Cato

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.

I love the look of these, though I reckon a tort guard would work better. What puts me off is 34" scale length. While most of my current basses are 34" the O Bass looks like it's going to have balance issues because of the small body/long neck combo. Happy to be corrected if anyone with real world experience of one knows better.

If I went full on DeeDee Ramone these days for more than 30 seconds I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't get stuck.

The Joe Dart models seem to be a backwards evolution of Leo Fenders greatest hits. We've had Stingray, a Jazz and now a P. Wonder if we'll see a '51 style Precision next.

Seems to be the way Gibson are going with the brand. The recent Epiphone Korina Flying Vee and Explorer models were only a couple of hundred quid cheaper than the equivalent Gibson models. There's been a few Epiphone models over the last year or so at 1k plus. I reckon the Epiphone brand is being repositioned into the upper mid range price bracket while US Gibsons are undergoing corresponding dramatic price increases. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the more budget end of the range, whether they keep the Epiphone branding across the range or introduce something new to seperate the cheaper models from the 1k+ models.

Many bass drive pedals come with a clean blend feature so that it-'s possible to still retain some clean punch to the driven sound. The fact that there's an absolutely bewildering number of drive pedals out there suggests that what constitutes a 'good' bass drive is highly subjective, probably the only way to find out what works for you is start trying some out. Buying and selling in the BC effects classifieds should hopefully keep the inevitable costs of such an endevour to a minimum.

I bought myself a Spark Go just before Christmas. I mainly got it for skinny string but I've had a brief play with putting a bass through it and it sounds suprisingly decent for something not much bigger than a coke can. It's never going to get the air moving like a 4x10 but as long as you keep your expectations realistic it would make a perfectly usable home practice set up The bass presets aren't mind blowing but it should theoretically be possible to set something up that's more 'me'. You could certainly set a clean amp sound and then run a multi FX in front of it, although given the plethora of effects available through the Spark app, you might decide you don't need the zoom. The other possible solution would be to find a bluetooth speaker with an aux in jack socket and a 1/4 inch to mini jack converter There's been a revolution in small speaker tech in recent years and I see no reason why a lunchbox sized bluetooth unit with a couple of drivers couldn't work as decent mini active speaker for an FX unit.

I've always fancied a theremin so I've signed up for the preorder. Cheers for the heads u0.

I switched to Dava picks on skinny stringers a few years ago, which are really grippy and generally do a great job. However since I got the Bass VI a while back, which I only play with a pick, I've discovered the Dava's are too fragile for banging out chords and are prone to snapping, so it's been a return to purple tortex dunlops, which are much more robust.

I'm sure it plays amazingly, but just on aesthetics alone, that's very special indeed.

I quite like the lower horn on the Stingray-a-like, it's something a bit different, it's the preamp that's more likely to be the deal breaker for me, I pretty much exclusively use my V7 fretless in passive mode because I don't get on with the stock preamp. I'd still like to try one though. I'm not as keen on the single cut , but then it's a style I've never really liked aesthetically, whether it's this Sire or a £15k Fodera.

I may be wrong but I think that iteration of the Irish Centre closed it's doors before covid and the building has been unused since. There's a 'New Irish Centre' opened in Kings Heath which I think may be run by some of the same people although I'm not sure whether the new place is still a regular live venue.

Bit of an impulse buy this one. I'm sucker for retro looking guitars and sea foam greenish colours so when I saw this it was pretty much a case of instant attraction. I bought it thinking that maybe I'd want to change a few things, new tuners, maybe stain the laurel fretboard a bit darker, but since it arrived I've actually been really impressed with it. The tuners are fine, and the laurel actually has quite a nice grain to it. When I change the strings I'll pop a bit of lemon oil on to see if it makes the grain pop a bit more but I'm not sure staining it would be an improvement. Having never had a guitar with P90s before I wasn't sure what to expect. These seem to have most of the brightness of my Telecaster's single coils but with a slightly thicker tone, more bass and mids, a little bit different from my other skinny stringers. All in all I'm very pleased and as happens so often these days I'm left asking myself how they do it for the money.

