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Yes, exactly what the entertainent industry needs is more people who keep quiet and don’t have an opinion on anything. That’s entertainment. The saddest part of this is the reaction of so many who are outraged by one man speaking his mind. Remember when having an opinion and talking about it was a regular thing? What an utter shambles the world has become where speaking openly and without fear draws the ire of those who’d rather live in a bubble with the precious fallacy they’ve cultivated around their sacred cows. Let the man speak. If you don’t like it, tough. Learn not to get offended by opinions other than your own. There’s a lot he said which was a little uncofortable to read but I’m guessing he got to where he is by being a straight-talker and not someone scared to upset a Beatle or two. Consider that maybe they tried harder and did better because of his directness. Being a producer is a lot more than just “Well done, boys, you’ve just recorded your first number one!”

Once it stops being fun, get out of there. Doing nothing is better than being miserable.

After seeing this Fender Custom Shop 1959 NOS come up on the GuitarGuitar website, and seeing that it was in stock at my local store, I had to try it! I headed over there on Wednesday and compared it to the new American Original 60s P in LPB. The American Originals really are pretty killer for the price is what I discovered! I love a thicker neck on a P, and the shape they've chosen for this series remains full in the hand all the way down to to the first fret. The tone of it was nice and thick with plenty of midrange punch, a tone that reminded me of slightly overwound pickups. If anyone's thinking of one, definitely check them out, I was really impressed! (I also played a Elite V Jazz whilst there to see what the fuss was about - it's certainly impressive too, and it would definitely give my Sadowsky decent competition! I really feel Fender have massively upped their game, even over the past 12 months.) However for me, it was always going to be this CS. The woods were visibly of a higher quality (fewer/no blemishes etc.) and the pickup, whilst not as hot, retained more detail and definition, particularly with the tone rolled all the way off. The neck is similarly as thick as the AO60 from the 3rd fret onwards, with a slightly slimmer profile under the first 3 frets, which makes a lot of sense to me. This bass is an absolute joy to play and having seen my MIM Classic 50s make its way into to position as my no. 1 in recent times, (despite competition from Fodera, Sadowsky, Warwick etc. in the collection!) I can see this being my go-to for many years to come. I threw it straight into the deep end, playing it every show over the past week on the Forever Dusty UK Tour. It really is a joy with killer tone! So there we have it, I finally have my dream combination on a Fender P, without the relic-ing and for a much better price than the CS Pino! One very happy bass player! I've attached a really super short simple video I did during the week to give an idea of the tones. Now back to practice, it's been out of my hands for long enough writing this!

Yup it's bad news that 20% VAT payable at the EU customs border on anything above £15 (i.e. pretty much everything) and then (broadly) a further 2.5% customs duty on top of that for gear above £135. This is unless you (or f&f) are bringing in this personally in which case you get a £390 VAT and Customs duty free allowance. Makes things seem very expensive compared to what our fellow bass players get gear for in the US. Having said that their health insurance doesn't come cheap! @krispn's very helpful suggestion I got in touch with both Josh Broughton and also Tom George at COG to see if they could come up with any 24dB cut variants. Josh is not currently taking any bespoke orders and suggested getting a couple of his pedals to the trick - well the ideal combination for me would actually be the Thumpinator and the Broughton LPF / HPF but you're looking at > £300 with transport and taxes thrown in for these two, which is getting a little spendy. The exciting news (for me anyway!) is that Tom, with some spec suggestions thrown in from me, seems to have come up with something that could fit the bill in a single 1590BS enclosure pedal. Hoping to be able to confirm the agreed specs with you all shortly...

A similar but slightly different solution to @dannybuoy, I use self adhesive cable clips like these: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F162515629911 I find them much less hassle than cable ties as you can just push/pull the cables into and out of them easily. They come in different sizes - the smallest size can grip a couple of power cables at a time, the larger ones can hold more. Here’s a photo of the bottom of my old main board. All the clips except one are the smallest size, with one large clip which I put on to hold the actual barrel jack end of one of the cables, which it did perfectly:

I have a guitar or two out on stands. On a couple of occasions I've managed to trade a couple of lessons with trades people (builder, gardener & chimney sweep) when they've come to do work. If they've spotted the guitars, I'll noodle on if they've showed interest, which has started a conversation like "ooh a guitar, always wanted to play...." "ooh I teach guitar, would you like a lession"...."ooh yes, but its quite expensive..." "yes so is your ridiculous hourly rate..hows about a trade?". A few "oohs" later, & no money has changed hands, but everybody's got what they want.....ooh!

