Greg Edwards69

Happy to be back at the Cow & Telescope this Friday. One of Southend's premier music venues.

Yeah, using just one earbud isn't good for your hearing. It's potentially more dangerous than not using IEMs or earplugs at all. All you end up doing is turning up the volume to compensate for the loud surrounding noise around you, and you don't always realise how loud the single IEM is. Common wisdom says, if you're going to use just one IEM, then stick a decent nusicians earplug in the other ear to balance them out.

I'm sorry to hear you're going through a tough financial patch, and met with a bad FB marketplace experience. As others have said, FB Marketplace can be a hive of scum and villainy. But if you're not in a rush to sell, it's worth wading through the chaff and persevering with. I've sold a number of music and non-music items via FB marketplace, generally all at or close to the price I advertised for, and more than I would have got via eBay. I tend to slightly inflate the asking price knowing someone will make an offer, and I lead my adverts with something along the lines of "first come first served, no silly offers, cash on collection only". It doesn't weed all the scammers and twits out, but it helps. If they do ask, I tell them to read the advert again. FWIW. The questions from prospective buyers annoy me more than anything... "What's your best price?". Have people forgotten how to negotiate? Make me a sensible offer and you'll find out, don't just ask me to offer you a lowball price. "Can you lower the price by £XX as I have to get a train/bus to collect it from you?" Absolutely not. I'm not covering your travel expenses, what do I get out of that? Usually when I've had multiple offers I get: "I can collect it today if you take £XX". As if they're doing me a favour by giving me a lot less than I'm asking for just to take it off my hands quickly. I tell them I have better offers lined up and I'm in no rush to sell.

There's also the new Mvave Tank B, mentioned in this thread, which looks quite useful. It even has an XLR so you can use it live, straight to FOH. I'm tempted to pick one up for that price (about £70 via Temu) to use as a backup. FWIW, I've just bought the Katana:Go, and I'm impressed with it so far. I've had a few headphone practice tools over the years (Pandora, Mooer P1, Nux Mighty Plug, Pocket GT) and this beats them all.

I had a feeling they would sell like hotcakes! I wonder if your Katana Amp presets will be compatible with the Katana Go?

Same here. Mine frequently transitions to an 'outer dialogue' when I'm alone... or I think I am. I frequently have conversations with myself when I'm riding my bike to and from work - sometimes I wind myself up and get cross, but it's cathartic and helps me process things. My wife has caught me muttering whilst showering several times and thinks it is weird as she never talks to herself. But then she's told me she listens to whole songs in her head via her 'internal radio'.

Back at Birchanger Social Club last night. First gig for us since just before Xmas, and first gig with new Allen & Heath CQ18T mixer and my new Sennheiser IE 400 Pro IEMs. It's a regular venue for us, but unfortunately it was rather on the quiet side, not to mention we had to wait for the rugby to finish before we could start. But that meant we could take advantage of the excellent food and cheap beer before we started. Every cloud... We played well enough, but as I say, it was a quiet night, so only a few dancers. But they seemed to enjoy it. And even though we've had a few rehearsals since Xmas and I've practiced at home, we were clearly out of physical "gig shape". All of us, apart from young Sophie, were broken by the end of the night. Hopefully, another couple of gigs should do us good. Really happy with the new mixer. I'm glad we had a technical rehearsal a few weeks ago to set it up but it's going to take a few gigs to properly dial it in and get the in ear mix just right (we're sharing a single mix for the time being). Talking of which, I'm very happy with the new IE 400 Pro IEMs, none of the irritating harshness of my previous ZS10 Pro X set, with a lovely full range and deep sound. And the sound from the new mixer seemed to be much clearer compared to the old Yamaha desk. Next gig in 3 weeks time back at the Cow and Telescope. Looking forward to that one.

I ordered one yesterday after posting this. It's at work with me as we speak. Looking forward to trying it out later. I was very tempted by the new Pod Express, but was on the fence, partly due to the price. No fence to sit on with the Katana:Go - it ticks almost every, single box.

First gig of the year, then a busy few weeks.

To be fair, I meant a bassist or guitarist.

Just had a look at the pdf manual and parameter guides. There's a lot to like with this. A veritable Katana in your pocket. A ton of effects and parameters to keep you entertained for hours, plus a "stage feel" function, similar to the Waza Air headphones that lets you choose where the Bluetooth audio and amp sits in 3D space (such as amp in front of you and Bluetooth behind - no head tracking, mind you). £120 on GAK. Sounds like a bargain. I think my Pocket GT will be up for sale very soon. PS, with mini TRS cable and passive DI box, it could make for a potent backup device for gigs.

That would be most helpful if you could. FWIW, I tend to use the octaver down to around the open A string mixed with the unaffected tone. Or I use a 100% mix to simulate BEAD tuning, so needs to track the open E string.

BOSS - KATANA:GO | Personal Headphone Guitar Amplifier Looks like a cross between the Nux Mighty Plug/Fender Mustang Micro, and a revamp of the Pocket GT. As I said elsewhere, it's a good time to be a bassist/guitarist.

Holy moly, and now we have the Boss Katana:Go. It's a great time to be a bassist/guitarist.

Hey - I noticed in the manual that this device also has a pitch-shift effect. How well does this work, sound and track? For instance as an octave effect or to simulate BEAD tuning? I haven't had much luck with pitch shifting on cheaper devices as it's quite a processor-intensive effect.

