GarethFlatlands

I'm not actively playing bass at the moment, just guitar in a band so that made me hold off. Still tempted though. I'll have another think about it today.

Someone mentioned it a thread called 'Bargain!' in the 'General Discussion' section but yeah, very good deal. It took a lot of willpower not to order one last night.

Watching it now, they still sound pretty good but damn they look old.

Heavier music never sounded too good on Jools when I used to watch it, which is a shame as it was often one of the few places you could see it on terrestrial TV way back when.

I had a go on one ages ago, there were some good sounds on there and an expression pedal would have made it good fun.

Guyatone SV-2?

Never heard of them before, but now I instantly want one.

Alembics. Can't stand the design, they look horrific and the price tags are equally painful. All the more annoying as in every vid and sound clip I've ever seen, they sound amazing. Really nice, full tone with a good zing to the top end but very balanced.

I haven't found the monotron on it's own to be very musical but it's a very good tool for learning about how basic synths work without downloading a VST and getting bogged down in 50 controls. It's also good for noise making and filtering external sounds so overall, well worth the £40. I'll check out the other ones mentioned but I know the tenori-on is very expensive. Might be time to get a smartphone and some synth apps.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1350546597' post='1840219'] You know, this sort of points out a glaring gap in the market for a REAL pedal compressor! (with metering please)... I'm not much of a hotshot when it comes to wiring etc but maybe I should learn! [/quote] The only pedal comp I can think of with metering is the MXR, even the higher end stuff like the FEA pedals don't have it on. Get your designing hat on!

[quote name='skelf' timestamp='1349781989' post='1830354'] Just working on several new guitar designs a few now at the prototype stage. [/quote] Because this is such a friendly forum, I'd like to offer my services as a tester of those prototypes. No charge either

Just got back from the local guitar shop. I went in with a budget of about £300 for an all purpose workhorse guitar for any occasion and had my eye on the Squier Classic Vibe series. I spent about an hour trying various guitars and was pretty much sold on a Classic Vibe 50's strat. Excellent playability and build for the money if anyone's looking at one. Plugged it in and it was perfectly usable and then I made the fatal mistake of trying a MIM strat. The playability was better but not good enough to justify the extra £100 but the sound was a definate cut above. It was full and round where the Squier was a little quiet and brittle in comparison. I ended up with the MIM and went overbudget. I've somehow never owned a strat until now so I'm pretty excited even through it's just a bog standard guitar everyone's owned several of over their lifetimes.

£4.99 on Kindle, bargain. Just downloaded it.

What a nice guy. 3 cheers for all the Gareths on BC!

Chris Pennie is a genius. I watch this pretty regularly. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRP3UqvIEIY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRP3UqvIEIY[/url]

I was toying with getting one a while ago so did some reading on the subject, admittedly with no testing. The major names are all good choices, Roland, Korg, Yamaha etc but have a look at Classenti as well. They're a lesser known brand but seem to be very well regarded and their base model is within your budget, with change. My ex had a Yamaha Clavinova (can't remember the model name) in her lounge and it was a very nice piece of kit, the keys were lighter than a real piano but the sound was really nice and there were a few other instrument sounds in there too which were very limited but usable. The double bass sounds was pretty good, I think she dumped me because I wouldn't stop coming over and playing 'Love Cats' on it. Try ukpianos.co.uk, they don't look a million miles away from Surrey and they might be able to give you some advice or let you run round testing whatever they've got in stock.

Yeah, I can't even get a sound out of the thing at the minute despite having some beginners luck making a pleasing 'parp' first time I took it out of the case. Not a bean since :-( A friend in a local band plays trumpet so I'm going to hit him up for a few short lessons to get me making noise and then take it from there.

That was far too useful for any 'fnar fnar' comments so thanks! Ordered some oil and grease (here we go again...) so I can at least maintain the instrument while I'm doing mainly mouthpiece practice.

Well it arrived today, looks pretty good apart from the fact I don't think it's seen any grease or oil in a few years as the valves stick. I know I said I was going to go for the mouthpiece alone for a bit but you've got to pretend you're an expert the first few times you take it out the case haven't you? Anyway, just practising getting a tone out of the thing at the moment. The guy on the youtube beginners vid gets a nice tone just from his lips but I can't do it without the mouthpiece. Practice time!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1348639600' post='1816203'] Ironically I remembered last night that in a previous band a guitarist I worked with used a Marshall amp through a peavey 4x10 bass cab and it was the best sound I had ever had from a guitarist so I'm getting pretty excited now [/quote] Until he asks you to lift it. The Peavy 4 by 10 I used to use was heavier than my car.

I was thinking a few 5 minute spells a day with just the mouthpiece to really concentrate on building up stamina and getting a decent tone, not even worrying about installing it for a couple of months minimum. That should be a good start and hopefully keep the volume down so I can get more practice in without annoying the housemates.

Nope, looks good thanks. I forgot about the sax being woodwind, I tend to lump the horn section instruments together forgetting about the fairly massive difference. I got a reasonably priced Bach Bb trumpet off E-Bay so I'll see how I get on with that and hit you up for any advice if I need to. There's always my Korg synth if it turns out I can't get a tune out of the thing! Thanks again.