Woodinblack

This one:

3 hours ago, ezbass said:

I had this issue. However, I went with the one that Hipshot said would match, but required a slightly enlarged hole. 

Which one was that?

I must admit that uniquely amoung basses that I have used, the detuned E seems a bit too loose on the ric, which is a pain as they have such odd specific sizes (which it didn't have when I got it, it had 100-80-60-40, which didn't fit well), and I think the E is snug enough that I doubt I could get a wider string in there.

11 minutes ago, LawrenceH said:

I was under the impression that suppliers or manufacturers have a potential obligation for several years, regardless of stated warranty period.

Well, it should be fit for purpose for a period that would be reasonable of its type, which probably in this case is at least 3 years.

However, as it is a refurbed unit I am not sure how that plays out

I thought it was repaired really well, but then the guy is an organ repairer. I never saw the jazz bass, wasn't it hot chocolate? Still, plenty of jazzes around!

Sort of coincidently as last week I had watched a whole video of a rhodes bass piano being serviced, which was way more interesting than I expected.

I just have the one ric - well, 2 but one is a 5. So are they all the BT-5?

I asked BTN music who until recently had one, but no such luck.

At the moment it is not too bad as I am only using it in drop D, so I take a 5 string and the ric drop D'd, but it would be handy,

46 minutes ago, prowla said:

There are like-for-like models for most common bass tuners (they discontinued the Ric ones, though).

 

Yeh, and guess which one I have been looking for, the only bass I want to drop tune!

Oh look, its feb..

"HI Woody,

Thanks again for ordering your new gear from Bax Music.
We've got great news! Your order has left our warehouse and is on its way to the courier."

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

But got me thinking whether this might be an over-heating related issue? Seems to have cropped up at home when I've had the desk on for several hours. Those of us with CQ desks will know that the heat extraction isn't phenomenal and the desk does get pretty warm pretty quickly.

 

Thoughts?

Glad it worked in that time, but no, I don't think so. Its not some dodgy product off aliexpress (although I have had some great things from aliexpress). If they could only be used for a few hours a day the internets would be full of bad reviews and they really aren't - I looked at reviews as it is something I would maybe consider if my X18 ever died (although I have an XR16 too). I have had my X18 on for over 16 hours without any problems, and that is what I would expect from yours.

On 29/01/2026 at 18:04, Misdee said:

Does that mean I won't be able to read it for free in WH Smiths?😯

WHSmiths? Not unless you happen to be an airport these days!

1 hour ago, SumOne said:

These online only stores have put traditional stores out of business, accepting returns is part of their cost of doing business. 

Absolutely - if you buy online you get a lot of protections that you don't have in a shop, regardless of price. 

33 minutes ago, SumOne said:

Nearly 50 years after punk and we still have music conservatories and orchestras of highly trained musicians and people that appreciate hearing that

Hmm.. not sure of the relevance as punk didn't try to do what the conservatories were doing, but cheaper, it produced a new form of music. whereas the AI thing is to produce the music without needing the people of the punk and the conservatories at least on recorded materials. 

3 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Boss Poly Shifter to the rescue.  -4 semitones will be pushing it though.  Be good enough for live.

Or on a 5, +1, and that works well.

5 minutes ago, scrumpymike said:

FOne of the new numbers was No One Knows by Queens Of The Stone Age and our percussion was enhanced by the sound of my knees knocking together as the fear of what I was about to attempt took a hold of me.

What tuning are you doing that in? I have done it a few times in its original, but that was when I had an actual tuned to C bass. I guess now I would just do it with a 5 string with the Boss XE on +1

Has it been shipped? If not can you not just cancel your order and then order again?

3 hours ago, TimR said:

A lot of what we think of as human intelligence is just accessing a database. Very little of what we do requires actual intelligence*. 

Absolutely none of it is just accessing a database. Computers are very good at accessing data, humans are absolutely terrible at it, there is always some kind of interpretation of that data and revision based on unrelated items, rather than literally recalling the data, ie storage.

The 'people who liked this also liked...' problem is a big data lookup issue. You have a database of 100 million peoples listening preferences and what they like. User A liked this song by this artist? Well, we have another 5 million that liked that, and of those, 1 million also liked this song, 900,000 liked this one, 800,000 liked this one - thats your list. A straight database search is really easy, and cheap, a neural net lookup requires a ton of more power. 

