Rayman

Support home grown businesses, buy from Strings Direct for example, pay a little more, but get genuine products and customer service. I would also highly recommend Newtone strings. Order in advance as it takes a little while to make them and send them out. Also, IMO, don’t buy from Mr Bezos. I have, twice, both times the strings were fake.

Yep, mine were extremely sticky and a pain to use. Now they’re not.

In case you didn’t know (many already do), I highly highly recommend putting “Thrust Bearings” onto your tuning screws….. it massively improves the tuning accuracy and ease of use. Many already know, but in case you don’t, it cost a couple of quid, and is a game changer.

Trouble is with elderly parents, the child has to grow up and take over the responsibilities, as the parents regress into a childlike state…. both mine did anyway, maybe it isn’t the same for everyone. Also my brother didn’t cope well with it all. So I definitely felt like I had to toughen up and support everyone, even though I was the youngest. Similar with my mate in many ways, I definitely became his big brother as best as I could. You’re right though, you still have to think about your own state of mind, and talk to loved ones about the whole thing, something I’m crap at. I definitely hold it all in.

I hear you. Yes, it’s a sign of our age I guess. All the best to you matey.

My mum died from Dementia Jan 2nd, and it basically kicked off an extremely traumatic 2025. I had a knee replacement in Feb, which was way harder that I thought it would be. My best pal declined rapidly after a two year battle with cancer and lost the fight in October. We buried him in November. Our drummers wife had a heart attack. Their little granddaughter found her on the floor, and remarkably the emergency services saved her, but she’s been left with severe brain trauma and is a shadow of what she was. But she’s alive thankfully. I dunno man, this year…. I for one will be glad to see the back of it. As always, stuff like this makes you think…. do the stuff you want to do, be with the ones you love, live every day to the max…. You know.

Ahh understood, I didn’t know that. Obviously I knew this one was passive, but I didn’t know the other models were all active. Interesting, I’d like to try one now. This ATK100 is more akin to the MM Joe Dart 1, I would think, it’s definitely that kind of vibe. Anyway back to the OP, definitely interested in trying one.

I have a MIJ ATK100. Absolutely great bass, very old school, very light and currently wearing flats, lovely thing. Low output, and honestly nothing at all like a Stingray. No idea if the 200 or other models are different in terms of that, and mine is the most basic version, but it definitely doesn’t sound like a ‘ray. Really great bass though, and definitely has its own vibe going on.

So I bought one of these wondering what all the hype was about….. I’m still wondering to be honest? It’s decent for guitar I guess, but bass? The presets are ok at best, and I’ve come up with a couple of my own modulation variations, but I’m a bit underwhelmed by it so far? I’m old, and haven’t really delved into NAMs and IRs etc…. (I actually didn’t know what that meant), so I’m wondering weather this thing might not be my bag…. maybe some Xmas experimenting might make it grow on me.

We played there last week, absolutely superb venue!!

I brought out the Meteora last night for our last one of the year, via my regular gigging amp head now, a highly portable TCBQ500 into a house cab. Great sound on stage on off, great job by the sound man. Super loud and nice and clear too. Good crowd and a great little venue, awesome parking and access, backstage area and kitchen, definitely looking forward to coming back. The Meteora is such a fantastic bass, I need to use it more.

Yep, I went to their “factory” unit in Knutsford in Cheshire many years back. Interesting visit, not a big outfit at all, much like Ashdown in Essex, another surprisingly small facility, although Ashdown are looking to expand into surrounding factory units last I heard. Our old bass player used Ohm for years via an Aria ZZ bass, decent sound I seem to remember, although it was 40yrs ago.

I’ll jump in on this too. I’m 61, and I’m still fronting an original heavy rock band, the same band I joined in 1982. Were recording a new album and it’s sounding absolutely awesome, very pleased with it, and live were better than ever. My voice is still holding up, and young people who come to see us love the stuff, it’s old school, like their dads listen to, and it goes down pretty well. THAT SAID…….. a month ago, my best pal lost his battle with cancer. He was 59 and an amazing metal guitarist. I helped lower him into the ground to the sound of “Where were you?” By Jeff Beck. In January, my mum died. No great surprise, but still, you know. In February our drummers wife had a heart attack and died for 10 minutes. Somehow, they revived her and she survived, but unfortunately with severe brain damage, so he has his hands full looking after her. The band, keeps him sane. My point. If you’re young and you’re reading this, be all you can be. Take nothing for granted, don’t waste time being miserable, do the things that make you happy, with the people that make you happy, play music, love music, all music, and most of all, KICK ASS. If you’re old and reading this, all of the above also applies to you, x2. F*** getting old.

I like him too, but I wish he’d just wind it in a bit. The crass punkesque attire is a bit irritating, but, it gets him noticed, so job done there I guess. I like the fact that he isn’t a virtuoso, there’s too many of them on YT already.

Nice…. Interested to see how that went. I’m big time into fretless at the moment, just not sure I could pull off a whole set on one.