NancyJohnson

Honestly though, ion a blind test nobody can tell the difference between the new Squier and a 60 year old Precision.

Well, this is something different.u When I bought the loaded body a while back, thought I could do a Fenderbird thing on it or source an Epiphone neck, but shortly after the purchase the original seller said he had the neck as well, so I bought that as well. Lacking a bridge, I put one of my old redundant Gibson 3-pointers on it. The original seller had painted it a frankly hideous yellow which kind of worked, I considered getting a wrap printed for it but then just started covering it in stickers. Oh, it was also strung BEAD on purchase, so I left it as that. I put on Dunlop Straploks (I'll supply the strap side bits). It plays very nicely. Sounds decent; it's fairly lively. There's no case or bag. I can take off the neck for shipping. It would make a decent project for someone! *How do I change the price? It should be less than that...

I'm down to six. I could lose two of those (one's up on the For Sale section), I've got an Epiphone Thunderbird that the original owner sprayed yellow, that's covered in stickers. I don't use it at all. That could go. Never have any regrets, but always think fondly of what you've owned. Always see every new bass purchase as an upgrade or improvement of past instruments. [Cheeky edit: the Thunderbird is now up on the For Sale section as well.]

Kill.Me.Now.

A bass one would be horrific. Man alive, it would just write itself and you can see it now; full of the usual suspects, the omission of loads who should be in there and a subtle nods to the likes of the previously unknown Blind Reggie Fingerblister who revolutionarily tuned to E/C/F#/H and played on a lone Sun Records b-side in 1957.

Stevie Nicks has always come over as being more concerned about her own agenda than the band's one. I know this is dredging up something from years back, but we were roadtripping through Nevada, we had this radio station on and they'd been promoting some live interview with Stevie Nicks. For one reason or another the interview got pushed back, then pushed back again, then again, until they finally got her on the phone for about five minutes at the end of the show. She came across as thoroughly unpleasant and rude, answering questions like a politician (so, not answering questions, just making disassociated comments to further whatever her agenda was that day), before cutting the interviewer off to sing Silver Springs over the phone. She's off with the faeries. Mad as cheese.

I haven't watched all of the programmes yet, but thanks for the spoiler. Really appreciate that. Did you know that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's dad? Anyhow, hands up, how many people read that list and haven't heard of half of them? No Mike Portnoy? Where's Peter Criss?

First off, I'll put on record that I adore their output from Rumours through to Tango In The Night. Yes, I know as as old punkster they should be abhorrent to me, but they're not. Guilty pleasures. That said, this is just another chapter in this bands backstory. They just just seem to be the acceptable face of sex, drugs, lawsuits in a band context. They all seem act like little kids and if the claims are true, I do have some sympathy for Buckingham. I feel that Mick and John lost their band decades ago, they're just pawns, and the comment from the latter saying he couldn't speak to Buckingham actually made me laugh out loud. It'll be interesting how this all pans out. Ultimately it's got nothing to do with music. It's all about $$$.

I love all my gear but for different reasons, but I'm down to six basses now and hope to reduce that further. I suppose the question here should be rephrased as you're bound to get people going, 'Oh, my Ritter,' or 'Oh, my Fodera,' comments of which are primarily made out of how much the instrument actually cost or how old it is, not because they're best. As Gary put it, personal choice has to come down to looks, feel etc. and we all know that tastes shift with time. Right now, and it really hurts me to say this given the money spent elsewhere, but my go to bass and the one I love the most is the mashed up ratty old Aria Pro II Primary bass. It cost me next to nothing, it owes me about £120 for a new pickup, bridge and pots. It plays dreamily and sounds gnarly. On the last gig I did with the old band I threw it across the stage and it just went, 'Is that the best you got?' The new recordings I've been doing are all on it. The only downside is that it's Precision-shaped and I'm really not a fan of Fenders.

I've got some nice gear, but have always had this nagging thing about getting something really decent on the guitar front, maybe an old DC Les Paul Junior (or a Hamer Special), an Explorer (four-digit Hamer Standard or a Gibson), a Yamaha SG**** or maybe even one of Frank Diemel's Firestars (although these have pretty much doubled in price over the last couple of years). I trawl eBay, Gumtree and Reverb regularly and it seems pretty clear to me that there's always been guitars and basses on sale that are either have dubious provenance or are clearly not what they pertain to be. I just look at stuff and think, 'Oooooh, that just doesn't look right at all.' Unless you're an authority on a particular instrument or are able to do your diligence, there doesn't seem to be any go to source for verification of what an instrument actually is and the constant rejigging of designs (all the maker So what would you do? Buy new from an authorised dealer? Take a risk? Buy through a vintage dealer and accept the price hike for something genuine?

BEAD?

It's a long shot at being able to buy everything in one combines transaction, but I'm assuming that you don't want to switch from a StingRay 5? If it was me, I'd experiment a bit rather than buying another S5 and breaking it up. I'd check the profile of a Status MM5 neck first to ensure I was 100% happy with that, then probably try and create something Frankensteinesquely unique. If money is a consideration, I'd go the route of buying a Tony Levin OLP or a Sterling and getting the chambering done on that; any luthier worth his salt should be able to rip the body down (from behind) to your desired depth, chamber from the underside and then glue in a new laminate on the back so the aesthetics aren't changed visually from the front and refinish. I suppose then, the hurdles you're going to have to get over thereafter would be body balance, what it would sound like tonally, whether it would resonate, whether the control cavitiy would be deep enough to contain the electronics, and so on. Alternatively, just dispense with the low-B and buy a Thunderbird. Seems that's what everyone is doing nowadays!

I'm somewhat of a @Tech21NYC slut. Pretty much any if their stomps or racked gear will do the trick. Racked RBI and GED2112 have been great, but I didn't get on with the VTBASS one (tonally just didn't work for me). Of the stomps, BDDI (which is essentially an RBI in different clothes) and the recent dUg. Even the Sansamp GT2 worked. If Tech21 would do the dUg in a 19" rack version my life woukd be complete. Interestingly, the old Bass POD I ran for a while was fantastic. I know it picked up flack from these purists who would say it sounds nothing like the amps it's supposed to be modelling from, but it was a very versatile piece of kit, great for live and recording.

Wife gone to bed, screwdrivers close to hand. I just did mods on both jumpers...easy peasy. Unit functions fine (each channel operates independently, but it outputs in mono) and as the function button now operates as a bypass, I can plug my dUg in permanently. Just needed to do the ground lift on the GED and I'm set. I'm unsure which order at this juncture. dUg>GED or GED>dUg. I might want to throw a BDDI in as well...

@Tech21NYC You know the one thing I'd have loved with the GED would have been a bypass button. It's not a gripe! I can live with that hack of using a patch cable and the 50/50 button to run it in mono, but am wondering, does flipping the internal jumper do exactly the same thing?