Marvin

DHL seem to be in a state of complete chaos. I ordered a part for my car back in November, I received it yesterday. I picked it up from one of their service/pick up points. Even that was a farce. The confirmation code I was emailed failed to work. Thankfully, the member of staff allowed me to take the parcel and even said she was sick to death with DHL.

That got stamped years ago, probably a decade ago or more.

I worked for Royal Mail for over 20yrs. I left in the summer. I work in a completely different sector now. It's the best decision I've made in a long time. I could fill Basschat's server with my very negative opinions and experiences of working for Royal Mail, but life's too short and I'm happier at work than I've been for years. Royal Mail will go under unless it gets rid of the 100% confidence 0% competence managers at all levels...but it won't.

Harley Benton seem to be on a bit of a roll. I do like these, I just wish I had a reason to buy one. https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_mv_4msb_gotoh_sb.htm

They look great. I bought a Sire V7 when they first came out, which for the money (under £300) was great at the time. However, if I was looking at the market now I'd be looking at one of these over a Sire.

Gigged one for a few years, not a single issue. That said, the amp to go faulty on me was an Ashdown...that couldn't be fixed apparently

I've got a Fender Universal A frame stand. Quite compact, good for offset bodied guitars/basses. It's not as compact as the Hercules mini stands I used to have, but it is much more stable. Not sure I'd say it's a favourite, but it does a decent job.

On Sky Arts Editors Live in Berlin. Not everyone's cup of tea. I've seen them a couple of times in past few years and thought they were excellent, Tom Smith has a cracking voice. So that's my early night gone south, I'll stay up to watch this one.

Just buy some Fender badges and stick them on the Markbass, they'll never know. I like the Rumble, had V2 350w and V3 500w. Good combos but nothing particularly distinctive. What is it they particularly like about them? I bet it's the silver cloth grill.

Good timing. Groove Dynamics...or more specifically doesn't play like they're using lump hammers all the time.

When they don't want to do it anymore, like the rest of us.

It's not often someone covers Jeff Buckley, fair shout to young Grohl and the band. The guy playing the yellow jazz bass is pretty good, nice tone...oh hell, I mentioned tone.

There was a lot of hyperbole during the pandemic about how it would change things. The spike in demand for instruments was hailed as a return to people having a renewed interest in music, and this would go on. It wasn't, it was a one off. Combine that with input costs going up... I'm working for a building suppliers and manufacturer. There has been a huge influx of 'work from home' employees moving out of the city to quiter locations. They've bought houses and then had lots of work done on them, hence it's been very busy. However, that's tailing off

I watched one of the My Life As A Rolling Stone episodes on iPlayer, the Keith Richards one. Pretty vacuous and poorly made to be honest. Keith himself, I love listening to anyway, was great, but they didn't focus enough on Keith telling us about his life as a Stone. I'd like to hear from the man in his own way. Perhaps it's my age 😁

Depeche Mode live at Glasgow Barrowlands 2017 on BBC4

Probably on BBC Sounds. Bono on Desert Island Discs. I'm not a big fan of U2 or Bono but I actually quite enjoyed the bits I caught (I was at work, in and out the van). I'll try and listen to all of it at some point.

Mike Mills in REM or Tony Levin in Peter Gabriel's band.

I'd love to get back into a gigging band. What puts me off is trying to find others who have a similar outlook as myself. Basically, because I've been out of the loop for some time, the only people available are those who would pay to play at the opening of an envelope. Not really for me.

Send it back if you can. For that price I'd expect a factory set up to have no problems. Is your luthier buddy a luthier or someone who just does set ups? Either way really, it shouldn't take someone with experience and knowledge to diagnose the potential problem, and tell you what's wrong in a short period of time. I've become very wary of people who've been in bands, tweaked their own guitar a couple of times, then all of a sudden they're calling themselves a luthier. I used a guy once who told me the neck on my Korean Squier was made if 'rubbery maple' and that's why the action would always be a problem. He was talking drivel. I did the set up myself after he had been at it, it was fine. Now anything I can't do I take to a guy who makes acoustic and electric guitars, an actual luthier (the lead singer in the Manics uses one of acoustics)

There will be those who knock him, but I hope I'm able to do a +2hr set to that standard when I'm 80...having done a gig the night before.

Anyone reckon Macca's band bass bod is playing a Limelight?

Standard BBC utterly abysmal mix. First song Macca did the whole band was drowned out by Wix's acoustic guitar. And FFS why are Macca's vocals so low in the mix. Do the sound guys not care?

He may as well be playing a cardboard cut out, I can barely hear any bass at all

Jo Whiley is irritating The only performance that's interested so far was by Les Amazones D'Afrique. It was just on the beeb.