BigRedX

While I like the decoration on both, that pedal board would drive me nuts. Wonder how visible all the controls will be under typical stage conditions?

Don't get me wrong, I like Underworld, although the quality IMO does drop off around "100 Days Off", but I like Freur and the original version of Underworld a lot more. I'm surprised you didn't get that from my user name...

There shouldn't be any customs implications for a warranty return, although there is a load of additional paperwork, and you may have to pay VAT and duties upfront and then claim them back. That's why in my previous post I said it's only worth it if there a substantial savings over buying the same item from a proper UK source or if it is something you can't get without importing.

I've been accused of this. My defence is that for an artist to become popular enough for enough other people to like then, they have a generally change their musical style to one I am not as enthusiastic about. Cases is point: Firstly I really liked the first U2 album. After that it's been steadily downhill with each subsequent release. Secondly no-one can convince me that Underworld are superior to Freur...

Yes they are.

IME multiple pickups are one of those things that sound great when you are playing on your own, but seem to weaken the sound in a band mix. I always end up using just one of the pickups on its own. However I don't know which pickup as going to sound the best until I am playing with the other instruments, so having more than one is useful for getting the right basic sound. The exception to this is having two pickups wired in series which sounds good on its own and in the band mix.

Yes, I've done myself with previous version of Logic X. There are two methods: 1. If she knows someone that she trusts who has a suitably up to date Mac, and will let her create a temporary user account on it. Then she can sign on her temporary account, and use her Apple ID to access the store and purchase the latest version of Logic. Back on her own Mac she can then get the most recent version that will run under Catalina, by going her "Purchased" list in the app store. Once that has worked she can delete the temporary user account off the other Mac. 2. Alternatively she could buy the cheapest suitable Mac she can find form an on-line retailer. Create a user account and buy Logic as before, and then download the latest working version on her Mac. Once that has been done, wipe the new Mac and return for a refund under the distance selling regulations.

The rule of thumb is to add 25% to the price of the item plus shipping cost and then an additional £15 to cover import duty handling fees. If you are still making a significant saving (or it is an item you can’t get in the UK) then it is worth it.

“Level” graphics appear to be missing.

Whatever my luthier recommends. They are probably a lot better placed than I am to know which tuners will be the right ones for me.

I see the main floor is still the basic floor boards. What covering are you intending to put over them?

The Peak is indeed a lovely synth, but it doesn't have a keyboard and costs as about 4 times as much as the Bass Station... I'd love to see a synth as fully featured as this in both sound shaping and user interface areas with a built-in 2 1/2 to 3 octave keyboard, but I suspect I'm very much in a minority.

I was going to say: that's a lot of hard reflective surfaces. It will be interesting to see how you are going to treat it.

Why are the XLR connectors in the image shown when you click the link both male? There are only very few highly specialised instances when you would need a male-male XLR cable (such as using a passive DI box for re-amping a recorded signal). It's a bogus as the rest of the site.

Depending on the PA desk it may not be possible to turn off the phantom power at a channel by channel level. I always take a simple passive DI box which I run from one of the unbalanced outputs of my Helix for connection to the PA (I use the balanced line XLR out of the Helix to connect to my FRFR if I need to use it.)

IMO the design and construction choices for an acoustic instrument are completely different or generally ignored for a solid electric one. When a luthier makes an acoustic guitar all the major pieces of wood are carefully chosen. Internal bracing is the minimum required to give the body enough strength to withstand the forces applied to it by the strings and the player, and the various surfaces are glued together with the smallest amount of contact and just enough glue to hold everything in place. The shape of the instrument is the best compromise achievable between sound and ergonomics. Compare that with a typical mass produced solid electric instrument. These days very few bodies are made of a single piece of wood. Most are cobbled together seemingly at random (and probably down to the most cost effective use of the boards available) from two or more pieces, and as far as I can tell apart from making sure no joints run through the neck pocket, anything else is acceptable. If the wood does have any perceptible impact (be that either positive or negative) on the amplified sound of the instrument it is entirely by chance. And regarding bridge types, since the body of a solid electric instrument is already a very weighty object, and once the bridge has been properly attached to the body they essentially act as a single unit, the difference in overall mass between the standard BBOT and a high mass bridge is negligible.

Would the UK have won if all those sympathy votes hadn't gone to the Ukraine? Wouldn't Spain and/or Sweden have picked them up?

All about construction rather than the actual woods.

That's a lot of money for a mono synth with only a single VCO and envelope generator and no programmable patch memories. Back in the day when the Roland SH101 was new, there were three reasons why you bought one: 1. You wanted a decent 2 VCO, 2 EG synth but the SH101 was all you could afford. 2. You wanted a keytar and this (with the modulation grip) was all you could afford. 3. You wanted an arpeggiator and/or sequencer, and this was all you could afford. No-one I knew back then bought one as a first choice. It was bought because it was about the cheapest new synth available. I had one back in the early 80s. It was fine for the less important synth sounds (like background sequencer parts, sound effects and percussion) but not for any of our bass or lead sounds without external help. These days there are far better sounding synths with programmable patch memories for that kind of money.

Construction and the fact that pickups (especially mass-produced ones) are not exactly the same.

I have say, that despite having owned a lot of synths with analogue VCOs since the early 80s I've never found any of them to have tuning instabilities and all have come up to tune within a couple of minutes of being powered on. On the other hand, having owned an EDP Wasp, while I would hope that touch capacitance keyboards have become more reliable in the last 40 years, I wouldn't have another synth with one for live use.

If you are going to want to program your own sounds, then something with as many dedicated controls on the front panel is a must, or one with an excellent computer-based programming app. A few things you will want to consider: 1. The two octave keyboard on both the Bass Station and the Monologue might be too limiting for some bass lines (especially 80s ones with lots of octaves unless you are prepared to transpose the keyboard to bring all the notes you want within the range of the available keys (if so check that the synth has a transpose function). 2. The envelope generator on the Monologue doesn't appear to be a standard ADSR one and there's only one (unless there are more hidden away in parameter access). For duplicating as many 80s synth sounds as possible you will really want two full ADSR envelope generators so that you can assign one to the filter (tone) and another to the amplifier (volume). 3. They are both mono synths. That means they can only play one note at a time, and no chords at all. For bass lines this probably won't be a problem, but you may occasionally struggle to replicate the feel of a baseline that has been played on a polysynth where the release of one note overlaps the attack of the next.

Except on the Focusrite interfaces with balanced jack outputs, if you use standard TS jacks the earthing method used by the interface will induce cross talk between the outputs.

I'm not particularly fussed what colour the body is, but both sides of the body need to be the same colour and the neck should also be the same colour as the body. If I'm going to be pushed on an actual colour then either Black or Candy Apple Red.

The best way to package a guitar or bass for sipping is first to put it in its hard case. If you don't have a hard case for it, then get one. Wrap the hard case completely in several layers of bubble wrap. Then put this in a box made from a cut down bicycle box. Most bicycle shops are only too glad to off load boxes onto members of the public as it usually saves them having to pay to dispose of them. A typical bicycle box is made of much thicker and tougher cardboard than the typical guitar shipping box. Make sure that the bubble wrapped case fits securely inside the outer box. The only thing to watch is that the shipping price is often dictate by the length of the parcel so check with your courier before making this outer box too massive. Unfortunately when it comes to courier services you will find horror stories about all of them. Each one is only as good as the weakest link in the chain from your house to your customer's. What has worked well for me so far (and I have sent guitars and basses all over the world) is to use a service that is the same company at both ends of the delivery chain such as UPS or FedEx.