NancyJohnson

Much as I harbour disdain for all the big manufacturers, at least Gibson are trying to mix things up with their MOD Collection stuff; sure they're as guilty as everyone else in their custom shop offerings, but the MOD stuff is truly one-off mix and match experimentation, finishes, pickups, electrics, tailpieces/Bigsby units.

I think you'll struggle to find original parts for a Integra or even a specific bridge for whatever particular year/model that one actually is. If it was mine, I'd scrap the desire to retain originality and just pop a replacement bridge in...it would also be quicker and likely more cost effective as well. I wouldn't worry about holes not lining up or anything; stick a Hipshot Kickass on it.

In general, I replace hardware if, a) the original part has failed, b) if the original part falls short in adjustability, or in rare occasions c) fails to fulfil a visual aesthetic (ie swapping like for like hardware, chrome to black). Sure, I've swapped out BBoT bridges in the past (to both BA2 and Hipshot KickAss units), but purely down to necessity; one project bass had missing bridge parts and another bridge used to cut my wrist. I prefer the feel of a bigger bridge under my wrist so naturally either of these units fulfill that remit, but I'd also say that adjustability of the Bad/KickAss units is probably on par with the BBoT units they've replaced. On the subject of the marketing claims, I'd take these with a generous pinch of salt. Do these bridges make any differences to sustain or wood transfer (whaaaat?), it's all nonsense. Ask yourself, how long do we hit a note and let it sustain for? A second? Five seconds? Ten? Sustain as an argument is ridiculous. Of wood transfer, what? Also rubbish. Reckon if you did a blind test on two identical (as feasibly possible) basses one with a BA2 and another with a BBoT, I doubt anyone would be able to differentiate the tonal nuances between the instruments.

Where's the innovation exactly? Very likely same old shapes, same old pickups, same old electronics, same old. Imagine if Fender were a car company; everything would still look like Christine.

So easy...

Live/Muse at Brixton Academy. Everything was just awful. Hours to get there, hours to get home. Dreadful sets. Dreadful FoH sound. Too loud. Too full (over capacity?).

Nope! All real. Honest.

I tend to rip everything to FLAC and the Blu-ray content to MKV and then to MP4 with Dolby/DTS pass-through. Any stereo stuff off the Blu-Rays gets converted to FLAC with Foobar. All this sits on a NAS and just gets squirted into our surround system via Plex.

While I'd agree with most of your points, the surround mixes I've got are just glorious. It's not like the stereo mixes are dumped. By way of example, XTC's Skylarking SDE from 2016, which cost under £20.00. You're getting (thank you Wikipedia): 1. 2016 5.1 mix – same running order as 2016 stereo mix 2. 2016 instrumental mix – same running order as 2016 stereo mix 3. 2001 stereo remaster – same running order as original vinyl (includes bonus tracks "Dear God" and "Extrovert") 4. 2010 corrected polarity remaster – same running order as 2016 stereo mix (minus bonus tracks) 5. Album in demo and work tape form – same running order as 2016 stereo mix (minus bonus tracks) 6. 30+ demos/early version/WiP versions. There's also a second deluxe reissue that includes a 2024 Dolby Atmos mix on a CD/BR two disc set. £21.00, not £150.00. This is how you do this.

I suppose another facit of the SDE thing is this shameless cash grabbing by the artistes. Two bands. Firstly, take Kiss (who are no strangers to merchandise and monetising their brand) and specifically the reissue of Destroyer. Beth aside, I've always liked the album. The SDE is expanded to four CDs and a Steven Wilson 5.1 mix on Blu-Ray. I'm sure Gene Simmons could just hear the sound of cash registers ringing at $200 a pop; I'm pretty sure most of the content has been in circulation for years and that most fans would be more than happy to fork over £15/$20 for a standalone BluRay. Next up, Queen. These guys have warehouses full of money and now they're undertaking a huge reissue programme. The newly entitled SDE of 'Queen 1' drops next month (just in time for Christmas); newly expanded to six CDs (most of the content freely available, but there's a karaoke version) and a vinyl copy, yours for £150.00. £150.00. Madness, but people will still buy it. Look, I know people will say, 'Well, you don't need to buy them,' and in truth, I won't be buying them. I just find the whole milking the fan base a bit abhorrent. The SDEs I've mentioned above were £25-30 tops, not £150-200.

Aah, Signature. Years ago there was all this conjecture about the Signature brand being bankrolled by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee; in the early days of the interwebs it was somewhat difficult to confirm. In all the years that followed, not once have I seen or read a bean from either to confirm this 'fact'.

