Muzz

I'm gonna guess that high profile players who already have a relationship with Ashdown will be inclined to favour and/or use them, as it will give them a single point of contact for the tools of their trade, however I've been around far too long to be impressed with 'celeb' endorsements, as they come and go depending on which direction the wind's blowing. None of which changes the fact that they're visually uninspiring rehashes of designs which have been rehashed thousands of times already, and which will have been done with better (and worse) quality a thousand times.

Great bass sound, I like the song, and as has been said, the air in the mix works really well...

Ooo look! A Jazz copy! 😏

Nope, no shame playing anything if it's requested, and a couple of songs for the oldies are all well and good, but that list, with three exceptions, is songs from 40+ years ago. Our bookings list suggests today's audiences would like some things recorded after they were born... It's gonna be tough post-coronavirus, as I'm expecting the main audience for this sort of setlist will be staying away from the pubs awhile yet...

7 in 39 years of gigging. I know how to play most of them, but like a gentleman and the bagpipes... 😁

"I'm not working at the moment because I've a shipment of Russian diamonds coming in; I brokered the deal because my blonde Russian girlfriend (and her twin sister...I've had them both) has contacts over there." This from an old acquaintance I'd bumped into and innocently asked 'What are you up to these days?' I should set the scene fully here: we were in the signing-on queue at the DHSS... He was a legendary Walter Mitty with all manner of whoppers, although the only time I ever called his bluff was about his nickel-plated .44 Magnum...I offered to go shooting with him at the local range (this was the 80s, when that sort of thing could be done) and that one at least turned out to be true. He was a great shot, too. I was always very polite to him after that...

If we're talking about volume, the biggest factor is the efficiency of the cabs. I run a 300w head, and if I use both my BF cabs, it's ridiculously loud*. I mean drummer-drowning, ear-protection, stoopid loud. Numbers of watts can be a distraction and nothing more... * In fact, it goes nearly as loud with just the Super Twin...

Yep, he certainly tried all sorts: Explorer shape? Check. Red? Check. 8-string? Check. Fretless, maple board? Erm...check? I really, really wanted that bass when I saw it...it would have been next to useless for me, but that's hardly the point... 😁

Shoes? Waaay too polite: black 10-hole Doc Martens...I had a pair of them, too... 😁

Not so much a still image, more seeing this lot repeatedly at the Apollo in Manchester... And this...but you have to hear it at the same time... 😁 Oh, and this 4-necked bonkersness...

I cannot be doing with headstocks which have been badly designed - and by that I mean from an engineering POV: the strings shouldn't veer off sideways at the nut, and they shouldn't need afterthought string tensioners because they don't have enough 'downward' force into the nut to stop them popping out. Sadly, an awful lot of the ones in this thread fail at that very basic first hurdle, even the eye-wateringly expensive ones...

Singlecuts (sit-down basses, nobody makes a neck so weak that it needs reinforcing like that...) Tort. Why not tartan as well? From the same era that thought it was a good look. 3TSB (especially the really crappy 70s ones that look like they've been sprayed on from a rattlecan...I'm looking at Fender here...) Fingerboards with face dots, blocks or binding. Headstocks where the 'designer' couldn't be bothered, given a blank sheet of paper, to design something that pulled the strings straight across the nut in the vertical plane, or downwards/backwards in the horizontal plane enough not to need a nailed-on, afterthought tensioner. Oh, and mahooosive paddle headstocks a la Fodera. Blingy gold hardware. 98.6% of Jazz copies out there, no matter who by. 99.6% of Fender Jazzes. All relicing. Fake. About as desirable as one of those CBGB pre-greyed t-shirts from Asda. That's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of something else... 😁

This, for the last six years, since I had her built for my birthday. She's been to every gig and every rehearsal I've played, and she's the first to hand every time.

Oh my worrrrrrd...now there's a Stomptastic resource; thanks for that, Al 👍

Where might one acquire the details of this preset/settings? I neeeeeeed to have it...

I struggled with that years ago, until I looked up some live versions of it...wow, there's some car crashes out there, including a couple with Paul Simon himself...I felt a lot better about it after that 😁 Story goes it was Bakithi's birthday when they were recording it, so they all packed up early and went out, and the engineer took the first half and just reversed it for the second half...

This. 15 seconds in. Boom.

Nooooo, but I've wanted one since about 1978. I do know that if I ever got one it will be proof that I have too much money... I have a very soft spot for pretty-much-redundant 8 and 12 strings: I got my first one (a Washburn B20-8) in the mid-80s, and I keep buying them, then realising they're next to useless for what I need, and selling them again...

I'm sure they're very well made (which puts them in company with a lot of luthiers out there - 'the finest'? Hmmmm...), but personally I wouldn't be seen dead with one.

I borrowed one...they're a Class D, they're not as heavy as the normal ABMs, but they are as bulky, which for me kinda defeated the point (tho I'm not a massive Ashdown tone fan)...I rather like the RMs, tho...

Most of the difficult ones are about getting the feel right as much as the notes: if there's lots of notes (like Hysteria* and the Chilis By The Way) and they're not kept in check, they sound like a car crash...a poor (or even average) drummer can do that, too...I'm lucky in that my main drummer is fantastic...although that means any pink torpedo-ups are down to me... 😕 At the opposite end of the scale, we do Hold Back The River, and though there's very few notes in it, it needs really good dynamics to ebb and flow properly. Same with Elbow's One Day Like This: octave E's only, doesn't get any simpler in terms of actual notes, but it's the feel, especially in a trio... * Oh, and starting this at the right speed, too...I always think I'm rushing, then it turns out when the drums start, I'm not...

Badgers: I used to work with a chap from a farming family in North Wales, and he'd go home at the weekends to help his Dad with the farm stuff. They were losing chickens at a rate to a fox being in the area, so his Dad had knocked up a cage/trap from wire mesh and 2x4s (something he'd used before) - his Dad didn't want to shoot the fox, the MO was always to trap it, drive it a long way away and release it. So they baited it and once it was dark settled down a way away to wait. After about an hour, they heard a kerfuffle, and set off with their torches at a trot. My friend told me the noise got louder the nearer they approached, his Dad was about ten yards in front of him, when suddenly his Dad shot back past him, all knees and elbows and accelerating, with the single cry of "stinky poo! It's a badger!". My friend followed suit, and the pair of them retreated to the house to sip tea and not make eye contact. They went back down in the morning and the badger had destroyed the cage completely, and given the 2x4s a good splintering, just to make the point...

I'd vote No, too...

I think 14 days would be just about long enough to work out what the holy hell all those knobs and switches do...plus, I'd be sitting/lying down, so the mahooosive weight wouldn't be so much of an issue...