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So, the Operational Assurance team I work on at PRS has just nailed one of our (now ex-)colleagues for financial fraud and sent him to prison for 2 years! Result Naughty boy.... he won't do that again, but it proves that my team do their job well 😉 https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/exopera-house-horn-player-stole-185000-in-royalties-for-home-revamp-a4287026.html

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We haven't really had any issues with control knobs being broken on the FlyRigs and dUg pedal etc. People have reported losing the knobs sometimes. The new PSA 2.0 is a pretty cool pedal, of course I'm a bit biased. I've messed with a proto here and at home and want to experiment with the midi aspect of the pedal when I get a chance.

I managed to snap up this VM5 the other week... I've never had a more playable 5 string and it's lighter than any 4 I've owned! Also spotted our friend Mark (Limelight/Classic & Cool Guitars) has got some new 'Stealth' VMs coming in that I thought looked pretty cool! Another VM4 on the way too... I've developed a slight habit!

Best? My RMI Boomslang Jive bass guitar. It caught my eye on eBay back in the Spring and it’s become my main gig bass. Punchy, aggressive Jazz Bass tones, faultlessly designed and built, and very light - I could wear it all night. That fact that it cost me just £190 topped off what is my favourite acquisition of the year. Worst? The Fender Downtown Express preamp that I bought, gigged once and returned. There was nothing wrong with it - the reviews and the YouTube demos impressed me but in practise I just didn’t like how it sounded. Disappointing.

Wait, so you got a bass with 3 knobs and one pup and he got a bass with 2 pups, 5 knobs AND some cash whilst leaving you thinking he's a bloody great bloke? 😁

That's got to be a simple one... it's on my set list for a start.

Best without question - my Dingwall Super PJ5. It’s so good that I’m very seriously considering placing a custom order with Dingwall for a Super J5 next year. My worst is probably the Future Impact pedal I owned briefly but didn’t get any use out of. This is zero reflection on the pedal itself which can create some excellent sounds - I simply didn’t put any time aside to get to grips with it and then life happened, requiring me to raise some funds. It fell onto the chopping block and a willing buyer snapped it up. I may well own one again, especially after the release of the latest firmware.

Best Brilliant seller, just love the thing. worst would absolutely own another in a heartbeat and it was a lovely bass (after a lot of work) The Guy I bought it from was vile and the experience totally cocked it up for me. Sold it at a loss.

Happy to get the ball rolling... My best purchase for the second year running has been a bass. I'm actually only one bass (net) up this year but there's been quite a churn in the Krow 'bassment' with 7 in and 6 out during the course of this year. A bit of close run thing between two basses for me, but I'm not going to go with the one that cost the most despite it being a wonderful piece of craftsmanship with a crystal clear tone, but the one that I can't put down and just love the look and feel of despite it having a 35" scale when I am much more used to 34", a 2-band EQ, when I much prefer 3-band and a lovely quilted maple top when I've never until now been into such a finish! I guess it's turned a number of preconceptions about basses on their head for me. And, ohhh, that punchy growl... My worst didn't hang around too long before it got moved on. I was told, in no uncertain terms, by a bunch of previous owners whose voices I really should have listened to that this particular pedal was pants. But I wanted to try it out for myself, ah the folly of age: my fellow BC'ers were not wrong in the meh-ness of this little wonder, which promises a lot but delivers so many of them so very disappointingly!

In Trance as Mission by Simple Minds. Another excellent Derek Forbes moment...

A crystal emblazoned jack for your custom lead. What everybody needs.

@GisserD Confession time... I've recently become a Sandberg Artist, and they knew what I was looking for, so the VM5 sort of got lost on the way to Bass Direct and ended up in my rack

Here's my recently acquired '62 RI, in the very tasty Candy Apple Red. Got it here from a fellow-mwmber - he had the stack pots fitted using a complete loom from 920D who do some really fine components. One of 3 Jazzes I have, this one has D'Addario rounds on (the other 2 with flats). It's so shiny and mint I dare not gig with it. I'll get a pic of the other 2 (a 2013 USA Standard and a '99 USA fretless)

Indeed, and you'd better have a red carpet handy. Let me know when and where and I'll let my driver know. Ideally the venue will have helicopter landing if possible.

Death Disco (or other Jah classics) - PIL

Time Is Tight, Green Onions - Booket T and the MG's Cocaine, Same Old Blues - JJ Cale Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Ball Of Confusion, My Girl - The Temptations

Why don't we just club together buy one and pass it on each month? After all we usually end up trading or selling everything with each other eventually 🤓

"Glory Box" by Portishead is one which particularly comes to mind. We do this with one of my bands and it's actually quite difficult to keep from tripping out when playing the same repeating riff for an entire song.

Here is Jet playing Nivram on a Musicman Stingray.

Can I just fix this item on the list... 3. @wrinkleygit, Jabba’s Semi Hollow Fretless (which will be in @Frank Blank’s corner probably whilst he has a punch up with @wrinkleygit that @Jabba_the_gut tries unsuccessfully to break up but is finally resolved when lunch is dished up which scuppers @Frank Blank’s plan to steal @wrinkleygit’s Jabba built fretless because @Frank Blank has eaten so many roast spuds he can no longer fit the bass inside his resolutely unfashionable dungarees which were specifically designed to enable the nefarious deed). ‘72 Gibson EB0, SWR Working Mans 10 combo & 1x10 ext cab & a set of h’phones. Both basses strung with Labella flats

I think that some people do try to work out what the lyrics mean, and others are just happy for the words to fit the tune. BJ and Cameron probably just said that they liked these bands 'cos they thought it'd make them sound cool, rather missing the socialist message behind the words.

