NickD

They were brilliant fun. I'd love to have witnessed them live. Cyndi Lauper was odd. I'm sure there was some kind of latency issue. I suppose it's hard to imagine at that level of show, but she was so consistently behind time it was uncanny. The only time it fell into time was when she called the guitarist over and was watching her hands.

That's strange. It sounds like bass guitar to me, even down to the string noise. It sounds good, but I can't picture it in my head as a DB.

That was a bloody difficult choice. Every tune a cracker!

I don't think so. I had a pretty good look and found nothing even close. Mine arrived this morning. The set was well below anything I could find, and the low B string was half the price I could find anywhere else.

This is true, I run iReal pro on my tablet, phone, and on my laptop using Bluestacks as an Android emulator. Works just as it should.

The Dapper is worth it for the octave alone (basically the same as their OC10). Searching for gigbag sized solution I bought the Bass Fly Rig, then the Bass Fly Rig mk2, the Dug Pinnick sig, and the Dapper. In the end I kept the Dapper. I would say that the preamp section is a bit more flexible on the Tech 21 units, and their chorus is a little sweeter, but the octave and filter sections on the Dapper are brilliant, and the preamp gets dirty enough for my needs. I'm not sure it's a fair fight with the Batallion, as that's just supposed to be a preamp with a dirt option, so it's trying to do a different thing. I've not actually tried it though, as that's not what I need.

Thanks chaps! What I didn't mention is that he's going to be dropping his dog off at his daughters place down towards Banbury first, which is why I thought going further west. Having said that, the cut through to Northampton from there doesn't look too bad for him.

I'd be grateful for any recommendations for rehearsal spaces around Banbury/Bicester area. It's not an area I know at all, but it's about halfway between us (Bushey, Herts), and a fella we're doing some festivals with over the summer (Coventry), and we're aiming to do a couple of long rehearsals in June to get ready. All we really need is a room with a decent PA for Vox and DI mandolins, as well be taking everything else. Thanks in advance! ☺️

Awful to hear, sad news indeed. Rest in peace Fella.

If I recall correctly, he was a Canadian fella.

Glad it worked out! I was impressed with Thwaites too, firstly because after taking it in for a bit of adjustment, I also felt liked I walked away with a totally different bass... And secondly, because the luthier that fetched it out to me was wearing a t-shirt that read 'No, it's not a f@*#ing cello!'

A quality tune... Nice one!

Crikey. I think the thread should be renamed 'Is it time to start saving'.

Many thanks for that @Happy Jack! It's a helpful update, and I get the Basschat chop 'n' change compulsion, this is probably just part of that. I suspect if you dropped it from your chain you can't have felt it was making 'that' much difference, and I do wonder if this is just me staring down a 600 quid rabbit hole, when I'm relatively content with my sound anyway. I really appreciate your offer of letting me have a 'fiddle abaht, fiddle abaht', that's very kind of you. It's not something I could audition at home though (paper thin walls, cranky neighbours), but I might have a day in a few weeks time when I can book a room down at Mill Hill and spend a few hours experimenting by myself. I'll give you a shout if I manage to get that together. Thank you!

Holy thread resurrection Batman! I've been looking at this recently, and from the handful of bass reviews online it seems pretty impressive. Rumour has it that a new batch is in the offing, and I'm seriously considering it. To be fair, I'm pretty happy with the Realist Lifeline/Headway EDB 2 HE/Genz Benz Shuttle combo I'm using at the moment. In rehearsal recordings it sounds like a DB to me, but there's always that urge to get a little closer to the unamplified sound, however that's achieved. We've got a number of festivals over the summer, as a trio with Drums, Mandolin/Octave Mandolin & Vox, so filling out my sound a bit would be nice, and I want to make it as easy and quick as possible for the soundfolks to get me sorted, just give 'em a DI feed and Bob's yer Aunties' live-in lover. So, a few years down the line, did this turn out to be a long term winner, or an overcomplicated, over rated pain in the neck?

I found them quite amiable there. Maybe have a chat and see what they think is the most sensible approach. They seem crazy busy most of the time so I can't see them touting for trade, so to speak, and recommending something unnecessary.

My Arco is also considerably louder than my pizz. There's a variable boost switch on the Fishman platinum pro that I use in reverse. I keep it boosted for pizz and switch it off when I go for the bow.

I bought a Vintage Strat from there a couple of years ago, largely because of their claim that nothing leaves the shop without a proper inspection/setup. When it landed it played beautifully... except for a choke on the 17th fret. I dropped them an email, they were horrified, had it picked up the next day, corrected it and sent it back the day after. In my experience, they're pretty serious about service.

I have the Delano P pickup in my Jake 5 (with a Delano MM in the bridge) and soloed it barks like a rottweiler if I dig in. As above, maybe it's the height, or possibly placement.

Nice one, well deserved!

Really enjoyed going through those. Really good stuff again!