Graham

Carbon reinforced, laminate, set neck; 35" scale, series/parallel switching, ebony fretboard.....this ticks a lot of boxes for me. Personally, I'd have paired it with a mahogony body, but I appreciate cost and weight would play a factor in the marketing and design.

Frank Turner's lyrics just resonate with me more than anyone elses, I remember when I got his album Love, Ire and Song that almost every song could have been about me, but this was particularly apt*: Well I've had many different girls inside my bed But only one or two inside my head These days I cuddle up to my guitar instead But oh, what I would give, not to stumble but to really fall in love And I could substitute my singing for the sound of someone sleeping next to me That really got me when I was single in my mid-twenties. Also, from a couple of albums later: Well I've said "I love you" so many times that the words kinda died in my mouth And I meant it each time with each beautiful woman, but somehow it never worked out But you stood apart in my calloused heart and you taught me and here's what I learned That love is about all the changes you make and not just three little words *Apart from the "many different girls bit, that never applied to me 😂

Last night was an interesting one, played as part of a scratch band that got put together with about 3 hours notice, the guitarist and singer had met but never played together before and the drummer and myself were complete strangers to the group. It was actually a lot of fun and worked much better than I thought it would, it helped we had a bit of time to jam through some of the set before the doors opened. That and the others were cracking musicians. The timing was unusual too - 2x 50 min sets, first set began at midnight and we finished at 2am. What with it being Christmas eve today, the kids were up early, so I got about 2 hours sleep, but I'd hapily do a gig like that again another day.

I'll have to check my spreadsheet to be sure, but I think it will be 39 on NYE, mostly with my main band, but deps with two others. Hopefully a few more next year as the singer and guitarist want to do music full time so I'll take as many as I can without annoying the wife too much.

Exactly, Individual Thought Patterns isn't Death's best album, but it is (IMO) Steve Di Giorgio's best performance with them.

And I thought my gig last night was crap, hope your toe is alright M@23 😕 We just had a venue with a sound limiter, and an indifferent audience who didn't want Christmas songs a week before Christmas. Given the poor pay, I can't see us going back next year.

Looks amazing, you'll be bringing it to the next SE Bass Bash right? 😉

Watching the Cbeebies panto with the kids and I think the bassist is playing a V7, nice to see an inexpensive bass on a high profile gig.

I'd look for a 90s Yamaha TRB for that kind if budget. Don't get hung up on scale length - you'll easily adapt from one to another.

That'a the best album they've put out in years, but sadly still a shadow of their former glory. Have you heard the new album by OHHMS - The Fool? It sounds like Mastodon should

Akercocke - Rennaisance In Extremis So happy these guys have reformed and on top of that released my favourite album of the year.

I have a EBS Microbass 2, which I love - it's my core tone for playing live - but I don't use it for practice as I found it hard work getting the volume aligned. Also, I don't like the 3.5mm headphone jack and I don't think the FX return that is used as an aux in gave a stero signal.

Same, I suspect set-up has a much greater impact on playability than fretboard radius.

I've got Wolves In The Throne Room tomorrow night, which I can't wait for, Hell Is For Heroes in February and I've just booked a ticket to see Converge, Crowbar, Thou and Grave Pleasures in April. Converge and Crowbar are two to tick off my must see list, so really pleased that tour's happening. I'm considering Sepultura in March too, it's a bit of hassle getting into London these days now I'm in Eastbourne, but it's good to get out to some more gigs.

It's perfectly reasonable to send a DI to the FOH that is your sound, however if you want to do that, and have an amp on stage then it's best to send the FOH sound from a dedicated pre-amp, as the way you EQ for your bass cab, heard in semi-isolation will be different to the way the engineer will want to EQ for PA speakers for the mix as a whole.

Did he play the walking part in Englishman In New York? Or was that someone else?

If you're interested, instrumental post-rock might be the way to go if you wanted to try rock music that's evokes soundscapes - Explosions In The Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Red Sparrows, Pelican, Nordic Giants are all well worth a listen.

Probably Opeth for me Edit: Frank Turner would be a distinct possibility too, there's something about his lyrics that really identify with me.

My EBS head cut out during the first song on a dep gig last weekend, coaxed it back to life but irritating given that Bernie at GB tried to repair it earlier this year but couldn't replicate the fault. Assumed it was a thermal cut-out and a general clean up of the head would sort it out, unfortunately the fault seems to have come back.

Anyone got experience of these? They seem a bargain at £19 for a five string set from Bass Direct, plus as Spector five strings have a 35" scale, they should be long enough for my needs.

Just checked - the gauges don't match for GHS, cheers though Labella's do look like a possibility, though is a 37" string long enough to string through the body of a 35" scale bass http://www.labella.com/strings/category/stainless-steel-series/ Also, unfortunately, these seem to be about as expensive as importing Lakland strings

Does anyone know who makes Lakland strings? And if they are custom for the company, or a re-badged standard set from the manufacturer? I really like the strings on my DJ5 and need to replace them, but wondered if I could get them cheaper by not having to import them from the States.

I've recently gone down this route, my amp is a HD350/Neo 2x12 which now only gets used on dep gigs where the PA/monitors aren't up to going DI only. I'd say the Microbass II is a very good pre, it doesn't sound quite as good as having the amp beside you, but it does sound just as good into the PA as the DI from them amp does, so as far as the audience are concerned, they're still getting that lovely clear EBS tone and you don't have to carry an amp around. You also have the advantage of a lower on-stage volume and a more balanced sound out- front.

They look like they're from Claire's Accessories

Indeed, I too actively avoid anything I know to be NSBM, fortunately it's a niche genre within a niche genre......though, there were rumours about the previous Winterfylleth bassist, who went on to join Wodesnthrone (or was it the other way around?), who are in the more mainstream BM.