Kiwi

Mainly so I don't have to use a computer. The setting up to record saps my creativity and I'm firmly opposed to designed obsolescence. This is after having spaffed hundreds of quid on otherwise perfectly functional NI kit that became obsolete after 7 years simply because drivers no longer being supported. I want dedicated kit that I can turn on and muck about with ideas on without wasting time.

Looks like I'm going to join that club, then...!

I expect Morgan Roussel probably owns it.

I'm mulling over a drum machine purchase later this year. I'm looking for something that allows beats ahead and behind the tempo for that human factor...does such a drum machine exist?

The prices of stuff, both used and new are so out of proportion to salaries these days. I would feel like a mug paying some of the asking prices. Especially given that there are some really good instruments around if you want to stray away from the mainstream brands or even go back twenty years. It seems like COVID gave mainstream brands an excuse to hike their prices and they're keeping them there until salaries catch up. But maybe those lump sum pension payments are a better metric.

I've had quite a few bits and pieces off them over the years but for the first order I had to send them a pic of my serial.

Is the website still up? Im aware of most of the currently active ones. But the wayback machine can help with dead sites.

Yes, that was the Cricketers. I used to live not far away but it was about ten years later. I was going to try and write a bio on him but he was so private and unassuming that he didn't leave much material behind, apart from his music.

Dunlop Tortex 0.50mm (red triangles) because I have a fairly light touch and I find the flexibility forgiving of an occasionally errant technique.

It depends on the other ingredients, method of construction and string tension. I think tonewood also affects timbre more in basses than guitars.

It depends on the construction. Solid resin, yes. My Steinberger XL25A was tiny but weighed at least 4kg so they can be on the heavy side. But monocoque design (aka hollow shell such as used by Status and Basslab) are just as strong and much lighter. Short of snagging a monocoque 6 string Status Streamline or Stealth Mk 2, you will almost certainly be looking at a custom route and that can get very expensive due to the labour costs with creating a set of moulds. One exception, if you aren't wedded to the idea of just carbon is carbon wrapped. One thing to be mindful of is that a pure carbon composite instrument can be unforgivingly brittle sounding and very lively for many. Status injected epoxy foam into their streamline and stealth Mk2 basses to dampen some of those less pleasant resonances. Another way around this is to do a carbon wrapped instrument. This involves wrapping a light weight wood such as cedar in a pre-impregnated composite shell. It saves on labour because moulds are not needed. It's also less complicated to design. You could approach Jon Shuker with a request for a carbon wrapped instrument. He offers that option with necks on some of the JJ Brunel signature instruments so is very familiar with the technique. And, to my ears at least, the wrapped instruments retain some of the smoother treble and fatter mids of wooden instruments but with all the advantages of carbon composite. The other thing is that Jon could probably accommodate any quirky requests like onboard tuner, specific hardware and pickups, neck dimensions etc. I believe Simon Farmer at GUS uses wrapped wooden cores in his necks too.

Yeah, I'm not saying tracking doesn't work on two pick up basses, I'm saying it doesn't work as well. Best tracking with my Deep Impact was with a Modulus Sonic Hammer of all things, it was feeding lots of what the pedal needed to hear inspite of the treble content from the graphite neck (although it wasn't too bright) so there's no hard and fast rule. But the one pickup setup is still the most consistent in my experience.

Last time I tried an SYB1 it wasn't really a pitch tracking synth so much as a muffler which added a square wave to whatever midrange and low end it left in the signal. The Future Impact will track the best but only one pickup 'vintage' sounding basses like stingrays and p-basses. It needs to see plenty of fat midrange without too much treble.

Fair dos. I was the opposite with both my Modulus Q5's. The Bart soapbar equipped bass had a bowed neck though, and the EMG bass neck was too stiff. There was also an upper mid scoop which seems characteristic of all Q5's which made it hard to hear in the mix on stage which is what lead to me experimenting. I've played a Status Empathy though an SWR SM400 though and it sounded just as fat and clean but not brittle.

Classic Barts help dial back the bite a bit and fatten up the lower mids. As does putting the bass through an SWR400/500/900 or a Mesa Boogie Bass 400, there's something about the colouring that preserves the firm midrange but sweetens a graphite necked bass really nicely.

On a strat, it's all about the pickups. There are cardboard and concrete bodied strat shaped guitars out there which have three single coils and they all sound distinctively like strats. But it's worth bearing in mind that basses and guitars get their timbre in different ways due to string tension. Basses rely on body and neck for rigidity to a much greater degree than guitars so the dampening effects using different densities of wood can be manipulated to a greater degree. With graphite, it's about the constructed stiffness. Not all necks are the same. It's also possible to make a neck too stiff and that results in a brittle sounding instrument unless some of the attack can be rolled off by the electronics (and there are options ranging from pickup windings to extra capacitors to change inductance).

Sounds great! I need to check if Turner do 5 string soapbars.

He's played a load of other brands since including Rick Turner, Musicman, Fender, Godin and Tobias. If you have a look through the auction sale results, you'll see some of them

Out of those two Alembics I think the fretless went for way more that it might have sold through somewhere like Ebay. And the graphite necked one went for less than I expected. A selection of items went for way more than their estimates as well including that 1960 P bass. Given the choice between a pair of wooden balls and two Alembics, the decision would be easy given the total values are so similar.

We'll be doing an forum software update later tonight. Hopefully it'll take care of this.

Had a PM recently from BC member@ash: "Martin Nash - who was a member here and occasionally contributor has died. He’d struggled with his health for a number of years. He was known as Nashmonster on here and had a big collection of basses and some guitars. I traded with him many times and we kept in touch for a number of years on and off the forum. He lived in Northampton and was a picture framer and restorer by trade. " RIP @nashmonster

After an Android update? It seems more likely to be browser related. We haven't done anything with the site recently. Maybe @Woodinblack knows...?

Are you sure it's not your browser? Can you pm me a screenshot?

Alan Murphy on guitar. Later with Go West and then Level 42. An incredible guitarist.