Jonesy

The black and silver sparkle are the best of the Z3 finishes imo. They still don't beat the natural finish of the Z7 though, plus the roasted maple neck and those inlays all look great too.

Lovely bass, have fin with it. That natural finish is the best of the line up imo, I just wish they did it in a Z3 as well.

So, since getting the Tascam I've found I don't really have to do too much to it at all to get a good track out of it. Placement is the main thing. I use it in a reasonably small room with drums, bass, keys, 1x guitar and vox (with the vox and keys going through a PA in the room). Generally speaking, I keep it away from the drums, with mics pointing towards the PA speakers and on top of an amp. I've brought a tripod with me a couple of times, but haven't used it. Once I get the recording, I just normalise it and do some slight EQ tweaks in Reaper then convert it to MP3 and drop it on the band drive. It's all pretty easy and only takes 10mins. I'm sure there's more I could do to it, but I don't really find I need to for just sharing with the band.

Really cool bass, enjoy it! I love the clank with rounds, but I've recently (4 years ago, so recently in terms of the life span of flats!) put TI Jazz Flats on my Ric and love them.

Ha! Yes, that'd make so many people rage quit in protest and would be amazing!!

I reckon they'd release a Fender L2000 if the buyout rumours are true. I don't know what happens to the other MFD pickups, I can't see them releasing a P or PJ with the SB1/2 pups unless it was a US line. Same with the locking bridge, maybe that only gets used in the US Ultra (or not all) sort of range.

I hope G&L get helped out and their staff all get their jobs back. I really rate their stuff and have a couple of Tributes that I love. Agree their marketing and brand positioning is about 30 years behind where it should be though. I'd love to pick up a Japanese ASAT bass - I passed on one a couple of years back and kick myself about it. It seems I'm in a minority here, but.....not only do I tolerate the G&L headstock, I really like it (in a 4 string. The 5er looks weird, but that's what you get for adding a pointless extra string).

First up - I hope you're enjoying having a breather on your hols, it sounds like you need it. Hope you're OK too as you mentioned that you weren't in your first post. Band things are stressful at times and can be annoying, but ultimately there are a lot of things more important in life, so I hope you're switching off and recharging. It's hard to say whether you've over reacted without knowing more about your situation, the type of person the singer is and what they're going through. If it's constant drama and he's hard to work with then I can understand your reaction. However, if everything is normally a happy ship and his message is out of the blue then I'd have said you slightly over reacted. It's tough to call, but the line about 'before it comes out and you hear from other people' makes it sound like he's going through something huge. If it's rocking his life, his family and work, then the band and your holiday is low on his list of considerations, so it's understandable that he's struggled to find time to chat given what he's potentially going through. I'd have just said something along the lines of 'guys, I'm off on hols. Can we find a date to chat when I'm back? I need a break so I'm muting notifications for now but will be back on xxxx' and then go from there. I don't know the guy, so can't say for sure, but if it were me and someone left the band chat because I wasn't communicating properly then I'd be hesitant to reach out to them. My initial thought would be 'bugger, I've annoyed them' so I'd give them some space. If you add on what he's potentially dealing with then maybe he's just retreating into himself?

What I'm about to say has already been said, but I'll regurgitate it anyway.... What you do depends on how good a mate your friend is and how you think he'd take your critique. When I have non muso mates at gigs and they give their opinion, mostly it's 'yeah, that was great' and I just sweep it under the rug. They're just saying that to be polite or, hopefully, it did sound good and they actually enjoyed it! I have a few mates in bands that I know will give honest feedback and they're the ones I listen to most. We've talked about this and I do the same for them, it really helps to have mates that can hear what needs to be tighter and offer feedback. We even check in with each other mid first song to get an idea of levels etc. Whether the form of feedback is 'that was crap' or 'that could be improved' is down to your friendship, I guess.

Depending on final pricing, it'd be interesting to see if HB can convince people to spend more on their brand. The most expensive 4 string currently comes in at £421 and regular MVs are £240ish. They do look cool though

I'm not usually a fan of quilted tops, but they do look good on more modern shaped basses. Still, I think it's the white one for me - it's pure Mike Starr and looks like his Euro sig.

Wow, I was expecting these to come in slightly higher than the Pulse 2. That's a pretty amazing price point for a bass with a lot of features that are considered upgrades on the Pulse. I'm looking forward to these hitting the shops, hopefully I can find somewhere with them and the Pulse in stock!

I usually prefer a J neck and had a go on a MK1 Vintera 50s P Bass in a shop. I went in thinking I'd hate it, but was surprised by how much I liked the neck. I found it to be quite thin back to front and pretty playable. AFAIK, the biggest differences you'll likely notice between the Player and Vintera neck are.... - The Vintera has a gloss neck vs satin on the Player - The Vintera has a vintage (narrow & tall frets) vs med jumbo on the Player - The Vintera has a smaller radius (so more curved) fretboard All of which I like and would lead me to pick a Vintera over a Player. Both are lovely necks though.

Just found this in the loft after selling the amp years ago. There's also 4 screws and washers for attaching it to a rack. Just let me know where to send it 😁

Those are really cool. I really like the inlays and gloss finish on the entry level model. I wonder how the aguilar pre amp and pups compare to the EMGs in the Pulse. Fingers crossed they'll be a raft of 2nd hand Pulse sales for me to choose from soon 😄