Cato

Anthrax always seemed like nice young men.

That's more the sort of thing I was thinking of. While I was looking for a clip to support my earlier 'context' comment I found this one of a gig I was actually at. I can totally see how these days that could look like a Nazi rally. Looking back we danced like electrocuted Nazis. I'm frankly astonished I had the energy. (That's not to detract from the entirely valid point and subsequent evidence you made earlier though).

Fair enough.

I'd need to see those pictures in context. It was normal back in the 80s and 90s for metal fans to 'airpunch' enmasse during a gig and it was normal for the bands to do it back. In hindsight I can see how that would look like a Nazi rally, all I can say is that I never heard those sentiments being openly expressed by a metal band on stage during that period . I can't say that nobody in the crowds or on those stages believed that nonesense, but none of it was ever obvious to me. I remember G&Rs 'One in a million' being incredibly controversial back in the day for it's use of the N word in the most negative possible way but, while I'm sure there were others that weren't as mainstream that were openly racist, that's the only recorded bit of metal racism I remember from the whole era.

Trujillo is a phenomenal player, one of those guys who can and has played any genre at the absolute top level. Outside of Metallica he's jazzy, he's done punk/hardcore and he can be funky as hell I've been a fan since I first heard and saw him with Suicidal Tendencies in the 1980s. I've said it before I don't begrudge him the paycheck but, creatively, he's wasted in Metallica.

I did the modding thing just the once a few years ago on a Squier VM 70 I'd acquired just because I was interested in having a go. I was happy with the results but for the overall cost of the project I certainly could have bought a new Mim Fender.

I have noticed especially on US guitar forums that there seems to be an expectation from a suprising number of people buying brand new guitars that they'll want to modify it in someway, even models I would regard as high end intruments like US Fenders and Gibsons. I think Lobster is aiming at that mindset.

I think in many respects Newstead was the whipping boy of the band, the And Justice debacle aside I remember reading stories about how the other band members had 'hazed' him inwhat seems to have been a fairly brutal manner on his first tour with them. Hetfield in particular seems to have deliberately prevented Newstead from having as much musical input as he wanted whilst also trying to block him from expressing his creative side in another project. I think when he left the band almost imploded because, Hetfield who seems to have been a thoroughly unpleasant character for the first 20 years or so of Metallicas career started directing his destructive and controlling behaviour at the remaining band members and they lacked Newsteads strength of character

I saw a Lee Andertons clip a while back where he was talking about the various companies that he's involved with. Pretty sure he said East Coast was a joint enterprise with at least one other UK music retailer aimed at supplying the super cheap end of the market. On a different subject I suspect there's factories in the far east churning out tons of roasted maple. In a few years it's gone from being a relative rarity on higher end guitars to a standard feature at every price point.

Cheers for the heads up.

I was interested in these as a cheapish possibility to try out a Stingray style bass but those controls and the J pickup are a deal breaker for me I only use my V7 fretless in passive because I'm not keen on the preamp, there's just too much going on for me personally to quickly dial in a tone and start playing. The Sireray looks like it would give me the same issue.

I came within a whisker of buying the baritone guitar version of this a few weeks ago. The only thing that stopped me was the lack of a trem, which which is something I'd like for the surf type music I want to use a baritone for. I may well get a Long Horn bass at some point just because they look so cool.

No pics unfortunately but I had a black .Hondo strat in the 90s that I covered with gold polkadot stickers then put various band stickers on top of those. In my romantic memory it looked proper grunge, in my realistic memory I don't think I'd want to touch it with a barge pole if I saw it now. Although, to contradict myself, I'd still rather have that guitar that I decorated in the trend of those times than a modern relic.

When you start learning bass (or guitar for that matter which have much shorter necks) there's an initial period where you fingers struggle to stretch the distances you need them to do to play easily without constantly moving your left hand around. Keep going long enough and eventually the 'stretch' of your fretting hand will increase. Having said that, every popular format of bass seems to have a shortscale versions these days. Fender are a notable exception but given the explosion in popularity of shortscale basses and the fact that companies like Sire are already making shortscale versions of Fender models I doubt it will be long before they get in on the act. Which is a long winded way of saying there's no real reason not to go shortscale if you try it and find it works better for you.

We're the only ones who know what bass stuff is worth. I reckon you'd be more likely to have a £600 Mim Fender stolen at a gig than a £3000 ACG, just because far more people are aware of the Fender brand.

I use them for my Bass VI strings. Far superior to Fender's own.

Blast. (Multiple repeat post error)

And

Damn.

I've one these in the basket a couple of times now and just about managed to talk myself out of it. I think they're beautiful but oddly it's the budget price tag that puts me off. You can get them for under £300. I'm not a gear snob and own and play a couple Squiers alongside more expensive instruments but I just worry that this is going to turn out to be not as nice as the stuff I've already got. Also they're big and I'm running out of guitar/bass space.

I like the shape of the Talman but I'm not keen on those finishes.

Back in about 1990 I went shopping for my first 'proper' bass since learning on an 'Axe' I ordered off the back of a magazine. With a budget of £500 I ended up in Musical Exchanges in Birmingham trying to decide between a used Wal (I'd never heard of them before that day) and a brand new Washburn Status. I ended up up getting the Washburn... Many years later I was staggered to learn the prices that Wals were being sold for. Missed opportunities and all that, but I'd spent a good couple of hours with both instruments and the truth is that 17 year old me preferred the Washburn. I've still got it.

At the same time as the premium brands are going up in price, budget instruments are astonishing quality these days. In the last year or so I've bought a sub £500 Gretsch skinny stringer that I'm currently using more than my US pro 2 Strat and a Squier bass vi that's one of the most fun instruments I've ever owned, good enough that despite my new found love for the bass vi I feel no need to 'upgrade' to the recent Fender reissue. I'd happily gig with either of them

I'm not keen on 'by appointment only' guitar shops. There's a pretty good independent guitar place near me that went that way during covid and has kept the system. Most of the time if I pop into a guitar shop I'm doing it on a whim, I might buy something if I'm really impressed by it but most times I won't buy anything more than a pack of strings, if that. If I have to make an appointment I feel like there's more pressure on me to buy, it's like if I don't make a purchase I'm wasting everyone's time.

Might be legit, might not. Personally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. There's an epidemic of fraud online and the social media companies don't seem able or willing to deal with it themselves and the UK police simply don't have the resources to address the thousands of attempted frauds perpetrated on those platforms every single day.