Matt P

Have you had a look through the Tutors available section? it might be worth posting a request there, I see a couple of North-west based listings, definitely worth going past the first couple of pages as well. https://www.basschat.co.uk/forum/26-tutors-available/ Matt

i was playing for about 10 years before i had any lessons (i started as a g******t and did have lessons when i was starting out) I had weekly lessons and within about a month my bandmates noticed the difference, i continued for a good few years and only stopped when kids came along and i had less time (and a brief period without a job) Find a teacher that you gel with and explain what you want to learn, If i'd gone for online lessons i doubt I'd have put in the practice required and it would have all been a waste of money YMMV obviously, i found that as i was paying for the in-person time every week i was far more motivated to practice. don't worry about the kit you have, IMO getting good technique is more important than how fancy/expensive your kit is, provided it's well enough set up you can learn on any modern bass, the quality of budget instruments is amazing compared to how it was 20 years ago. Matt

I'm hoping for a flame throwing keytar and a 1000 Furby backing group. Matt

I bought Brian's Zoom B3, it was carefully packaged and dispatched very quickly. a totally painless and enjoyable transaction Thank you Matt

I've not tried the v2 but I had the v1 for a while and I found I couldn't dial in the sound I wanted at a low enough volume, it was just far too much for me and I went back to my markbass f1, I've now swapped to a eich t-900 and even though it's supposed to be nearly double the watts it's still easier to dial in my sound. I really wanted to love it but I guess I'm just not an orange amp person. Matt

when i bought my Denon TU-260L the guy in cash converters said it wasn't worth plugging it in to test as they never got signal in the shop, I plugged it in anyway and even without an aerial i got the bbc radio stations loud and clear, possibly the best £20 i spent. I upgraded to a TU-1800 a while back which adds DAB as well, just using a fairly inexpensive aerial from john Lewis It works brilliantly. quite a few of the DAB tuners i've come across have got pass through connections on the back so you can plug the FM tuner into the DAB, and then the DAB into the amp, when the dab is off then it just passes the FM straight through, doesn't need an extra amp channel. Matt

paging @Andyjr1515 the control cover on my swift is held on with magnets, I'm guessing he could point you to where they were bought from (it works very well on my bass) Matt

I bought a camera from Tom and it was a great experience throughout, packed and posted the same day and arrived in perfect condition. thanks Matt

Another vote for the Eich T-900, I've only had a couple of hours of practice with mine but it's impressive and will be seeing my Markbass out of the door. Matt

Have you considered a Thorens TD-160? Visually similar to the Linn (even more so with an aftermarket solid wood plinth) and uses a very similar sprung chassis design (in fact the Thorens turntable design predates the Linn) the Thorens turntables are very well regarded but sell for far less then the LP-12. I've split the difference and have one of each, the Thorens for 33rpm duties and a NAD 533 (rebadged Rega 2 with a different platter) for 45rpm. the money i've not spent on a fancier turntable has been spent on more records and replacement stylii / cartridges. Matt

when i was looking through richer sounds many of the amps under £1000 had bass and treble controls (as well as balance), it might be worth a trip to a shop to try them out, you might find that one of them suits you. (many of these were from well known and respected manufacturers) the trend seems to be towards adding features (DAC/bluetooth etc) though so maybe the mid control will make a comeback? the one linked above doesn't look like a decent quality item to me, it seems a bit too close to the super budget 12v amps that flood ebay etc, they often add tone controls as a feature to try and make up for other shortcomings (power and sound quality) when i was shopping for my amp i was looking for one with virtually no features other than plenty of inputs, I needed something with no phono stage (I already had 2 decent ones i wanted to use) and i needed a tape loop and enough inputs for 2 turntables,a cd and a tuner as well. The Musical Fidelity one i bought was the only one under 1000 that met my needs, luckily it sounds excellent. some integrated amps i've seen have a physical connection on the back between the pre and the power stages, this would allow you to fit the graphic in without losing the tape loop (i'm not sure if this is still a thing though) Matt

@PaulWarning from a quick scan through richer sounds it looks like mid controls are no longer a thing. Maybe a pre-power setup with the eq in between them? Matt

@bass_dinger for cartridges my current sensibly priced favourite is audio technica, the vm95 range is great value and all the stylus versions fit on the same body, so you can start with the cheapest conical one and then upgrade as far as you want, I'm using the elliptical one on my nad turntable and am very pleased with it. Audio technica The conical option is is about thirty quid and I think the elliptical is about fifty. I have generally avoided aftermarket stylii, once the supply of genuine oem options runs out I will swap to a more modern design anyway. Matt

if i'd seen that bass in a shop i'd have not given it a second look and assumed it was a B-grade instrument. I'm not surprised with the reaction from GuitarGuitar in Newcastle, I've given up even going in (and it's now the only music shop in the city centre) on the few occasions i've popped in, every time with the intention of buying something the attitude of the staff has been awful, on one occasion i went in looking for an acoustic amp, with a 2k guitar in my hand and a budget up to 1k and they just seemed to have no interest in helping me at all. the Newcastle shop seems to be an exception for guitarguitar, the reports i've heard about their other shops have usually been pretty favourable, at some point i'm going to go and try the Edinburgh and Glasgow stores. Matt