Marvin

I'd have more fishing gear

That looks disgusting...ly lovely. If I had the £s that's what I'd buy. Congratulations

Can't abide it. It's a complete anathema to what music is, or should be.

My bass sits high solely for my fretting hand. Any lower and I wouldn't have the reach to fret, and I'm very conscious of the strain I can feel if my wrist is at too much of an angle from playing low. Although this means that the bass is at the same height whether I'm sat or standing, it still feels completely different between the two. I don't have the same upper body posture, however much I try, sitting as I do standing. I feel cramped when playing sat down. Stood up I don't feel the same.

High, I suppose. A similar height to where Billy Sheehan has his bass. Any lower and my fretting hand really struggles. The downside is that my other arm can ache playing so high. It's a bit of a compromise.

Ibanez, in my experience, are a right royal pain in the A when it comes to getting spares. A few years back all I wanted was a battery compartment, as mine had snapped on my SR300. It took 5 months. My old SR300 started having issues with the tone/eq and pots. I tried Ibanez for parts, no joy. Look at alternatives. The alternatives were incredibly expensive. My SR300 pups worked in passive so I asked @KiOgon to make a passive wiring loom. I had 2 vol, 2 tone and one of the tone knobs was push/pull to go from series to parallel. It was brilliant. Just keep badgering Ibanez.

I'm a similar age. Britpop was everywhere in my 20s and I hated all of it. I really can't stand Blur. I turned to electronic music, trip hop, acid jazz...anything as long as it wasn't Britpop. Perhaps it's a regional thing as Britpop didn't seem to take off as such in the part of the south west I live in. Everyone turned to raves and dance music. There's always been a strong punk/indie scene where I live, and moving on to electronic music seemed to be the thing. I know lots of old punks who turned to electronic music rather than Britpop back in the 90s

I too hated the whole Britpop 'scene'. The music was just stuff recycled from the 60s/70s and the attitude that somehow they 'spoke' to British yuuf better than American bands I found utter crap. Gallagher was on Absolute Radio* this morning. He's going down the road of British, white, male, over 50s pop music icon, who spouts utter drivel and only proving how cringingly thick he is. No Noel, wearing a mask and having a covid vaccine is not virtue signalling. Perhaps read a book, something we all know you pride yourself on not doing, but maybe just once. *I don't normally listen to the radio, but I do have Absolute on in my work van. I can be bothered changing the station.

I was in a band several years ago and the guitarist suggested I give Rival Sons a listen, I too dismissed them as Led Zep wannabes. Last year, during lockdown, I just happened to listen to them on shuffle on Spotify and was hooked. They're excellent, I particularly like their last album. Unfortunately I've not got to see them live, maybe in the future.

Was that intended to come out as sneering snobbery, because that's how it reads?

Second hand, Squier Classic Vibe, and if it's a Jazz then the Vintage Modified from about 2010 seem to sell for your budget (considering they were about £230 new they've maintained their value) SX come sometimes A second hand Sire V7, but they don't come up very often it seems. New, Sire V3 is £260ish from Andertons. Squier Affinity or VM maybe ? There's hardly a badly made instrument out there anymore...not like my Westone Spectrum II I bought in 1990 which was utter rubbish

Hendrix. He was an innovator, broke new ground, he did things others didn't even think of at the time. To claim, as the article does, that because he died at 27 that we'll never know whether he would have got better or something is beyond bizarre. I'm not that big a fan of Hendrix, but for guitar he was truly a cut above. I actually haven't met a guitarist who cites Prince as an influence when it comes to their guitar playing. It's only been since Clapton mentioned him, it seems, that every journalist has jumped on that bandwagon.

I'm not a huge Depeche Mode fan but I think they're a good band, write some good and interesting material and always seemed great live from what I've seen on the tv and internet. So, I always wanted to go and see them and a couple of years ago my brother (who's a DM fanatic) got us tickets for their date in Birmingham. Perhaps it was because we were sat up in the gods to one side, the stage partially obscured by the speaker array hanging from the roof, and that those around us all sat there for the whole gig like they were at a funeral (I include my brother in that), BUT it was the most disappointing gigs I've ever been to. It was utterly 'cold'. Depeche Mode performed as you see them on those great live videos on YouTube, but actually being there was really meh. From then I've said I wouldn't go to another stadium gig.

My kids ( 13 and 16) watch The Simpsons, and so do their friends.

If they were able to back the album up with with some live dates I think this would be create more interest... unfortunately we are where we are. I note Mr Smith is a keen angler, so he's now been elevated to my 'top favouritist' musicians list of all time.