Sean

There has been a development 🤠 I'm going to keep it under wraps until 15th September 🤐. Just because I'm un poco supersticioso 🤫

Although it's a trek for me (Gloucester to Guildford), I use Surrey Amps aka The Amp Hospital https://surreyamps.co.uk/ Stan and Jack really know their stuff and are always so genuinely intersted in your gear. Just brilliant all round and a pleasure to deal with.

Print off this quoted post, hand it round to those that need their "penny drop moment". If the penny doesn't drop, or if there's no penny there, wave goodbye. [Don't say "goodbye", they won't hear you.]

I bought another one recently and it arrived with a weird issue. Max sorted it out straight away, no fuss, just on it and returned it within a couple of days. Fantastic service. The v2 of the MT is designed to velcro to the underside of a pedalboard so it doesn't need its own footprint. It's always on so it's fine under there. I'll be taking mine to the SE and SW Bass Bashes if anyone wants a demo.

If it's not a band where you can have a sensible discussion about things like volume, then it's not a band to be associated with. I was approached to join a band that I'd seen play live a couple of times and politley turned them down because they always played way too loud.

I probably should have said "fretting hand". I'll edit that now.

I guess that's one of the questions that is answered by "It depends." People earn a living and play some great lines with techniques that make me pull a face, good luck and all power to 'em, but I'll be listening to them, not watching their hands.

My main bass-related irrational fear/prejudice is technique-related. It obviously stems from a fear of RSI (repetitive strain injury). It's bassists (or should I say "people who play bass"?) that just seem to use their index and ring finger (of their fretting hand) to play and their little finger flies around all over the place. There's a few variations of this that I just can't even watch. It makes my joints ache just looking at it. I can't watch a Jonny Dibble video for example (there's just something about the way he plays, it goes through me like fingernails down a chalk board) and there's a band I'm going to see later this month where bass duties change between two members of the band during the set, one has what I call "correct form" and looks like he was born playing bass, the other one looks like he'll be in need of a hand physiotherapist and a prescription of anti-inflamatories before too long.

I've not been yet but have always had first class service on the phone from people who value your call and are a pleasure to deal with, unlike other retailers that I am forced to deal with. I've done a return to Andertons and it was easy and was refunded very quickly. They're aware of the expectations of punters and seem to match up to them. I have to collect a couple of my amps from The Amp Hospital up the road from there soon and will pop in as part of the same trip. The part ex service seems to look pretty decent too. The way things are going with the second-hand bass market, I think I might have to try it out.

You look remarkably good for 71, Daryl. My old man has that thing going on too. he's 88 going 68. Anyway, to answer the question. I've always done it. It's a part of what I am. Not bass per se but playing live music in a band with other people. Bass is #1, though. Basschat is a source of inspiration, trying new gear, buying and selling, listening to new music, it all feeds the monster and gets me back out there. This year has been a series of steep learning curves with so many areas of bass, it's what makes me get out of bed.

Years ago I was front man and guitarist in a busy rock covers band and our bass player was "quite the character". Though his drunken antics, during the break after the first set, he was banned by the landlord and escorted off the premises by a bouncer. I had to negotiate with the landlord to get him back so he could finish the gig. Conditions were that he had to ditch his stash and could only have a soft drink for the rest of the night and that unless we replaced him, we'd never play that pub or the other one they owned again. We never again played that venue (or the other one they owned) with that line up, but every cloud... Those were decent venues and we didn't want to lose them, so the other guitarist and I put together a two hour acoustic set of material and ended up getting as many gigs as the full band. The next stage after this when putting together the next full band was me deciding to take on bass duties full time, which led me to finding BassWorld and the rest is history.

When I was visiting Matamp years ago, they had a one-off 400w Matamp that was commissioned by Julian Cope for live work. That was the first time I found out that he was a bassist.

It looks really flexible. MB products are super versatile and you should be able to get pretty much whatever you need. The master volume on these Class D amps doesn't really add much colour, not compared to "older tech". So, it's really about shaping your tone with the pre-amp section. My starting point would be: 0. Set the master at a tolerable level for where you are. 1. Set the gain so that clipping light comes on only when you're hitting the strings really hard, it shouldn't light when playing normally. 2. Set everything flat. 3. Get to know that sound. That's your reference. 4. Engage that scoop control and see if that gets you an approximation of what you want. 5. Then add and subtract the other EQ one at a time in large "chunks", returning to flat each time so that you get to know how they affect the tone. Once you've got a feel for what each does you can dial in smaller increments either way until you get near where you want to be. When you get a sound you like, take a photo of the knobs. Use that as a reference. Take notes. Keep iterating. There's 1000 tones in there that you'll love but keep tweaking methodically and you'll find a couple that will be stand out favourites.

1. What amp is it? 2. What kind of sound are you trying to achieve? 3. What EQ does the amp have?

I saw Lita Ford at KK's Steel Mill in Wolverhampton two weeks ago. She did her cover of the duet she did with Ozzy back in the day called If I Close My Eyes Forever the day after Ozzy died to a mainly West Midlands audience, that was emotional. Overall Lita still rocks and she rocks her red leather catsuit but he superpower seems to be spinning about 50 minutes of material out to 90 minutes. The highlight of the evening was her being joined on stage by Vixen to perform an all girls rendition of an old Runaways number. Vixen as a support band were very impressive and Ms Julia Lage (Mr R Kotzen's "other 'alf") on bass is quite the performer. Vixen is one of those bands from back in the day that has just one original member (the drummer) but it was good entertainment executed very well indeed.

Mine, even with the HAZ-03 units in, don't like the 2.4 GHz wireless NUx bugs.

Roll off each pickup and see if that makes the issue change. It's not a complex circuit. Could you send me some photos of inside the cavity to see if there's anything obvious?

That's a tough one. Are you using wireless? My other thoughts: Barrel jack connections, are they ok?

@warwickhuntI'd love to see Cheat Trick. Any plans to wander down to the South West or Midlands?

@warwickhunt what have you got incoming? And what's your stage rig? How are you amping it?

It's a quirky geometry, for sure. Wearing it much lower on the strap helps some. I struggle with how people manage the Euro X shape or Explorer/Flying-vee shapes.

Waghorn lead time = 36 months. Rob's is very attractive. 3cyears is just too far beyond my planning horizon. Grainger and Jon yet to respond but they've not had the enquiries long.

"I'm not a starf@#£er". 🙂

@SteveXFR I've replaced all the preamps in mine with LHZ-03. When gigging I run everything turned up full except on a couple of songs (Under Pressure and Bohemian Rhapsody) where I roll the treble to halfway. I'm never chasing a tone, never have to worry about trying to be like a safecracker getting the knob to the exact right spot. For me, Spectors are a one trick pony, it's the best trick in the world and the pony has wings. That's what I want; repeatable, reliable tone that is always there. I found that I'd get a useable tone from a TP but would lose it if the knobs got moved. The way I run now makes it easy to check the knob position on the fly. And the LHZ has centre detents making it easy when I do need to adjust.