Wolverinebass

Many thanks to @scrumpymike for organising and also for lunch. Also to @Sean for giving me a lift to and from the train station as well as letting me play his Laney amp and Spectors which were brilliant. I might have to try and find myself an Epiphone Les Paul bass after playing @neepheid's. It was fantastic. I think that after properly playing through @stevie's Lfsys cabs with a bass setup that I've recorded a lot, I think if one were to be in the market for new cabs his would be top of the list. Sonic fidelity in spades and frankly beyond any insane definition of "lightweight" you might have. Ultimately, it was good to see familiar and new faces. If anyone is going to the SE Bash, you may have to put up with me again. I was disappointed at the cab shootout replacing the cage fighting. I felt this was a missed opportunity for the community as a whole.

Maybe is should have just said "sell" instead of "sell well." You are of course quite right. They generally don't do anything anyone actually wants. After all, how long did it take them to change the bridge? Then everyone complained they wanted the original one anyway.

I'd never accept that. The scratches are in themselves beyond any level of acceptability for a new instrument. I don't care if it cost 3 grand or 400 quid, that'd be going back if it was like that. No ifs, no buts. The fact the Luthier has tried to justify this is really properly poor behaviour. Rectified with no shipping costs paid by yourself and a discount for the fact that they shipped a below par instrument to you or full refund. That's the way I'd go.

The peeps at Rick are on the crack pipe if they think these will sell well. I love my 4003, but there's no way many people will pay for something that looks like it's been conceived by a toddler and charge more than 3 grand for it. It's profoundly lazy what they've done here and why would you let it get out like that when it's so out of proportion? Madness.

Go look up promotional literature from the mid to late 70s.

As someone who owns both a Wal Mk2 and 2 Alembics, I can say that they sound nothing like each other. At all. Especially the stereo Alembics. Virtually nothing sounds like that. In defence/explanation of Wals, yes, the neck profile is curious. I don't mind it, but I can readily understand why folk don't get on with it. I don't find my Wal uncomfortable to play at all and as to the action, anyone who has ever played one of my basses will know that I have the action supernaturally low. Stupidly low even. They are probably the best recording basses I've ever played and take effects really well too. What they aren't are basses to take massive long solos on. Not only are they timbrally wrong for it, the neck profile will probably dissuade you from it if you have even a modest issue with it. Ultimately, there's the reason Entwistle played Alembics but helped develop Wals and appeared as an endorsee. Whilst I think the prices now are insane, given the choice, give me Wal over a personality-less Fodera or Dingwall any day. Or 4 of the latter actually given the current pricing.

Well, I'm not getting there until about 1030, so I'd imagine there won't be any cage fighting before then.

Not posh at all and certainly not from Edinburgh. I was making note of the fact that the "Bash" without corporate sponsors will have more modest purses for the combatants than a fully fledged MMA card. Hence, it may prove a struggle to procure a whole bottle of Buckfast or glucose and rat poison laden wrap of gear for the victors. However, if it is possible to "get us up to the big leagues," I'm all for it.

See?!! I told you cage fighting was implied in "Bass Bash." Obviously since myself and @neepheid are hardened Scots, we can always sort out your lust for a gladiatorial spectacle by doing battle for the last deep fried Mars Bar, glass of Buckfast or wrap of heroin. Whatever you all think is more stereotypically appropriate.

Sadly for you all, I'm still fine. I'm not even a vaccine denier or anything. Looking forward to seeing you all peeps.

He may very well be Pete. He may even be good with children and animals and be a Blue Peter badge winner too. However, he has the whole "Youtube Persona" thing going on that I can't stand. So, by default, he's a megabell. However, your point that he's not going to comment on anything going through the courts is exactly why anyone wouldn't get involved in this.

That's going to suck for me getting the train, however, hopefully the rail replacement bus won't be awful.

What does streaming well entail? I'm curious now. Would say, getting under 100 monthly listeners suggest you should pack it in? I agree some bands are trying to run before they can walk, others, I would say the needle won't move for them and I don't believe that's because they're useless or have crap material, as they don't. I would say that's because not as many people go to live shows unless it's someone or something they know. A few do better out of London, others not. If one can't find fans in London which has twice the population of Scotland, I think honestly anyone will have a hard time of it.

