Rich

I have a V7 5-stringer. I also have a lovely old Wal and a beautiful custom Shuker. The Sire is my main gigging bass. I think you can take this as confirmation that it sounds a bit better than 'just okay'

[quote name='Jakester' timestamp='1502121783' post='3349432'] If you have a written contract, then that's even better, but just because the terms are not written down doesn't mean they aren't legally binding. [/quote] How do you go about proving the existence of a verbal contract?

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1499674730' post='3332811'] What's Japanese for "you're taking the piss, mate"? [/quote] あなたは私を友人にしていました "Anata wa watashi o yūjin ni shi te imashita".

Oh dear, 'good' old Wardour Street. Sounds like it hasn't changed a bit since I last played there in '87. It's in desperate need of an A-bomb.

I have only had two dealings with BD. The first was when I bought the rackmount kit for my Shuttle over the phone, and the second was in person when I dropped off a bunch of our much-missed mate OldGit's basses for a commission sale. Both times Mark was friendly and easy to deal with. This is going back a few years and is pre-Marcus, so things may have changed in the mean time. It's a bit far for me to just 'pop in', y'see.

[quote name='Sammers' timestamp='1501836557' post='3347635'] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J06yQb4lbPk[/media] A vid for Heroes is out. I like it myself, though i'm a massive Motorhead fan! [/quote] I like that.

More stolen gear, this time from busy Bristol bassist and lovely person Becky Baldwin: "[i] Last night my pedalboard was taken from the backstage of Outcider Festival[/i] {Compton Martin, Somerset}[i]. Inside was a lot of money's worth of gear, and of course equipment that is integral to my sound. There are still many gigs coming up for me this summer so it is very urgent and important to locate it. I don't know how the power of Facebook can really help here but it's worth a go. Please keep an eye out, everyone. And if you know anyone who was at Outcider fest on Friday, maybe share this with them. It's a very common pedal board case and could have easily been picked up by accident. The case is a Kinsman, black with silver edges. There were some band stickers on it but we're kinda falling off. Inside was a Boss tuner pedal, Sans amp bass driver pedal, green MXR guitar overdrive pedal, a Sony wireless system and a power wheel probably with my name on it. Please help spread the word and maybe it will find it's way back home... I can only hope and beg please if you have it, for the love of rock n roll, get it back to me! Angriest set ever last night! Good job it was a punky set I guess![/i]"

Yes, fine, I'm certainly not for one minute saying that it's vital -- pretty sure that's obvious -- but I don't particularly appreciate being effectively told by some people that I'm wasting my time. If I was all that worried about wasting my time, I wouldnt be doing this stupidly expensive hobby in the first place

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1501282927' post='3343864'] I miss gigging [/quote] Me too. This year has been my quietest ever. I've got a total of three gigs in the diary for the rest of the year and I'm bored bored bored. I've checked gumtree, jojnmyband, everywhere looking for something to fill the gaps and there's nothing even remotely interesting out there. Starting to wonder if this, together with my increasingly painful arthritic fingers, is a sign that it might nearly be over for me.

However, in terms of a fantasy build... [b][u]Style[/u][/b] Traditional or custom – custom double cut, but with a kick-tail á la Zon Legacy No of strings - 5, low B tuned [b][u]Woods[/u][/b] Body (inc finish) – English White Ash Body, spalted facings front and rear, gloss lacquer finish Neck – Maple, wenge and and flamed maple. Fretboard – Bird's Eye Maple, no front dots. Purple side LEDs. [b][u]Hardware[/u][/b] Machine heads/tuners – Hipshot Ultralite Nut (material and width) – brass Frets – 24 plus zero Pickups – 2× Wal multi coil (told you it was fantasy stuff!) plus built in Roland GK3B Pre-amp - Wal custom plus built in Roland GK3B bits Pickguard (if any) - n/a Bridge – Monorails with piezos Strings – brand, gauge and type – Elixir 45-130 Other - Matching spalted front/back facings on the headstock. Adjustable ramp between pickups.

