Wolverinebass

My dear boy, you should have taken orders! I would have had one!

They're very good pickups. There are some things to be aware of. You have to get the route lowered as they're deeper than normal MM pickups. Secondly, and I've no idea if Martin has addressed this as I bought the pickups 2 years ago. I had to wait a long time for the neck as I was one of the first to order one. The channels where you would put the screws instead of being straight up and down were flaring out from the body of the pickup. So I had to have them filed so they'd be able to be properly adjusted. Were you to order from him, I'd ask if he's sorted that issue out. He seemed to be aware of it when I asked, so I'm assuming it's been rectified by now and he's very good to deal with. Sonically, they're excellent and work very well with the Lusithand filters. Plus, having bought a fair amount of stuff from Nuno, I can tell you not only does he really know his stuff, he's also a very good guy as well. In the video I'm playing through a sansamp psa 1.1 into a Vanderkley 2x12. Both pickups are equal and the filters are not even the full way open, nor are they pulled.

I've got a bitsa bass I made with Herrick multicoils, lusithand preamp and a Klos graphite neck. Happy to say it sounds amazing. I'm just messing around here, but if you're interested. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI4jCnQCDyb/?igsh=ZzgwNW5reDlzNXl5

Townshend has changed his tune on the reasons for this at least twice. In 2002, he said that they got Pino as someone who could learn the set almost overnight. In 2004, he seemed quite uncomfortable with all the sonic space he had to fill because of Entwistle's death and said so. It wasn't until about 2008 he said that he got Pino to facilitate his self upgrade. Debate for yourself which one you believe. Jon Button is just an extension of this. He can be paid less than Pino and will no doubt be happy to be shouted at by Roger to turn down and play next to nothing to facilitate the skewing of the band towards the guitar. Nobody hears him live because he's just picking up a paycheck and isn't doing anything interesting at all. The interview he did with Scott Devine a while back was hilarious in how much stuff he actually got wrong both playing and factually. If Kenney Jones was the wrong choice in 1978 then there has never been a right bass choice post 2002. The Who (with Zak) were 4 equal musical parts until 2002. They've been finished since then and should have quit.

That could be one of the most hilariously inaccurate things I've ever read. Pino never sounded anything like Entwistle. Ever. Pino is brilliant as a fusion player but as a rock player? Nope. His tone is way too smooth for that band. Don't even get me started on Jon "iced gem hair" Button. He plays even more sparsely than Pino did. Which just doesn't work. The band died in 2002 with Entwistle.

Entwistle hadn't used an Alembic onstage with the Who since Live Aid in 1985. The 89 tour he played Warwick Buzzards (which are ironically even heavier) and from 1996 he played Status Buzzards which weigh nothing as they're a one piece graphite mould.

I don't think that's true. I think most people have a clear idea of what they want to do musically once they've been doing it long enough. Whether that be some covers for cash or the most brutal, tech metal you can imagine. Obviously within that there are ranges of what one will do or even consider. I must admit, if someone used "pacifically" in a sentence that wasn't referring to the largest ocean on earth, I'd be wary too. I think "meat up" is just a step too far down that road really. I get a fair amount of digital auditions on Bandmix. Some are interesting, most aren't what I'd want to do, so I politely decline. Sometimes it's actually a message from a person that isn't bulk mail in that way. There's no sense in making oneself unhappy about something that should be fun. From personal experience, @NancyJohnson is a really good bass player and songwriter. Why would he want to work with people whose material he doesn't like? I wouldn't either just as I'm sure you wouldn't. Whatever bar we set for others to cross is arbitrary and of course unfair and possibly unrealistic in terms of some people's talents (or lack of them thereof), but I would say that in the last 10 years I've not compromised on mine and I've been much happier for it.

Ironically, when I spoke to Ian Klos on the phone he asked me about headstock shape. He was determined to not have the 4 in a line Fender as he wanted a better balance. I suggested 2+2 with more like an Ibanez or Status (obviously without stealing them I hasten to add). I've actually never had a bass that was 3+1. It's curious actually. Alien almost.

That 3 mile drive is killer in the current economic situation.

