risky if anything happens to that connection, so I'll probably run it with direct monitoring on. That means that the ToneX will always be responsible for my base tone, even if the iPad connection fails, which is fine. You can use an iPhone too, though mine is pretty old and needs the "Camera Connection Kit" to do anything over USB. So the iPad can be treated as a mixer send bus, running in parallel, and I won't use it for preamps or processors that should be inline only. I could run in to phase problems if I did. Instead, I'm trying out various modulations, delays, reverbs etc. I'm using the AUM app, which can chain multiple effects plugins, though I might try Audiobus too. To control AUM I have the new switcher at the bottom, a M-VAVE Chocolate, with four controls and the Akai expression pedal attached through it on the left. So far it's worked great over Bluetooth, though cable connection is also an option. I've tried an effects chain where I can bypass individual effects with the footswitch or control e.g. the rotary speaker speed in Eventide Rotary with the expression pedal. I'm also trying my version of Frippertronics using the Gauss Field Looper plugin,with the switches controlling recording / overdubbing and the expression pedal controlling the speed of the "tape" loop. If anything, I have too many options to play with.

I suspect we're about to be hit by a tidal wave of AI generated music. The idea you can potentially get an AI to write a hit song for you in minutes despite having zero musical ability has all the makings of a classic 'get rich quick' scheme. Of course most of the resulting music won't get any commercial traction at all, but that won't stop large numbers of people churning the stuff out in the hope of getting that one track that hits the jackpot.

Not 'on' the sofa, but there is a sofa in the picture! Also, this is less than 50% of the hoard... 😬

That’s what he called himself, wasn’t it? if my name was David, and I preferred Dave, I’d get quite ticked off either way someone relentlessly referring to me as David this is of course ignoring the fact that Jaco is dead and thus unlikely to express an opinion through conventional channels

...mind you there was a memorabe wedding gig I was at where the lead singer (I was doing sound so not my band thank goodness) got a bit drunk and after thanking the bride and groom for the invite went on to say that the band could also be booked for divorce parties, future weddings and also funerals for those sitting at the back... I thought it was hilarious, but everyone else was less amused!

Lots of progress yesterday and today. The final piece of the puzzle (from the procurement point of view) arrived from South Korea: So, the cavities got new copper lining, then wired to the cavity, then the pickups went in. Strings went back on to check alignment and roughly set heights, then it was on with the mounting of the electronics (Artec SE-2 - which had also been in the shed this whole time...) That was me done with it yesterday, but tonight I wired it all up. Unbelievably, it worked first time! So I loosely put some knobs on it (not wedded to these ones yet) And had a bloody good play with it. It still needs quite a few things done to finish it off (in no particular order): area around the neck pocket which I routed off, smoothed, rounded off and refinished suspect I might have to give the neck a full fret level and crown decorate the headstock finish off the control cavity cover (put screwholes in it, then pilot holes in the body, then screw it down) But for now, I can be happy with my work so far. It works, yay!

Non-black extension leads. When I did theatre work, nothing on stage should be visible if it's not a prop or a performer.

If it gets red and hot, see the doctor about serious antibiotics. That's what I needed.

As it turns out, me. Decided to put my big boy pants on and get the tedious stuff started at least. So now, the area around the neck pocket looks a bit less like someone attacked it with a router and ran away. There's still quite a sharp transition into the new shape, but I've got it about as good as I can be bothered with. All done the old fashioned way, with sandpaper round various diameters of dowel etc. - I must be mad, but I'm in a real anti power tool mood today, just can't be bothered with the noise, I think!

The saddles slide in the bridge assembly, locked in place with the allen screws.

That'll teach me not to do mental arithmetic!!

Really clean ones do carry a bit of a premium, so I would say for a private sale £4250 - £4750. Dealers will want quite a bit more. "These are just my thoughts and should not be relied upon when making serious financial investments" 🤣 Rob

Apologies in advance if anyone remembers me moaning about this when it was actually happening - though it was probably about 11 or 12 years ago now! The guitarist and drummer, I knew from a jam night I used to frequent, and the singer had been a semi-regular attendee before I started showing up. The guitarist and singer shared a mutual friend who'd suggested they should start playing together, and further down the line the drummer and I were recruited as a rhythm section. An EP was recorded, we played a lot of 'toilet circuit' gigs around London, and people seemed to like what we were doing. We made an album, we started playing further afield, and just as it felt like we were getting ahead, tensions started to bubble between the singer, the guitarist, and the mutual friend who'd introduced them in the first place. Theories abounded: the drummer was convinced that the singer and mutual friend both had eyes for the guitarist. The singer, however, had a long-term partner at that point, who was nice enough, but quite open about his propensity for Columbian marching powder, so I wondered whether she was joining him on his sessions, and becoming more argumentative as a side-effect. Whatever the reason: after several bad-tempered weeks, and attempts on all sides to straighten things out, the singer quit. Then...tried to un-quit, a week or two later. The rest of us phoned each other and agreed it was a "thanks, but no" from all of us. Only, later that evening, she tried to take control of the band's social media pages. And then she tried to release one of the songs from the band's album as her solo single. The email exchange that followed, I can only describe as agonising. Not least of all because I ended up writing most of them. We got on the blower to MU: (Can she do this? She wrote the song, but we all paid for the studio time...they're separate entities? Right...) And to be fair, it was a useful crash course in copyright and ownership. But however politely-but-firmly I tried to explain our position, but every reply seemed to be more stroppy and vitriolic than the last. There is an adage that arguing with some people is like trying to play chess with a pigeon: it's incredibly frustrating because the pigeon doesn't understand the rules; all it can do is knock over the pieces and cr*p on the board, but it still struts about like it's winning. This was the level the email exchange reached. Eventually, she got tired of trying to argue her case, and we found a new singer. It was a huge relief. And, I'm glad to say, the only band breakup I can remember which actually became acrimonious, so I've probably got off lightly if this thread is anything to go by!

I was able to test the Goodwood prototype against my Monza, and for low volume use I couldn't tell the difference. This was with an iAmp doubler, which is around 450W at 8Ohm, this is no problem for the Monza but might embarrass the Goodwood as a sole cab.

Ours was a bit different for me in that I played guitar - 1st time ever in a band. I was finding it a hassle to get guitar players when ours couldn’t do jam night, and thought bass players would be easier to sort out. So I decided to learn to play properly. So for the last year or so I’ve been doing on line guitar lessons. This month’s jam night became the “well if you are going to play live, it’s now or give up” time. It was much easier to get one of the bass players to fill in with us. It went pretty well. A few bum notes, but probably of the “audience won’t have noticed” variety. We screwed up “Don’t look back in anger” - the singer going to a 2nd chorus when it should have been the instrumental and me not sorting out how to fix it quickly enough. I think if I were MD on bass it would have been unnoticeable to the audience, but on guitar I took me too long to get back to the chorus chords to think about where to go next and tell the rest of the band. We managed to sort it and finish it ok. A learning / experience point. We got good feedback from the audience. So overall pretty happy with it.