NancyJohnson

That is somewhat of an improvement.

OK. I've had a few. Whatever was on an old Warwick Streamer, The Bongo 5HH and a John East Retro. [edit: I did have an 18v EMG thing on a Precision and I think an old Ibanez Musician had actives, but it was a long time ago.) I'd say the Bongo was the best by a country mile, so long as you didn't abuse it. I'd start off with everything flat and just tweak to accommodate who and where I was playing, but by the end of the night after some excessive twiddling, everything would be ramped up full and it would sound horrific. I'd say the Bongo was the reason I decided to go passive thereafter. (I even posted a thread here at the time asking whether I could pull the active stuff out somehow; it was kinder to just sell it on.)

Does your interpretation of Preamp only include on-board electrics? As a rule, I prefer passive basses, generally plugging these into any manner of Tech 21 stuff; BDDI, GED2112 or the new kid on the block, the intense dUg.

I've never understood why they've gone the programmed route...but I suppose as they have all manner of poop going on with the other instrumentation, why not go the whole hog and do drums as well.

Drummer Jay Postones is a friend of mine.

I'd concur that it is. It's a wonderful thing, just a short nose in front of Cheap Trick at Budokan.

Indeed I am and always have been. NJ is a long and winding road of a story.

I just finished listening to the first two Japan albums and to my suprise a couple more new Lutz tracks dropped, so now these are playing...

Early on I recall being obsessed with Steve Priest, then Geddy Lee, then dUg, so it really came down to dirty clank. All hail Tech 21 NYC. It doesn't matter whether I'm playing a Squier Badtz-Maru or one of my Lulls; that's the tone I'll dial up.

We used to gig with a band who seemed to rely wholly on public transport (granted a lit of those gigs were on shared backline and drum shell packs). They'd just got it down to carrying the absolute bare minimum, all strapped onto various trolleys.

I was pretty shocked that the bridge pickup cavity was bare wood/unfinished, so the bezel fixed that; I've often wondered how Rickenbacker were able to pull that off...surely it would be simpler to just paint the whole body rather than mask it off.

Stick a bezel in it. When I had mine it was the first thing I did. There's a variety of options to accommodate different playing styles.

Tips? I did it two or three times, through necessity rather than choice and while there were no complaints FoH, on stage it was nightmarish; I couldn't hear what I was playing once I stepped away from the throw of monitors. So here's my tip. Always try and use an amp.

I do remember seeing that video and wondering how much damage it would have taken before it broke in half.

How much did you pay for that £400 bass?

Adam Clayton Just Lucky. Heh.

There's been a few of the US hair metal bands that have had spectacular breakdowns, but only to reconcile. Van Halen (Roth and Hagar), Motley Crue (pretty much everybody has fallen out with each other), Kiss (Stanley and Simmons vs everyone else).

I really felt a connection with Gary PB's Fernandes MV-65NS. It was beautifully set up and sounded lovely.