There's of course more than some truth to that that bands are useless. However, I've certainly seen enough that most definitely aren't and are still struggling. They're doing the promo, got merch and all the rest. They have great material and put on a great show. Still sparsely attended gigs though. I would say that as I play in progressive metal bands, I'm very much in a "niche of a niche," but I can see that in London, if you try and play more than 4 gigs in a year, you can do all the right things and still not get anything for it. Most bands are just cycling round the same 10 venues, which is about as dire as it gets.

I love the idea of people cramming so much in their cars that they can't move and have to drive for hours on end with a tweed Fender case resting on their neck. Or, that people have "a Bass Bash car." When the date is announced, they travel to an undisclosed location and get an Exxon Valdez sized mode of transportation out of the side of a mountain to bring their collections. As the date draws near, these behemoths run aground outside the local hall where the pilots casually shrug off the devastation of the local landscape caused by crushing innumerable forests and small villages, by exiting and saying "Look!! A 1996 MIJ Precision!! It's good for metal!!"

Just buy a bigger car. Maybe a horsebox too. Where is the committment these days?!

As an addendum to this post of something that happened last week. I own a Vanderkley 2x12. For reasons which I probably can't explain, I wanted another one. Yes, I am mad. So, I find one on ebay and it gets shipped to me. The tweeter doesn't work. Turning the dial made no difference and it was off the whole time no matter what. Well, there was no marking on the packaging or any signs of damage at all. The seller drives from Folkstone to my house in South East London to pick it up. Now, he's got the issue of getting that fixed. I had a look inside and the tweeter was still connected up fine. However, this doesn't sound great does it? Surely the last customers must have warranties if things go wrong? If it's servicing we were looking for we'd all be playing Ashdown cabs and quite frankly, that's a sonic (and weight) compromise I'll never be making.

Try seeing if Marc will reply via Instagram. That's the only place that the bass product page still exists. It's interesting this debacle actually. What does one do when a small, boutique builder just suddenly stops? If the parts are bespoke say drivers or crossover parts what then?

Am I not right in thinking that were 2 identical cabs to be stacked, the corners would lock? Therefore why would you want rubber feet on them? Wouldn't that just make them less stable rather than more so as they'd be on 4 small rubber feet? Aren't the corners there to be scratched? Hence fulfilling the dual function of stacking and protecting the wooden frame? I seem to remember lots of people moaning about Barefaced having crap rubber feet several years ago and disliking them. Plenty of cabs have the interlocking corners. I don't see what the problem is.

To be fair, like all Youtubers, Sapko is an insufferable megabell. Whilst this may get "exposure" were he to pick it up, it’s still a fairly niche bass channel isn't it? Would it not just be the sort of people who frequent the forum who would check out a video he did anyway?

It looks to me that it's not Mr Mason's channel and that the guy whose it is may very well be taking the comments down just so he doesn't have to take the video down rather than admit even he's been duped to giving the guy the oxygen of publicity. Is that too charitable a thought? As regards the court case. I'd bet 12 months suspended or something like that. See you in a few years and he'll still be doing the same dodgy stuff no doubt. The thing is, in many ways it's small enough amounts that most people wouldn't crack someone over the head for their cash or goods. Not always the case, but I feel the bloke will just continue to just walk between the raindrops.

Or you could just arch your hand and play through the strings with your fingers and the difference is quite minimal from a pick.

I would say, get a better strap. Mine is fine with a wide Hofner leather strap and it barely moves more than an inch or so. As a side note, I used Hofner straps on quite a few basses as an ironic joke about how awful their basses are and why McCartney isn't my favourite bass player. Playing a Status Buzzard with a Hofner strap? Next level irony awards to me please. Since then, I've moved to Harvest and they're brilliant, but the irony meter has been substantially reduced.

Ironically, mine doesn't have a battery box and it's a 98. The battery is inside the cavity.

From experience, you would want to change one course of three at a time. I did make the mistake of taking them all off at once to restring and it took the neck almost a full day afterwards to equalise back. Which was a bit stupid.