fretmeister

The best bit about the video is showing that 15 inch cones do not have "a sound" and that they can be very very different. As much as I am a Mark Bass fan, their 15 inch cabs have always been a bit flubby. I did the common 151HF with the CSM 102p combo for quite a while and I never could et the EQ to work well with the 10 inch cones and the 15. Sounded much better with one or the other. Eventually I got a pair of MB 121 Club cabs instead and used them for a while. Two identical cabs = dead easy to EQ without a problem.

I have come to the conclusion that 99% of drive pedals were designed by someone using a P or J bass as their test instrument. Over the years I've had endless drive pedals and almost all of them sounded good with the controls at noon with a P or a J but needed a lot more work to sound like that with anything active. I don't know if it's a low impedance thing that EMGs and others have, or if the active nature is producing a wider frequency range or what, but I haven't come across a single pedal that was better with an active bass straight out of the box. It is definitely not just a signal strength thing as with an active bass lowering the volume usually results in keeping the frequency curve just at a lower level. That doesn't happen with a passive pickup. If it is true that most designers are using a P or J as the test bass then it is normal to assume the pedals would work best with those options. A designer would have to be mad not to use P and J due to the massive amount of users of those types, but I do wonder what would happen if they picked a Stingray or something as an exclusive test bass for a pedal.

BTW reviewed the Michael League signature model a little while ago.. Sounds nice... like any good P bass.

Well my T2 failure is an absolutely wonderful fuzz on guitar, and balls on the bass! 🤣 If it had a clean blend I think it would probably be very good though.

Tort anything ought to be considered a war crime so if I'm ever appointed as the head of the ICC that will get a lot of people in a lot of trouble. 10 years in the dilithium mines at least!

You could stick one of these in it: https://www.emgpickups.com/bass/accessories/btccontrol.html It's the smallest option. Treble and Bass on a single stacked control.

I’m a big fan of those EMGs. I pair them with an EMG EQ and I always add some bass end from that. I hardly ever touch the middle and treble controls but they do come alive with a bass bump.

You've used too many blocks. The LPF and HPF are in a single block. But I take your point.

I recently got a Stomp to go with my Helix rack and I'm quite enjoying the challenge of making my bigger patches work with a single path on the stomp. It takes some effort, but I feel I'm getting to know the HX system all over again.

Kemper have never upgraded their hardware (unless you count the power amp version) and it's significantly older than the Helix and still sells well. I suppose they'll do it when the sales numbers drop enough. New hardware usually just means more DSP rather than new physical features.

what about the elderberries?

Even if you trust Ofcom to be proportionate under a set of rules that are clearly disproportionate, then compliance and dealing with an investigation costs money. Money that a lot of smaller forums just do not have. Some might have to close simply because of that. The court system is full of appeals due to disproportionate sentencing of all types. There is no reason to think this will be any different.

The age check thing is particularly crap. At one end it could be a renewed log-in / account creation wording with multiple click throughs like Apple T&C or it could require the mods to actually see official documents which would cause a massive GDPR nightmare. There's no guidance on what is "sufficient" so Ofcom will have the power to shut down any site that just annoys them. When site owners are outside of the UK Ofcom will just order the web companies to block access completely. There are dozens of tiny forums set up for things that are far more important than bass guitars or hamsters - disease support forums, addiction forums etc etc. Anonymity is a vital part of their work. And the bit about videos and other stuff being "objectionable" is undefinable and ridiculous. Everything is objectionable to someone. You just know that someone is going to report a forum for "promoting" pineapple on pizza as being objectionable, and Ofcom are going to have to wade through all that crap. The test should be whether something is illegal or not.