He is certainly entitled to his opinions, as he may be right on some things, and overblown on others. On McCartney I would severely disagree with Q. I disagree with what his mental state as some have said here. I do think he has hit the grumpy old curmudgeon stage, however. Eddie Van Halen was quoted saying that "Robert Fripp (King Crimson) couldn't play 12 bars of good guitar music ." Mr. Fripp, when approached by the press, was asked what he thought about Eddie's comment. He politely said "I do not comment or make remarks about other artists." That's class. Learn, Quincy.

Probably best to avoid those people in future.

Well lookie what landed today! So... this is a Limelight Precision, with a '67 spec in a light-relic LPB finish. I ordered it last year, and had a good chat with the - extremely pleasant - Mark at Limelight to discuss the spec and the level of relic'ing. I wanted the finish to be a little more muted, so it glows a bit more, and he's obliged. It's a nice weight, less than 9lbs, helped by the Gotoh Res-o-Lites, which bumped the cost up a little more. I've just put proper strings on it (it came with fairly light rounds), and it sounds just like I'd hoped. A really nice P... and it cost significantly less than a Fender Roadworn MIM. I'm about to start a solid week of rehearsals, so lots of time to give it a run out. Happy days!

Scored a bargain today. Picked up this wee beauty from the old Fakebook marketplace equivalent of £200. Only a couple of little dings. Pretty tidy. Sounds fantastic. I think I might upgrade the pots so they are a little bit more responsive but it's a stunning instrument.

If you don't need the money, and it is making you feel ill playing, doing nothing is something better.

First rehearsal today - six hours' worth. It was loads of fun. The show's being shot for DVD, so everything has to be spot-on. We've got a week in the rehearsal hall, so we'll have the monitor mixes pretty much there by the weekend, so hopefully the check in the arena will mostly be tweaking stuff. The band is great.. the drummer's from Lindisfarne, the keyboard player's from Dire Straits, the other keyboard player and sax player are from The 1975's live band, the guitarist was a touring member of The Arctic Monkeys, and one of our vocalists sang on 'I Would Do Anything For Love' with Meat Loaf. And then there's me. I daren't pinch myself. Loads of pics here: https://www.sundayforsammy.org/sunday-for-sammy-2018-access-all-areas

Just had a six-hour rehearsal with it today. MY GOD... the notes are massive. Some of the tunes are old-school P-and-flats, others are rounds and growl, and it just responds beautifully. It's beautiful. Can't wait for tomorrow.

That must have made your eyes water a bit...?

RCF 745 ordered!!

I only play for people if they agree to dance for me.

People used to call them epiphany, but then they saw the light. Only Dion I know is a Canadian chap who lives down the road. Good bloke, plays drums. I'll have to ask him about Warwick. Come to think of it, war-wick does make sense, we used to have an air freshener called air-wick. We never called it airick. The there's the town of Alnwick....silent L and silent W.

Doesn't even begin to sound like Fender, even in Japanese.

This. Or alternatively I'll put on a track from my latest CD or vinyl release and then try and flog them a copy.

I tell them I don't play for free.

Obviously it’s scone

But is it pronounced as in scone or scone?

The funniest thing about the interview is watching all the Beatles die-hards blow their nut over his comments. At the grand old age of 84 Quincy Jones may have just become the best internet troll of our generation, he can add that to his CV. Ghetto Gump indeed!

I pronounce it correctly as 'Epiphone'

Be careful with that kind of gig, it's a slippery slope.

I agree that it is nice for someone to just let rip and say what they want in an interview, without some press agent or handler stepping in and stopping comments from being printed etc. He is a big hitter in his industry, has a vast fortune, he’s 85 and he doesn’t give a damn about whether his opinions offend anyone, and I can’t help but admire his Candour. He has probably seen and been exposed to a lot of things behind closed doors, and I would bet he knows a lot of secrets that aren’t his to tell the world. I think some individuals are getting a little too upset just because he says a few mean things about people they hold in high esteem. It’s only opinion, he’s not forcing you to believe the same against your will, just take the interview as a piece of entertainment, at the end of the day that’s basically what QJ is. I agree and disagree with a few things he says, but it’s sill funny and refreshing to me.

So the QSC K10.2 has arrived. Got it home and plugged the bass in via the FIshman Pro Platinum and the result was, well.... a bit wet. No low end at all and no amount of adjustment on the Fishman or the Sire eq could dial any in, set it to bass amp mode and the best I could get was a mid range honky bass sound - not good. Also the volume seemed way down from what I was expecting and was far less than my Markbass rig, tried it my Behringer BDDI and the result was the same, could get a little more volume by cranking the level but it was still in the realm of a budget practice amp. I was starting to think you lot gig exclusively in libraries and went to pick my daughter up from school a bit gutted that I'd blown £600 on a posh vocal monitor. Then I went into the settings and saw it had the crossover set to 125hz so everything below that was missing, it must have been reset to factory settings. Turned this off and it sounds absolutely fantastic, no shortage of low end at all and the volume is way more than I need. Amazing to hear such a big sound from a little 10" wedge like that, combined with the Fishman it sounds fat and very smooth so I now have a big smile on my face. So if you get the QSC remember to not be an idiot and check the crossover settings!

