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May your days be merry and bright.

Except it was made by HOHNER, not Höfner.

All this talk about Danny Sapko. Perhaps we need to rename this forum to BESHCHAT.

There’s a bit of a story about that one if anyone is interested, it was one of Aston Barrett’s early basses originally ,and when he started touring with the wailers he gave it to Robbie, Robbie thinks he might have played the Hofner on the Wailers Concrete Jungle recording

Personally I’d just pay the return postage, mark it down to experience and get looking for another bass

I worked in instrument retail for years, so I have a bit more sympathy for the retailer, in the same way I have total sympathy for you. From the manufacturer’s POV there is nothing wrong with the bass. The retailer buys the bass and has no recourse on it, it is not faulty (per the manufacturer). It is very common on cheaper basses with visible grain finishes to have badly matched wood. I agree it looks crap, it would annoy me as a retailer, and as a potential buyer, but fundamentally no one has behaved badly in this situation, the call from others to slag them off all over the internet seems a bit off to me. Personally if I was buying anything with visible grain I’d want to see it before buying to avoid this exact situation.

But if you look at the images on line being used to sell this bass, some are most definitely book matched and, even when they are not, none are close to being as mis-matched as the example in the OP. If I had bought the bass in the OP on the basis of the photos being published on-line, I'd be sending it back expecting a full refund including my postage costs too.

So - caveats and bias first - I have not played the Anagram so can't comment on it or compare to the BassRigs. I have had a BassRig SuperVintage at the end of my board for the past 18 months or so running to front of house / interface from the DI, to the back line from the jack out. Generally it's an "always on" I have also been running it "off" with the cab sim engaged on the DI. I wouldn't worry about an adverse impact on octavers or synths. There will be an impact which may mean that you want to tweak things but in my experience (OC2 / line 6 purple filter modeler / Mastotron / Envelope noises) the impact is generally positive (a bit more focused and consistent a sound - less alarming for the FOH / mix when you kick in a new sound). If you turned up to a gig with your effects and had to use the in-house SVT / 810 - would you be upset? Bootsy and Tim Lefebvre don't seem to be scared about running squelches or "doooh" noises through an SVT. I don't think of the BassRig as a pre-amp or effect - I think of it as an SVT + fridge that fit in a biscuit tin.

Can’t think it’s good for business behaving like this. Based on the 30 people who expressed an opinion on this thread. 27 wouldn’t have been happy and would have sent it back. (90%) That means on average they will need to ship this bass (and have it returned) 10 times before they find somebody who is happy with it🤷‍♂️

As a tribute, we needed a Showreel, so we did a mash of DIY and pro. Recorded audio ourselves at a rehearsal space (individually not as a live take), guitarist's brother is a bit of a whizz at recording. Went to a theatre to mime to the track on a stage, where a guy did mate's rates for multiple shots of video. The guitarist has the know how to then edit the audio and video to this end product. Probably cost us £300 to rent spaces and pay for video recording but would have cost x3 that if our band didn't have the knowledge and contacts to bring it together.

That is exactly what I do. Play last encore (assuming we're asked for one 😉 ), mute amp, unplug and switch off wireless transmitter, put bass into gig bag, pedal board into case, coil cables, change shades for normal specs and get off the stage sharpish. Takes about three minutes to get everything where it should be and I do final tidying up backstage or in the green room. That just seems to me to be the professional thing to do.

This came up in the Sky Arts thread (where I also mentioned Robbie Shakespeare to general blanks). For some reason they've got to be punk/new wave/prog to get the basschat radar pinging!

The latest pictures some more shaping done on my bass.

I've been very quiet on here recently, for various reasons, but the main one is that I've been building, and learning to run a music venue! I run a recording studio, and my mate runs rehearsal rooms, all from one building in Stoke. We've built up a decent reputation over the years. There was one bit of the building we didn't have, and that was a garage, but last year the mechanic upped and left, and the landlord offered it to us. We spent countless hours turning a dirty old garage into a spanking new venue and I'm super proud of it. Please check it out if you're looking for live music in Stoke or The Midlands, and obviously get in touch if you'd like to play! www.rifffactory.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/rifffactoryuk/ The bar: Opening week: The garage:

Yup. The agreed 25 quid seems the easiest - the path of least resistance (as I suggested earlier). Re the OP, the questions was 'would it bother me?' My answer, a resounding yes.