And there's the rub. It's not for everyone. For me, I carry a couple of "hope-I-never-need-to-use-it" backup items to every gig, such as my Sonicake flyrig, and my Jackson Minion that sit in a gigbag and don't get touched until they go back in the car (although I do play the Minion at home). I also have a Boss Pocket GT that I use at home for headphone practice. It's fine, but I wouldn't want to gig with it, even as an emergency backup. It's just not built for such a purpose. The Pod Express ticks both of those boxes for me and could easily do double duty as a home practice device and a "hope-I-never-need-to-use-it" backup. What's more, it's made with the same algorithms as my Helix, so it should sound even closer to my usual sound.

I totally get that (and that mvave device looks fab) but it's nice to know there's something out there that if I need it at a gig, it should sound almost the same as my main helix patches. and isn't massively expensive, even if it doesn't have XLR.

I used to coordinate my straps with my instruments. But these days, I value comfort over looks, (not to mention, I can count on zero hands the number of times my strap design/colour choice has been complimented), so I use plain black neoprene straps such as the Neotech Megastrap or Comfort Strapp on my main basses. EDIT: Oh and FWIW, I have a strap permanently attached to every bass. I was an advocate of strap locks for years until the supplied button strap screw on my Attitude kept working loose. . I got fed up tightening it up again all the time and realised I had a dedicated strap for each bass, so why am I taking them off and putting them on all the time? I figured the issue was the screw thread was slightly different to the original (which wouldn't fit in the strap button). I replaced the straplocks with the original buttons and screws, attached the strap and put on some rubber washers. It's been rock solid ever since. I did the same to my other basses, and continued to do so on every new bass since as I believe the simple act of taking a wood screw out and putting it back in weakens the thread. If I don't touch the screw, it won't fail.

Another story, from many years ago so the details are quite hazy. My first ever band, mid nineties, from Canvey Island. I must have been around 17 years old at the time. Me on bass (plugged straight into our cheap PA - not even a DI box - yes we were quite poor), my brother on guitar (with a Vox AC50 he bought off a mate for next to nothing) and my mate Kelly on drums. Our PA was an old, very basic, powered mixer - (like those ones in rehearsal rooms, but worse - probably only had about 4 channels) and a couple of Wemm 4x10 columns we acquired from someone for free. Anyway, we were hired by a local impresario to play at his street party. It was apparently his way of thanking his neighbours for putting up with his noisy comings and goings at all hours. He told us that he knew Peter Green's family (another Canvey native) and that Peter's niece was coming along. She approached us after we played and said our version of 'Albatross' was one of the best she had heard in years. Unbeknownst to us, someone had recorded it as well. Fast forward a couple of weeks later and my brother bumped into the same girl. She told him she had played the tape recording to her Uncle Peter and he was very impressed and started reminiscing. Not long later, Peter came out of his self-imposed hibernation with his "Splinter Group". I'd like to think we had something to do with that.

I've had a set of Elacin custom moulded ones for years, but I never got on with them in my band. I think the included -25db filters were just too much. However, I took them to a metal night gig at the weekend, where my apple watch told me it was peaking around 105db, and they worked very well - even if my ears have changed. I've tried a number of universal fit plugs over the years and struggled to find a good one. Docs Pro Plugs, Alpine, Klaisen audio sheilds and more recently I've been using Earasers. The latter have a different type of filter that only reduces the harmful frequencies. They sound okay, but never stay in place. I've had my eye on the Mineundo plugs. These have an adjustable filter from -7db to -25db which seems ideal. But they're pricy for a universal fit and I've read mixed reviews, particularly about them falling apart. As such, I've just bought a set of Loop Switch plugs. Similar idea, but a third of the price and has a range of -17 to -25db. I haven't been able to test them properly yet as I've had a blocked ear problem for a few days (likely exacerbated by practicing at home with over-ear headphones sat and sun, then that loud metal gig sat night and a band rehearsal sunday evening - both with earplugs). But I'm hoping to go to a gig on Sunday, so I'll take them with me. The alternate solution is noise cancelling earbuds. Many modern models, such as the AirPods Pro 2 include a transparency mode. This work in reverse to noise cancelling and purposely lets sound in, with the intention of feeling like you don't have anything in your ears, but crucially, with a limiter - set to 85db on my AirPods Pro. It works okay, but you can tell it's digitally processing the sound and alters the tone a little, and how much is actually attenuates is debatable (I reckon foam tips could improve matters). But if you already have a set of buds, it's work checking out and this article is worth a read.

I played a few gigs with a guitarist friend (Clive Murray) who had released an album of instrumental rock (satch/vai type stuff). He's quite good actually, check him out* Anyway, we played a "festival" on London around 2003 called Jemfest, organised by the Jemsite forum, for lovers of all thing Ibanez, pointy, instrumental rock. We shared the bill with Rob Balducci (who told me he loved my tone). And a relatively unknown Herman Li of Dragon Force fame joined in the end of the evening jam. *FWIW, I recently supplied bass for a couple of tracks of Clive's new album 'Love and Painkillers'. Please do check it out if you like that kind of that kind of thing

I'd love to know how the pricing structure is calculated. HX One: $299 = £249 Pod Express: $179 = £199

Allegedly $179 in the US. So probably £3,000 in the UK

Looks great to me. Pretty much everything I need in a backup or even flyrig type device. Sure, there’s always going to be things missing for most people (for me it’s the SVT4Pro model, pitch shift, recharagle internal battery and Bluetooth) but it ticks a hell of a lot of boxes. I wonder if future firmware updates will add more effects to choose from and maybe swap them in and out.