Leaderboard

He is giving the money to charity, as he did when he sold a house in London a few years ago. He is a man to be admired.

Beta V3 is complete. Hopefully I can finalise the design today and I'll be able to print a batch this weekend. If anybody wants one, send an email to [email protected] with "future impact Housing" in the subject. Let me know where you are so I can calculate postage. Updates include: lettering/labels - added, but not totally happy with the definition. im working on it Internal screen protect - not sure yet if i'm going to fit a screen protector for shipping as its an easy fit if you want to put one on. I actually prefer it off as the numbers are brighter. small internal feature changes for better fit - No more fiddly wiggly assembly.

Marked up the neck to put the side dots in. I remembered to do it this time before shaping the fretboard and neck (unlike last time which made it hard work!!). Marked up neck ready to drill holes for the side dots: Plastic dot strips glued in place prior to trimming: Plenty of little things to sort before I venture into the cold of the garage.

I think some people are misunderstanding my point. Or at least bending the rules. We all know that songs sung in English are more popular, certainly in the Western World. Also English is one of the best languages for rhyming. Yes, there may be languages that are more common, like Mandarin or possibly Spanish. That is not in dispute. My point was that there are plenty of good songs out there that are sung in different languages and if you ignore them because they are sung in a foreign language, you are depriving yourself of a plethora of excellent tunes.

Beta V4 is on the board! I've spent too long on the text already, i think this is about as good as i can get it. only a few small tweaks to some features and i'm calling it complete. Watch out for emails in the next few days telling you all how to get one.

Not really 'multi' though is it

Ozzy tribute act? Part of the rider? Hope you had a flight case for it anyway

I don’t have names for my basses but Mrs Skinny does. We started with Scary Bass, Sporty Bass, Posh Bass, Ginger Bass (which is actually a ‘burst finish) and Baby Bass. The more recent additions have been called, in order, Nora Bloody-Notherone and Annie Moranamoff.

My dignity.

Preface: I’ve always wanted a mustang bass in a pale blue / green. When they announced that they would be producing it in Sonic Blue my heart lept and with memories of the Sonic Blue Jagstang in mind, I went as quick as my hatchback could take me to the music shop to try it out. The spotty Saturday child proudly handed me the bass, proclaiming “Sonic Blue” in his squeaky voice. “Sorry Son, this might be your first day, but this is Olympic White”. He then handed me the Olympic White one, or was that the blue? They looked the same, far too pale. My tail drooped and I left the shop. My Dream Bass: 2018 arrives and I notice Fender release an overpriced Seafoam Green Mustang. It’s not the green / blue I wanted, so I start getting quotes to buy a new one and have it refinished in the colour I had in mind. While surfing the web for colour codes I spot it…my dream colour. And hang on….it’s on a mustang bass, and it’s for sale from an actual shop! Seconds later, it’s added to the cart and I hit check out. So end of story? No. The retailer says that they aren’t willing to ship the item outside of the U.S as they “won’t be to promise their usual high level of customer service”. I mail them, offering them whatever costs they need to send it, with the promise I won’t cause a fuss. They still refuse. Even more angering is the fact that this is an exclusive deal with Fender – They are the only shop in the world allowed to sell this bass and they wont ship it to me. I’m not willing to fly to Indiana. So the story ends. Against All Odds: A glass of wine or seven later (that’s only one in dog glasses) I have an idea and fire up Google maps. I find where Sweetwater are based and start looking for pawn shops / secondhand music shops in the area on the slim chance someone has part exchanged one. Highly unlikely as they have only been out a few months - Then the unthinkable happens…I spot one. I mail them asking about it, they respond within minutes explaining that it had a ding in the back, and the shop selling them could no way put that on the shop floor as an exclusive, so let him have it. He attached a photo of the tiny ding. For the princely sum of £120 he would courier it 3,875 miles to my front door. Done and Done. Customs: Five days later I get a phone call “Hello Mr Smith, it’s Customs and Excise here”. They had my guitar at the airport, it’s now only 30 miles away from me. They’re concerned that the fretboard is Rosewood (its not), and that it will need certification. They ask me to put it in writing that it is not rosewood, and that if I lie it’s a criminal offence etc. As she hangs up I swear her mutter something about Leroy getting a new twink for his cell. Hours later the same number pops up on my phone, the lady is a bit more chirpy and thanks me for my confirmation. “And it’s just the extra tax to pay before we can release it”. What? Why did no one mention the 20% import tax! I finish reading out my credit card number through gritted teeth. “Thank you Mr Smith, now I just need to take our admin fee for that transaction”. Arrival: The next day I hear the postman whistling as he walks down the path, I run to the door, tail wagging. Instead of something the size of a bass he hands me a box about the size of a pizza box. Minutes later I get a call from the customs lady, “We’ve tested your neck, and it’s not rosewood, we can now release it”. Oh FFS! “We just need to take the import fee for this oh and our admin fee”. For the next 24 hours I made suggestions about what she should do with the neck, that I won’t repeat here. Then I hear the whistling from the path… Like some sort of weird sommelier the postman is holding the neck like a posh bottle of wine, or the world cup. I bolt everything together, string it (hybrids) strap lock it (new Schaller S types) and it plays like a dream. Would I do it again? Not sure. But I now have my dream bass.

