Gareth Hughes

I'm a lefty playing righty. Probably answers a lot of questions.

Hey folks - quick message to the folks that emailed me today: I'll pass all your details on in the morning and reply to you then. It's 2:29am and I'm beat. Thanks for writing in.

I vote superglue!!! (And yes, I did jokingly change my mind on this on Clarky's double bass related thread). I nearly lost the tip of my left hand middle finger when I leant up against the corner of a fire door as it was closing, splitting my fingertip from one side of the nail to the other. I could pop it up to see the nice stump of my finger bone. Nice. Had a weekend of gigs a few days later. Girlfriend at the time bandaged it up with plenty of antiseptic. This was in 1998 - as far as I remember I just played everything, minus using my middle finger, as best I could. I vaguely recall my middle finger was bandaged to my third finger to stop it flailing about. So my vote is superglue, and try to avoid using your middle finger.

A relatively cheap alternative is a Boss LS-2, though you'll lose the phase option. A more expensive, and more flexible, alternative is the Xotic X-Blender. It has a lot more options than the Barge, such as an EQ on the FX loop, but it sure is pricey. Edit - I have an LS-2 so I'll give the Mulitdrive a spin later to see if it's on the right phase or not.

Yep, as far as I know they've ceased production - which is a damn shame. They made great products, and are good people too. Geoff Bryant, the main guy there, went out of his way to hand deliver two pedals to me at my hotel in New York - and this was in the middle of some very trying personal times, which could well have been a factor in their demise. Barge had also moved production to Long Island City from Brooklyn, around about the summer of 2008 - just as the recession was kicking off, so that could also have been a contributing factor. So if you see any of their pedals, they're very much worth getting. I have the VB-jr, an RC-2 compressor and a GLZ boost/variable impedance buffer. All good stuff - and all with north face mounted jacks which helps save on the pedal board space.

[quote name='Clarky' post='1291546' date='Jul 3 2011, 10:22 PM']I swallowed them first[/quote] Ok - well, that raises some serious questions as to how you got those blisters in the first place..........

But that's easy - you just hold your falsies like they're a pick.

Lightweight

Bought a Wren&Cuff Phat Phuk B from Theo - arrived quickly and in mint condition as described. Good man to deal with. And a Genuine Fiend too!!!

Just to add that I ran my EBS Multidrive into my Barge Concepts VB-jr blend pedal last night for the first time and LOVED it. Was a great way to vary the ratio of overdrive/clarity/high-end without altering the Multidrive pedal itself. As the VB-jr only has the one blend knob this was easy to do with my foot mid-song. Me likeeeee a lot.

What about putting the EBS in a blendable loop to bring back some of your high end?

[quote name='Ross' post='1287353' date='Jun 30 2011, 09:42 AM']My jap ones are fixed units, like the peg was fixed to the plate by two bands which went through the plate, I couldn't see any way to remove the pegs and turn them round when I had them off for polishing.[/quote] +1 to this. I have a set that haven't been installed. From looking at them the only way to reverse the tuner part is to open the two band and then reclose them. I'd imagine this would take a fair bit of effort and you might not get them closed as tight as you'd like.

Bought an EBS Multidrive from Paul that arrived today, packaged well and just as described - mint. Excellent bloke to do business with.

Have a look at Italia straps: [url="http://www.italiastraps.com/guitar-straps-uk.html"]http://www.italiastraps.com/guitar-straps-uk.html[/url] They do a 4-inch wide one that is VERY comfortable and really helps take the weight off your shoulder. With the adjustable bit in the highest slot and a new hole punched into the top of it, you'd have your chin resting on the bass. And they have a two for one offer on. Bigwan here bought two, one of which is now mine. All in it cost him $85 delivered to his front door.

Nice one. Good to read a little bit of bass history. A mate of mine has a Skunkworks Ampeg, bout in LA many years ago when he lived there. Now residing in sunny Belfast, it needs a little bit of TLC too.

Sold an ACG Preamp to Spree - all went well. Lovely guy to do business with.

Screw it - DON"T BURST THEM!!!!!! I hate being the odd one out. [b]ESPECIALLY[/b] amongst bass players. How ironic.

I think Barge stopped. I met Geoff Bryant of Barge Concepts a few years ago when he very kindly delivered a few pedals to my hotel in New York. Really nice guy. He was in the middle of some very trying times with family members on their way out. This was in the summer of 2008 and they were just about to relocate to Long Island. I get the feeling they were sadly another victim of the recession. BUT - they sure did make some amazing pedals. I have a VB-jr Blender, a GLZ boost/variable impedance buffer and an RC-2 Compressor. All great and very useful pedals.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='1283316' date='Jun 26 2011, 08:28 PM']...so the longer the blister fluid is in contact with the skin underneath...[/quote] I do agree with this wholeheartedly - BUT (prepare to block) - that's the crux of the issue here: if one wants to play the bass in any kind of normal fashion then those blisters are gonna burst and leave such a nasty mess on the fingerboard, so my suggestion is more a 'just get it over and done with' approach. (oooooo - straight to the ribs) HOWEVER - I did gloss over the fact that Clarky's next rehearsal isn't for a full weekend, thus giving his blisters ample time to keep that fluid in contact with the ever forming callous' beneath (Ladies and Gentlemen - did you see that!?!?!?!, a boxing own goal, Gareth has knocked himself out!!!!!.....10....9...8....7......)

Bust the blisters, superglue the skin and smile. If the skin needs ripping off, you can still go down the superglue route, but that will require more smiling. If it all gets too much, you can try playing with the area between your finger tip and second knuckle, with your fingers pointing towards the ground (look at Ron Carter for this). I literally have a callous that runs from my fingertip to my main knuckle. All fun and games.