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Thanks for the above folks, having done a little bit of digging around I found he has numerous ebay identities - five at least (some are linked to the account he bought with and some are not - and several comments on guitar forums about him doing what he has done here, sometimes even before he'd actually bought the guitar in question! He has a refund, I get to keep my 4003S

I got a half page in Bass Player magazine this month. What a hoot! I think I did the Q&A about ten months ago...I reckon half that gear and rig has found new homes now.

And some more piccies in the garden sun! I replaced the original string retainer bar as I got a comment that the Hipshot one on the ash bass I made looked much better. I quite agree!

UPDATE: as recommended, spoke to Ashdown, fantastic response as people said on here, so they stepped up to the mark, main option was to pop into Ashdown, they’d sort it there and then...then take it home...fantastic service but then the problem of location popped up....so me and the guy had a good laugh about that...genuinely nice guy to talk to....hadn’t heard of that type of problem with that model....so next suggestion , get in touch with retailer for exchange. Past experience, some retailers to be truthful don’t have the player at heart but this time (and I’m happy to name them now) PMT stepped up to the mark, said it’s not good an amp should fail on its first outing, arranged for a new model to be delivered and the faulty one uplifted at the same time...THE NEXT DAY! and as I’ve said, there is a stretch of water involved which usually complicates things and adds to cost as well. So new amp working well and I’m really happy. Apologies to other replies on here, I’ve had a hectic week, our “original” band has just released our first single and video to accompany it, and our covers band has been rehearsing non stop and playing at the same time...3 gigs this weekend coming , one a big outdoor show....so again, apologies for delay in replying and a BIG THANKS to those of you who offered advice, even the lend of gear and especially PMT and ASHDOWN for the fantastic service... heres our video by the way, love it if you could like our page and like and share our video. https://www.facebook.com/EndlessDivision/

Well the pedal gets a big thumbs up from me! Playing along to my (ex) band’s albums which were pretty light in the bass department, it delivers such a ‘produced’ tone that it just sounds like they’ve been remixed / remastered with better bass! I thought I was getting this effect from my B3K also, but now that tone sounds completely off. It’s funny how our ears adjust - I’ll probably change my mind next week! It’s made me change my technique for the better too, forcing me to play with a lighter more consistent touch and only dig in when I want to hear distortion. You can get a lot of sound variation just from how you play.

The band I was in, Inter managed to get a record deal. We were part of the post brit-pop scene and worked our rears off playing as much as humanly possible to build up a following. Started to get a name for ourselves and released a song on the Pet Sounds label and then later on our first single, Happy Ending in 1997. This got noticed by John Peel who said it was his favourite single of 1997 and gave us our first John Peel Session. This promoted us even further and it got to the point where Virgin were trying to decide to sign either us or The Stereophonics. They chose the Stereophonics in the end but we still managed to get a half decent record deal. We were all about 28 and got about £36k advance each for 3 years plus £5k to buy gear and then royalties from merchandise, sales etc. Going to the Bass Centre with £5k to go buy whatever I wanted was the best feeling in the world. I bought a Stingray, a Status and a massive top of the range Hartke rig 😊 We recorded our debut album at Loco Studios in South Wales which was where Oasis, The Manics, Stereophonics and many others had recorded stuff. The studio was also owned by Geoff Downes of Buggles fame and John Payne of Asia who both played on the album. We lived at the studio for three months in our own cottage and even had our own chef 😊 Our producer was Mark Wallis who has recorded with everyone but is most famous for recording the IT Bites album, The Primatives album, The Smiths, The Travis album and was the engineer on U2's Joshua Tree. Prior to choosing this producer we came very close to going to Seatle and recording the album with Rick Parasher who recorded Pearl Jam's Ten album but we told the record company no as we wanted to sound English still and not end up sounding like an American band. The album, titled Got My Nine sold 7k copies in the first week and we released 3 singles, National Paranoia, Speed Racer and Radio Finland. All got mainstream radio airplay and led on to a second John Peel Session, a live Virgin Radio Session and an XFM session. Also one of our tracks was used to advertise Casio G Shock watches in an advert for Spanish cinemas. We also did other TV stuff with tracks being used on Eurosport and Rebel TV. Q Magazine gave the album 4 out of 5. We continued to tour which was amazing with our own crew etc. and were doing really well but then things started to go wrong. We were getting offered some big things like going on tour with Feeder in Germany, film soundtracks, gigs in the States but the record company was saying no to it all. To cut a long story short, we found out we were being ran as a tax loss so initially the record company were happy to pump money in to us (the album alone cost £120k to record etc.) but as we started to get more successful they put the brakes on. We were literally being hung out to dry and missing out on great opportunities which at the time made no sense. Anyway, they breached contracts so we sued them and won and that was the end of it. It was incredibly hard work, constantly recording, touring, song writing, promoting, photo shoots, interviews etc. but I have no regrets as I lived my dream for 4 years, the best time of my life with the most amazing experiences. Plus I still get the odd royalty payment now and again 😊 More details below. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_(band) Other things I've done is go on tour with Paul Weller in another band, supporting him for 4 nights at the Roundhouse in Camden and recorded an album at his studio in Ripley. He also played on the album and I had to teach him to play this piano part that we wanted. I've been the Bass player in a video for a charity song that ELO were recording. Played at Brixton Academy using The Levellers back line. Supported Cactus World News and Let Loose and best of all chatted to Andrea Corr whilst making a cup of tea 😍😍 Now I play in an amazing 50s and 60s cover band, doing about 100 gigs a year and totally loving it.

