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There's always been all girl bands! There's always been all boy bands! There's always been bands with boys and girls! Is anyone really bothered about it? Is this really an issue?

Just had a look on the website and it's showing the wrong time and date; I'd prefer one that actually works for that sort of money.

I had one, it was useless. You quickly tire of being told the time is 1:vision Got coat, off I go.

So I took this today as part for a deal from one of my favourite independent guitar shops for my Thunderbird, Geddy Lee Jazz and some guitar bits I moved on. It's a new 2021 American Pro ii Jazz Bass in Dark Night but as it has a rosewood fingerboard rather than the standard maple board, it's a limited edition run. I much prefer rosewood boards on Jazz basses, so it suits me just fine. It's a lovely weight (8lbs 14oz) and plays really well. I'm not really a Jazz Bass fan as the ergonomics don't work for me but it was a compelling deal. I won't unwrap it as such as I may well move it on imminently. It's a very striking colour scheme and the built quality is excellent as it has been on the other American Pro II's I've seen.

The notifications and the slow postings are two sides of the same issue. The posting accesses a list of people who are waiting for a notification to notify them that something has changed. For some reason that is failing. Either to do with the update or a problem when the server ran out of space, I currently don't know but hopefully I can find out soon!

OK I know some of you think that neodymium is the devil's magnetic but really it's just a way of making more powerful magnets or the same magnets in a smaller lighter way. Until a few years ago lightweight speakers were falling in price and becoming more and more common then the Chinese who produced most of the neodymium started an evil plan to build windmills and electric cars and cornered the market for the neo they were in fairness producing. Other countries have now opened their own mines and the neo availability has eased but neo speakers are still frighteningly expensive. A few years ago I bought a Deltalite for £66 it is now £200, almost as good as Bitcoin Now I picked up in New Scientist that a new technique for extracting Rare Earth Elements including neo from industrial waste has been developed which may have solved the speaker magnet problem. To be fair it may also save us from global warming through all those windmills and energy efficient motors but I digress. Basically the technique is to release all the REE's including neo by electrically sintering industrial waste from power stations and mining. The ash from power stations produced each year contains around 3.75 million tonnes of Rare Earths and the most recent figure I could find for REE consumption was 19,000tonnes in 2018. The new extraction process cuts the cost of extraction by 90% compared with conventional mining. So there you go, it's profitable, cuts our need to r*pe the planet with mines and potentially brings down the cost and availability problems of speaker magnets (and windmills) Rare earth metals are also used in the manufacture of electronics so expect even more of the devil's amplification. It's no accident we call it class D. PS I read this so you don't have to Rare earth elements from waste https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm3132

Congratulations to @SH73 who delivered a fine tune to grasp the January challenge win from a fine set of entries. As was his privilege, he chose the following image for the February inspiration. Apparently only built especially for the occasion , purely to satisfy the insatiable Basschat choonsmithery Please choose up to 3 of your favourites out of this tidy bunch 1 @Dad3353 Suspense, suspense. There's Willy the chimp, hanging on; will he let go, to Panda to the whims of the Mock Turtle..? Not Mushroom for manoeuvre; he may get the Bird, or just stay planted there. Anyway, here's my clip... 2 @NickD So what is he up there for, and what can he see? I've been doing tons of walking bass recently, while getting to grips with upright. The electric bass track on here was going to be a placeholder to be replaced with EUB, but it sounds good (to my cloth ears) as it is, so I decided to leave it. 3 Lurksalot Its a bit of a story about Lego I guess, with of course a hefty reliance on some license on pronunciation . 4 @Nicko The little red and white toadstool in the bottom left of the photo looks like a Fly Agaric mushroom (Amanita Muscaria) which is hallucinogenic (as well as being poisonous) which fits quite nicely with the rest of the photo, so I have adopted a theme of a substance induced dream. I couldn't decide whether to do vocals or an instrumental so I ended up with a halfway house - somewhere between indie funk and an Oompah Loompah song. 5 @Nail Soup Had to be the panda. I went with the 'pander' pun, and made the song about not pandering to big-heads who think they know best. Important note: It's not aimed at anyone on Basschat, where great advice is modestly given of course! 6 @Leonard Smalls Started with lots of percussion, got a keys riff going, added some big guitars, then a pumpinslappy bass thing. After that, a final roll in glitter and 3 coats of varnish. It's not jazz, but it probably is an oddity! 7 @Doctor J A reflection of the superficiality of modern plastic society where little is of substance and little pandas stand beside big toadstools, probably taking selfies. 8 @upside downer This is a jaunty little number with a sense of childlike swagger to it. I needed some small people to help me out so I got three of the grandchildren on vox to add to the vibrant feel that I hope the tune conveys. I don't think it's too sickly sweet but even if it is they had some quite splendid fun yelling into the microphone so all's good. 9 @skankdelvar "It ain't what I've done, it's what they done to me" At the time of going to press these are the contenders ....ed to add 10 @SH73 Monkey in the Jungle (or is it?) 11 @AndyTravis my first go at this Thought process is that the little monkey in the tree is happy to play, the panda is worried about destruction of habitat…as he/she is on the ground and can see what’s really going on… Should be apparent which passage is which… ”ignorance is bliss” Have a bit of fun with a listen to these , some serious some not so , but all excellent 3 votes to play with deadline will be midnight on Monday 28th

Beg to differ...

