Skybone

Since the COVID lockdown, bugger all... I only really listened to music when I was in the car going to & from work, but since March, and working from home, I just haven't used the car very much at all, so my music listening has dwindled. Of course, in my younger years, just like everyone else, music was a huge part of my life. These days, it's simply getting the opportunity to get the chance to just listen to something. Don't listen to the radio much, most stations play music with a very heavy rotational playlist (current Top 40), full of talk shows, adverts, or have name presenters that are more annoying than their playlist.

And if only it worked

Shouldn't it be "How much advertising material can SBL send out during one of the competitions?"

Haven't played an Ashdown AAA, but any Ashdown 300w 2x10 combo should be worth a try if nothing else. Solid amps, solid sound, and if anything goes wrong, Ashdown should sort it out for you.

I made enquiries at JayDee a while back, and they were quoting 16 months build time, with the explanation that there's only a handful of people working there, the waiting list for other instruments, as well as the workload for setup's / repairs etc. JayDee are not Wal, obviously, but assuming that Wal are providing a similar service with setup's and repairs, and that there's only a handful of people (if that) working there, it does go to explain the lead time.

As G&L is a Fender "derivative" (designed by the man himself of course), then surely, a generic P or J style neck would fit it. Worth looking into before spending money on getting the neck thinned.

One of the few things I liked about the L2000 Tribute I had... was the neck!

IIRC, the T'bird has a Jazz width neck (38mm), the Embassy has a P width neck.

RIP

KT Tunstall - great voice Julie Fowlis - folk, sings in Scottish Gaelic. Beautiful voice.

You can still get the Fender 7150 strings, which are the Nickel Plated Steel strings (same ball ends as we've discovered).

Thought they used different colours for different types of strings. Could well be 7150's.

I think that they're Fender 7350m's, which are unfortunately no longer available. Fabulous strings. They were 45-105 Stainless Rounds. G is Sea Foam Green D is Nickel Silver A is Candy Apple Red E is Bronze (Gold) The colour coding matches up (referring to a partially used pack I have lying about). You have a few different choices, depending on your budget. Warwick Red Label 42200's are a great choice, reasonably priced too (about £9.00 a set). I was a long time fan of the Fender 7350m's, but as you can no longer get them, I went to Dunlop DBS45105 Stainless. You can get them on eBay for about £17.50.

That's what I was quoted when I made enquiries into having something built. They said that they were cutting down on the tech side of the business on other makes (setups & repairs), to concentrate on just JayDee in order to cut the waiting time down. I believe that John still gets involved in the builds, but there are also his sons working alongside him.

I was looking at JayDee's a while back, very tempting, and excellent VFM for a hand built bass.

Again, a few months ago, someone was selling one on here for £550. It took ages to sell. Must admit, I was tempted, but I was waiting on the wad of walnut wonderfulness in my avatar. 😉😀

The Helix LT, pre COVID, was selling for around £750, now it's around £850-900. Definitely won't be buying one anytime soon then...

Cutting the outline is pretty easy if you have a jigsaw, however, I always found doing the pickup hole to be fraught with wonky lines if you use a Dremel. A big hole away from the lines to get a jigsaw in, then take your time with a file & sandpaper.

Sad news for all fans of browsing music shops in London... Macari's are closing down their Charing Cross Road shop, and relocating to Sussex. http://www.macaris.co.uk/

You still need some sort of amp on stage, whether you go for a "traditional" amp, or whether you go for an FRFR rig. A lot of venues still have PA's that don't have enough monitors, or an inept sound engineer, so having some sort of way to amplify your own noises is essential (as well as being able to hear the noises made by everyone else on stage). Whether those sounds come from a purely analogue source, via a solid state amp, or via a digital interface, they still need to be heard via some sort of amplification. Although I use a digital interface as a pre-amp, I still lug around a bass amp.

I like the black pearl, but the white pearl block markers, the white pearl scratchplate would be the best match.

Before I got the HD, I was using an XT Live (same size as the X3, HD500x, Helix LT), and from the research I did before I got the HD, the X3 still used the XT amp/cab/effects models. It was the "next step" for the POD family, because it integrated the guitar, bass, acoustic and vocal effects to be an "all in one" solution. Maybe they used a different chipset, more memory etc., etc., but the actual modelling software was still from the XT. The HD was the development of the POD, where they not only upgraded the chipset, but also developed new amp/cab/effect models in Higher Definition. When I got mine, I still had the XT Live, so after installing the HD Bass pack, I did a "back to back" test of the two, in order to work out which one stayed, which one went. The HD won hands down, it was audibly far better than the XT. Although it has fewer bass amp/cab models, the sound quality was far better, plus it still has all of the connectivity that you'd ever need (including Variax). When I was looking, I looked into other modellers as well, like the Boss GT10B, but I was underwhelmed by the choices, unless I went for the full fat Helix, which was about 5 times my budget at the time. The HD is well worth a try if you know someone who has one, and who's willing to let you have a shot on it.