Russ

Shures. Can't remember the model number, but they were supposed to be good for bass. But it's like wearing earbuds. Nicer-than-average and quite expensive earbuds, but still. It's not the visceral experience you get from an amp.

IEMs are good for vocals. But I really can't abide the sound of either guitar or bass through them. It's thin and doesn't exactly encourage you to "feel" the music. It's even more discombobulating when you have live drums - a big drum sound coming from behind you, but this tinny, disconnected sound in your ears on top of it. So, unless your drummer is playing an e-kit, there's really no such thing as a silent stage.

SVT-7s are notoriously unreliable. The newer ones are better, but still have issues with the limiter circuit kicking in when it shouldn't. Less preamp gain, more master volume, maybe? And yep, like everyone else has said, make sure the air has room to circulate, and use a can of compressed air to clean the fan from time to time.

Yep. Gus uses a graphite wrap over a wood neck, rather than a full graphite neck, and that's what some of the Enfields had. I'm also curious as to the "state of the art" in composite instrument construction, and if it's moved on since the heyday of Status, Modulus, etc. I mentioned them earlier, but Aristides seem to be doing some interesting stuff with composites - not sure what their "Arium" material is (I suspect some kind of stabilised fibreglass), but it's apparently a lot more stable than wood, and they seem to be selling a lot of instruments...

Yes, definitely. They have the experience and obviously worked a lot with Status, but didn't Sims downsize his operation significantly a couple of years back, when he shuttered Enfield?

Hypothetically, if another company was to take over production of Status instruments, who should it be? Obviously they'd have to be British, or, at the very least, European, with some pedigree in high-end instruments and preferably some experience in working with composites. I can't actually think of anyone who'd meet all these criteria. Almost all guitar companies in the UK are small operations, and there aren't that many on the continent either. Maybe Warwick? Or, on the composites site, someone like Aristides from the Netherlands?

It's the end of an era. I'd love to see someone else take it on, but I'm kinda at a loss to think of who could do it justice. I also suspect Status prices on the used market are going to have a "Wal" moment, and go through the roof. I am curious about what the sales were like of their wooden-necked "relaunch"-era instruments from the past couple of years. Were they selling everything they could make, or was it a case of "no graphite neck, no Status" for some?

I was in Selsdon/Forestdale for years. I didn't buy an Ibanez bass off either of you back in 2015 or so, did I? I picked it up from someone in Sanderstead... they had a little PJB amp. I do despair that Croydon's once enviable music scene has basically completely died. No more Cartoon, no more Sheep, no more Scream Lounge, no more Scream Studios, for that matter. You get the occasional folky or jazzy band or acoustic singer/songwriter at the Oval, and that's pretty much it. I know Rockbottom still has its rehearsal studios (with all the same amps they had back in the early 90s!), and there's some new place out on the Purley Way near the big Sainsbury's, but that whole scene seems to have basically disappeared.

South Croydon has been affected too, for instance, last time I was home, all the good restaurants on South End have shut down, replaced by bad ones, or, in some cases, nothing at all. The rot seems to creep southwards - it used to be that Norbury and Thornton Heath (and isolated areas like New Addington) were the "bad" bits of town, then it was West Croydon, then it was East Croydon and Addiscombe, and it just keeps heading further south down the A23. Luckily, you've still got places like Shirley, Selsdon, Sanderstead and bits of Purley that are still quite nice.

We had considered Ireland too, but we're better connected in the UK, there's more work, and definitely more to do from a musical perspective. And if it means I have to put off a major bass purchase for a while, so be it - getting away from here is kinda the priority right now!

Pretty much, yeah. This is no place to bring up three kids. Not sure exactly where we’re going to end up, but it might end up being Croydon again. It’s got issues, but it’s close to everything and there’s nicer places nearby!

Could be a while - saving up to move back to the UK right now, hence not putting in the order yet. But they're coming, eventually.

I've still got plans for two new Seis at some point (when the bank balance permits) - I discussed them with Martin not too long ago, so they're definitely still building them, just maybe a few less than they were back in the day. They're going to be a pair of headed 6-string Originals. Not 100% on the electronics setup yet though - either 2xMMs with 4-band EQ (MM Bongo style) or a Wal-esque Turner/Lusithand setup. I think they're on a 18 months to 2 year lead time right now though! 😮

That one’s about the same age as mine - 20 years or so. I remember them working on it. I don’t remember much about what they said about the person who ordered it, other than that they were apparently very tall!