To my ears, That sounds like a P-bass (or neck pickup at least?) Roundwound strings A healthy dose of Compression And I think I detect a pinch of Pitch modulation i.e Flanging or Chorus just to give it all a bit of ‘3D’ shimmer? That should get you in the ballpark…

I’ve tried to be sympathetic too. They did say they’d check the bass before sending which they obviously didn’t so they only have themselves to blame. According to Google, guitarguitar has turnover of £45M/year and must spend a good couple of million with Cort, that has itself revenues of £6.6billion/yr These sort of faults/issues are the cost of doing business that they should easily be able to aborb into their costs based on their revenue not stitch up unlucky customers. I’m sure guitarguitar has enough clout based on its spend with Cort to push back on crappy quality control like this and get refunded on sub standard instruments. If customers don’t push back and retailers don’t push back on manufacturers then they’ll keep on pumping out crappy quality which isn’t good for anyone.

Worth remembering that there's another side to Hofner's business making classical stringed instruments that I imagine most of us here know very little about. Who knows which part or parts ofthe business are actually failing?

Everyone else I've seen on SBL does it by ear, as would I, I never write charts. Not saying either way is better/worse just that not everyone does it the same way. Sharon's no slouch either, she's another ex-Berklee bassist. Back on to Danny though, this is a few months old but it popped up on my YouTube the other night. His comic delivery in the first half of the video is brilliant, and then properly shows off his playing chops in the second half.

Have you missed out on any gigs because you didn't have a show reel? That's probably the most important question to ask. If you do think you need one, then do it properly. A badly produced showreel will probably put more venues off than no showreel at all. Unless you have lots a spare time and are interested in learning all about filming and video editing, pay for a professional. IMO you need good sound - the ambient live mix picked up by the camera is not going to cut it. The band need to look like a band and not a bunch of middle aged blokes who happen to have picked some instruments and the venue where you film should be as undistracting as possible. Good luck if you decide to go for it.

The sad fact is that without the McCartney connection Höfner would have probably folded decades ago. Even so there's a limit to how many "Beatle Basses" they can sell, and they have obviously reached now.

Well, 2025 has been tumbleweed for me and to be brutally honest, I haven't missed the band-centric activity. Had another hand operation last week (success already); this has been hindering things. Pencilled in for a studio session in January. On the up.

I wonder if the McCartney association is as much of a curse as a blessing for the violin bass. In the same way that some people are put off by signature models because they don't want people to think that they are trying to emulate that player. And the association between McCartney and violin basses is very strong indeed, to the point where it's one of the few models where non playing audience members might actually recognise it and think of it as the 'Beatles Bass'. Obviously McCartney is a great player, but not everyone wants their playing to be associated with or compared to someone else.

Oh look, successful musicians playing Hofners and none of them pretending to be in the Beatles... Curt Smith of Tears For Fears Kevin Parker of Tame Impala Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads Nicolas Godin of Air Johanna Soderbergh of First Aid Kit Robbie Shakespeare of Sly & Robbie Paul Weller of... you know

Making current models Pre-Hohner Hofners 👍

We recorded 6 tracks at a studio, cost around £400 and then hired a room above a pub for £50 (The Queen of Bradgate in Leicester if you know it). Our guitarists brother filmed it while we mimed and then edited to this showreel. I guess a professional filming and editing would charge around £400 so we saved that cost. Proves you can get something done for less than a grand. We've had at least 10 gigs from it so a great investment. https://youtu.be/5aGfwosPMwk?si=WZ4oI5QiMWHiqLFN

I've never owned a 15, and the only 15 I played through once was in a Line 6 combo... it sounded awful, which was probably the ridiculous amp in it. Currently, I have a 212, which sounds completely different to a 212 I had several years ago. I also have a 210 which I'd say is more coloured than the 212 in that it sounds to have less top end than the 212. In my limited experience the only constant I've arrived at is you have to try it before you'll know what it sounds like.

IMO, this is exactly what you want from a showreel. lots of energy, interesting camera angles, quick cuts and zooms. Crowd dancing and singing along. Also, important to have a vertical version too, as so much social media is consumed vertically these days. This is my bands version for an upcoming gig, in the similiar vein, a bit less punk. https://www.instagram.com/p/DRZ7sdzlK7V/

That’s great news, John. I look forward to coming to see your band! I will definitely keep my ears and eyes open for potential band mates and point them in your direction. Also, over the last few months I’ve made a concerted effort to sample the open-mic and jam nights in and around the fair city of Derby. When it’s appropriate, drop me a line and I can pass on my recommendations for the launch of Level Neville.

