Dood

I think I prefer Hildur Guðnadóttir's approach rather than frying my nether regions for some unique Chernobyl inspired sounds! I agree with you.

I always loved (and wanted) a red precision like one of the spares Steve had/has.

Yup, I use EZD2 on a practically daily basis. Nearly all of my gear reviews with drums on use EZD2! It's brilliant.

@D'Addario UK have been doing a recycling scheme for many years. Not only do you earn points for buying D'Addario strings in the first place that can be used towards discounts off future purchases via the D'Addario Player's Circle, but I believe you also earn points from recycling those very strings too!

It's worth noting that luthiers like Sei, Overwater, Shuker etc will build an instrument with absolutely any neck profile your heart desires. Folk may hate the profile of my Shuker's but it's not indicative of the feel of his other basses. To put it another way, when it comes to a luthier who can customise to that granularity, it's probably worth having an idea what profile you might like to have rather than going to another luthier who may only do standard carves. That said, there's obviously an advantage in taking that "unknown territory" out of the equation by going to another luthier who tells you what you're going to have. The P bass I would like made will have the same profile as my '76 I own. There's another BCer who has done the same, having had his 78 (I think) P bass used as a template for his Shuker. Certainly my inspiration for following suit!

I'm very pleased to hear it! - I've been talking to Jon for a long while about a sister for my custom headless six string. We've been working on ideas for an updated version of my everyday workhorse for a while now! It's essentially a Series II Elite, but completely custom. The new version will have a different body shape. That said, one day I will have Jon build me a P bass to go with my vintage Fender. That one will have to wait! If you need any help with Shuker options, I'd be happy to help too.

As a job, I've had the pleasure of most basses on the market at some point. Shuker's attention to detail is insane for the money. I've flipped a lot of basses over the years, but the Shuker's are still very much here and my go to basses. So much so, I can't wait to spec my next.

Your gear sounds different if the speaker cabinets are flat on the floor firing in to your legs. One of the best things you can do , especially on a tight stage, is to angle the cabinets to face your ears or raise them up closer to your ears.

The Dingwall D-Bird. I've only tried the very first pre-release prototype, but even that was incredibly well behaved in the balance department, even before hearing how good it sounded too.

CAR , maple board, white pick guard! YUM! Especially when its a slightly darker CAR. Candy Cola is lovely too. There's a red that Dingwall do too (I'll find a pic) which is really rich, Rich. Really rich lol..

I'd have taken the covers off and run home with it immediately. I'd have maybe liked a little more mid honk in the pickups for a more pronounced mwah, but I just reached for my amp EQ anyway, The tone and build quality of these basses is very good.

I’ve video reviews of both the J bass (fretless) and P bass coming. I really liked the P!

I understand. Good luck in your search, If I come up with any ideas I'll ping you a message. I can't really help with the generic types as I have small ear canals and find that anything but moulded simply won't fit properly, are uncomfortable and even just drop out. That said, I liked the filters made by Etymotic Research used in the ER style ear protection years ago. I'm not sure if they are still as good as they used to be. My current moulded plugs are made by 64 Audio with interchangeable filters and I also have a set of the ones advertised above too. Interestingly they are both very different in their resulting sound due to their attenuation methods.

Looking at this picture alone without the video, I can immediately tell that what is going on here is a little more complex than the OP, as the guitarist is shaping the signal before it gets pushed in to a drive section. Distortion changes tone a huge amount. I can see that the player is cutting the lows to tighten up the saturation sound and boosting the mids, not unlike the eq curve of a tube screamer (but clean) - You could also treat the 6 band EQ pedal as if it were an onboard active preamp, shaping the sound of the guitar, like that of the active Stingray mentioned. Maybe the speaker cabinet they are using has a fair amount of natural mids in it and thus pulling the mids out in the ten band will smooth things over a little. Great for reproducing the sound of a guitar in a mix. I'm not familiar with the MK V Mesa, but I wonder if the tone stack is passive and thus will definitely react differently to that of the active filters of the ten band which can boost and cut more aggressively.

OOOOPS! God, I should put my glasses on, I missed this bit . Apologies. You are a busy musician though, aren't you? I feel sure you'd be able to talk to someone. 👍👍

Hey Jakester, If you can get on this scheme, this will be the best £40 (£30) you'll ever spend on hearing protection* https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/health-welfare/musicians-hearing-health-scheme I have heard that the criteria for getting them is flexible if you can demonstrate that you do a lot of work in music.

Yes that is very true. I even wrote in a bass player magazine column recently not to ever use one IEM in and one out.

Lots of posts to read through thank you! I want to make it clear that for over 15 years, maybe as much as 20 years I have been using pro moulded ear plugs, such as those made my ACS, Etymotic Research and more recently 64 Audio. Certainly since 2015 time I've been using 64 Audio's IEMs, so I've not been using cheap or crap ear protection and monitoring. I've had regular ear tests and have had a lot of help via audiologists in learning about how our ears work, ear health and tinnitus, so it's certainly not a new subject for me. I think I've given out a fair amount of advice on the subject on this very forum on the subject. I would say that given that I started with mild tinnitus, I've done all that I can to prevent it getting worse. My monitoring system that I have used has incorporated high quality personal ambient feeds so I don't crank unnecessary signals to feel part of the mix, as well as signal limiting. I've always kept my mix as quiet as possible. These solutions haven't worked and thus I only really have one direction to follow at this time. Right now, my ears are screaming and I've not been near loud music for weeks.

I really appreciate all the replies and messages of support, you are all amazing, thank you. I will read them all properly, I've been tending to my rather poorly daughter these last couple of days though.

Thank you all so much for your responses, I hear you loud and clear, it's certainly making me think about my next move. I've actually been on IEMs alone for live music and ear plugs (or my own private ambient system) for rehearsals, but this hasn't been enough to keep things under control. Even for the last two years I have operated a silent stage save for the acoustic drums. I genuinely fear the worsening of my Tinnitus and it could signal some very depressing and dramatic changes in my musical life. Even now, the howling is very disruptive.

One of my lovely students bought me a big plectrum as a gift. It's made from leather and is very thick. Although not exactly the same, it's the nearest a plectrum has ever come to sounding like fingers in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing with it. So, to cross-contaminate threads, it's kinda of a best (or worst) of both worlds depending on your view point.