Hamster forum has gone. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/18/hamster-forum-local-residents-websites-shut-down-new-laws/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first Hamster forum and local residents’ websites shut down by new internet laws Scope and scale of Online Safety Act likened to China’s ‘great firewall’ as small websites struggle to comply James TitcombTechnology Editor 18 March 2025 2:09pm GMT Dozens of small internet forums have blocked British users or shut down as new online safety laws come into effect, with one comparing the new regime to a British version of China’s “great firewall”. Several smaller community-led sites have stopped operating or restricted services, blaming new illegal harms duties enforced by Ofcom from Monday. They range from a hamster owners’ forum, a local group for residents of the Oxfordshire town of Charlbury, and a large cycling forum. The hosts of the lemmy.zip forum, hosted in Finland, blocked users from the UK accessing the site, saying the measures “pave the way for a UK-controlled version of the ‘great firewall’”. The great firewall refers to the strict controls imposed by Chinese internet authorities, which restrict Western sites such as Google, Facebook and Wikipedia in the country and is seen as a model of online censorship. Britain’s Online Safety Act, a sprawling set of new internet laws, include measures to prevent children from seeing abusive content, age verification for adult websites, criminalising cyber-flashing and deepfakes, and cracking down on harmful misinformation. Under the illegal harms duties that came into force on Monday, sites must complete risk assessments detailing how they deal with illegal material and implement safety measures to deal with the risk. The Act allows Ofcom to fine websites £18m or 10pc of their turnover. The regulator has pledged to prioritise larger sites, which are more at risk of spreading harmful content to a large number of users. “We’re not setting out to penalise small, low-risk services trying to comply in good faith, and will only take action where it is proportionate and appropriate,” a spokesman said. “We’re initially prioritising the compliance of sites and apps that may present particular risks of harm from illegal content due to their size or nature – for example because they have a large number of users in the UK, or because their users may risk encountering some of the most harmful forms of online content and conduct.” ‘The home of all things hamstery’ However, many smaller internet forums have said they are not willing to deal with the compliance, or shoulder the theoretical financial burden of the new laws. “While this forum has always been perfectly safe, we were unable to meet [the compliance requirements of the Act],” wrote the operators of The Hamster Forum, which describes itself as “the home of all things hamstery”. Richard Fairhurst, the administrator of the “Charlbury in the Cotswolds” forum, wrote that the Act was “a huge issue for small sites, both in terms of the hoops that site admins have to jump through, and potential liability”. “Running a small forum is much harder than it was when I started doing this almost 25 years ago,” he wrote on the site. The site has remained open but closed a debate board where people discussed off-topic issues. Mr Fairhurst, who has run the forum since 2001, told The Telegraph: “By putting all these burdens on the small sites its going to push people away from these small locally run British-owned sites and towards the American giants.” Bike Radar, the forum of the cycling magazine, shut down on Monday blaming “continually rising operational costs” without mentioning the Act specifically. The site has millions of posts. The Green Living Forum, which was set up in the early 2000s and had more than 470,000 posts, has also closed down, with the site’s administrator saying they were not willing to be liable for fines. The host of lemmy.zip, a forum for sharing links, said he would block UK-based internet addresses from accessing the site. “These measures pave the way for a UK-controlled version of the ‘great firewall,’ granting the government the ability to block or fine websites at will under broad, undefined, and constantly shifting terms of what is considered ‘harmful’ content, a message on the site said. The UK-based administrator of the site, who did not want to be named, said: “If I was living in any other country I’d be ignoring this, but because of this personal risk I can’t. I can’t deal with the possibility of an £18m fine for something I can’t guarantee I can comply with.” Ofcom defends regulation Ofcom has said that for small sites, the costs of complying “are likely to be negligible or in the small thousands at most”. Digital rights campaigners the Open Rights Group (ORG) said Ofcom should exempt smaller sites from enforcement. “The Online Safety Act places onerous duties on small websites and blogs that may lead them to close or geoblock UK users rather than risk penalties,” the ORG’s James Baker said. “The closure of small sites will not keep children safe but will benefit bigger sites, including Facebook and X, who are laying waste to content moderation on their platforms. “There is a simple solution – the Secretary of State can exempt small, safe websites from onerous Online Safety duties, and protect plurality online.”

Update: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yljn2vkn1o Looks like age checks are going to be unavoidable. Presumably that means quite a bit of additional GDPR compliance and record keeping by forums.

I have 2 paulownia basses already. I don't mind dinks. I now fancy a ray / sterling type without the weight!

Can any of you fine people suggest where I might be able to get a paulownia body? In an ideal world it would be EBMM Sterling shaped, but a J shape without pickup routs would do if I can't find a Sterling one. ta

Are you just a simple tailor by any chance? [/DS9]

I didn't think the duty attracted Vat? Ah well - makes the comparison with Andertons even worse then.

That's my view too. I've had a few bargains buying from Japan - but always for used items that were impossible to find in the UK or just over-priced.

It was about that in 1990/1 as well. I came back with a new wardrobe of jeans and trainers.

So $800 is (at the exact moment) £597.82. Shipping from the USA would be in the region of $100, so that's another £74.73. But might be as much as $200 (£149.49) Using the lower sum that's £672.55 that is subject to vat at 20% being £134.51 = £807.06. Then there's 3.5% duty on the guitar bit as well - another £20.92 Running total is £827.98 + about £13 for the courier admin fee. So £840.98 delivered to a UK buyer assuming the lower end shipping fee. So there could be a saving of about £77.45 compared to Andertons if it sneaks though without getting pinged by customs, and about £100 more than Andertons if it gets caught. I've had small stuff get through, but never anything as big as an instrument. I'm not sure whether Fender UK would deal with any warranty problems for a personal import or not. I'm guessing not.

I never measure when I do a set up. Every bass needs something different so I always do it by feel alone.