Rich

I'm saying nothing other than to agree wholeheartedly with this: and this:

Nice. 👍 The rat's nest of wires is playing havoc with my love of short neat wiring runs though

A bit more tweakage to my board... 'Loopy de Loop' is a new send/return loop switch I've made using this latching relay switch PCB**, this uses a single-pole momentary footswitch so the action is loads softer and smoother than a normal true-bypass 3 pole switch; it works perfectly although I might re-do the graphics at some point. I'm not using the Bass EQ as a low-pass filter any more, I've programmed a patch on the Zoom to do that, so I'm using it as a booster & mid-bump for when I use my fretless (in an attempt to balance its signal with my much-louder Shuker). This means that the eq would be better placed towards the start of the chain in front of the Zoom, so there might be some major shuffling around at some point. For the moment, it all works nicely. ** If I build another pedal I will absolutely definitely use relay switching again, although I'd try the Musikding 'NoPE' switch instead as it's cheaper than this one was.

Speaking of ska gigs... since I bought the Spector Q4 as a basket case and restored it to working order, the Skabass I put together during lockdown hasn't made a single sound. Visually it's perfect for the band, and it sounds great too, but it's over a kilo heavier than the Spector and that weight really makes a difference. And now the Spector has its full fat EMGs it sounds better too. We're mulling over a photo shoot at some point and the Skabass will definitely come out for that, but otherwise... I really should gig it at least one time, but the Spector is... well, it's a Spector, y'know?

She'll probably dump them all on your side of the bed... you won't need it, you'll be kipping on the sofa...

That's literally what it is... I keep my basses on a multi-stand in an old wardrobe. Keeps them out of the sunlight and away from the dust, safe and accessible.

Here Comes the Judge - Pigmeat Markham

So what do you mean by 'budget gear'? Do you mean cheaper to produce, or cheaper to buy?

Trace Elliott (sic) is budget gear..?

To my utter shame and embarrassment, up until last year this beautiful, extraordinary Shuker custom build had spent a good 2 or 3 years shut away in my bass-drobe while my Sire V7 got all the 5-string gig action. I felt that the sound of the Sire suited the gig best, but it wasn't until I sat down and properly experimented with the coil taps and eq that I realised this beauty worked even better. As you'd expect. I mean, as great a bass as the Sire is, it's not this. So now, the Sire is the one sitting in the bass-drobe. I occasionally wonder about selling it, but I won't for the moment because a} it's bloody good and b} we all need a Jazz in the armoury.

That's not poor customer service. That is way, waaaay beyond the merely poor.

Oh I do hope so. Anything that pisses him off is fine in my book.

I flew with Ryanair once (emphasis on 'once'). It was a pretty crap experience all round, massive lateness notwithstanding... however, the lateness had a silver lining. It was late enough and a long enough flight to trigger the maximum EU261 compensation amounts... the flights had been so cheap that the compensation actually paid for both the late outward flight and the return one, and the car hire and part of the accommodation costs. It was almost a free holiday.

Speaking of Cadbury, here's another company that would be dead to me if they weren't so completely unavoidable: Kraft. Cadbury's had planned to close the Somerdale factory at Keynsham, but a key part of Kraft's bid for the company was a solemn pledge they made, over and over again, that the factory would remain open, not a single job lost, blah blah blah. A week after they took over, suddenly it became 'financially unviable' to keep it open, and all its production was transferred to Poland. 400 jobs gone. The lying bastids never had the slightest intention of keeping it going.

It's money very very very well spent, I have custom fit earplugs and they are wonderful. If I was going IEM, I would not hesitate in getting custom moulded buds.

At risk of sounding like a "well in my day, we 'ad it tough" crusty old fart, when I think back to the days when I was starting out on the bass, you had to spend quite a bit of money to get anything even halfway decent. £140 now gets you a really very nice Harley Benton Jazz; that's the equivalent of £45 in 1983. Forty five quid. That wouldn't even have bought a dog-legged piece of Korean balsawood back then, much less a good quality solid-wood working bass. It seems to me that these days you actually have to work quite hard to find a genuinely bad instrument. This can only be a very good thing. And having read this again a couple of hours later, yes, I do sound exactly like a "well in my day, we 'ad it tough" crusty old fart

Samsung. I bought my daughter a phone many years ago, it had an alleged warranty on it. The screen cracked through no fault of her own (that is what she told me and she's not a dishonest person), so I got in contact with them to be told that the warranty doesn't cover the screen. I pointed out that it didn't say so in the warranty blurb and was told the equivalent of "well, it just doesn't, tough titty mate". That was the last new Samsung product I will ever buy. I'd consider buying a secondhand one because they do not gain from it, but only if there were no alternatives.

That's enough B word, thank you.

I'm not sure whether to or 😥 to that.

You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) - I'll get my coat

Until I wrote all that down, I hadn't realised just how bitter I still am about it, 36 years later.

I was in a band that sort of did that. It was 1988, we were a (ok I'm biased) really bloody good Go West-ish pop rock band with 2 record companies interested. I knew the drummer was having musical differences and it finally came to a head and he quit. The remaining 4 of us arranged a band meeting to decide the way forward; I assumed we were going to audition some new drummers and get back out there, and get one of those labels (Island and Virgin, IIRC) to sign us. The obvious move, yes? Hah. What happened was that the two main songwriters had already discussed things (EDIT: on reflection, one of them had talked the other into it), and arrived at the meeting to present his/their decision to split the band as a fait accompli to the other 2 of us. I think he thought they could do a Tears For Fears and present themselves to the record companies as a recording duo with live hired guns. Unfortunately what the companies liked was the live 5-piece they'd seen, and all interest instantly evaporated. Thus buggering it up for all of us. I was *this* close to being a household name. 🙁