tauzero

And we haven't got a free trade agreement with the US, and it's not appropriate to go into the politics of why we might never have one.

There will be a certain amount of cancelling out - although VAT will be charged in the UK, it won't be charged in the originating country, so it'll just be duty charged, plus the extra shipping costs for the vastly increased amount of form filling that there will be.

You want a Zoom B3n, you do. Or a Helix Stomp. The MS70CDR seems a worse choice than the MS60B - you'd have been better off with an MS60B as you can use the Tonelib editor with it, whereas it won't recognise "foreign" effects loaded into the MS models. The MS100BT, incidentally, is pretty pointless unless you have an iPhone - Android isn't supported, which seems incredibly short-sighted of Zoom.

I prefer post-Fish Marillion to the piscine era, WYWH to DSOTM, and Gabriel era Genesis to Collins. I also prefer Akkerman-era Focus to post-Akkerman. Can't get on with Rush at all - I have tried a few times but that voice is just so awful. I like Yes but I haven't heard everything by them, more a cross-section. Time for a more in-depth listen.

Which one does burn better?

You seemed pretty contemptuous of them in the Ebay forum. I shall wait and see.

Even more infuriating when you win an item and the seller says he put a reserve on it but Ebay didn't work properly and it hadn't done it (he'd put a BIN on it, not a reserve) and won't sell it (tried to sell it to me for more, actually).

The later one with the far more useable machine heads. The Guild original had friction banjo tuners, not machine heads. Looks like prices have gone up, they used to go at around the £100 mark and now they're £200ish, and for some reason the less useable Guilds seem to sell for even more.

ITYM a "12" on the front of the price that shouldn't be there.

Sei Original 5-string headless fretless. For convenience, I really just use it for gigs and rehearsals, not at home.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Travel-Bass-5-Strings-with-headphones-preamp-FingyBass/293531089891 in the nitro natural finish shown.

I'll let you know about the FingyBass when mine arrives.

Not to mention Japanese. Perhaps he thinks the truss rod is non-functioning because he tried to adjust the wrong end.

Not really ruined, it looks like the scratchplate has been stuck on - can't see any screws. Might have made the paint underneath a bit manky though.

Kala also did make the U-SUB which was a lot cheaper than the eye-wateringly expensive California ones. I've got a 5-string one to go with my Ashbory Mk I and Ashbory Mk II. There's also one from the Bass Centre: http://www.basscentre.com/bass-centre-ashbory-bass.html - there used to be a larger range of these. These, of course, are short scale but pitched at the same tuning as an 865mm scale, so not the same as the Wingbass et al. I'm tempted by the shortie but don't know if I could get it past Mrs Zero - it isn't as if it looks similar to any of the basses I own.

I've had Schaller straplocks or compatible ones on all my instruments for ages. After getting another Warwick bass which turned out to have the Warwick-specific straplocks on it, and the cheap Schaller clones I bought being rubbish, I decided to treat myself to Schaller S-locks. I already have a set on the Variax bass so I didn't expect any issues. Fitted the strap part fine, but when I tried to fit the pegs to the bass, I ran into problems. Unlike the older Schallers and the clones, the peg and screw form one piece, with a hex hole to take an Allen key in the centre of the peg. The hex cutout was poorly cut on both, on one the key just turned in the head and the other was so sloppy a fit that any attempt to put significant pressure on the key would have rounded out the head. This was a decent key, incidentally, and a second key, a bit from a decent socket set, showed the same issues. Strings Direct were the suppliers and were very helpful, and sent out replacement pegs. These went on OK (still a bit of a sloppy fit, I wouldn't have been happy using bolts with that sloppy a head on a bike). Then one of the straplocks refused to go on. Took the pegs back off and went home and ordered a set of Boston clones. Oddly, when I retested the Schaller straplocks, they did go on OK, so I'm keeping them in reserve, but I won't be splashing out £25 on any more sets when I can get Bostons for under a tenner. The inconvenience was somewhat multiplied by the bass being at the rehearsal studio 20 miles away, and me travelling by motorcycle (not anticipating problems) so that did delay things a bit.

My personal experience with Mackie active speakers (SRM450 mk 2 IIRC) hasn't been great, with a couple of boards needing replacing despite them not being heavily used. I eventually gave up on them and went to RCF. I'm not exactly a large sample though.

Details, details...

Oh, I thought it was because she'd blocked me. At least she hasn't taken out a restraining order.

Bought a Variax 705 from Jack - had a pleasant couple of socially-distanced hours playing a few of his basses. Thanks for that, Jack!

I must say, Flotsam and Jetsam have definitely moved in a new musical direction from when they were first formed.

So now you have flushed cheeks?

I just looked at the picture of the underside of the Eich bass board - do those units look familiar?

I think you need to space it away from the chair with a stack of washers or similar.

My first gig was in the bar of the hall of residence I was in for my brief period at university. It was 1976, beer where I lived was 25p a pint, the four-piece band was paid £100 = 400 pints. That's about £1440 now (taking it from the price of a pint in the same place). Wish I got that sort of money these days...