No worries Peter! Now sit back and watch the 2nd hand prices soar!!! 👍

I don't currently, but have a strong desire to start an Ian Dury tribute - as the vocalist

Started cutting and gluing!! I'm going to try to make 2 or 3 of these to try a few different things. First off is a sapele body, wenge veneer and maple top. The maple should look quite good when oiled (I'm hoping!!) Glued up sandwiches.... To make running wires through the body easier, I drill holes before gluing the two halves together. I then insert a straw in the hole to prevent any glue clogging it up when the halves are joined. To ensure I don't drill too far into the body, I draw the rough direction of the hole then mark the length with masking tape on the drill. The side have then been joined Then the outline of the bass is rough cut ready for routing

OK, one last time, these are small but the ones out there are far away.....

When I lived in Austin, used to go to Ed's bass emporium. Also watched him close up on upright, gigging in a duo with a guitarist at a pastry shop. My wife and I were front and center and the only one's giving our undivided attention. He sat with us during break and couldn't have been nicer. Quite the class act and wonderful musician.

I was in a band in the early 80s in Leeds... 2 of the members went on to become the Utah Saints, one went and joined the Rollins Band and one - the son of a famous agony aunt - went on to become a famous tv foodie and restaurant critic. I stayed resolutely unknown.

Great to see Ashdown on it!

Also where are you based? Would likely be much easier and in fact better for us to sort directly for you rather than shipping unnecessarily to the retailer and back etc if they are a distance away as you say...

Hi Torby, That's not good. Can you let us know a few more details and we will have a look at what we can do to get you sorted. Amp Model - Serial Number - Date Purchased - Retailer purchased from -

Cheers. That's given me more to look at. As if choosing wasn't hard enough!

You specify a case, butvthe gig bag which I think is included is more than up to the task

He does, there are so many variations to choose from it's hard to know which were intended to be the 'original'! 72-74, some great shows in that period. Cool avatar!

enjoy...... and just cus its so funny....

Here's the second one. This is going to have a sapele body, ash veneer, wenge veneer then a thin burl top Almost a shame to veneer over the ash as it has quite a nice grain.

When I was at Ashdown a couple of months back the discussion got round to Sica speakers, more to lighten the load of my ABM410 than to increase power handling, and I was advised that they would make the cab sound "tighter".

Here are two tracks from the Slowlight Quartet (as was). You can probably hear similarities to that 2nd track (dinosaur) it’s just going a bit more electronic....

Sweet Child o' Mine I bought the Appetite for Destruction album when it first came out never having heard the band before. On first listen through I quite liked the album but commented to my girlfriend that I really didn't like that one song. The opening riff instantly irritated me. I can't believe that over 30 years later I still hear the song on a seemingly weekly basis - radio, TV, live bands... I can't get away from it!! Honourable mention to Blue Monday as well. There are also plenty of previously mentioned songs that I used to like but can't listen to anymore through over exposure. Often they are ones I have had to play live for years - eg Sweet Home Alabama, Alright Now etc etc

Noel Gallagher is doing some decent tunes in my opinion, unlike his brother

We played an excellent little café-bar in Worcester on Friday... Only downside was that it was tiny - stage was the width of the supplied drum-kit plus bass amp which meant guitar amp and PA were in front of me and drummer with no vocal monitoring. And because the guitarist/singer was right in front of his guitar amp and in front of us he was in a little world of his own amongst the audience which made seeing cues difficult! Still, we played reasonably well, there were positive comments from the "crowd" and heard from the owner that a group of people were dancing in the main bar area, which was unfortunately shielded from us by a wall. Roll on Hereford next week - where we only get a 30 minute set and there's 10 bands on!

1983. We took a 3 track demo around the A&R departments of CBS, Virgin, RCA & Arista demanding a 3 album deal with a £100,000 non-recuperable advance (because our mates had got that deal from Chrysalis). Stipulated that they could only listen to the demo while we were in the room. We were offered a £20,000 one-off single deal by CBS after a meeting with Muff Winwood. Turned it down on the grounds that they weren't showing enough commitment. Oh the joys of being 19 and cocky!

Just the last 5 minutes to see what garbage has won.

