MichaelDean

Just got back from playing The Pit at McCann's in Newport. An interesting night. Soundcheck was annoying. We went to go do it and one of the guitarists decided to just go to the hotel he was staying at and have a shave. Not the best timing 🙄 never mind, we eventually got it sorted. The first band had pulled out a couple of days ago, so there was plenty of time. Probably our smallest crowd yet of about 6. That might just be what happens when you play a metal gig on the same weekend as Download Festival 🤷 We played well though and were well received by the people there. The supplied cab sounds like it's on the way out though. Really didn't have a nice high end. Usual gear of Dingwall Combustion -> GX-100 -> Bass Big Muff/Mojo Mojo in the loop -> Laney Digbeth. Footwear for this evening was some Hobibear barefoot trainers. Still undecided about barefoot shoes... No photos, sorry. I'll update if anything surfaces on the socials!

PMT did have their own "Antiquity" brand. I played one and it seemed like a really decent instrument, especially for the money. They just never got much of an internet buzz around them.

I've got a pau ferro fretboard on a Harley Benton LP copy. Feels like rosewood, very similar pore structure, just a bit lighter in colour. It's absolutley not an issue.

It's a valid question. We all haven't been 20 somethings for a while now and don't want to start at 7 to finish at 11. It makes work pretty painful the next day. We used to do 6-9 on a Sunday which was great until one guitarist moved to Newquay (travelling up in the week to work a few days in the office) and then suddenly it obviously doesn't work that well. Had to switch to midweek and then instead of doing 3 hour weekly practices, we're doing 4 hours every two weeks. It's all a bit frustrating. It really stops new songs being fresh for next practice if it's two weeks away. I think maybe we need to instigate some sort of online practice too on the non-physical meetup weeks. I've heard good things about Jamkazam.

Getting ready for a run of two gigs in Wales this weekend (The Pit at McCann's in Newport on Friday, Fuel in Cardiff on Saturday). Got a few issues with a new song ironed out, so it should be all good. I do find I struggle with the timings for weeknight practices though. We do 6-10 at a local place, but finishing work at 4:30 so I can do the nursery run, where my daughter has decided that she wants to walk to/from nursery (and I don't want the fight of trying to get her in the pram!) means I get home at 5:20, quickly try and make something for dinner and get my stuff ready and wait for my wife to get back, try not to burn my mouth as I inhale dinner and then get out of the door... It's a challenge that seems to put me on the backfoot for practice.

Good stuff! I'm a big fan of their straps. I've got two so far and they're excellent.

We're going on a Welsh tour next weekend! Well, Newport and Cardiff... 😂

Fender Studio is new and free. I've had a little play and it seems pretty decent. Lots of drum loops to play with. You get some guitar amp sims too, so you can just plug straight into an audio interface, then audio interface into the tablet without needing other hardware. https://uk.fender.com/pages/fender-studio

I sometimes wonder if Bass Direct get a preferential buying rate from Dingwall. They always seem to have the lowest prices. Or maybe they take a smaller margin from the sale price on Dingwalls?

I've got it going with my GX-100 for blending two different distortions (one bass, one guitar). It all seems to work. You can either have full signal in both paths or set a crossover freqency for the div/mix block. Missed this one. To set the input gain, play your bass as hard as you would in a gig and adjust the gain so that it tickles the orange section. That's what Boss say to do in the manual. I like the concert for a neutral tone. The Fat Tube is my preference for something a bit gritty.

If you can accurately drill and tap holes in aluminium backbones for your 3d printed creations, you are certainly more than capable of doing this. I have faith in you!

Doesn't seem to work with my Pixel 9a. It says the Android version for the app is incompatible with my phone. I wonder why they've not gone through the Play Store for the Android app...

I think that applies more to amps where you're generating a bit more dirt in the amp itself, so you want that coloured sound to be effected. It's all personal preference though. Try it and see if you like it. I found it wasn't worth the extra cabling required.

They're brand new - I've had a look for Hartwood basses before because the guitars look cool and there weren't any and these say pre-order on them. The guitars have been getting decent reviews with the usual umbrages that you might expect in the price range.

I just got one of these for my birthday. I've had a 30 minute play and it seriously sounds great to me. Super easy to dial in something for practice. Not tried it with a guitar or NAM profiles yet, but I really don't see the need to do so immediately. I'm a little curious about making a NAM capture of my Digbeth head though just to see what that would be like.