Russ

Used to go to a rehearsal room about 9/10 years ago that was kitted out with modern Carlsbro gear. It was OK. Nothing particularly special, but it did the job. An improvement on their 80s/90s gear, for sure, but still with a whiff of old Peavey about them. Unremarkable, but ubiquitous and relatively bulletproof. I notice, with this latest "Viper" range, they're doing what they did with Delta Bass all those years ago - keeping the word "Carlsbro" well away from public view!

Was watching some video of Sleep Token playing live the other day - the guitarists play 8-strings in double-low-E tuning (EAEADGBE). Their bass player uses a 4-string. He used to play a standard P as well, only recently getting a multiscale Aristides, but even they are just 34"-36", less extreme than a Dingwall. Just because a guitarist plays in drop-G doesn't mean you have to. Just use a tone that sits under the bottom end of the guitar, even if it's playing in the same octave. Might also be worth checking out a Digitech Drop pedal - they actually work pretty well on bass, as long as you're not looking to go stupidly low.

There's still plenty of metal out there for us older guys. I'm in a band doing original metal, and we're all in our 40s and 50s. It's not 80s-style either, it's quite contemporary. It's a case of getting the right mix of personalities and aspirations. Personally, my big aspiration in music was to play the London Astoria. I never did, and now it no longer exists, so I've had to recalibrate. Basically, I enjoy getting in a rehearsal room with my mates and making lots of loud noise, and occasionally going out there and playing it for other people. Plus I still love the bass, the sound of the instrument and what you can do with it. That hasn't gone anywhere in the past 33 years. If you want to get into sub-genres - doom, goth, thrash, death, prog and power metal are full of us not-as-young-as-we-were types. A lot of the time, as long as you've got someone reasonably talented and photogenic on vocals, nobody cares what age the people behind them are!

From the ones I've seen, woodwork and finishing are fine, if not great. Neck and fingerboard are usually OK, although they go a little heavy with the lacquer sometimes, and there might be some sharp fret ends. Tuners, bridge, electronics - utter rubbish.

JMB seems to be the go-to these days. Gumtree used to be reasonably good too, but I think people have gone off it in recent years. I do kinda miss the days when the one and only place you ever needed to look was Loot.

Still seriously contemplating getting one. I figure I can create a NAM model of my current main tone from my Zoom gear as a starting point, and go from there! What would be a good, small expression pedal to use with one of these? Something that would go well with the unit's small footprint?

Something like this is best suited for someone who plays live, with features for people who play through an amp, but other features for those who do the "silent stage" thing and go direct with IEMs, like routing one signal with just a preamp and effects to an amp output, and another with amp simulation/IR to an XLR to the desk, but who also wants a recording and production tool so they can get those exact sounds into their DAW of choice without using plugins. If it's purely for live use, there's cheaper solutions to get the sounds you want, from more basic multi-FX to common-or-garden stompboxes.

If the hardware supports it (ie, if it actually contains a Bluetooth radio), then somewhere on the case it'll have the Bluetooth glyph and probably the FCC logo. Can anyone who's got one already confirm? It could well be that it might need a Bluetooth "kludge" to be put into the USB port to enable the functionality, like on my Zoom B6 (which has a dedicated port for it).

Line 6 haven't updated the Helix hardware in years. It's starting to look a bit... tired. I thought they'd be chomping at the bit to release an upgraded version after the Quad Cortex took off, but no. I want to see an upgraded version of the POD Go - just stuff the guts of the HX Stomp in there and you've got a solid, compact single-box gigging solution, complete with expression pedal and built-in wireless. The current POD Go is a bit underpowered compared to the Helix or even the HX Stomp. A few more bass-oriented models wouldn't go amiss either, especially preamps.

Texas has a bit of an "exceptionalism" thing going on - in most places in the US, you see the American flag flying outside peoples' houses. In Texas, you're more likely to see the "lone star" state flag. They regularly threaten secession from the union and think they're better than the rest of the US. They're kinda the "Brexit Britain" of the US. Austin is a cool city - been there a few times. One of my favourite places over here. And it's very different from the Texas stereotype - young, progressive, geek-friendly, music everywhere, people bike and use public transport (they have a decent light rail system), and so on. Great food too - proper authentic Mexican food, Texas BBQ, good steaks, and surprisingly good Indian food! As a Brit in the US, it's also nice because they have a good football team (Austin FC), Nando's and a decent British pub (run by Brits) that does a Full English and a good Sunday lunch! But you don't have to go far out of Austin to be reminded where you are - miles and miles of nothing, megachurches, people in the biggest, most jacked-up pickup trucks you've ever seen (all the big car manufacturers make special Texas-only models!), people carrying guns, and so on.

Well, there goes my only criticism then. I should have RTFM!

Looks amazing. Small too, so very gig bag-friendly (looks way smaller than a QC). I'd love to try one out. Only thing it appears to be missing is an expression pedal, or even a connection for an external one. Not a dealbreaker though.