Don't worry about it, the Matamp lives on top of mine. It's not light.

Newly arrived 1988 5-string, added to the family.

I've actually been quite positive about Ashdown in this thread, the horrible video was the equally the fault of Andertons, the NAMM environment and Ashdown. With that said, lots of people on here seem to just wish Ashdown was the brand we all want it to be. They're the spiritual successor to TE and (even factoring in rose-tinted hindsight) they don't seem to quite live up to that. They have so much potential! They had the first class-d head that most people saw, and the first neo cabinets. They were hardly the first to have a hybrid head but they were probably the most visible. They still make lead sleds (even rackmounted ones!) for olde worlde types. They have some amazing signature artists. Their list of brilliance goes on and on but to me it's almost like bad sex. It's good, but you walk away with the nagging feeling it could have been a little better. @ped you're right about us being unduly harsh but (from my point of view at least) it's the same as all those men who sit and scream at the TV every Saturday afternoon, I'm invested in Ashdown, I want them to do well. Having said this, none of it matters. Basschat is a tiny percentage of bassists. More than that, it's skewed to the tiny percentage of bassists nerdy enough to sit online and talk about bass playing so it's FAR from representative. As nearly every rehearsal studio, every teenage 'my first band' and many many hard working professional players will attest, Ashdown is doing just fine. I bet they could retire everything apart from whatever the MAG line is called now and they could probably all live quite comfortably. God knows they've sold more bass amps that I ever will.

Wow, what a singer !

I gassed for a Pino for ages. Then back last year I got this Squier Classic Vibe and it all went away!

Just think how much more successful this would have been if it was in English.

Yes, the question was is it good. Your main argument seems to be about commercial success, which is something else entirely.

And "Don't just walk off showing me the old pencil sharpener, damn you!" 😁 Was it Mark Twain who said: If your cat could speak, he probably wouldn't speak to you. 😥

He's got a picture in his attic, you know.

Especially hitchhiker's. Keeping them is definitely frowned upon.

At a yearly festival, a guitar stand with my name at it, we got invited back the following year...and there it was on the stage!!!

The drummer

While it's tough to distil Jamerson's genius into a list, here are some things that I love about his line on 'What's Going On' (which is, as an aside, I think one of the greatest recorded parts of all time). Jamerson had complete mastery over the following areas: 1. Chord tones 2. Chromatic approaches (aka 'enclosures'). It's jazz, but not as we know it. 3. 16th-note syncopation 4. Being so drunk during tracking that he had to lie down on the floor (if the legend is to be believed) Out of all of these, I find myself most inclined towards working on number 4 when practice time allows.

I suppose so, at the risk of being unpopular. Firstly, until a few months ago, when I discovered Scott Devine's instructional videos on YouTube, I'd never even heard of Jaco, so I had to look him up on YouTube to see what Scott's massive man crush was all about. I have to say I've never heard so much pretentious, noodling noise pollution in my life. I just don't get it, and I don't think I ever will. That's not to deny he's a good (some would say great) bass player. I suppose if it's your kind of thing then that's great. That's what I meant about living on a different planet. If that's your kind of thing I just can't relate to it at all. Someone vocally scatting the bass line certainly does nothing to improve it to my ear. I only managed to stand about 20 seconds of it. Rather than "captivating" as described in the original post, I found it unbearably irritating. I think I'd rather listen to roadworks. Again if that's your kind of thing then great, but again I may as well be on another planet.

She wasn’t actually! She plays occasionally (Rocksmith) but she’s abit of a gear head like me, likes looking at different brands and luthiers work. I’ve taught her well, lady has good taste I must say!

Yep, that Ibanez is FUBAR. Send it to me and I will dispose of it for you. No, don’t thank me.

I may be incapacitated for a while...