[b][u]Style[/u][/b] Traditional or custom – traditional, Jazz-style No of strings - 5, low B tuned [b][u]Woods[/u][/b] Body (inc finish) – English White Ash Body, burr poplar 'drop top' facing, finished in a satin tobacco sunburst. Neck – 7 piece Wenge, maple and flamed maple neck. Profile copied from my old Yamaha RBX765A. Fretboard – Master Grade Bird's Eye Maple, no front dots. Orange side LEDs. [b][u]Hardware[/u][/b] Machine heads/tuners – Hipshot Ultralite Nut (material and width) – brass Frets – 24 Pickups – Originally EMG TW, now fitted with Delano SBC quad coil Pre-amp - Shuker 3-band with coil taps Pickguard (if any) - n/a Bridge – ABM Monorail, 19mm spacing Strings – brand, gauge and type – Elixir 45-130 Other - Matching burr poplar front/back facings on the headstock. Adjustable ramp between pickups. Hand turned ebony control knobs. Born March 2007, [url="http://www.ShukerGuitars.co.uk"]ShukerGuitars.co.uk[/url]

I had an SMX preamp as part of my rig many years ago, and loved it. The flexibility was great and the dual band compressor was an excellent feature. If Trace were to build the SMX preamp features (or some of them at least) into a lightweight Class D head, I would definitely be in the market for one.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1501619755' post='3346030'] I went through the Class D phase same as everybody else and came out the other end disappointed, [b]same as everybody else[/b]. [/quote] Speak for yourself I'm still Class-D'ing it, and still perfectly happy. And most importantly, my back loves me.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1501488321' post='3344888'] Copying the sound is completely irrelevant and pointless. [/quote] Unless, heaven forbid, you actually [i]enjoy[/i] the process of trying to replicate the original tones?

Did I read somewhere that his bass at the time was a cheap POS Washburn? If you've not heard this before, it'll give you a good idea of what the bass sounds like in isolation [media]http://youtu.be/OMJbJJldSNw[/media]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1501074314' post='3342271'] If she's stolen them and given them away to deserving, promising young violinists I could forgive her. But destruction is beyond the pale. [/quote] This, absolutely. I don't care if she was provoked or if her husband actually deserved punishing. This is just mindless vandalism.

I'm sure 99% of the punters neither know nor care if my tone is similar to the original or not. But here's the thing: my main motivation for using different sounds to try to emulate the original is that [u]I want to[/u]. I like the whole tone-shaping process, and yes this probably makes me a bit of a nerd but I don't care

I worked with a guy a few years back by the name of Andy Bunce. He got married but his wife didn't really want to take his name (I wonder why?). So he did that modern thing of hyphenating their names... and became Andy DeCastro-Bunce

I have a Line 6 Bass Pod XT Live which I find works really well for, errm, Live stuff. We too cover various styles and the Pod helps me get something approaching the right sound. My core sound is flat; no amp models, no cab models, no EQ, no FX. I use this as a basis for everything else and add models or FX as required. For example, my patch for old skool soul/Motown uses a B15 fliptop model, and yes I know the Line 6 models are never going to be as good as the real thing, but it does a good enough impression of that Jamerson sound. Which is great because it means the only changes I have to do on the bass itself is pickup selection -- I don't have to guff about with tone controls. The same goes for my 'rock' sounds (Sunn & SVT models) and the other various tones I use. It's probably not a perfect solution, but it works an absolute treat for me and I am very chuffed with it.

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1490004843' post='3261325'] Saturday night at The Station in Ashton near Manchester. A tiny pub packed with pissed up punks throwing beer and vegetables at the bands. It was an experience! [/quote] Sounds like my idea of hell. I'd rather give up altogether than play gigs like that!

My main band is what I would call a 'party' band. However we do very little Top 40 music and we don't do weddings, but have done a smattering of corporates in the past. There's a difference.

What on earth is 'Game Of Thrones'?

In fairness, it does say 'which type of band' rather than 'what music do you play'. Some of the options are more specific than others and I agree that the poll is flawed, but I think it was probably still a worthwhile exercise. If nothing else, it confirms what we have always said on these pages about the preponderance of classic/pub rock style covers bands compared to other genres. Personally, I would categorise one of my bands as 'party' but the other one is harder to nail down.

Found this poll on a music site earlier -- these are the results from approx 4400 respondents, apparently. I'm not overly surprised.