Well, a while back (2 years ago in fact), Klos started offering replacement necks. I had the idea of "wouldn't it be cool to have a Wal with a graphite neck?" So, I ordered one. There were massive delays as they were tooling from scratch. No big deal, I'm a patient man. I ordered a G4 body from Warmoth as well as some Herrick multicoil pickups and a Lusithand NFP Special preamp. Along the way, aside from the wait, other things raised their heads. Herrick pickups were too deep to fit in a standard MM hole. Fine, get the route deepened. What I didn't know was the pickups were actually too big anyway as for some reason, the holes where the screws go to fix them to the body. So, I had to have the cases files down. Funnily, Martin said he was aware of this issue and yet they didn't put it on the product page. Hopefully, they'll have sorted that issue now as he makes really good gear. As the neck holes had to be drilled I wasn't doing that. So, I got it back last week and here we go. So, does it sound as I thought? Yes. It's not quite Wal sounding as the Lusithand filters go to about 4kHz rather than the Wal's which only go to about 2.8kHz. So there's more top end if you want it. Kind of like in the realm of Modulus sounding top end. The preamp and pickups are insanely loud. I had to wind down the preamp gain about 50% to get an equivalent sound as with my Wal, with no clipping. I did ask Ian Klos for some other things as well. He's a really nice guy and I spoke to him on the phone for about an hour one day. So, I had the nut width made wider to accommodate my playing style. I also had the radius altered, string spacing changed and a hipshot for good measure. The body is a Warmoth G4. Walnut body with a Black Korina top. Bridge is a Babicz with Harley Benton knobs. This is the 3rd thing I've bought from Nuno at Lusithand and he really knows his stuff as well as being incredibly helpful too. Herrick pickups are great and the peeps at Klos make great gear too if you like graphite. I can honestly say it's one of the most comfortable necks I've ever played. With the demise of Status going wood only, if you want a replacement graphite neck, you could do a lot worse than order one of these. When I get a moment, I'll upload a video of me noodling around.

Yeah, and they can do one for that price too. I posted on Tech 21's Faceook page and asked how many they would sell if the price in the US was the same as here which was at the time $712. They replied with a care emoji. Really?!! Really?!!!! It costs more than an HX Stomp which guess what, you can do everything this does and a whole lot more, plus it has presets and midi control as well as 2 inputs so you can run a bass in stereo which is in stereo like an Alembic. Unlike this which is just parallel from a mono signal. Their stance is totally wrong to me. Summarised, it's "but it's not us! We have no control of the price gouging idiots at Rocky Road!" Now, either they really have no control and Rocky Road is price gouging us, or they're doing what Ernie Ball did which is keep the US price artificially low by deliberately making everywhere else more expensive by charging the importer full US list price. I think it comes over that they don't care about you at all if you're outside continental US. Which makes it doubly ironic they replied with a care emoji to me.

In case anyone is interested. The OP text was Richard Osman. I can't remember if it was an interview or just on a show, but I've definitely seen it.

It's probably best we don't know.

I met him in Glasgow in 98 or 99. I don't know if they still do it, but Stiff Little Fingers used to play the Barrowlands in Glasgow every St. Patrick's day without fail. He was just walking through Queen Street station and obviously, one had to have a quick chat. He was a really nice guy.

Ultimately, nobody cares about what a particular bass player uses unless you're a fan. Dingwall and Darkglass have built empires off Nolly Getgood's back. Mark King probably put Rob Green's unborn great grandkids though university the amount of signature stuff he did with them. It was something that I found frustrating as for every new tour/anniversary/album a new Kingbass would appear. How amazing. What innovation. Oh, so aside from the paramatrix circuit, nothing was really new and just options you could choose. Maybe do a new model? Maybe replace the buzzard with something similar? No. Endless variants of the same. Ashdown have now went after anybody it appears. Does anyone really think a standard RM800 with "Rex" on it will sell well? Or the standard ABM with some bad graffiti front panel with "Shavo" on it? Good luck with that. That's before you get to the signature pedals which are mostly truly terrible.

