Muzz

Watching jet-powered vehicles? A large marshmallow rammed down each lughole is a simple and cheap way to slightly reduce the noise levels...

Just on that Santa Pod thing (and for the OP, Motorhead and Manowar have both been pointlessly, painfully loud), I was at the TT a few years ago and some lunatic had brought a jet-powered dragster thing to loon up and down the prom for a show one evening. I was standing just the other side of the barrier (nearer than you can get at the Pod, unfortunately) when he let it rip, and it was as if you could hear the air tearing; it went beyond a noise into a slap in both ears...horrible...

I'm toying with replacing the tuners on my 414 with Ultralites - when I've done it in the past it's always been a good thing; the actual weight reduction isn't much on paper, but because the weight's out at the end of the neck, I've always noticed how much lighter the bass feels. There'll be an extra hole to drill, and there'll be a couple of empty holes, but I've never minded that...an easy job. I should add my 414 is my only bass without Ultralites...

There's an entirely disconnected middle section to Sting's Englishman In New York, like he's just remembered he's aspiring to jazz sensibilities (and he's got Branford Marsalis tapping him on the shoulder) halfway through a perfectly good pop song...the drum break to bring it back in is one of the most jarring transitions I've ever heard... I should add it's one of our 'Quiet set' staples, and we originally played it with the middle section in...once: everyone just looked at us like we'd gone mental, I guess people don't remember the middle...and for good reason... 😕

Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out starts out as a completely different song that just runs out of steam...

In my covers/function band, it's just the BL/singer/geetard and me, plus a drummer, so the BL likes the flexibility to call not only the song but the tuning, hence the Stomp presets; if he says 'We're playing blah-de-blah...in Eb', I just, ahem, Stomp a switch, and I'm in Eb. He has a full Helix, so he can bugger about with tunings all night, and I'll eventually hunt him down... 🙂 Yes, I know I should be able to transpose on the fly (and I can up to a point), but if the technology's there, why not use it?

I have drop tuners on my gigging basses for a 'natural' D when that's all I need, but the Helix Stomp tracks superbly for further drop tuning. I have all my tone/effects patches (6, IIRC - it's been a while since I switched it on 😕) copied into Eb, D and C, just in case. Having said that we used to cover both Uptown Funk and Get Lucky, and the keyboards can cover that lower end just fine - was never an issue...

Why thank you...it took me a while to get just where I wanted it (it had a Lakland neck originally, and getting the U-Retro in and the pickups under the covers was a bit of a squeeze)...the pic doesn't do the birdseye justice (tho it's not as 'marmalade' (Jon's word) as the other one)...both basses have the same neck profile, based on the other Shuker on the left, out of shot...

I was just thinking that the other day, when that Youtube clip of them earlier in the thread led me back into the Hysteria stuff; it's a fantastic album, real benchmark stuff, and you're right about it sounding evocative of its time and yet not dated, either... Huge credit to Mutt Lange, right on top of his game, producing a sound that many many others tried to emulate...

Phoenix was Sunday night, Monday was the Ritz, they opened the Banshee on a Tuesday for a while, Wednesday was the Sporran, Thursday Banshee, Friday Jillys/Banshee/Phonenix, Satdy UMIST/Jillys/Banshee/Sporran. There were always lots of girls around, especially when Hair Metal kinda (Bon Jovi's first album in 83 really kicked it off) softened the whole biker bloke denim and leather thing... I was never in the house after 10pm between 1982-89... 🙂 Edit; I should probably add that I wasn't out drinking 7 nights a week, I went on my bike most of the time, with two helmets...just in case...Satdy was a Last Bus Home fixture, tho... 😁

It's got 5 kernobs, you could get a John East in there... 🙂

These two...the one on the right was made by Jon Shuker for me and paid for by all my friends for my 50th, it's been my go-to ever since for mixed-music gigs, as it'll do everything...the other one is my Rawk bass, and it's another Jon S creation (kinda), but with everything I wanted to put into a Fenderbird...if I sold it I know I'd just have to start putting another one together straight away... Both are double-Ps, both have John East Preamps...