Just ordered an MPC Key 37, and I blame you guys. Demn you all. I had no idea about this type of product, but I get the idea there's a lot of fun built into that thing, and that it integrates well with a DAW. Also, with limited width and weight, for travelling, right now it looks handier than my four-octave keyboard + desktop synth. Now wary of the above mentioned paralysis and unintuitivity, but I'll try and treat those as much needed training for the grey cell. Thanks, guys! Bert

NBD was actually Sunday, but I won't tell if you don't. I've been a dyed-in-the-wool Precision devotee for quite a few years, having found that they just work for me. But slowly the worm has turned... My Dingwall journey led me along the path Super P > D-Roc > NG-2, which obviously opened up non-P possibilities. I tried a friend's Jazz (American Standard?) and thought, 'I like this!' Then I found a 2001 MIM J at an auction, loved it, but was outbid. I was pretty disappointed. Finally I came across this Flea Jazz being sold by our own @Mickeyboro, tried it, loved it, brought it home, loved it even more. If I'd been a good boy I'd have shifted my D-Roc first, but clearly I'm not - no presents for me, but that's fine, I'll just sit and play this. It does what I hoped a Jazz would do - a different and spankier voice but still with authority behind the notes, a comfortable playing experience, and a sound that makes you think, 'Ooh, that's like a record I've heard'. Going between this and my original '73 Precision, the Flea Jazz feels old like the '73, not least because it has nicely rolled fingerboard edges. I've spent some time tweaking it to my preferences - neck relief, action, Monty's Instrument Food, and a replaced intonation screw (disclosed prior to purchase) and have been having altogether too much fun going through my Steely Dan transcriptions. I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to gig it, but there may well be a 70s covers rehearsal in January, for which this would work a treat!

Looks good! Warwick's amps were always underrated for some reason, their original Wamp range back in the day was brilliant, massive range of stuff, very powerful and I never heard anything bad about them. I played through them as house rigs at gigs and rehearsal studios, and I thought they were fantastic. They made some very cool looking gear... Keep us posted on what you think... Eude

At your own cost though. They’ve not refused a return unless I’ve misread?

Details schmetails😁

But all of their marketing videos and pictures show matching tops, so it’s implied they at least be some sort of matching. if you bought a blue car and each panel was a different shade of blue, it wouldn’t be an argument to say, we gave you a blue car and never stated the panels had to be the same shade.

My Future Impact is my Christmas present so now I have checked that it is working, it's gone back in it's box and been wrapped so I won't get to use it again until next weekend. I'm not entirely sure if it was down to user error or not being entirely sure how all the parameters interact, but my initial thoughts were that most of the parameter values I was interested in happened in the bottom third of the range and often increasing the value by one unit gave a greater change in sound than I would normally expect from a conventional synth. Also the LPF doesn't appear to fully close at its lowest value even on the 24dB setting which may be a problem if there is no envelope controllable VCA after the filter. There isn't one in the block diagram in the manual but that's 10 years out of date, so might not be relevant. I found most of the supplied pre-sets rather harsh for my tastes, but I don't expect to be using any of them as they are not really geared up for the way I expect to be using this device. The real test will come when I start using it in combination with the Helix programming my own patches and using MIDI note information to trigger the VCF and VCA envelopes processing my bass sound. Ask me again at the end of January if I haven't posted anything here before then.

Don’t Hofner still make high quality hand built acoustic instruments? Strongly suspect that their financial situation is more to do with a sluggish economy and high energy costs. I doubt Macca can help, unless he can broker a peace agreement with Russia.

It bothers me that some of the cables don't go all the way to the edge of the frame!

And because I'm a showoff:

Santa Dog by the Residents If that isn’t unusual enough, there’s Santa Dog ‘78

OK - just not really ubiquitous though and I've not heard (of) a couple of those bands anyway. Is Tame Impala a person or a band? As per my previous comment, I'm not saying they're bad instruments, but the numbers starkly say they're not inspirational must-have choices.

I have to stop playing too much. The Bluegrasss band has two booking agents and we’ve got 60 dates in the book, including 4 European trips. As a result, I’ve canned all other projects (aside from a Blue Note jazz band) as it’s not fair on the family.

