Cato

It is a particularly good looking bass.

I can see it being useful for Ed Sheerhan style loop builders. Not sure who else it would appeal to. I'd have thought that most guitarists who need a bass guitar sound for home recording or as part of a band would already have a bass guitar. Most guitar multi FX seem to have a bass sim as standard anyway.

Don't forget the endless stream of novelty/comedy songs that dominated the charts throughout the sixties.

I suspect the real problem is that we're getting older.

I started my bass effects journey with a Zoom B1on which I initially bought purely for silent home practice. The latest equivalent model would be the Zoom B1 four. For around £50 you can try just about every category of effect (chorus/filter/compression etc), try out various preamps and discover which ones, if any, you think will benefit your sound.

I don't know about the used stuff but they seem to be expanding in terms of the brands they stock.

You could both join up and see who gets kicked off first. Tell us how you get on in a 'Ricky and Teebs - adventures on TalkBass' diary thread on here.

Annecdotal evidence I've heard over the years from BC members who've been banned from TB suggests it doesn't take much. I suspect derailing a thread with cheese puns (standard BC practice) would probably do it.

Theres this. Although I have to confess to feeling unexpected violent urges whilst listening to it. Must just be that sort of song.

Isn't every pre WW2 blues song about squeezing plums and trampling on vines?

There's a few on ebay but they all seem to be in the US and none of them are cheap. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=fender+mustang+bass+neck It might be worth talking to Andertons or Thomann or any of the really big Fender dealers to see if they might be able to order one in.

In the greater scheme of things that people spend vast amounts of money on, bass gear is definitely towards the more harmless end of the spectrum.

Didn't Gibson used to have a policy of destroying slightly damaged guitars rather than allowing them to be sold as B stock? I vaguely recall watching a youtube clip of a guy going through US music store's dumpster and finding a Les Paul that had been smashed beyond repair by the shop because of some slight flaw.

My brother in law has a Harley Benton Jazz. My only criticism of it is that it's pretty heavy. Sounds just like a Jazz bass though.

I have both. I have tried both with basses and skinny stringers and I've never been that impressed with the results of using the G1on for bass or the B1on for guitar. I think the drives/distortions on both units are a bit weak which isn't an issue on bass because I nearly always play clean but for guitar it's more of a problem. For me, personally, whilst still being a perfectly usable and decent unit I don't think G1on is as good for guitar as the B1on is for bass. Since getting a Stomp I don't think I've touched the G1on whereas there are a couple of things on the B1on, such as envelope filters, which I reckon are actually better for bass than the equivalent effects on the Helix.

I was a bit surprised by that as well Marcus generally seems more down to earth than that. I saw a clip of him talking about why he uses the ashtray pickup cover on his basses a few years ago. He started off talking about how it improves his tone by altering the magnetic field from the pickups.....before revealing that he's only joking and the only reason he uses the covers is because it never occurred to him to take them off when he got his first Jazz and he's so used to them now that basses without them feel weird to him.

Basses and most guitars are pretty simple. But I'd quite happily pay for someone to change the strings and do the set up on any guitar with a Floyd Rose style trem/locking nut. It can be a right tedious PITA .

Looking at that reminds me how relatively easy the Helix is to set up.

I think it may have have been a bit of a gateway drug for me. Since playing about with the Stomp reverbs on guitar, I've been having thoughts about a Strymon Blue Sky as well. I'm probably going to end up getting some sort of dedicated bass synth pedal too. Then maybe a really good envelope filter. And possibly a board to put them all on....

The new ZeroAmp Bass DI (Sansamp clone) is hands down the nicest sounding, most usable drive/distortion effect I've ever used on a bass. Makes me want to try a real Sansamp.

Good to see someone living the dream.

I do like the new shape, but part of me thinks it would look even better as a headless.

I'm tempted, but with that many parameters to play with I think I'd really want the pedal to be able to save presets. i can just see myself spending ages adjusting the various controls to perfect a particular sound only to never quite be able to go back and ever find it again.

The time for Gibson to go after other companies for copying their designs was 60 or 70 years ago. Gretsch essentially copied the Les Paul shape for their Duo Jet in the 1950s and did the same with the 335 for the 'Country Gentleman ' in the 1960s, both of which are still in production and have a fair bit more in common with the instruments that 'inspired' them than D Bird does with the Thunderbird. Will Gibson finally now go after Gretsch after all these years? Probably not. Gretsch are owned by Fender these days and are quite capable of meeting Gibson's lawyers in a courtroom on equal terms, unlike some of the other companies Gibson are going after.

Dingwall haven't explicitly said exactly why they changed it, but they issued this statement on their website. To all our friends and customers, Due to circumstances beyond our control we are discontinuing the award-winning D-bird model. In it’s place we are introducing the D-Roc. The good news is that all the performance features that made the D-bird such a standout will be carried over to the D-Roc, the only changes will be to the body profile and headstock. Early feedback to the new D-Roc has been unanimously positive so we see this as a very positive move. Customers receiving a D-Roc will be getting the first run of a new and exciting design. We appreciate everyone’s patience and support as we faced this challenge to steer things to a successful and positive outcome for our customers. We are very proud of the efforts of the entire Dingwall team and suppliers. Best regards, Sheldon Dingwall Which sounds like that whatever happened was sudden and unexpected as they seem to be altering the design even for customers who have already ordered a D Bird. It seems likely that they either got nervous after Gibson went after Dean and made the change pre-emptively or maybe they heard that a legal challenge might be on the cards. Dingwall isn't a big company, the legal fees involved in fighting any kind of law suit would hurt them badly regardless of whether they won or not.