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Sad about the band's cancelling. But it could have been worse. You could have actually gone to Butlins. Don't know about the Minehead one. But the Skegness one is like a holding pen for the Jeremy Kyle show.

From left: bitsa 63’ replica, classic 50’(olympic white refin) avri 63, road worn (body refin)

Just had this delivered by our resident gear tart Karl to my hotel room in Newcastle. Blown away by the bass and Karl's 50 cash back to buy the strings of my preference. What a diamond geezer.

Of course the other big price fix/anti-competitive policy is that to stock Fender (or Gibson) retailers have to buy a minimum (but large) value of stock, effectively locking out small local music shops from stocking new Fenders as the entry price is too high for them to afford. It also means the medium sized outlets would have to choose between Fender and Gibson with only the biggest outlets able to afford to stock both. Either way the chance most of us have of going in and trying instruments and comparing them and then being able to shop around is highly constrained. In the meantime both companies only need to service a limited no. of outlets who effectively become main dealers tied to policies controlled by Fender. Fining American companies is an interesting policy, I wonder if Mr Trump knows about it? If only there were some sort of Europe wide trading association we could be part of.

Livin’ on a Prayer is far from being crap. It’s a masterclass in commercial Rock songwriting, structure, performance and production.

Just spent 10 minutes watching this, about my favourite drummer. Some quite nice things said about him by his old mate Bernie Marsden. Worth a watch, it always struck me how he could swing, but still be Cozy Powell, a talented man.

Took a pleasant drive in the sun to chez @Clarky this morning in order to relieve said gentleman of his ACG Recurve 4 short scale. After a buffing with some carnauba wax it’s looking lovely in the afternoon sun, unlike me. This takes my count of @skelf instruments to two, it doesn’t stop there does it..?

We’ve tested the hell out of the production version over the past week so as to get the truest accurate figures. Essentially peak/burst ratings are irrelevant in the real world so we test for what the amp will produce all day long hence continuous power, it actually peaks at around 265 watts but when measuring the true RMS before clipping it will produce 196 watts happily into a 4ohm load and 140 into 8ohm. Hope that helps...

And a great bass line to play.

Jean-Michel Jarre, Equinoxe. The album that first got me into listening to music, hearing my best friend's brother playing it when it first came out. It is unknown if Jarre used roundwound or flatwound mains cables on the bass synths.

Good call on the Markbass Alain Caron. As second choice, I'd be considering a Fender Rumble 500.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm leaning towards keeping my cabs in the house having read all your comments. Luckily I have a couple of step kids that I can put in the garage instead. Problem solved! 😼

Shiny Shiny...I’m worse than a magpie 🙄

Allow me to correct that.

Awesome, been getting into Rainbow recently and Cozy Powell’s drums were great.

So would I. If I'd paid for the tickets and accommodation that is. What you going to do instead, @police squad? Watch TV?

HAHAHA!! I'm so going to use that one at work!! 🤣

Amen to that. You'd think Bugera were the only company with a marketing department. I respect other people's right to mention the 2000w figure whenever it is discussed, of course I do. For myself it could say on the box it is made in outer space by the Clangers and I could not possibly care less.How does it sound, is it reliable, is it loud enough, how bulky and heavy is it? The only questions I have for this or any other amp. Ok, maybe how pretty is it too!

I’d still go. I don’t know who any of the bands are, still might be a good weekend though, and the scenery around there is spectacular, it’s worth going just for that.

I've just got a Fender Rumble 500 for my return to gigging phase of life. Bloody marvellous it is... and light.

I hope there are a few more entries. I couldn't vote for just one of the above , I'd vote for them all !! Excellent stuff peoples !

Don't mention that at check-in, tho... ☹️

IMO there's no such thing as a crap song with an interesting bass line.

Of course what was I thinking

Well they won't be doing that again in a hurry then!

Uh oh, I’m in trouble. A five string medium scale P/J for under £300?

Black guitars are best for metal.

This is what GK suggest as well.

There is a saying, buy your second bass first. Many people get a cheaper bass as a starter, and upgrade to a better bass quite quickly. If you jump straight to that second bass you'll probably find it's easier to play and will sound better, which should inspire you to improve as a player. Well that's the theory! Then again, you will definitely find better deals in the classifieds.

I'm not a small chap and have fairly large hands but I find short scale basses really comfy to play. One of my current team is a Squier VM Mustang and I'd say if you can find one of these snap it up as they are very nice indeed, as long as you don't mind a fairly narrow neck. A previous owner had swapped the pickup for a Nordstrand NM4 and it sounds absolutely lovely, from a deep thud with the tone rolled off to a biting gnarly sound with the tone full on. So, yes, Mustangs can sound nice and growly. Here is an old clip of the average White Band with Hamish playing a gnarly sounding Mustang. He isn't a small guy either. On Ebay at the moment I noticed there are two Squier Vista Series Musicmasters for sale. One of them over-priced, one pretty reasonable. By Squier standards they aren't cheap but these Vista Series Musicmasters are a one of those jewels in the Squier back catalogue and very nice indeed. They have particularly growly pickups, proper adjustable bridge with a string through option and a wider neck. At one point I had a '79 Fender Musicmaster that I'd modded with a P pickup, one of these Vista series and a Squier VM Mustang, I'd say the Vista was the pick of the bunch. Sold them all, of course, when I moved to 5 string basses, now edging back to 4 string short scale again....

never tried. But as long as the part dosent get too hot it shouldnt matter. 3D printing by its very nature uses thermoplastics that melt "controlably" with heat. but it should be able to take a polish. a common finnish on ABS is to give it an acetone vapour path that smoothes out the surface which is usefull, but you loose some dimensonal controll. i have used TPLA for the pickup cover however.

Thanks Yes - Spector, this one:

I’d say get the instrument you felt most comfortable with. I learned on a short scale bass and it wasn’t a problem moving to regular scale so I wouldn’t have too many concerns in that area. The instrument you gel with best will make learning so much easier.

Printed another. Right way up. Worked better. More consistent finnish on the visual side. Less processing required.

I had exactly the same experience, singer said ‘bring your Fender next time’. I tooK the Ric and kept taking the Ric, because in a 3-piece it worked way better than the Precision.

Rehearsal number 2 with Behringer x32 and most of the band with IEM's. I upgraded to the se535 (from the se 215) and wow what a difference. Fantastic bass response. Super happy with my mix now. The ipad was a big help as well. First big test is a theatre gig in April with some smaller gigs beforehand, so I think we'll have it nailed by then. Also, the first time I've let go of the edge of the pool and used only my tech 21 bass driver as my "amp". Worked great.

As the owner of a pest control business I should probably point out that we have never seen so many field mice as we have this year. We have been inundated with calls from people who are finding mice in garages, lofts, outbuildings etc. I'd be wary about keeping expensive gear anywhere where mice can get to it. They do love a good chew.

Update at the end of the tour: I flew to Vienna with the bass in a Hiscox hard case and it was totally fine! 😊

Should have hit them with the full whack £14 million fine and jailed the heid man. I'm sick of companies in this country taking the p!$$ and getting away with it.

I play both a P and a Mustang. First thing I’d ask is whether you’ve played both on a strap when testing? Standing up and feeling the difference in the scale length and the difference the extra ‘reach’ that playing a P will bring may direct you to your answer. in terms of price, there’s a beauty of a Vintera Mustang on here, unless it’s sold in the last few days, for less than £500.