A band I am rehearsing with recently made a showreel. The BL has his sights set on theatres, for which you need something that an agent can send to a venue. First we made multi-track recordings of a couple of rehearsals, and I edited together acceptable (but not perfect) versions of the 6 songs we’d chosen. It helped a lot that the drummer plays an electronic kit! We then hired a small theatre and a videographer came along and filmed us miming to our live-in-the-studio recordings. We got mates’ rates because the BL knows him and he is trying to break into band showreels. Afterwards the videographer edited together a draft and there then ensued considerable back-and-forth over what did or didn’t work. I think it’s finished now and will be launched in the New Year.

No changes through the year with my main band - had a reasonable number of gigs, no conflicts in the band, bringing new numbers in a little slowly as our singer also performs in shows so we can be a bit limited for rehearsals during show runs and show rehearsals. We were chatting after a recent rehearsal and the singer and the drummer both said they were happier than with any previous band (and had stayed for longer). It's the guitarist's first band, but he's happy, and I'm as happy as I've been with any previous band. I went to a new (to me) open mic and when there got invited to be house bassist at another open mic, an opportunity that I jumped at. That then led to the open mic organiser asking me to dep for his band as their bassist couldn't make a gig, which then extended to the next gig, and a couple of further gigs, and then being asked to join the band on a permanent bassist, which I accepted. I joined an originals trio - however, the drummer dropped out after he became she (not anything to do with we other two, she just had a lot going on and don't think she could cope with the extra stress). Then the BL went on holiday with his boyfriend (that he was living with), and when he came back he let me know he'd split up with the boyfriend and was moving to Leamington from Coventry. He still wants to carry on with the trio when we can recruit another drummer, but at the moment communication is a bit erratic. So current status is permanent bassist with two covers bands, indeterminate status with an originals band, house bassist for two open mic nights (well, three, but last Wednesday was probably the last one for one venue). I've been asked to play with a couple of other people on an ad hoc basis, stemming from the open mic nights, which is nice.

My year began with our singer and lead guitarist both announcing they were leaving. The year ends with new folk now well bedded in and the 2 leavers are willing to dip from time to time. Even better is the healthy gig diary for 2026. The old singer has started a new trio project with myself and the bands drummer on guitar so I'm looking forward to progressing that. And a patient teacher has turned me from someone who couldn't play drums into someone who can play them badly. A good year

I just thought I'd write a quick first-impressions review here, as I can't see any other threads in the BC archives on this system. The basics first. The Distiller is an active resonant-filter tone circuit, like what you'd find on an Alembic or a Wal. It consists of a low-pass filter whose resonant frequency is swept up and down using the potentiometer. Everything above the frequency gets cut, everything below stays unchanged. You can also switch in two levels of boost at the resonant frequency. Before I go on to the review bit, I should say that I didn't buy a filter preamp because I want to sound like Justin Chancellor. This is an unusual situation in the filter-preamp market, which I've done my best to illustrate with the venn diagram below. I mention this because a lot of the existing discussions on these sorts of devices seem to judge them mostly on the metric of "how cool does it sound when I play the riff from Schism?". I, on the other hand, have no strong opinions about Tool, and just wanted something that gave me a wide range of tones without covering my bass in knobs. By that measure, I think this does a great job. The best part for me is the regular low-pass filter (with no resonant frequency boost), which is a very effective but surprisingly unobtrusive thing. With a gentle turn of the Distiller, you can roll off just that annoying clicky highest of high end without muddying the musical treble you want to keep. Go beyond that, and you have effectively a very precise and controllable version of a passive tone control. It goes from "normal but with the edge taken off" to "reggae through the wall from a house party down the street". The two boost modes are, in my opinion, very usable at the top and bottom end of the range, but perhaps not so much in the middle. At the top end with both the low and high boost modes, you get some great aggressive sounds while maintaining the option of cutting out the clicky noises. There are some good sounds there – particularly in the lower mids, and particularly with the low-boost mode – but a lot of them feel a bit too nasal and odd sounding to be useful. As you get towards the low end, the low-boost mode gives you some great dub-like sounds while the high-boost makes your bass sound a lot like a synth bass. I can see myself playing around with those a lot. So yeah. Two thumbs up from me. Oh. Also, here are some very quickly recorded and very rough samples of the three modes. Each one starts with the frequency sweep all the way up, and then goes down through the range step by step. I apologise for both the quality of the recording (just straight into Audacity) and my playing (best described as repetitive, tuneless noodling). No boost. (I checked this against old recordings, and I can confirm that the starting point sounds indistinguishable from the bass when it was wired passive). Distiller_no-boost.mp3 Low Boost Distiller_lo-Boost.mp3 High Boost (might be clipping the interface a bit here and there). Distiller_hi-boost.mp3