Hmm... Not too bad; I think it's reparable. Did you leave it next to a microwave or something..? Should be more careful in future. Good luck with the refin.

Mine have sort of ended up with names. My 66 is called #1 because it is my favourite and it differentiated it from the 4 other sunburst/rosewood Precisions I had. The 71 isn't named. The 72 is called the Wreck because it looks as though Rory Gallagher must have owned it. The fretless has no name and the two incoming SVLs will be Hannah and Emily. The names will be on the neck plates and that's mainly so that my daughters know which is theirs when they are inherited.

I couldn't resist doing a quick mockup..... 😀

He is quite shy with people he doesn't know (certainly was when we first met) and so I wouldn't think any the less of him for it. I've probably told this on here before but it's the coolest guitar story I know. When we were recording Pretty Things album, DG loaned Richard Taylor a lovely Gibson J200. The story went that Gibson had made 90 for their top players and dealers. For some reason DG didn't get one and so Phil Taylor (his tech) made contact with Gibson, who made a 91st. That's when you know you've arrived!!

My daughter is singing in this on Friday. So can't wait to see her on stage at the O2

With an ABM or one of the newer Rootmasters? Eude

I think this statement sums up the entire debate. Fender aren’t trying to trick musicians into thinking this unit is a Kemper or a Helix. Or a Zoom multi. They sit in a totally different portion of the market.

Clipping isn't a cut-out, it's distortion; as the Wikipedia section you quote says: The extra signal which is beyond the capability of the amplifier is simply cut off, resulting in a sine wave becoming a distorted square-wave-type waveform. In other words what you hear with clipping is your max level signal with the top cut off the wave-form, which, depending on the amp/speaker can either sound terrible, damage the speaker or, in the case of valves etc, can sound like overdrive... The square wave is effectively the sum of many harmonics of the original tone - all that extra high-frequency harmonic content is what causes the damage. Personally I prefer any overdrive to be produced by something that's designed to produce overdrive!

They also make really good beer, right? 😄

The Eich is so small that it fits into my gig back front pocket without me noticing. I knew I had the cavalry behind me, if I needed it in the interval. 😂 Here's a shot from that gig!

DG is just completely awesome. It's great that both him & Roger are getting knee-deep in trying to make a difference (whether you agree with some of the causes or not).

You guys are quick to judge, and a bit harsh IMO - a vox pop at a trade show isn't ever going to be much good - it's noisy, the interviewee is often unprepared, tired, asked the wrong questions. The pedals may not have been fully launched yet with demos etc, maybe they were rushed into prototypes for the show and a full release will follow - they might be really good?! Wait and see. It's a bit of a shame to see so many people ready to shoot down one of our own UK brands.

I like those funny foreign songs where the bloke with the beard sings 'Boom Bang a Bang' and then the pretty lady bends over. Or something. Usually Dutch or German

Anything from £5 plus a drink to £500 plus expenses. A lot more information required - Type of band, Type of gig, Size of venue, Size of band, Playing level of band, (keen amateur, dad rock, semi pro, pro) How much you would guess they're being paid, How far away it is, How long you'll actually have to spend hanging around at the venue (can be a problem with weddings and functions) How much rehearsal time (if any) required, How much you'd like to do the gig (prestige, possibility of permanent position, other musos in the audience looking for a bass player) That'll do for a start... 🙂

No but we once named our guitarist’s guitars for him. He had two identical Fret-King Esprits, a white one and a black one. He also liked to drink whisky so we named them Whyte and Mackay. Whyte was the black one. Obviously.

My cat must think he has several names, including "Don't just lick the gravy off". Basses - the thing that makes it unique (so the Dean 10-string is referred to as "the 10-string" but the Warwick fretless is "the Warwick fretless"). Bikes - the model name, except that my Triumph Tiger 800XRx is called Tigger sometimes.

A stuffed owl, left behind at The Barton Arms in Birmingham. The landlady kept it on the bar and I collected it the next day as I was lucky enough to be back in the city for a meeting. She bollocked me for scaring the cleaner....

No. Nor do I refer to cars or basses as “she”.

Dang, My own petard just went off in my face. I've been righteously pantsed by Skank. It is hard to think of a greater honour sir.

One thing that consistently baffles me is the 'either/or' mentality I see from people. 'Punk/whatever is great, prog/whatever is crap', or vice versa. I love Yes, Floyd and Genesis. I love The Beatles and ABBA. I love the Stranglers, The Pistols and the Damned. I love Ellington and Basie. To use someone's earlier example, I love both Never Mind the Bollocks and Bat Out of Hell. Why does it always have to be one or the other?