Well, close enough to turquoise anyway! Nothing fancy here, just a Fender Player series Jazz in Tidepool, absolutely fell in love seeing the colour on a P bass in store, so I had to have a J in it. Excuse the crud photo, I was home late and more concerned with playing than photographing 😁 Quick setup done as the action was a bit high for me, but the relief seems spot on from the factory. On a related note, the pickups seem to be a bit low and aren't raising when loosening off the screws... I assume they probably just need a bit more foam sticking underneath, as the screws keep coming up but the pickups dont?

Modulus Flea/FU4 used to belong to @bassfan who’s a bloody great bloke. He took my Godlyke and cash to prize it out of his hands. I do miss that Godlyke. together, they could take over the world.

Nice little bass solo in this too 👍🏻

Walking Dancing In the Moonlight - Thin Lizzy

I bet these cabs would be a great basis for a Helix + power amp setup either with guitar or (of course) bass. In other news, my cab building journey has finally begun - although in a slightly disjointed way. I had managed to buy some poplar ply from Mike Walsh (Zoot bass) - who has stopped building the Purple Chili cabs to allow him to focus on building basses. He had a sheet or so of poplar ply left over, and sold me the ply with the basic cuts done for me. I moved house this year and have now (finally) got a lovely shed (albeit without lights and power yet) - but other priorities keep getting in the way (redecorating, rebuilding etc) that for some inexplicable reason according to other members of the household (ahem) should take precedence. Anyway, Mike has taken pity on me, and has offered to put the cabs together for me. I should stress that he is doing this as a favour to me - he is NOT going to make any of these cabs commercially, and doesn't have much left in the way of the poplar ply anyway. Stevie's flatpack kits are a much more sensible way to go! Mike has some odds and ends of hardware left as well, so there may be a couple of cosmetic differences (connector plate, different feet etc), but the important stuff (port, drivers, wadding etc) will be to Stevie's spec. The ply is going to be 12mm in the main (as that is what he had left), though with the baffle done in 15mm. I'd originally intended to do it in 12mm but with a 12mm baltic birch baffle, but since there was a bit of 15mm poplar available, then that will be used. Of course this also means that the dimensions of the panels will need slight adjustments. I had always intended to build a pair of cabs, but one is going to be without tweeter. Stevie has recommended that when used together, the tweeterless cab should have a low pass added at around 500Hz, so there is little or no interference between the two boxes. We'll see what happens there when we get further along the road.

Boss LMB-3 > Orange Burst overdrive > (Fender clip-on tuna). Them's the only two pedals I've got. And then only one at a time because I only have one 9v transformer. 😃

I bought 2 of those but not the comfiest straps i've had. I was suffering with an aching shoulder and hoped they might help but they didn't. I found the Gruv-gear strap to be far more comfy for long spells. I keep the mono straps for home use only. Maybe just down to individual preference tho Dave

Lemmy on "Space Ritual", and John Wetton in King Crimson.

TU-2, Okto-Nøjs, EHX Bass Clone, EBS Fuzzmo / Chowny Fuzzster, Palmer Bass Deepressor. Probably Dammit! Forgot the Microthumpinator. TU-2, Microthumpinator, Okto-Nøjs, EBS Fuzzmo, Palmer Bass Deepressor.

One of the first 'tricky' lines I ever got my head around. Only uses three frets, good workout for a newbie.

Nope - definitely bringing my video camera though 🙂

This:

Me and the band rockin Hellfest 3 in Blackpool`s Waterloo bar the other week and one from the Hard Rock cafe earlier on in the year. This might be our last gig as Laura our singer has knocked it on the head and finding another lady who can belt out AC/DC songs is proving rather difficult.

Nah, turns out it was a misprint. Hope that @Billy Apple had a nice couple of weeks in Crewe!

I listen to an awful lot of prog. I find lyrics are often cringeworthy and for me they get in the way a bit. I prefer the instrumental passages/tunes.

For me its at the Start. I want to clean up the low end so the other pedals have a better chance, so putting it first is better. Obviously we can put another at the end if needed as well, but at the levels i play at there is no real need for another one.

The OP was after Riffs though. Plodding single notes throughout the entire song doesn't shout 'RIFF' to me. Not a Bass per se but how about 7 nation army as a simple riff that takes up most of the song.

She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult Only as i was "forced" to learn this in the covers band

Ha. Then imagine the look on the face of this very young female attendant in the record shop back in '69 or thereabouts, when this nerdy looking 12-year-old me, after having listened to one side of Yes' eponymous album answered her question: "Did you like that record?" with a disappointed: "Nah. They sing too much..."

Lol @Frank Blank while you lot are scrapping I might just use the commotion as cover to scarper with @wrinkleygit's lovely bass. I'm bringing an empty case...

The more appropriate question is whether you should be banned or not. For asking if 42 is too old. 😂