BigRedX

Glad you got it sorted. I've seen several times people post about UPS (United Parcel Service of America, Inc. - the people with the brown vans) when they actually mean USPS (United States Postal Service - the US equivalent of Royal Mail/Parcel Force) so it's always best to clear that up first. USPS parcels always get delivered by either Royal Mail or Parcel Force (depending on the size) so once they reach the UK you can track their progress through the Royal Mail web site with the US tracking number.

Do you mean USPS or UPS? If it's USPS you can check the status on the Royal Mail website with your tracking number, but you'll have to wait until Royal mail send you a bill for VAT/customs duty and their handling fee. If it is UPS log onto their website and make sure you are on the UK portion before typing in the tracking number.

If the seller has been sensible and kept all the original packaging it should be fine.

If you are wanting to use the pedal as a splitter to send to both your amp and the PA you will need to check exactly what is being sent from each output. Many pedals output a clean sound from one and effect only from the other, others will have one output out of phase with the other, and almost all will sound wrong unless both outputs have the same EQ and volume when they reach the listener (that's both you and the band and the audience). That's why it's "stereo" and not "2-channel". Unless you bass normally goes through the PA and you can send both L&R channels to both the PA and the amp (usually as soon as you plug into the right channel output on the pedal it will go into stereo mode and unless you can send both channels to the amp it will sound weird on stage) it will be more trouble than it is worth.

Out of interest why do you want a cab with a 15" driver? IME you can't assign a given sound to just a particular size of speaker. I would say speaker construction, cab design, size and porting have far more impact on the "sound" of a cab than the diameter of the speaker cone. Certainly whenever I have had different cabs with the same speaker size(s) and configuration they have all sounded completely different. Also if your bass goes through the PA your choice of cabs is mostly irrelevant. Here's my 15" cab which I have for on-stage monitoring purposes only. For the bigger gigs where I know there is going to be excellent PA support I don't even bother bringing it.

Weird to see the Melos unit getting so much love. When I was first looking at delay devices in the early 80s, you only bought the Melos because you couldn't afford the better alternatives.

That's a good price if it's in decent condition. I paid about £1k for mine "new" (EOL'd) including the memory and SSD upgrades about 4 years ago.

I wonder how "stereo" that version is? IIRC the original was recorded by bouncing between the channels of their two track tape machine (that they also used to provide the live backing) why is why the original release is in mono.

@Maude Was Being Boiled released again in 1982? If so which version? The original version was released on Fast Product in 1978, and then it was completely redone for the Holiday '80 EP and Travelogue album in 1980.

My mobile Mac is a 2012 MacBook Pro with almost the same spec (the processor is 2.5GHz but otherwise identical) as that and it runs Logic fine, so I imagine GarageBand will be OK as well. Occasionally I use it for work and hook it up to a second 24" monitor. What sort of price are looking at for that?

By the time you've bought all the kit and built up enough experience to do the job consistently and reliably every time you could have bought a lot of excellent quality ready-made cables. Unless you're also kitting out the PA system as well, you don't don't need very many - a couple of instrument jack-to-jack leads, some suitable speaker leads and maybe some patch cables and and a spare for each type, and that's it.

Exactly this. Think about all those boutique "scatter-wound" pickups which are prized for their sound, whereas evenly wound pickups from an engineering PoV ought to be better.

IIRC the Enfield graphite necks are made by Simon Farmer of Gus Guitars, so it might be worth asking him.

The only way to be sure is to try it for yourself on your bass.

I didn't say I liked it. Just that it was slightly more pleasing on the ears due to the more tuneful nature.

I always make a point of calling a vibrato rather than tremolo system on both guitars and basses. It would be great to see someone make an actual tremolo device that looks like a vibrato but acts on the volume control on the instrument giving true tremolo!

It's in the video. Is there any actual evidence he played it on the recording?

At least most Brit-Pop songs have a decent tune.

I've got a VIBRATO on both my Bass VIs - Burns Barracuda and Squier Bass VI. However once the over-lightweight gauge strings have been replaced on these the vibrato barely functions anymore as the string tension is now too high.

It depends on whether your time is worth anything or not. Since I became self employed and could actually put a value on my spare time I found that it was more economical to pay for someone else to make up my leads. These days I'd only do it myself if I was making up a lot (20+ in one go) or needed specialised ones that weren't covered by the typical Jack/XLR/Speakon options.

Blimey! That's close. Too close for me. Counting down the days until the Eastwood is actually available.

At least the Born To Rock guitars and basses had useful function (eliminating the need for a truss rod) behind their design.

For me the problem with 90s music wasn't so much the music - although a lot of what was supposed to "alternative" was actually deadly dull and mostly tuneless IMO, but the fact that the bands themselves looked boring. I simply couldn't get enough enthusiasm to check out the music of people who looked like the kind of sad losers that were selling drugs and dodgy tickets or posters outside music venues. I spent most of the 90s listening to dance music. I'm sure the people making it were just as boring looking as the "rock" bands but at least they didn't feel any compulsion to show it on their CD covers, which were filled with interesting looking graphics instead.

That's a lot of finding about to play an obsolete/niche audio format.

That looks cool. What's the string spacing at the nut and bridge if you don't mind telling me?