I know Mike Walsh from Zoot has been tooling up to start making graphite necks again. He did them back when he first started out, when they were still called Iceni. I'm not sure if they're just going to be for his own basses, or if he'll be doing aftermarket ones too. Klos are also selling graphite replacement necks = they're not cheap though. https://klosguitars.com/collections/bass-necks

Are there any other bands on the bill who you could get in touch with, and who could either hook you up with local backline rental, or just let you use their gear? You could bring your own stuff, but you're going to run into the post-Brexit carnet issue, where it might be cheaper to just hire backline there rather than paying customs fees for your own gear.

Definitely noticeable at a loud band rehearsal though, when you have a guitarist playing through a 100W Mesa and an enthusiastic drummer. I had to dial it almost all the way up to keep up. When you get that close to the top of the dial, you can literally hear and feel the headroom disappearing, especially on Class D amps - there's a strange limiting thing that seems to happen that doesn't sound like other types of amp.

Ampeg - love the tone. Love the heritage. Hate the unreliability. Had a couple of SVT-3s back in the day, and they sounded amazing and were basically bulletproof. Got an SVT-7 about 11 years ago which also sounded amazing, but died in the middle of the first song at a gig. Got it fixed, but I was spooked at that point and sold it on. I dabbled with Ampeg again a couple of years back - got hold of a Portaflex 800, and, again, sounded great, but kept cutting out at a gig. It didn't completely die like the SVT-7, but that was enough for me to send it back. Like many, I've been tempted by the Venture series, and hoping that, under the new Yamaha regime, they'd have solved the reliability issues. Did a gig just before Xmas with a band whose bassist had just bought the V3 earlier that week, and it crapped out during the third song. He ended up finishing the set with my Ashdown RM-800. I really wish they'd sort their issues out. Ampeg are legendary, and these issues have eroded their reputation to the point where anyone who has researched them are staying away.

CRABCORE!

Nuno at Lusithand put out a video the other day of a bass with a pair of Turner pickups and his new updated NFP Mk2 circuit, doing the Wal thing. I think it absolutely nails the tone. What do you think?

I think the Simon Gallup bass and the Robert Smith guitar are the nicest things they make. Thought about picking up one of the Robert Smith baritones a while back, but the price was offputting. I would quite like to have a go on the Berthoud bass though, especially the 6-string when it comes out. I don't like how Schecter have changed all their branding to fit a "metal" aesthetic - the gothic font logo, etc. The old logo was far classier and much less tied into a genre.

G&L make excellent basses, even the inexpensive ones are great, with a sound of their own. I think their problem is visibility - there's very few pros that you see playing them out there. It's a bit like the issues Yamaha has, but more so. Those who know, know, but you've mostly not heard of them. When you buy into a brand, you feel like you're going to be joining a club of likeminded players, and there really aren't that many big names you could say you're in that club with when you play the likes of G&L, and most of the players on their endorsers page are probably better known for playing other brands.

My band was called Earthbound - there's at least a dozen other Earthbounds out there, so we rather unimaginatively renamed ourselves Earthbound AD. It was either that or The Earthbound Four, but we decided against it in case we decided to go back to being a five-piece.

You're right, should be 2.67ohms. Just took another look at the manual. It will only put out 500W into 4ohms.

Currently got the 1x12" combo, and had a Unity 700 head for a little while. The combo is nice - solid, big sound, lots of tonal options and a great EQ. It's a nice thing to have sitting below my desk. Downsides - cloth grille (my cats have destroyed it and I can't get a replacement). Little switches are fiddly - some more solid switches, or big pushbuttons would work better. So yeah, overall, not a bad little amp. The Unity 700 head - maybe a bit less complimentary about this one. The 700W power rating is misleading - it only outputs that much power into 2ohms, so unless you're running two 4ohm cabs, it feels very underpowered. Lots of tonal options again (the "response" control is excellent), but it's still got those nasty fiddly little switches, and the controls for the built-in effects are hidden at the back of the amp. No standby switch. Only a single Speakon out on the back, which is weird if it'll only deliver its maximum power into two cabs. Plus, it's also kinda big - most Class D heads are quite a lot smaller. At least it comes with a nice branded gig bag. I really hope Blackstar roll out an updated range of Unity gear - tonally it's great and very versatile. It's just got some annoying little shortcomings that should be relatively easy to address. It also doesn't seem like they've gone out of their way to promote the range - I haven't seen many players using it, and none of the usual bass Youtube crowd seem to use it (let's face it, you need them on board to promote gear now, in the absence of bass magazines) so I'm not sure how successful the range has been for them. Maybe there's an opportunity there for one of our number with a bit of a public profile to approach Blackstar and look into being an endorser? And there's definitely room in the market for a rock-oriented range of bass gear - look how well Darkglass have done.