There must be a plethora of deceased music stars who's families could be financially incentivised to allow their loved ones to tour again in Avatar form. There's probably a whole Vegas show right there, Buddy Holly and Hendrix supporting Elvis at Caesar's palace...

I tend to think of the seemingly infinite amount of modern subgenres as a a sort emperors new clothes/gatekeeper thing. There's a relatively tiny number of music fans having conversations and arguments amongst themselves about how exactly to label and file every music act on the planet. Meanwhile the rest of the world just listens to stuff they like.

I've been thinking about getting one of these for a couple of years, mainly because I really like the aesthetics and the idea of a Thunderbird in a more compact package also appealed Anyway a couple of days ago I gave in and ordered this from Gear 4 Music. When the courier handed the box over I was immediately struck by how little it weighed. Intrigued (and half wondering if I'd been sent the right instrument) I eventually got my new Epiphone Embassy out of the packaging and again was struck by how light it was. I'm fortunate not to suffer with problems that mean that I usually worry too much about a basses weight but I had to find out how much or rather little this thing weighed. Using the with/without bathroom scales method and after double checking a couple of times I got my answer. 7.2 lbs. I've got a thinline Tele skinny stringer that weighs about a pound more. What doesn't really come across when you see these in pictures is firstly that the body is smaller than either a P or J and the overall length of the bass is 2-3 inches shorter, largely due to the 2+2 headstock. Secondly and I suspect this is where most of the weight difference is, the body is significantly thinner. Enough about the weight. It's early days and I've only had it a few hours, but so far I'm happy. Unlike the body, the tone is far from thin, it's a lovely warm tone, full of bass and mids, it lacks some of the higher frequencies I get from my PJ and J basses but I don't think it's a bad thing to have something a bit different. The bridge pickup solo'd is a bit of a revelation, it's got far more body to it than my single coil basses which makes for a very usable tone. As I say, early days, but very much looking forwards to spending a lot more time with it.

Just goes to show I suppose that even when a career has reached a point where they really don't need the money that's no reason to turn it down. Apparently Snoop Dogg and Katie Perry got $5 million apiece for their Just Eat ads. Considering how much big brands are willing to spend on Christmas ads I wouldn't be suprised if Buble's paycheck for Asda was in the same ballpark. Not bad for a few days work.

Might seem slightly odd from someone who's spent a fair chunk of my life both playing with guitarists and as a guitar player myself but a while ago I came to the conclusion that there's only really two guitarists I genuinely enjoy hearing solo for more than about 30 seconds. Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. Very different players and probably not the most technically profficient but in terms of listenability and 'playing for the song' for me no one else gets close.

Dave Mustaine has about 30 picks taped to his mic stand. If you don't have a mic stand maybe you could tape them on a nearby band member instead?

My dad was into Lonnie Donegan and a very narrow field of 4 or 5 country artists. Never liked the country stuff, but I have wondered if the skiffle had a subliminal effect on my guitar playing. My default strumming pattern definitely has an element of the Skiffle almost percussive rhythm guitar thing going on.

I'm a sucker for that unconventional body shape retro thing. That's a beauty.

Sounds like 'Heavy Weather' era Weather Report. Not everyone's cup of tea but I wouldn't say it's all that odd for a bass player to take inspiration from that particular band.

Slight tangent but I have a Bass VI with three single coils including one close up to the fingerboard, I've never had a bass with a pickup in that position before. One of the things that suprised me about the bass was that neck pickup has almost no punch to it at all, as described by @Beedster above it's actually quite boomy, in a sort quote mild and mellow way with little definition, kind of nearly all bass with very little of the midrange that actually gets you a 'punchy', more percussive sound. it's great in combination with either or both of the other pickups but on it's oen I'm not sure how usable it would be in a band situation.

Generally when I've seen clips of people using basses with more than 6 strings they tend to be doing the two hand tapping quasi classical music thing that in some ways has more in common with playing a piano than a guitar.