What kind of bass cab can be endorsed by Eddie Hall then? Is that the holy grail? Or would they have to be endorsed by Tom Stoltman currently World's Strongest Man for them to be adequately trusted?

I don't know about that. I thought your TE 1200 was brilliant actually.

Let's not confuse "endorsee" or "endorsed by" with signature model. I would say the hands down winner is Mark King. Nine different models of Status Kingbass. NINE. All of them are just options of each other. That's impressive. Not just for Rob Green who milked the "I must play Mr. Pink by Level 42 with the exact same gear as Mark was using on tour!" crowd for everything they've got. Rex is catching up though. Obviously the new Pantera tour wasn't such a money spinner after all.

That's probably because they are. It's why the nut width on the medium price market is almost universally 40mm. Fancy a Cort bass? Buy anything under 800 quid that doesn't have Fender on it and that's what you're probably getting anyway. I would imagine people would be going for an Ibanez before these.

10 weeks actually. End of the financial year. Great. Spend more on an amp with someone's name on it and slightly different knobs. Neither of them will be any different from standard models I bet.

No, it belonged to Jesus of Nazareth as he could only afford it with help from his father. Yes, that's in jest as I own 2 Alembics which are fabulously amazing instruments. Admittedly, I couldn't afford a new one now and unlike Jesus, don't have nepotism to fall back on.

Alembic have been without a UK distributor for almost 20 years. The last one was The American Guitar Centre down in Ashford Kent and they hadn't done anything for years before they ceased trading. However, this may be a good thing, if of course Bass Direct can ever get the peeps at Alembic to answer the phone or email. Whilst I got the issue I had sorted out, trying to get hold of them (I appreciate the time difference before anyone says) was really frustrating. It all got sorted out really quickly when I did and they are lovely people who honestly couldn't do enough for me. Just they don't seem to reply to emails or answer the phone very much at all. Which reminds me, I have had something I've been putting off sorting with my Stanley Clarke for more than a year because of fear of this happening again. But, we can see how that pans out.

That is perfectly true to a degree of course. In my world (recording studios), there has been a joke that we can't be replaced as that would require the clients to actually know what they want in the first place. However, what I see probably happening is AI being used by streaming companies to skew the amount artists get by flooding and pushing the system with AI created music. At that point, not only am I obsolete in terms of my job, but so are the artists. Who has the money then? Oh, it's been sucked upwards. As with all things, it's what you use it for that determines what your viewpoint is. In my view, this stuff is being pushed in a direction so that staff can be cut and the bottom line for shareholders/companies can be increased, no matter the human cost involved. Like that healthcare CEO who got shot a few weeks back. His company were using defective AI to assess people's claims (read as deny 90% of them out of hand) which they knew about, but didn't do anything because they were making so much money from telling people to "f-off and die." That's the world we live in and frankly, I think it sucks.

It's because the people/corporations who are developing AI in all likelihood don't give a toss about improving people's lives. What they want is to suck up the cash from creative fields so they don't have to pay for photographers, music (in any way), copywriters. The rest of us will be doing a lot more than the laundry forever as to improve people's lives and reduce all the menial crap we all have to do is not what this is being developed for. That sort of idea would require a fundamental reset of society and that's not happening ever as billionaires and massive corporations aren't going to give up a penny for normal people. Ever. I look upon AI as just another tool whose fundamental aim is to suck money upwards to the top. Sure, it'll have it's uses for us near the bottom, but to me, that's the ultimate aim.

True, he's not solely responsible and yes, things were inevitable in that way post Napster. I was merely illustrating that the guy doesn't value music and never has. I don't know what you think is "negotiable" when the guy is actively trying to pay us less by any means possible whilst he's making hundreds of millions of pounds a month. The royalty rates will never go up. Ever. Spotify have cornered the whole market and as such won't play ball. The whole "made up artist" thing to me reeks of fraud, but because it hasn't been legislated, he's going to get away with it. As for the snowballing thing. Considering the cost of touring, that's a very different question which again, doesn't have an optimistic answer sadly for most smaller artists. Anyway, as I say, streaming is great for discovering new things. A bit less so for actually being paid for your work.