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Thanks for asking, Paul. Well, looks like customs wondered whether or not the bass needed a CITES certificate. I was able to convince them that it did not need one. The bass is on the way to the local depot now and as soon as I have paid taxes and duties, it should get delivered. Probably on Wed or Thur. Then, after checking the neck shape, it will take me a few seconds to figure out whether I'll keep it or sell it here on via BD or BB. Nearly there (BTW, the bass arrived in the UK on the 7th!, that's THREE WEEKS AGO)!

That is a very cool photo.

@Eldon Tyrell any news of the bass in transit?

I hear your words and will obey. 😂

Very nice - you live once so enjoy it! My kit level is also way beyond my ability but I have a lot of fun playing drums!

It sounds as if you are seriously unhappy. Were I in a similar position, I would be putting out the feelers for alternatives. If that's the case and you don't absolutely depend on the money (at least until you find something else), there's little to lose from having a frank conversation. He may be a great player, but if he's mixing a wedding band to sound like a HM outfit, he can't have much understanding of the concept of horses for courses. The fact that you so often get the same complaint should have told him something. If his reaction is to shrug/laugh it off, he may be beyond reaching or convincing. I think you might have to accept the present situation or look elsewhere.

Cracking pic as always but i'm now curious what the 269 signifies ? Dave

Hoo boy, toanworms.. get rid of the silly marketing copy and I can appreciate some of the aesthetic choices here - I'm reminded of knotty pine "barncasters". But I'm sure there's any number of luthiers could put together something like this with a distinctive piece of wood while leaving 6 grand in your pocket (edit: and leave out the worms!!)

Just taken delivery of a mic from Marc. Excellent communication, quick delivery and superb packaging. Highly recommended BC'er.

Our rehearsal yesterday went well. Got thru 6 new songs with some we changed singers to see how they sounded and WOW they worked out really well. Ran thru the songs we don't normally play but keep them in the song list to allow set variation for different type of venues plus allows us to make changes when we return to a venue. Some clubs have members that don't like to see the same show as they did the last time. Used my Sandberg MarloweDK for few hrs then changed over to my VM4 for the 2nd half of the rehearsal. No real reason. Dave

FFS.

Protest Quietly Against the Machine

Any local bands whose sound you think is good? How about (having agreed as a band) to ask their sound engineer to come to couple of gigs and mix for you to set a new template that you can then take forward? It would be worth paying someone good to help you overcome this hurdle.

Is that one of those 3" Couch straps?

Mumbai Bicycle Club

I have got hold of the neodymium magnets, installed them, wired up the pickup to the bass and ran through my bands current set list. Here's what I can advise of: To start with, I should describe what this pickup is like prior to modding, for those who are unaware. It is a pretty typical soapbar sounding thing, if more on the obnoxious rather than smooth sounding side of things. For the design, I'd expect it to have a resonant peak somewhere about 3-5khz, but it also had a prominent lower midrange. However, rather than help solidify the bass frequencies, it was always problematic for me to tame those frequencies to where they were useful and not obtrusive. And to get this out of the way... don't do this at home unless you've got a pickup you're prepared to potentially destroy. Maybe getting some magnets and just slapping them on the bottom of the pickup would give an idea of how a stronger magnets will change the sound, in a non-permanent fashion. If you really love the sound, proceed at your own risk to make the mod permanent. The magnets installed were "N38" grade. What strength that is compared to what is used in a Dingwall pickup, or compared to a standard Ceramic C8, I don't know. But what I can say is that it is a crazy-strong magnet. I had to slide them apart upon arrival as the pull was too strong to pull them apart in opposite directions. I think it's also fair to say that this pickup design is clearly not suited to magnets this strong, as the string pull is tremendous. The pickup was installed into a bass with the following signal path: Pickup > series/parallel switch (set to series) > preamp bypass switch (set to bypass)> volume control > output jack. Initially I set the pickup height to 2.5mm below the bottom of the G string when fretted at the 24th fret. However I soon doubled this, and found no detrimental affects to the tonality. What my ears tell me: -The lower mid hump is gone. -It is still a very mid-forward pickup, but that midrange is now somewhere around 650hz and above. And those frequencies really dominate the sound. It's not a "cocked wah" type sound, the Q is too broad for that. With an amp's EQ flat, and boosting the bass a little bit, it gives a sound that would be good for a bass solo. In terms of the 7 bad system dwarves, we've got a lot of Honky and Barky here. -The 30hz and 12khz sliders on my EQ pedal now sound like they actually do something. There's not a whole lot of audio information to be heard in there, but previously there was none. In short, it's an improvement because the problems it throws up are not as troublesome as the ones it has removed. I find it easier to get the sounds I'm looking for now.

I wonder whether they are specially bred toneworms?

Looking forward to this evening… asked by some chums to play bass on Kayleigh/Lavender by Marillion and Thin Lizzy’s Dancing in the Moonlight. Should be fun!