Marvin

I've never developed even hard skin on the finger tips of my 'plucking' hand. Even on my fretting hand though I only get slightly hardened finger tips. I must play quite light and could probably get away with a lower action. I set my basses up acoustically and to have not rattles or buzzes when plucking the strings quite hard. Don't know why I do this 😳😊

There’s an Ashdown MAG 15combo at the jam night I used to go to. There’s nothing about it I like, nothing. It’s part of the reason I don’t go to that jam night anymore because I dislike using it that much. I used my own gear in the same pub and it simply reaffirmed my negativity towards that combo. I had an Ashdown ABM500 a few years ago that had a fault. I didn’t find Ashdown very helpful when I contacted them tbh. They didn’t even point me in the direction of an authorised tech in my area.

Peavey. I’ve played through both and the Peavey was a much better amp. I didn’t like the Ashdown at all.

0-0-0-0 and that's the way it'll stay for a long time. Last band. 5-1-0-0 I didn't really dislike anyone in my last band, but I did find a couple of them deeply irritating a lot of the time.

I'll go against the grain. I thought too much time was devoted to effects pedals rather than the artists, or the instrument itself. It bypassed punk and grunge as if they hadn't existed and where the guitarist's role wasn't that of someone playing infinitely long solos.

I'd have thought @obbm would be able to sort you out. He makes great quality leads and as long as your want them. Here's his web page. http://www.rock-wire.co.uk/

The StringBusters web page seems to have disappeared into the ether. I used to walk past the office they were based in. A little place on the 1st floor of building on the edge of a church yard in Barnstaple in North Devon. All a bit odd from the sounds of things. Didn't know who ran the business...no one does it seems now.

All 3 of my basses I currently own were made in Indonesia (one of them being a Squier VM Precision) and they're all great instruments, so I'd reserve judgement on build quality etc until I'd get my hands on one. That said, for the money, these are getting close to second hand MIM Fenders. I saw a very nice MIM Precision for sale yesterday on Facebook for £350. If I were in the market for a Jazz, then I'd probably go for a Sire V3, which are about £70 cheaper and great quality.

This is still on iPlayer. I watched it yesterday. I’m not a Jeff Beck fan at all but it’s a great programme. I admire and respect what he does, I love his approach, I’m just not that keen on what he plays. But a brilliant programme, I’d recommend watching it to anyone

It was watchable, to a point. The production and research staff clearly couldn't be bothered to do their job properly. Basics like the fact the electric bass had been around before the 60's and the Fender P bass was almost 10 years old by 1960. It wasn't as good as Steward Copeland's film about drums. From the description of the guitar film it's seems to be more about effects pedals than the guitar itself. Fairly standard for what passes as TV these days, chopping and changing and a lack of attention to detail and facts.

I was a late starter. My first gig was June 2011, so I was in my 30s. It was at pub in the middle of nowhere called The Pig On The Hill. It was a truly awful gig. The guitarist was a gear maniac and we had a massive PA which unfortunately he didn't know how to set up properly. Hence everything was going through the bass bin speakers and no one could hear the vocals. We ended up turning the monitors around to face the audience so they could hear something. The guitarist also made a howler of a mistake. He had a detuning pedal. The idiot forgot to switch it off for a song and it predictably sounded dreadful. I thought my bass had gone out of tune. The band split 6 months later.

Great combo. I still can't quite remember why I sold mine

Well, as shown I was fully prepared to not join in. However, I've hit a snag. My band seems to have gone into hibernation and as such buying gear, even to treat myself, would be a waste of time, because it simply wouldn't get used. I could end up buying nothing all year by default. 😮

Chromes are very bright. I replaced a very old set of rounds on a jazz bass (probably over 3 yrs old those strings) and the Chromes were amazingly bright in comparison...but nicely so. 😀