NancyJohnson

Are you insane?

The one that really makes me want to start breaking things is 'Walking On Broken Glass' by Annie Lennox. Our local BBC radio station (Berkshire) just seems to have such a limited playlist and I'd hear this song maybe once every couple of days. At work, the consultants have a terrible oldies station on at the other end of the office and I hear it twice, sometimes three times a day. It's torture. I can't bear her or The Eurythmics at the best of times.

Well it arrived about half-hour ago and I've had a quick noodle. I jacked it into a Darkglass 1x12 and put the GED2112 into the front of it. Spector Euro X. First impressions, well made, weighty. Volumewise there's obviously going to be some parity with how hot the input signal is...did a brief bit of tweaking with the GED and the amp and rolled up the volume. It's certainly got some oomph, even at about 25% volume. I'm very surprised at how good it appears to be. Three small tone controls on the top, there's a pleasant indent at the noon position, so you're hoping this is the transparent point. Quite please, to be honest. Surprised, even. £68.00. Belter.

It's funny how threads get resurrected, was talking about import tax etc last night. Wife said something along the lines of, "Do you remember how holiday companies would promote the USA and say stuff like, 'Come to New York! It's the shopping capital of the world!'" How does stuffing a half-empty outbound suitcase with new clothes differ from buying a guitar and bringing it in? Bringing a guitar in, I suspect you're easy prey for custom officials. Christ on a bike, I know a few people who packed a smaller suitcase inside a bigger one so they could buy loads of clothes.

Staines is an odd place. I'm an Egham kid, if that wasn't bad enough. We'd only venture into Staines to go Adam's and Record Scene (an old record shop that went under the ball and chain when they were building the new ring road by the Iron Bridge). I haven't been there in 25 years. Depressing. Like Bracknell.

Momma. I am obsessed with them. There, I said it. They're like Veruca Salt and Smashing Pumpkins had a child.

For the benefit of the Staines Massive @TrevorR @Dad3353 I was just having a peruse on Google Maps...while the street view thing doesn't extend down Station Path, there are photos of the area courtesy of the dental business that now occupies the site of what was Adam Music. Almost certain the shuttered building dead centre below is where it was. Couldn't say for cetain whether the old place got demolished and rebuilt, but it was definitely next door to the end of that row of houses.

Just a brief heads up. Just ordered the Harley Benton GPA100 - £78.00 shipped. I could have done without the bass/mid/treble knobs, but I'll just set those to noon and see what happens. At present it's not going to see much (if any) live action, but it'll do for the odd times I just want to have a noodle on the bass or EUB at home; I'll squirt the GED or dUg into it and report back. I do miss not having an always available set up in the house.

I was going through some old SD cards last night; all the photographic content should be on a PC and backed up elsewhere, opening one drive and there was a a folder containing a video clip from a gig I played for BBC Introducing at Reading's Purple Turtle in October 2017. My wife must have filmed it and I'd never seen it until yesterday. Even though the band all ended very badly/abruptly, I can look at this and take some joy that we were a very tight punky/alternative unit and on fire that night. I wrote the music, singer the lyrics.

Brother Toboggan

Yes, I know it's only been a few months since the last one, but is anyone thinking of dates for this year? I was royally narked at missing the 2023 event.

It's odd, I mean I love the Lull, but that white one was the first; bought it in through Ishibashi, somehow I avoided import duties (the bloke at the depot where I picked it up from was a bass player, he asked what it was, I told him, he went, 'Aaw, maaaan,' and nothing changed hands!).

It's odd seeing a thread resurrection that you have zero memory of contributing to. The owner of Amen Corner Music passed away a short time after my post and the store had a 48-hour fire sale to clear the stock. I went over out of curiosity more than anything else, just to see the inside of the place, but had no intention of buying anything. In death came probably their biggest trading weekend ever; the place was full of people literally fighting over the same tired old stock/junk that had hung on wall hangers ignored for years, all overseen by a few clueless offspring/relatives of the deceased owner. It was like hyaenas fighting over the scraps of a long dead zebra carcass. The people clearing the shop were just accepting ridiculous offers on kit and I often wonder whether I could have thrown in a £100 offer for an old Hamer USA guitar and had it accepted.

And @jonno1981

I popped some Ash on earlier. Just a hits package. Time for a deep dive.

I sold this to @police squad a few years back as I had a Mike Lull incoming. He sold it in fairly quickly. It was dreamy. I think I'd like to bring it home at some point.

In answer to the first question, does 5.1/surround add anything. Oh, yes. This isn't about some kind of tweaking of the stereo image to make it play on more speakers, this is a full-on back to the master tapes remixing/reworking for 5.1/7.1. I own a few 5.1/surround reissues (or in some cases albums issued in 5.1); Steven Wilson has reworked eight or nine XTC albums and Tears For Fears first three and last albums. For me it's just about reinterpreting the familiarity of what you're listening to, nothing added or taken away, just that the audio is coming at you from five/seven speakers and a sub. It's more companion piece than replacement. The first time I heard the tile track of The Seeds Of Love, I honestly thought I was going to cry (and I'm not an emotional bloke in the slightest; it was just glorious). @hiram.k.hackenbacker may chip in here. I often give thought to albums I'd love to hear reformatted. Jellyfish. Japan. Certainly NIN.

OK, that's a belter! Weeee!

Can you do me a favour? Does Tidal support 5.1/surround audio. I've mentioned Band On The Run. Is that on there in a surround sound format?

Beyond a cursory overview yesterday, I've not tested anything beyond Spotify at this point. A mate has offered me his Qobuz sign on, so I may give this a try over the weekend.

I suppose prompted by the Atmos/Spatial Audio version of Band On The Run, I'm questioning whether it's time to reconsider moving from Spotify to Apple Music (or something else). I've been with Spotify for years, have no real issues with the general audio quality, although my ears do detect a less woolly quality if I'm listening to a lossless source (ie off a NAS). I suppose the majority issue is that we have dozens of playlists in Spotify and whether I can be donkeyed enough to rebuild these on another platform. I'd be interested to hear whether anyone has actually listened to BOTR in 5.1 on Apple Music and what else is actually up there in this format. [Edit] I've done a bit more reading... The term 'Atmos' seems to be an all-encompassing and oft misused term; I am interested in audio in a surround sound format (it works extremely well for the Steven Wilson XTC and Tears For Fears reissues), so I would like to investigate this further. I'd need to be able to listen in a home theatre/5.1 set up and through my Sonos kit/PC/Android devices/car.

This is all dreadfully sad. I met Nick a couple of times years ago, literally as a middleman to resolve a bass deal gone wrong with someone I knew (it was a Lakland 5-string from memory). He seemed a decent enough sort. Calm and unbothered where I'd have been spitting feathers at the inconvenience of the matter. Anyhow, boo. Sleep well, sir.

I just realised that's the single pickup schematic. Assuming you've opened the boot, you should be able to chase back the neck pickup and determine where it's wired. The pickup selector on yours looks to be a Stratocaster five-way unit affair; I'd assume everything goes through that and then into the onboard electrics. Go here to see how the 5-way is wired: https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/5-way-strat-switch-explained-part-2-standard-strat-wiring