Cato

There's been an ongoing backlog at UK ports for a few months https://theloadstar.com/congestion-crisis-outgrows-ports-as-container-stacks-pop-up-across-the-uk/ Nothing directly to do with Brexit or Covid, although as the last couple of days have shown the whole system is right on the edge right now and it's probably only a nudge away from complete collapse.

In my experience with skinny string guitars semi acoustic electrics with f holes they generally aren't noticeably any louder than solid body guitars when played 'unplugged'. I'd guess it's similar with basses, so if the idea is to have semi-acoustic bass around for unplugged practice it probably won't be any better than whatever you have at the moment. The skinny stringers don't sound particularly 'acoustic' when plugged in either, I'd guess that's why 'proper' electro acoustics tend to use piezos and/or internal mics rather than standard magnetic pickups.

Using a pick with the bass on the back pickup will add 'twang' but I reckon the amp's doing most of the heavy lifting on this. Treble boosted, lot of reverb and a touch of tremelo.

Go and see a physio. (Easier said than done at the moment). There's an excellent chance that the pain you experience while playing is the symptom rather than the cause. A few years ago I started experiencing sharp shoulder pain, triggered by long walks, of all things. I went to the GP who referred me to the physio, we never got to the bottom of what was causing the problem other than general 'poor posture' but he gave me some simple exercises to do, focusing on the shoulders and ,despite my low expectations, within a few weeks of the exercise regime the pain vanished and I can walk as far as I like now without problems. Point being that the long walks were never the fundamental cause of the problem, they were just exacerbating an issue that was primarily being caused by something else.

Might be worth keeping an eye on the new Vintera range. I've just been looking at Vintera skiny string Jazzmasters on ebay and a fair few of them are listed at nearly $2000, approaching nearly double their original retail price. Part of that will be because that particular model seems to have sold out world wide, but other second hand Vintera models such as Strats and Teles seem to be going for close to their original retail value. It'll be interesting to see what prices for first generation Vintera instruments do in the future.

Whenever I hear people moaning about grandstanding slap bass players I always think about Louis Johnson playing for the song. Even here in a solo spot he he keeps it tasteful and perfectly in the groove.

Given the amount of money involved chances are that someone would have sold the rights after his death. At least this way he gets to enjoy the windfall himself.

I think I've inadvertently undergone a very long term process of aversion therapy with regards to Christmas songs. After many years of hearing more or less the same song selection on constant repeat on the radio, in shops and pubs and round people's houses I'm now at the point where even the opening bars of the supposedly ever popular 'Fairytale of New York' inspire nothing but feelings of slight revulsion.

Not my cup of tea but I can't hear anything that outrageous or radically different going on there. Reminds me of some of the more ravey indie bands from the early 90s. If someone played that to me and told me it was a new 'Sheep on Drugs' EP (the band, not the stoned woolly animal) I'd not have disbelieved them. Can't really see what the fuss or ire is about.

Not to defend it it but I've always been a bit surprised that 'Blurred Lines' caught the flack it did. In terms of lyrical misogyny and reducing women to pure sex objects there are far worse 'Grime' tracks on the current Radio 1 playlist.

Well, I've learnt that sub-bass is completely inaudible on my tablet.

I reckon the best 'distortions' for bass on the HX Stomp are the overdriven amp sims. Apart from a very usable Sansamp clone the actual distortion section is all (I think) based on guitar pedals , they're far from terrible on bass, but for me the amp sims have more 'oomph'.

I remember when NME gave the Stone Roses debut, widely regarded as one of the all time great Indie albums a grudging 7 out of 10. To this day I'm certain it had more to do with the fact the Stone Roses were no longer the 'underground' heroes of a year before and had started attracting serious mainstream attention than any actual fault the reviewer could find with the album. The NME of the late 1980s and early 90s absolutely hated it when any band they'd previously championed actually acheived any kind of mainstream success.

I was just wondering how many of these 'not so good' singers are pitching their performance to suit the music but are secretly a lot more polished on the sly. Maybe Lemmy actually had an amazing soul voice that he never recorded? Maybe Barney from Napalm Death has a clandestine lovely smooth jazz voice that we've never heard?

Ironically the Beastie Boys were all really proficient instrumentalists. First I saw them live back at Glastonbury in the 90s I was absolutely jaw dropped when they got to the part of the show when they transformed themselves into a double bass/guitar/drums jazzy trio. By the time I saw them again in the 2000s they'd gotten even better and a fair chunk of the show saw them performing various (mostly) instrumental album tracks from their back catalogue as a full band with additional musicians.

This is the greatest music video that will ever be made.

I'd heard a few Arlo Parks tunes on the radio, all very polished musical accompaniment with highly processed vocals in a similar vein to Billie Eilish, so I was quite surprised to come across this strip backed live set and discover that behind the processing is a very pleasant natural voice.

There's been a couple of times that I thought I was playing something the same as it was on the original record, only to realise a fair bit later on listening to the original again that I wasn't.

Does the P at the bridge overcome the problem with some passive PJs where the J is noticably quieter than the P?

Fair enough. It'd be ususual to see one on a bass, although I've noticed that Serek have started using their own version of a P90 on some of their shortscales. I can't think of any other examples.

Very nice looking bass. Is that a p90 in there or just a single coil in a big casing?

Aren't Danos made from some sort of lightweight composite material rather than solid wood? There's a possibility that it might not hold the screws too well on a different type of bridge. @Maude modded one a while back He might have some insight into how feasible it is.

My Washburn Status has some sort of carbon fibre wrap over a wooden core. Not sure if actual Statuses are solid carbon fibre.

You might want to check whether it uses double ball end strings or standard strings clamped behind the nut. There's less options on the market for double ball end end strings but there's stil a reasonable amount of choice. Some headless basses, like my Washburn Status, can accomodate both types of string, but the grub screw clamp on the A string on mine wore out/broke years ago, so that's maybe something to look out for.

I have an organically growing pedal arrangement on the floor in the guitar room. Started off with a Zoom B1on, which because I found the looper function so useful/so much fun got upgraded to a Helix Stomp + Boss RC 30 looper. Just added my 20 year old Cry Baby Wah to the end of the chain and would like to add a dedicated volume/wah for the Stomp and a Strymon reverb unit in the near future. Oh and a Beat Buddy or equivalent to take over drum duties from the somewhat basic beats on the RC30.