Oh, noooooooo...I'm skint...must resist... Oh, it's nearly 10lbs. Must focus on that... 😕🙂

I'm very flexible as far as the Switch Vs Blend debate goes (I have basses with both), it was more that the 2024 switch felt like a £5 switch on an otherwise fantastically-made instrument...I wouldn't be surprised to find it's the same one as on my 414, which at £180 second hand is much more the price range for a switch like that. It's also too big a hole to replace with a smaller, better-made switch... 😕

Ohhhh, an Aria ZZB...I've got one of those in bits in my stash...I must get round to rebuilding it... 😀

I found the SB-1 was very nice, a much more a Jazz neck than the 2000s (I had a couple), which were baseball bats by comparison. Obviously, it depends on your neck preference...the 2000s have, erm, sturdy pickups... 🙂

I pick up a bass less than I did before, but then that's due to the fact I've got less time to do it - supporting a burning-out Covid Nurse and a stir-crazy GCSE 15-year-old as well as sitting in my home office 9-10 hours a day kinda hoovers up the spare time and energy. Like many others, I'm starting to struggle now with motivation, as the best part of playing an instrument for me is playing with others, and I really don't see when that's going to happen again. I'm considering selling off some of my herd and buying another motorbike, just for something I can actually do...

I got my pickup covers and rings from an online store in Germany...I'll try and dig out the details...

D'you know, I owned a BB3000A for 20+ years, as well as a BB300 and a 450, and I never noticed how different their body shapes were...mind you, I never had a sofa at the time... Aaaaand now I want a VW 3000A again...pfffft...

Noooo, I wasn't saying the ST didn't have much presence - they'd both make their presence felt in a ridiculous manner - but the 810 puts speakers nearer your ears (I'm talking about standing right next to it) so it's more immediate. 10ft away there was nothing in it. I had a similar thing a while back with a Big Baby 2 on a stage in a verrrry large RAF hangar. It was set low down, and I was close to it, so it was kinda firing past (below) my knees. Our singist went out into the soon-to-be audience area and nearly passed out (or so the dramatic dahling claimed) there was so much bass...I hoicked it up on a crate, turned it down, and things got a lot better...It's not dissimilar to my Patented Cure For Overloud Rock Geetards - point their speakers directly at their head; works every time... The eye rolling was from the geetards, affronted that the bassist, of all people, should want to faff about a bit with gear...this after the traditional 45 minute 'let me just get my pedal board sorted out' from the pair of them... 😒

Blimey...if you fell downstairs carrying that, there'd only be one winner... 😕 I do kinda like it, tho...

I used to run an SVT/810 rig, back in the days when lifting wasn't something I even thought about, but the only time I've had both a Super Twin and an 810 in the room together was in a rehearsal room, so, despite the rolling of eyes from the other band chaps, I had to A-B them. Yes, the 810 has more immediate presence when you're standing next to it, definitely helped by being the right height for it, but at PBLRB (Pretty Bloody Loud Rock Band) levels - two 412 Marshall geetards - and from more than 10 feet away, there wasn't anything in it. If anything, the Super Twin would go lower... The 810 obviously looked far more rock and roll, tho... 😀

That's a useful pic - I have a Super Twin and a Compact, and yes, I've stacked them on a couple of occasions, but pretty much only for the Stacktastic look of the thing (oh, and the volume/head-height of the Super Twin - eeeeek!), but never really noticed any tonal issues...then again I was on big stages, DI'd and monitored, too. The Super Twin alone will go loud enough for any gig I'm gonna do, and for smaller gigs I have a Rumble 100 with a 'proper' Eminence 12 in it that's really quite startling on the size/weight/volume ratios, so the Compact is falling between stools...I might sell the Super Twin and the Compact and just get two Super Compacts - the added height would make them easier to hear on smaller stages...