Lfalex v1.1

And a Happy Ending! Thanks to both Mike (Alcytes) and Paultheplug for responding to my Wanted advertisement. Ultimately, I opted for the EDC715 that Mike had. And here it is in isolation, and next to its little brother.

Bought an Ibanez Ergodyne from Mike. My first transaction-at-a-distance due to Coronavirus. Nonetheless, it couldn't have gone better. Bass was as described, and arrived safe and sound. No issues at all. I'd happily deal with him again, and he's worthy of our trust. Deal with confidence. Thanks, Mike.

Do they do a rosé?

And on the original valve for identification purposes, hopefully. Shouldn't be hard to change if it was anything like my old SMX. Just don't handle the valve with your bare hands (as per car headlight bulbs- for more or less the same reason, I'm told)

Slightly off-topic, but following on from the direction the conversation is taking, in the good band I referenced, we used to write independently, then convene at the singer's house to thrash out song structures. Once decided, we'd quickly record it on an old cassette recorder (!) and give everyone a copy. When we actually got to a studio, we'd all have a good idea how the new songs went, and no expensive studio time was wasted getting people up to speed. Also; We never drank before performances. All profits were reinvested into materials and studio recordings to sell, so we became largely self-financing. Shame it ended.

When I was playing in bands, I put in the work so that; a) If it went wrong it wasn't me. b) If it went wrong, I had half a chance of holding it together while other people recover. In the best band I was in, we all made the effort. And it showed.

So, Blues for the Red Sun and Sky Valley? 😎

Unless you're super-fussy, almost anything that suits your preferences made by the major transducer manufacturers (AKG, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, Shure, Fostex....etc.) should do the trick. I personally favour closed-back circumaural designs (for comfort and less sound leakage) with no bluetooth or noise cancelling. I have some moderately priced Sennheisers which I've used daily for over a decade with no issues. They're a bit bulky, that's all.

Pic.

I like a bit of old Sabbath, as well as some newer stuff (especially Dehumanizer) Also partial to; Monster Magnet, Down, Orange Goblin, Kyuss, Sheavy etc. I forgot Cathedral! The Monster Magnet mostly centres around SuperJudge and Dopes to Infinity..

Gouge, I think. Its been caused by the body of a Schaller tuner, which had some material left on it. I don't know if coloured wood filler will stay put. Otherwise, I source a new neck if I'm lucky or have a new board put on if not.

They're all listed as valuable items as required by my domestic policy. Hopefully I can manage some repairs to the Ibanez. The NS seems to have survived unscathed.

Just returned home to a scene of utter carnage in our newly decorated spare room which is used for art/musical endeavours. We left the door open, and the cats went in and somehow managed to cantilever a mattress (we were storing until we can get rid of it) over another piece of furniture into my NS5CR on its tripod which then took out my Ibanez EDB hanging on the wall and a printer and ruined the new wallpaper. That's 2 down. I fully expect my incoming bass (currently in the hands of couriers) to be delivered in powdered form. Everything's still in one piece and I'm assuming the printer still works, but the Ibanez now has a large gouge out of the rosewood fretboard that I'm unsure how to fix. Feel my pain basschatters

Good to hear you're using your time constructively, but please, no Fripp/Willcox style antics..

During lockdown, I'm working more and harder than ever. In my spare time, I've managed to invest some time/effort into Chapman Stick/upright playing. The end result is that my ear for music and plucking hand dexterity have improved dramatically. I've long since given up on bands and don't write material per se, so my motivation is left unaffected by the lack of rehearsal. I play to "relax" in the same way that others might watch TV or read a book.

I feel your pain. My reaction is probably driven by the fact that I've liberated a good deal more space for instrument "display" lately (wall hangers)

According to the "next" video that appeared, Les Claypool auditioned for Metallica. That must've been something, not that they'd make a particularly good fit for each other. He'd leave Lars for dead if he got over-excited.

The one? There's always room for one more.

Yet no one would call the neck on a Kubicki X-factor "ply"...

Slightly unrelated, but when I recently resurrected an old active subwoofer, it was picking up and amplifying a 50hz buzz. Couldn't work it out, so I tried it with different cables providing signal to soundbar and thence the sub, to no avail, so I tried every combination of cable and equipment available to me. Upshot- it was a loose and rattling fuse in the (IEC1) mains cable. Swapped it out. 50hz buzz? Gone. Moral- check everything. Even the most obscure items can cause their own little issues. Then contact the manufacturers if you can't resolve it. (I had another issue with a Trace Head. Blew an internal fuse every time I powered it up. A phone call revealed that they'd uprated the transformer, and that it had a greater current draw upon start up than the original. Slow- blow fuses of the same value fixed it. Manufacturers don't always get it right, either.)

I am, shall we say, less than impressed. I've taken matters into my own hands and posted an ad in the "Wanted" forum. Maybe one will pop up.

Well... I ordered and paid for it from The Bass Gallery, paid for shipping, downloaded an app to track the delivery. Got all excited... Then they emailed to say the said bass couldn't be found. They'd sold it previously, left it on the site, and the chap I spoke to didn't check to make sure. Massively disappointed and annoyed. Oddly grateful that lockdown stopped me driving down there to purchase a non-existent bass. 😡 Don't think I'll be bothering with The Gallery again.

Why are you only putting the necks in the freezer? 😉

They should've used numbers 2,8,20 or 21 on the Gulf petroleum coloured "48". They're the Porsche 917s that dominated at LeMans during the early 70s. GT40s are cool, but 917s are amazing. And Sandberg are German, after all.

I think you've probably identified the real reason not to bother freezing your strings right there. Too little lasting return for too much effort.