We're planning on moving back to the UK from the US later this year. Been keeping an eye on what the approximate equity in our house will be worth when we convert it back to £ - basically, it's worth about £8,000 less since all this f**kery started.

Minnesota. Same difference though. I hung out a bit with Ian last year. Nice bloke, knows his s**t, grooves hard and knows his HX Stomp like the back of his hand! He's also huge - I'm 6'1, and he was a good couple of inches bigger than me! He's a big fan of Mike Lull basses, which aren't a million miles away from the Sadowsky template - souped-up Jazzes, basically. I guess it's a case of picking what feels right in your hands. (that's the Minnesota state flag on his hat, by the way...)

Saw them at a "secret" gig at The Marquee back in January '93. That was an insane gig. Nearly tripped over Dimebag's pedalboard when stagediving. Subsequently saw them several more times. They were amazing live. But I've no interest in seeing the new version - not because of it "not being Pantera" (I'm fine with the idea of Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante being in the band), but entirely because of Phil Anselmo and his bigotry, and buying a ticket would be a tacit endorsement of that.

He said so himself in an interview - the Jag was the only active fretted 4-string he had at the time, so that's what he used on the gig to start with. Remember, he only had a few days to prepare! He got the custom P's with the Thunderbird pickups later. I agree he didn't sound like Entwistle, but he'd have sounded even less like him had he played his Fiesta Red P with flats!

Pino uses what's right for the musical situation he finds himself in. Flats, rounds, fretted, fretless, whatever. His P-with-flats sound has been in demand since he had the D'Angelo gig, and he's probably done more of that sort of thing than anything else in recent years. He played a Fender Jag with rounds during his stint in The Who. I recall an interview with him at the time saying that the Jag was the only bass he had that got close to Entwistle's sound.

To be fair to Carlsbro, they also made the Delta Bass range from the late 90s, which they co-developed with the Overwater guys. They were rather good, with some innovative features for the time. I don't think they sold too many of them though.

Wunjo, Rose-Morris, etc have the enviable position of being on Denmark St. Everyone knows Denmark St, and it's a tourist attraction. Some of these shops can make their rent for the week by selling a guitar that Noel Gallagher once snotted on to some rich tourist, or anything with a tentative Beatles or Stones connection. It used to be the same with 48th St in New York City - Rudy's, Manny's, etc. Rudy's moved, and Manny's ended up becoming a Sam Ash, and has now closed, along with the rest of them.

If it won't work on the Stomp, will it work on the Helix LT? I believe that has a cut-down signal path compared to the full-fat Helix too.

Helix/Kemper/Headrush/whatever into a small 1x12" FRFR cab. The Headrush FRFR cabs are well liked, and Barefaced just brought out an active cab for precisely this sort of scenario. I'm not a silent stage fan. I like loud amps and there's nothing to replace that visceral feeling of a big amp shaking the stage and making your trousers flap. But I've been on the same bill as other bands who have gone this route, and they've made it work for them. There's one band we've played with on several occasions who do original metal, but they have a sideline as a cover band that basically pays for their original stuff. They're all about modellers, IEMs and electronic drums, but this enables them to basically play in peoples' houses at loud stereo volume and do birthday parties for rich peoples' kids in their own houses!

Book a trip over to Germany to pick it up. Make an event out of it - it's probably cheaper than the import duty! They're just outside Aachen, or about an hour from Dusseldorf or Cologne, depending on where you want to fly to. Adrian or one of the other Public Peace guys will probably even pick you up from the airport if you arrange it in advance! It's a relatively feasible road trip if you wanted to do it that way too - get the ferry to Hook of Holland, and it's about a 3 hour drive via Tilburg and Eindhoven.

Plus, that "thwop" of wood on rubber is not a pleasant sound!

Guitar Center in the US has been going through this. Basically, they're in the middle of repositioning themselves - they've realised that people can buy cheap guitars, accessories, strings, consumables, etc online, so they're refocusing on stocking higher-end stuff, the sort of stuff that people want to try before they buy. It's the high-end and specialist places that seem to have longevity in this business - for instance, The Gallery has been a fixture in Camden for 30-odd years at this point, and they sell almost exclusively high-end and custom gear, and only for bass. The market for musical instruments has also changed a fair bit - overall sales are lower than they were 10 years ago, but the demographics have significantly widened. A lot more girls are picking up the guitar these days, for a start. A lot of people who were drawn to electronic instruments in some of the more dance-oriented genres are also picking up guitars too, especially acoustics. The amp market seems to have fallen off more than the guitar market, and that's largely because of the rise of modellers (Helix/Axe-FX/Kemper/Headrush, etc), IEMs and silent stages. Incidentally, there's no such thing as a silent stage if your drummer is playing an acoustic kit!

I read earlier that they're closed for refurbishment, and that the Brighton Argus story is rubbish. I hope so. Spent many an hour in there over the years. They always had a very good bass section!