Doctor J

Well done, Bleat

StingrayPete don't dress up as no Fedex guy

Yes, delivering an insightful video interview and, perhaps. plant tour back to the patrons of Basschat. You know it makes sense.

Or... you'd love to do an interview with Sterling for Basschat.co.uk, what time suits him?

Hmm... have you seen Forbidden? It's not worth hearing, mind.

I consistently enjoy my playing and sometimes other people do, too. Since I can't be sure anyone but me exists, I'll take my own word for it.

Dehumanizer is also absolute quality, criminally overlooked

When people say tried and tested Stingray do they mean the slab three-bolt, the contiured four-bolt, the contoured six-bolt 2eq, the contoured six-bolt 3eq or the slab six-bolt 2eq? The Stingray has been continually improved since it was released, not one of them has been a let down. These are smart refinements by a company who don’t usually get it wrong, why such groundless negativity when none of us have even played one yet? Silly.

Having the tracks embedded in the thread is a very positive move, in my opinion, makes it totally straightforward to listen to the entire list. Technology is amazing.

It is also one of my favourite album covers of all time.

Basses: Godlyke Disciple, ESP 400 Series Jazz, Alembic Orion, Warwick SS1, Bacchus 24, Warwick Streamer JM fretless Amp: Ashdown ABM300 (first series) into an ABM 210 Compact and 115 Compact Pedals: Boss TU2 As good as the Ashdown has been to me, I am tempted to pick up a smaller, lighter head to replace it

I think it's the weakest of the first five, to be honest, but it's still a banger.

Such radical visionary design in the other universe. It’s almost as if they don’t just jumble up a pile of existing parts and slap a name on it, like they do in this universe.

They don't look anything super special but Sadowskys are all about that tone.

I really like the new 'ray. That is how to tastefully update a classic design.

Yep, that’s what I did with my one

I read a lot of music autobiographies and have definitely given bands or artists much more ear time as a result of enjoying their story. Sometimes I'll play the music of the era the book is covering while I read, for a bit of perspective. I read Mark E Smith's book before ever really giving The Fall a chance, for example, and rapidly got into them after that. An engaging personality can definitely open your mind to someone's music.

Or, perhaps, they saw it coming from a very long, long way away?

I think Little Mix are being a little hard done by here. This, on the other hand... http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/deaf-people-turn-up-to-see-queens-of-the-stone-age/

If there wasn’t a queue of celebrity-obsessed saps with cash in their hands stretching as far as the eye can see, this kind of thing wouldn’t exist. I don’t find this nearly as offensive as Holo-gigs or whatever you want to call them, where the likeness of the artist is projected onto the tracked movements of an actor, meaning the artist can be seen to perform any movement or gesture even if it was something they never did while alive and, obviously, have no say in it. Now that is tasteless.

Picking favourites is impossible, there is so much great music out there so I've gone for things I haven't seen posted yet - something rock, something jazz and something recent Masters Of Reality - s/t Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Viaticum Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind Of Fix

Well done

First day buyer here

Gibson tried to shoehorn robo-tuners into 60+ year old designs. Somebody who buys something as ergonomically dreadful for the sake of adhering to original form as a Les Paul is generally not looking for robo-tuners as part of the deal.

I don't agree with that at all. To suggest people wouldn't buy a fanned-fret, neo-pickup bass just because it said Fender on the headstock is not logical, the same as saying someone looking for a Precision would opt against Fender because they offered a non-mundane instrument. That argument makes no sense. If they offered genuinely good alternatives I have no doubt people would give them a chance. They just need to be good instruments. Fender are big enough to offer a range of instruments to cater for any taste, be that under a different brand if needed (Heartfield, Kubicki, Hamer or any of the other great names which have been devoured and plopped out). What really good models have they put out and really got behind? It's hard to figure out what hole the Dimension was supposed to fill. What else was there? They're never going to the same amount of units of, let's say, contemporary designs, but if Dingwall, Sadowsky, Lull, Ibanez, etc, etc, etc can make money selling new designs, then I don't think it would be beyond Fender. They just take the lazy route, repackage and sell the same old thing and they're going out of business because of it. With these old designs, they're going up in competition with themselves, as stupid as it sounds. This new line offers some of what the originals did but with a sterile and mass-produced flavour to it. No mojo, no personality, just cookie-cutter unit shifters. People have those pictures of Jimi and Jaco with Fender headstocks and the company cash in on that every year. It's what gives modern Fender an edge the rest of the competition will never have. If modern Fender had to trade on just the standard of their instruments at those prices, they would be broke next week. Gibson, I'm also looking in your direction.