Saw this ad on Facebook. See near the end.

According to the guy at Guitarguitar in Birmingham when I was looking at them they were selling as many in that colour as all the other colours put together. Nice to see Fender being a bit braver with the colour options.

All over, and the prices don't always reflect the quality.

In this country, such an ad may, in certain contexts, be illegal, as falling foul of the Equality Act.

Maybe they no cry?

Has anyone clocked this yet

Took the 415 tonight, absolutely killed it.

Yes, I was referring to the OP and the second poster, who both spelt his name incorrectly (and differently).

Yes he is. I'd say he was the best punk bassist of the time.

Here you go: 1958 P Not impossible, just a bit pricey.....

I tried one in that exact colour but ended up going for the ultra instead. I certainly didn’t find it lacking bottom end either. Build quality is superb and the colour is very popular so should be easy to move on if you choose to.

Well imo, you don’t know if your going to get on with a bass until you live with it for a while, if you buy or trade sensibly you can always move it on without too much if any loss , if you don’t try you’ll never know 🙂

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Am I the only one disappointed that this isn't a live feed of the Red Special to see what it gets up to next, akin to Springwatch?

There's a fair bit of bling for your 500 quid if you're into that sort of thing. Proceeds to the Freddie charity trust, so fair play.

"It ain't what I've done, it's what they done to me" Lyrics ↓

As a thin, white, 50 year old male, I was absolutely appalled that I wasn't given the chance to front a Lizzo tribute.

Here's my effort for February's challenge. This is a jaunty little number with a sense of childlike swagger to it. I needed some small people to help me out so I got three of the grandchildren on vox to add to the vibrant feel that I hope the tune conveys. I don't think it's too sickly sweet but even if it is they had some quite splendid fun yelling into the microphone so all's good. Recorded in glorious lo-fi with Wavepad and Audacity using violin bass, Epiphone Special guitar, Yamaha keys and Looperman drum samples.

Yes it could. 😁

I think the main point of the law is that there has to be a good reason for excluding one or more sections of the population from applying for a certain job. It works across the board, with race, gender, sexuality etc. I can live with that, without necessarily crying "woke".

I’m a 60-something bassist with 41 years in music education, a Masters from the University of North Texas, ands loads of experience playing country, rock, and jazz. I read really well, and have a great work ethic. I even take regular showers and, unlike here, try to keep my opinions to myself. All of my experience, however, is with American groups. I have no idea how things work for us semi-pro, weekend warrior types here in the U.K., and, more specifically, in East Anglia. I would love to get on folks’ radar like I was in the Midwestern U.S., but where to start? I’m playing with a band right now that may or may not get out of the practice room. I’d like to get around folks that are a bit more experienced. Any thoughts?

A friend sent me this to geek out on

Master of the Universe - Hawkwind

Even as some instruments have come and gone, I've always had a broad spread of types, styles and prices. [Purchasing second hand distorts the picture further, as many of my "cheaper" Basses were second-hand and more costly when new.] Oddly, it's been the more initially expensive instruments that have been sold on and replaced with less costly but arguably more suitable instruments, even if not directly. I think a lot of it is tied up in not knowing exactly what you want when you start out. As you progress, you refine your selection process to more accurately reflect your preferences, and this may not always lead to more expensive basses. Personally, I've never found a single bass that covers all the, uh.... bases, so variety is king.

Ah! I was debating whether to get a 5 string again, but in reality I would only have it for home use and felt unjustified. So, you may ask, what’s better than one Stingray Special? TWO! This one is yet lighter at 3.75kg (what amazing times we’re living in to have rays under 4kg!). A tad brighter on the treble side so this one will be out on gigs more often, the sparkle boy most rehearsals/videos/studio… I was for a moment thinking I better get a HH version but in fairness I find myself not needing more than one pickup, the preamp is super flexible…! Ander.

For sure, if making a focal/selling point over it. I know The Ramonas, great band and great girls, the concept really works imo, what I was meaning was if trying to get as near in looks to the original band as possible for a tribute then many people just don`t fit the look/image. I remember seeing Bjorn Again, and the look, sound, everything was great. I sadly never saw ABBA but they were as near as I think possible to be. It wouldn`t have been so good imo if they hadn`t looked so near to how ABBA had looked.

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The B6 landed today, and I had some time to wrestle with it this evening. As expected, it's a mixed bag of pleasant surprises and the foreseen problems with DSP and 6 slot maximum limitations. I'm late for bed, so I'll just say that this is the best sounding bass pedal I've heard out of Zoom, in terms of core sounds for drive pedals, preamps, amps, and cabinets (IRs). The DI selections flavors are very cool. With respect to the Atomic BassBox, I'll be doing some side-by-side listening to see what my ears tell me.

So I'm the end I kept this one and let my natural Stingray 5 Special go. I loved them both, so was happy to keep either one.

Slap on a fake beard and a deep voice, get rhe job, then reveal yourself halfway through the first gig.

That's because they don't want to show us up as the rank amateurs we are. If Mrs Rich set fire to some of hers, we'd have no windows. @Witters, please don't tell her I said that.

Horrible. I've seen oven door hinges that look better than that

I thought it would be worth bumping this to the top, as there are probably a lot of newer members who have not seen this brilliant resource and would possibly benefit from it.