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I'm sure some purists will be throwing rocks at their computer screens, shouting "Heretic!", but for me, an instrument is for playing. If your reversible mods make you like the playability/sound more, then go ahead and mod it and play the heck out of it!

As long as you keep the original parts it’s all reversible! The reason there are so many after market parts is down to people “upgrading”

I wish they'd bring the shape/intensity controls and 4 band eq from the HA3000 back in a micro head format.

You own it. Do whatever it takes to make it the instrument you actually want.

Have you considered writing and recording your own stuff? Not for public consumption (necessarily), just for the craic. I started doing this a couple of years ago and really enjoy it. I am more than aware that the world is not waiting for what I have to say. But I am hugely enjoying the process.

Provisional Otis Jay Blues Band line-up for a gig on 1st May at Forest Arts Centre, New Milton. All very welcome! We sold out last year, so 🤞 Singer and harmonica player are on loan, but like Marcus Rashford are playing up a storm.🎤🎺 On 2nd May, the remaining trio will be going forward with… shock horrow … a girl singer. Watch this space!

I've been on the hunt for a big Acoustic rig for a long time, something like a 360 or 370 head into the matching cabinet with an 18" speaker in the weird, back facing configuration. They seem to be as rare as hen's teeth in Europe, so I've been using an Acoustic 136 combo as my main amp for a while now. Then the successor to those two big Acoustic rigs popped up on this forum. So now I'm the proud owner of a massive, impractical but wonderful sounding Acoustic 320/408 combo thanks to @Skinner. The 408 has four 15" speakers, and it's another of Acoustic's unusual configurations - two conventionally mounted, forward facing speakers, plus two mounted horizontally to face each other in the middle portion of the cab. The beast had it's first full rehearsal this week, and the most interesting thing is how much bottom end the cabinet chucks out. It seems to generate some unusually low frequencies that are audible and sit perfectly under the two lead guitar sounds in our post punk/new wave influenced outfit. Meanwhile, it also puts out the middly clank sound of a Rickenbacker that sits in a tonal gap that the lead guitars also don't occupy. First gig with it at London's Lexington next week - all I have to do is work out how on earth I'm going to transport it to the venue!

This magic Bagman.?

Hello All, I recently bought a 78 Fender P bass which seems like a nice instrument. As far as I can tell it’s pretty much original although the chrome is disappearing from the volume and tone controls and the electrics need looking at, nothing drastic just some buzzing which might indicate a loose connection of some sort. I have been mulling over changing a few things like the pots and wiring, possibly the black pick guard as I much prefer a tort one with a sunburst finish, and maybe even the pick ups. I appreciate that most people will buy an old instrument and keep it as close to original as possible, but I’m not that precious and would like the instrument to play and sound as good as it possibly can. Anything I change will be kept in case I decide to sell the bass on at some point and I suppose if it is ever sold then a new owner could reverse any changes that I might decide to make. Any advice or thoughts please?

Honestly John I think it’s really good - obviously I’m a fan of the GK sound, although it’s not the ‘be all & end all’ of bass tone for me or anything like that, I just really liked the GK amp presets on modellers like the Stomp/Tonex etc because it’s super easy to work with and get a really nice tone without much messing about at all. If you want to borrow it for a couple of days during the week mate just pop down to Chester le St and your welcome to take it away and have a tinker with it mate, just get it me back by Friday dinnertime so I can put my board together for the weekends gigs 😁 It’s miles better than any of the digital models I’ve heard, but having never owned a GK amp I can’t say how close it is to the actual amp, but best thing you can do is borrow it and see what you think - I really rate it but YMMV and all that, I can’t see you disliking it if you like the GK sound.

I love the amps and cabs. The 410HL is an awesome cab too.

That could be one of the most hilariously inaccurate things I've ever read. Pino never sounded anything like Entwistle. Ever. Pino is brilliant as a fusion player but as a rock player? Nope. His tone is way too smooth for that band. Don't even get me started on Jon "iced gem hair" Button. He plays even more sparsely than Pino did. Which just doesn't work. The band died in 2002 with Entwistle.

I don't know the specifics. I've spoken to a few folk. From what I gather it's the difference between a factory and a workshop. The handmade touch and attention to detail. As to what those techniques are, I ain't no luthier. But even then, the level of nuance may extend all the way down to the specific piece of wood it's carved from. One piece of maple is not identical to another piece of maple. A couple of weeks ago I played four spectors and recorded them badly on my phone. All felt like they belonged in the same family but they were not twins. And the US instruments just felt different in the hands to the Euro ones. The growl seemed to sit in a slightly higher frequency of mid and the resonance was stronger. Relatives. Not twins. Not even little brothers. Close cousins I'd say.

Thanks! Just hope the ears don't disagree 😅

Wow that's much higher stakes than our home studio! Really nice bass line, can see why the fretless was the only one for that song. Going to have to pick up a chorus pedal now (and maybe some post-its)!

That’s what I do too! It’s great, but I re bought a hx stomp - and while the h9 sounds nicer and fits together nicely with midi it seems overkill!

Entwistle hadn't used an Alembic onstage with the Who since Live Aid in 1985. The 89 tour he played Warwick Buzzards (which are ironically even heavier) and from 1996 he played Status Buzzards which weigh nothing as they're a one piece graphite mould.