Bolo

I like him already! About the chip: great how you immediately take yourself out of the equation and expect differently from everyone else. Perhaps the manufacturer produced a subpar product with a flaw beneath the clearcoat?

In my experience there's absolutely no lack of performance in Stingrays. Wouldn't be found dead in a BMW though.

I'm sorry but that body looks like particle board. I like lush coffee table tops on basses, this looks like a 'build your own bass in six weeks at your local luthier's workshop' project.

Uhhh I run a clean line into the Aguilar db750 preamp and a gritty upper mids line from from the verellen preamp into the fx return. There's both clean and texture running to the 412.

There are DI's that can be put between the amps out and the speaker in like the Neve RNDI. https://rupertneve.com/products/rndi/ A low power tube amp like an ashdown ctm 15 or 30 could help bring down the volume enough for home recording, if you don't run them through a massive cab. How much are you recording at home?

Even those numbers are hand punched, looking at the spacing. Could be 1st of March 2004 instead of a serial but I suspect only the builder will know.

DOD compressor 280 might be just what you're looking for. Bax seems to have one.

The datasheet for the 8010 shows a roll off below ~130Hz with a minor peak at 80Hz, below which it drops off swiftly: If you want to be able to judge the low end accurately I'd suggest a subwoofer with a crossover preferably around 120Hz but certainly above 76Hz. The 8010a give no sub information whatsoever, so there's no telling if the track has a low frequency hum, whoomp or no sub at all. These monitors simply can't relay that sort of information. So either very good headphones or a subwoofer seems critical for reliable mixes.

Regarding tinnitus: keep the volume sensible and take regular breaks. Fatigue is the enemy here. Why would you pick the genelec sub over something tried and tested like a second hand REL? Could be about half the outlay. Small speakers like that do need a sub if you want to get the low end right.

I got metal fatigue just reading this! I'm not aware of anyone swapping between two sets of strings. How many times do you re-use the same set?

I'm ignoring the heck out of this!

I usually play 34 and 35 inchers but I don't mind shorter scales on specialty instruments like hollowbodies, so I selected all from 30-35.

Red

Electro Harmonix Battalion should get a lot of your boxes ticked.

If you stumble across a Dean stylist, they're amazing, just really solid sounding.

Turn your cab around 180 degrees back to front.

One of the best gigs I've seen the past decade too!

They will absolutely do a check and setup before shipping when asked. If you treat them like a box shifting webshop, add to basket, pay, wait: that's what you get. When you contact them before purchase and tell them what you want and how, they will almost always find a way to arrange it. Sorry to be on the defence here, I've not always been 100% happy but same applies to Bax, Anderson's and a few others. There needs to be less hearsay and conclusions from n=1

And that leads you to believe 40% of their revenue came from the UK?

Do you have any source at all for those numbers because they don't make much sense to me. Thomann is located in the south of Germany and supplies the majority of mainland Europe, mostly without the hassle of ferry/airfare and taxes.

That is a Heck of a string of bad luck! Customs and couriers can really ramp up misfortune. Maybe not write off the company that usually manages to reliably ship thousands of objects a week over one incident.

Beeswax

I'm sorry for Rex who is an absolute legend, but I can't watch Anselmo for another second. Talk about your "white power" crying racist b!tch.