Long post. Over the years I've bought into SDE collections; multi-CD/BluRay sets, 5.1/Atmos mixes. My personal champions being pretty much all the Fleetwood Mac, XTC and Tears For Fears rerelease stuff; when done properly these sets can be superb. The Deluxe/Expanded editions of UFO's Strangers In The Night and Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous are also top notch. In the subject of Thin Lizzy, yesterday me and my wife were listening to the '1976' SDE; effectively an expanded double of Johnny The Fox and Jailbreak. The question came up on the bonus content (live/outtakes/radio), my wife said something along the lines of, 'Where has all this material been for 50-odd years? If you were 30 years old when these albums came out, you'd be nudging 80 now, or dead. Who is this actually for?' In my head, I'm trying to reconcile who these releases are actually for as well, how many units will actually be sold (is it a big moneymaker considering the work involved to get it released) and should the content have been released earlier. Assuming Jailbreak had had an additional record of demos bundled in with it in 1976, would it have just watered down the original album? I follow Steve Jansen (Japan) on X, once in a while he'll drop short clips of live recordings from early tours, quality wise these are studio quality and a country mile better than their official live album or the Budokan gig bundled in the recent Quiet Life boxset, but they're never going to get released. There's an ever diminishing fanbase from that period and it pains me that we'll never hear these recordings in full. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing all this stuff, but how much time after the original release is arguably too long, or is it all about keeping the fan base hungry for more?

When I was pre-teen, I was a bit obsessed with The Sweet. Fond memories of getting a Sanyo cassette recorder for Christmas and a copy of Sweet F*nny Adams on cassette. A year or so later I was given a copy of Desolation Boulevard on my birthday. These two albums, along with the clutch of non-album singles/b-sides will forever hold a place in my heart. I've had these two albums (and singles) on rotation for about a week. They're 50 blumming years old. The production is a tad dated, but man alive, they're both fantastic albums.

I follow both of Rick Beato's channels and saw this come up last night. I watched about ten minutes of it, got (very) bored and switched to The Drain Unblockers feed (which was way more entertaining to be honest).

Gone through pretty much every conceivable speaker combination over the years. [Edit: Gave this some thought - 1x18, 1x15, 2x15, 4x10, 2x10, 2x12, 4x5, 1x12, 15/6. Bonkers. Most had a tweeter/horn of some description.] Currently I run a pair of Darkglass 1x12s and the Barefaced Big One that I won in the SE Bass Bash a few years back. Musically I play alternative rock, gnarly tone. Tend to favour one or two of the 1x12s in most situations; they're capable and it's more about portability. There's really not much difference tonally between all the enclosures. They all do clean/gnarly with equal gusto. I've done side by side tests and I don't claim to really have heard too much difference between cabinets. I suppose that you just change kit because you're searching for something different, don't really know what, as tone is fairly subjective. For me it just came down to not wanting to have to cart around huge cabinets any more and the Darkglass cabinets fulfilled that. They're small and sound great irrespective of what you push through them. I can use one (or two). Or I cab use the Big One.

Most notes. I'm thinking strings. Don't have a spare set.

There's a lot of videos on You Tube covering repairs way worse than these. Pretty certain you could plough out the damage with a router and glue in new wood and clamp. It should give you a serviceable repair.

I've got an old Ibanez bass that was a bit of a project. All works, everything tightly screwed together. Truss rod doing its job, bridge springs not slack. Freshish strings. Irritatingly, it has what's best described as a resonance rattle; unamplified there's this rattling when strings are played. What causes this?

The business might have a stance of just producing set necks/neck-through instruments, but I'd take this comment by Dirnt with a pinch of salt. They're more than capable of producing bolt on instruments, they probably just choose not to.

I often wonder about import taxes, duties. Assume I was on holiday in Germany, I'm in my own car and I decide to swing by Thomann to pick up some gear, when I drive onto the ferry or use the Channel Tunnel, does anyone from HMRC inspect my vehicle or are there simply too many vehicles to do so? Anyone done this?

The wiring rout is the same on all Gibson/Epiphone Thunderbirds; this isn't anything about authenticity really, it's just convenience and laziness. When you think how the wiring snakes through a Les Paul body, there's an element of thought gone into it. With a Thunderbird, any holes for the pickup loom could easily be done before the wings are glued in; these Epiphone things are/were mass produced, multiples at a time. It's fine to mess with the headstock carving and body geometry, but the rout under the plate? Nah, leave it in.

Yup, had a lot of stuff: RBI (rack) VT Bass (rack) Geddy2112 (rack) BDDI (twice) GT2 VTBASS DI DP-3X GED 2112 DI ... there's probably been more. I'm kind of coming round to either a GSS Baby Sumo or finding someone to build me something. Small is the way forward; no more racks. If I need a trolley to get it into a venue, it's too big.

It's surprising how when you get an idea in your head how quickly you start accumulating intel. I've already skirted around the Profusion site.

I have a question (or ten). I'll admit that for a while I've not been 100% happy with my head (Darkglass AO900); I mean it's certainly got more than enough oomph, but the drive element is too aggressive. In my head, my ideal is a one box solution of a small chassis class D amp with a similar/adequate output to the AO900 with a Sansamp BDDI at the front end; following a thread elsewhere, I'm actually giving some thought to getting something built. Spec-wise, I'd be happy with all the controls and input jack on the top (similar to the Victory Kraken units) and round the back, 240v in, a single Speakon output and an XLR/DI output. As the pre-amp/BDDI will always be on and I don't use any outboard stuff, there's be no requirement for effects sends/return, aux inputs. As an afterthought an always on tuner might be nice. Looking around, there does seem to be a few BDDI clones about, but to be honest, if it's as easy to facilitate, I'd be OK butchering a Sansamp for it (so getting the top fascia laser cut so the unit simply bolts in and is always on). Obviously if the unit is having holes laser cut, it's a no brainer to get the control function laser etched as well. Is this all feasible? Where do I start?