Graham

Leading on from the other thread, I'd say Death Magnetic by Metallica I think when it was released there was a sigh of relief that it wasn't St Anger mk 2, and had better songs and (nominally) better production The songwriting overall is probably better than St Anger which is good to start with, but goes downhill swiftly at the halfway mark but I much prefer the sound of St Anger. Death Magnetic is horribly compressed and whoever had the idea of overdriving the snare, presumably so it sounds like Lars hits it really hard, is a muppet. Also, the songs on this record are over-long and meandering; sure there's solos again, but Kirk seems to have decided that 32 bars of wah pedal noise constitutes a solo. Still, it's better than Hardwired; for what reason did they decide that the thing to do was release a double album? There's been flashes of brilliance in their post-Jason output, but they really need to get rid of the yes-men, find a producer that will kick their derrières and isn't afraid to tell them an idea/song/album sucks and help them re-find the creativity they had in the 80s/90s Things I'd like Metallica to loose: Kirk's wah pedal Snare rolls The mastering compressor James' Doctor Suess book of rhyming lyrics

Fleet Foxes too

It happens to the best of us (from 12:30)

I really like the production on St Anger, bass being too low in the mix (though for obvious reasons) aside, it's great, it sounds raw, like a thrash band should. It's MUCH better than the horribly compressed mix on Death Magnetic

I really, really want to like Christmas by Old Man Gloom, as the parts of it that are actually songs, are brilliant. Unfortunately, it's an album of intermissions, with some spectacular doom/hardcore songs interspersed between them.

You see, I really like those two, but I never got on with The Wall

The moment the sun is out this record leaps into my CD player Also, Tim Armstrong's solo album Other than those, I've been listening to The Skints the last couple of days

Agreed, particularly the most recent one

That was cool, I don't normally listen to that sort of thing, but liked that

Traded basses with Chris, the deal required a lot of trust on both sides and it all went through absolutely fine. Great communication, deal with Chris in confidence.

I like my G&L SB2 which doesn't have one, with my Lakland Jazz has the tone is on full permanently, any tonal variance comes from pickup volumes, amp/Pre-amp tweaks and hand position/playing style

Oh god, we had some old boy going on about that during the break last weekend, kept insisting we should play it, even though we only have one guitarist. Did the usual, smiled, nodded, ignored him.

At a uni ball in 2004, so peak Darkness, they had a tribute act called The Dampness 😁

That's very interesting as I was thinking about getting another DI as a backup for my EBS

Microbass II straight into the FX return?

I like High On Maiden, they were pretty good too

That's how I always assumed bolt-ons were made, do most basses not use inserts?

I believe there's nothing intrinsicly wrong with a 3 bolt neck, but there'a a perceived issue due to 70's Fenders having a three bolt system and neck issues. However, if I'm recalling correctly that issue was actually down to Fender not maintaining their jigs so the worn tooling lead to mis-aligned neck joints. I doubt Atelier would have that issue, particularly as they're Japanese. Edit: Just remembered, that all said, I have a mid-90s G&L with a three bolt/micro-tilt neck joint. When I got it I took it to my local guitar shop for a set-up as it was in poor condition and they removed the neck and re-attached it as it was out of alignment. BUT, it was a 17 year old instrument that hadn't been looked after especially well and is now fine four years later.

I don't think they qualify as little know, but G&L have never seemed as popular as they should/could be

Cheers for that, I've been looking for a third party broker as I'm in the middle of a trade at the moment, will give these guys a look

EHX's Deluxe Bass Big Muff is fantastic and exceeded my expectations. In the standard setting it's a great big fuzz and with the filters engaged you get some brilliant, clear distortion. What'a more, you can have both as the filters are foot-switchable. I have no need for another fuzz or distortion, which is great from a non-boutique brand

I read somewhere that the way to run these was to turn the input off, turn the output to max and then increase the input to taste, as they sounded best with power stage running hot. However, if you do try this, be VERY careful to avoid blowing your head off

Shameless plug, but I have a G&L L2500 for sale.....😀😉

Zeal & Ardor's new record Stranger Fruit I wasn't convinced by the first album - Devil Is Fine - mixing black metal with black American slave songs seemed like a good idea which almost worked, but didn't quite; this new one is a belter though.