If it works for you squire I'm happy for you. You have an amp you like. Everyone's needs are different. I just think the wattage has been cooked up as I tried it against my Hartke HA5500. That was much, much louder and it's only 500w by comparison. Personally, I think it's a 300w amp as you have to redline it to get some volume out of it.

Or the handles ....oh .

In the olden days it was possible to do things with hand tools - and still is You can plane wood to thickness using a number 5 jack plane, a good straight edge and a pencil. It takes a bit longer but can get just as good results, especially if you make yourself a sanding table by gluing 6 sheets of 120 grit to a sheet of mdf

85/86 I was writing songs with a guy who was an amazing singer but had difficulties with various addictions which had more or less brick-walled a promising career for him. We were taken under the wing of record producer who was well known up here in Scotland at the time and he bankrolled a proper full scale studio demo. He then hawked the tapes around various record companies and Polydor was the keenest. So he and I went down to London to meet with the record company. In the office, the A&R guy was going crazy about the songs - "This stuff is perfect for the States", "Fantastic Songs", "Great Singing and playing" etc. etc. As we left the meeting with hugely positive vibes, we held it together until the lift arrived and as soon as the doors closed, my producer friend was punching the air with delight. He had a lot of experience in the business and reckoned that a lucrative deal was virtually in the bag. Two days later, Polydor call him up. "It's XXX XXXXXX singing, isn't it?" was the question. Unfortunately, my singer's reputation for drug use and related unreliability cast a large shadow and the idea was dropped instantaneously. Fast forward about a year and I'm earning a crust playing for various cabaret acts. One is a Drifters tribute act and the promoter/ manager has the habit of bringing to the UK former stars of Motown or whatever who's careers have slid somewhat from the heady days of the 60s. One of these is Ben E King. As we're a Drifters band, we are chosen to back Ben E. for a tour. It all kicks off inauspiciously in the usual way for those things at that time with a smashed windscreen in the tour van in the middle of the night driving down from Scotland to the Isle of Wight- the first date of the tour is the end of season party for the staff at some holiday camp. That wild weekend was a story in itself but the tour went on at equally salubrious venues for a while till one day Ben got a call during the soundcheck. No mobiles - he was called away to the telephone. When he reappears, he says that apparently, due to the recent release of the Rob Reiner movie Stand by Me, his song of the same name which we open the set with every night has just gone to No 1 in the Uk charts! Suddenly, we're part of a 60s revival tour and are playing to packed houses in big venues that you've seen on tour schedules by the big bands - Liverpool Empire, Colston Halls, Bristol, Edinburgh Playhouse etc. Talk about 15 minutes of fame? Then Ben went back to the States and that was that. These two episodes in their own ways are my nearest misses but what the heck - I've now been playing the bass and gigging regularly since 1973 and I'm still going, still learning and still enjoying it!

Depends on how you define big time As long as I have consistent work and getting paid I'm in the big time. Blue

Ah cool, thank you, certainly an amazing experience and yes, incredibly happy about the whole thing. Even better you have heard of us. If you fancy a listen to the album then just go here 😊 https://m.soundcloud.com/michael-boylan/sets/inter-got-my-nine

Dakota - Stereophonics Hate.

Noticed this a couple of times lately - folks take the time to put the post up and then disappear and don't respond to any of the advice/help...

Yamaha really are a great company. I can only see positive results with this. Whilst the Helix wasn't for me (at this current stage) the quality of it was fantastic. Let's hope they bring out some reliable lightweight SVTs!

Mull of Kintyre, fortunately one song I've never heard anybody else attempt (though no doubt someone will now post a youtube link of a cover version). Last year in a moment of madness I bought a season ticket for the first time in about 20 years, for football team I support, Forest (I know, I know, but my Dad started taking me when I was about 8), won't be doing that again, they play this bloody song twice a game, at the start of each half so the crowd can sing their own lyrics to it (mist rolling in from the Trent etc) hate it hate it. The most twee song McCartney ever wrote, from the master of twee songs.

Most big power ballads. False sincerity, pomposity, masses of musical cliches...........................and punters love 'em! Special smelliest dogpoo award in this category goes to 'The Power of Love' - I remember playing this with several cover bands and wishing my life could end at that very moment the chorus started.............. "Cause I'm your lady"..............................Aaaaaaaaargh.........................................

+2 and let's make sure it's always being bumped to stay on the first page and just to make sure, here's a bona fide gem of 80s soul-funk. Simply the mutts nuts.

How long have you had it?

No - we had it installed. Here it is fairly soon after installation (with a diddy 1x8 cab I knocked together) ...it has dulled down and gone silver/grey now though. Bloody heavy stuff!

Yes, always been a fan of Japanese instruments. This song was recorded with an Ibanez SR500 DI'd. I convert the 4 string basses I play to BEAD, tried a 5 but couldn't get it.