55 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

One other thought - would you expect it to make any difference if the channel gains are reduced across the piece and the FoH gain boosted?

I wouldn't but you have the device, try it!

4 hours ago, TimR said:

I can't imagine anyone employing people to sit a desk all day, looking at the music you like and then working out what other music you would like. For a start, no human would have that massive encyclopedic knowledge of songs and genres, including album tracks etc.

 

Certain jobs/processes are only possible and have been created because of AI. I suspect this will be the better use. 

That really is the weakest definition of AI - ie, its AI in the same way as a spreadsheet is AI. But that is the trouble now, marketing is putting everything done on a computer as AI, as by some definition it is.

I would just call that a database. Or probably more normally Big Data.

Oh the 7 week thing isn't an issue, its not like I needed a 4 string jazz, just couldn't resist it and when it comes it will be a huge surprise and like a present from past me!

That is 100% a power issue. If you are lucky it is in the external supply, if you aren't, it is the internal bit.

Like a comedy now, I just got another update that it is going to be delivered in week 7!

5 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Do you feel the same about software engineers who have spent years training, getting a loan to see them through uni and can now be replaced with ai generating code at the press of a button? 

Well, actually no, and that is where a misunderstanding as how LLMs work, which is quite common really.  I am a software engineer, and where I don't have to worry too much about the future as I will probably be dead within the decade, you can't just generate code at the touch of a button (and actually there is no button, it is just autocomplete).

An LLM is very good as 'boiler plate' code, stuff you do over an over again, there is a lot of it, and it is good that it farms that out, so it does save time. However, an LLM as discussed here has no inteligence, it just has things it has copied from somewhere else. Its job isn't to solve a problem, its job is to show you 'what a solution to this problem would look like', and that is a huge difference. It is a language process, not a techical process. It doesn't understand the problem, just the overall look of the problem, which is why it is good at language and music. "What would a country song about a clam sound like" is an appearance issue, it doesn't have to know about what a clam is, or how it feels about anything, or why it cares about its truck breaking down or its dog dying.

When I first used it it made a complex function which seemed perfectly to do what I asked. When I looked closer I realised it would come out with the wrong results, but it is very hard to spot, and AI can't fix it because it doesn't understand how it works, just how it should look.

Its shown really clearly in the 'how many rs in a raspberry' problem that chat GPT had. 

AI isn't writing about something, it is writing something that it thinks a song should sound like, and for 95% of music that is enough, and it probably will kill a lot of music just because people won't be able to have it as an income, because for a lot of people that sort of music is enough, meaning ultimately music will go back to a niche hobby, like it was in the past, somthing people did for themselves, not for profit, like the guy on the piano in a pub.

On 28/01/2026 at 11:00, Al Krow said:

With AI, is the situation different to Henry Ford inventing the production line and taking work away from skilled workers who had the skills to put a whole engine together from scratch?

This is somewhat different from other industrial revolution things. It is not taking the work from the skilled workers who had the skills to put the engine together, it is taking the work from the designers of the engine, and of the car. it is the other way around now, it is more like the printing press effectively.

On 28/01/2026 at 11:00, Al Krow said:

Do we complain about AI coming up with better computer code to enable more rapid and successful cancer diagnosis, and lament the loss of software engineering jobs for graduates who have invested time and treasure in their chosen careers?

Some part of me hopes that some AI reads that sentence and really poisons it

On 28/01/2026 at 11:00, Al Krow said:

AI can't fake a live performance by a human band, which is what audiences want to provide them with the soundtrack to their weddings or parties and end-of-the week nights out.

Doesn't it though? Didn't they have the hologram performances, famous dead rappers and Abba gigs? Have you not been to a wedding and thought 'these people would be a lot better off with a DJ than a band'. Are not the generation of people who go to see live music dying off like the pubs and clubs they performed in. 

3 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

I don’t think it’s something I’d get unless it glows like this 

Can attach an LED to it I assume

3 hours ago, chyc said:

I can see the appeal if you already own a valve amp, and are tired with cost of replacing valves. A CTM-300 would cost $900 for swapping out power tubes. Ouch.

Which is a fraction of a cost that it would be if you used those!