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As someone has mentioned above it's kind of an umbrella term for lots of different styles, rather than a rigidly defined singular genre.

Oh god, I'd forgotten about George Strait. The missus is something of a fan which means I've listened to him a lot more than I'd have ever wanted to. If I have to listen to him sing about his oceanfront property in Ah-Ri-Zoooor-Na one more time I'll go postal - Lee Sklar playing on that track is its only redeeming feature.

I think they've developed it mainly for people looking to upgrade the MetroExpress, as everything will fit nicely in the standard Sadowsky control cavity. Honestly I'll probably just cut it and solder the two ends together as the pickup and ground wires will need soldering anyway so two more wires won't make a huge amount of difference.

It's basically intended to be country as country used to be without all the glitz, glamour, homogeneity and mediocrity that's been associated with "mainstream" country for decades. I'm using "country" as a catch-all term including bluegrass and other American folk genres or sub-genres, but if you swap it out for "Americana" then that's where we're at.

First gig of the year on Saturday!

Unfortunately not an option, but I've watched enough Youtube vids where people have upgraded to know that this is the direction I want to go. It's already winging its way to me from Germany so it's a bit late to back out now regardless 😅

For those who haven't seen my other post it looks like I'll be replacing the preamp in my Sire V7 owing to a broken pot spindle and a desire to make life easier on myself than trying to replace the pot on the PCB. I've seen the suggestion of supergluing it back on but think that would only be a temporary solution if I did that, plus I've been toying with upgrading for a while as I've never been a massive fan of the Sire preamp, both of the sound and the complexity (I'm a simple soul and endless variability makes my brain stop braining). So having done a bit of research I've decided to go with a Sadowsky onboard preamp as a replacement, not just because it sounds amazing but the fact that it looks like it's completely solderless these days means I don't have to go hunting for a soldering iron to borrow. My only question is in regards to the battery harness provided with the preamp which comes with a pre-installed fitting that connects to the control unit. For anyone who's done this upgrade does that connector fit through the hole between the battery compartment and the control cavity on the Sire, and if so is it long enough? Any other issues I should be aware of before taking the plunge?

Willow has done some rockier stuff in the past too, presumably inspired by her mother, which wasn't awful.

"Soft" is a misnomer, it's still pretty hard, and from what I remember of my old Squier VM70s Jazz it's heavy AF.

I think this is the crux of it, Gadd was caught because he was careless. How many more are out there who know more about what precautions they need to take to stay hidden and thus who may never be caught?

Given how a lot of them are driven this would explain a lot.

And this (I swear I'm not getting any kickbacks from Ashdown or anything - I wish!)

There's also this worth considering.

eBay too, for that matter.

The Alexandra is a lovely venue, I think I saw Bill Bailey there many years ago.

They don't tend to break easily so get held onto, and when they become available secondhand they don't hang about.

Definitely worth a try, but Dave Green at Ashdown is very good about doing any repair work for a reasonable fee so even if something does break it's not going to break the bank. They're pretty solid amps so should last for a while before you even need to think about it.

Based on my own experience an Ashdown ABM and Barefaced Two10S (both secondhand) would fit your requirements and budget. I bought mine from two upstanding chaps on this site for £975 total and it's an amazing setup. The ABM isn't as light as a solid state amp thanks to the valve preamp and sturdy frame, but it's hardly backbreaking, and the Two10S is incredibly light, easily liftable with one hand. Ashdown have great customer service, and Alex the main guy at Barefaced is always open to discuss gear requirements.

Yep, the first gen Chinese MetroExpress basses have serial numbers starting SME, the newer ones with the roasted necks, etc. start SMX.

Back into rehearsals today and managed to find a combination of settings on the Elf (gain at 9 o'clock, volume virtually maxed at one point) that, combined with turning it off during breaks to give the fan a break, meant I got through rehearsal with only one minor blip, so on that front I was pretty pleased. Singist and I are getting pissed off at others not doing their homework. We've had three rehearsals trying Common People and, despite it not being a complicated song, we just can't get the ending right because our keyboardist has so many different versions of the song on his keyboard that we never know which one he's going to bust out. At least Club Foot and Two Tribes are sounding pretty epic, and hopefully the latter will make an appearance at the next gig in a couple of weeks - not sure the WMC scene is ready for Club Foot yet! We might get Boys Don't Cry in there as well, which would make three new songs, which would be nice.

Leaving aside the fact that a man being attracted to men and one being attracted to boys is not the same, there's no solid evidence that Jackson was attracted to men so conflating homosexuality and paedophilia feeds very much into that trope.