Tonight I finally put it back together with the arrival of the only part I had to replace. I purchased a Graph-tech top nut as the original had been filed down to try and drop the string height - right into the fingerboard! It plays fantastic, with great action and it sounds amazing. I am really chuffed as it was a bit of a gamble taking it on. It'll never win any beauty contests but I like the fact that it has a story to tell.

Hey all, Originally a pianist, I've been a self-taught bassist for the past 6-ish years, playing mainly post-rock/post-metal stuff. Big fan of Cult of Luna, Russian Circles, Isis, Amenra, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky etc. Been a member of TalkBass for a while, thought I'd see what you guys are on about too. This is my main band, we'll be recording our first LP this April. Pretty addicted to pedals, here's what I'm now using: The bass is a US Fender Precision body with an Electrical Guitar Company aluminium neck. Got this recently for the upcoming recording and I've also ordered an all-aluminium EGC500 which I'll be receiving in September. My first bass is an Cort EVL-Z4B which I still love, but can't compare with the new stuff. Gonna go check the forums, cheers!

I've had this since just before Christmas now. Went out trying to find a lightweight bass with five strings and 19mm spacing. Found this. There was no way I was going to spend over two grand on a bass. Sigh... Neck feels like what a five string Stingray should have been like if they'd done it properly. Ridiculous B string. Seems very simple but works perfectly.

As someone who does quite a bit of design work for exhibitions, roller bands to me always look a bit crap, especially for bands. They always come across as something promoting a cheap and nasty fly-by night product, that will be history in year's time. Even on the very expensive versions the sides always start rolling over after they've been used a couple of times. Also I'm not entirely convinced about their robustness in a gigging environment. A couple of years back I was onto a nice earner replacing damaged banners for a medical supplies company who were using them at conferences and exhibitions, and were needing at least one of the 3 banners they had replacing every 4 or 5 weeks. Now I don't know exactly what was happening to them at these events but unless medical reps party extra hard, I would have thought that the average gig was far more demanding.

I don't perform at home. I tell them when the next gig is.

It’s Australian, nuff said.

Side handle holes cut, and Peavey ( nicked from BVX cab ) wadding attached to the rear panel.

I use self adhesive zip tie mounts on the underside of the board then reusable zip ties to hold the cables neat. The key is to be meticulous about every cable you run. Doing each one in turn is essential. Don' do them all then try and tidy them all in one go. Hope that helps

If you're spending that kind of money, go and try some and ignore us. We all suffer from confirmation bias. I bought my present head after comparing it with others. It was one I hadn't even considered prior to trying it.

This is worth remembering and good advice, I assume you'd have to check the input sensitivity of the powered wedge and the output in dbv of the DI you're using. I didn't need to bother with this as the wedge I got has an input which can be switched to high impedance for instruments, although the Fishman can drive it at.line level just fine.

The production isn’t great but the music is blisteringly intense. Another favourite is Paul Simonon.

At risk of derailing (my own!) thread, Markbass cabs can also sound just great on their own too!

+1 for the M900 Clean channel The clean channel is awesome and provides all the headroom (and that 'heft' folk refer to) you are ever likely to need for pretty much all venues that don't have an in-house sound system. The EQ section is perhaps the best available on any D class amp at a similar (or cheaper) price point on the market today, with very usable and versatile EQ centre points: Bass - 80Hz Low mids - toggle switch optionality centring at 250, 500 or 750 Hz High mids - 750Hz, 1.5kHz and 3kHz Treble - 5kHz If I was to find any room for improvement in the above it would be to have a toggle switch for the Bass to also give the option of centring at 60Hz; but hey really starting to split hairs, right? DG have pretty much nailed the EQ. This clean channel alone IMO makes the amp worth getting for the price (particularly if you can get a mint condition one second hand - which I was lucky enough to do; there were several that came up in the latter part of last year and seem to have all been snapped up). Drive channel I'm definitely not in a metal band either (actually I'm playing in two covers bands). Like many of us I'm still looking for that elusive dirt pedal (having tried several thus far, but nowhere near as many as our resident dirt boy guru @dannybuoy, who is also a M900 owner). I initially found the DG dirt to have too much top end fizz (which was not massively dissimilar to the Channel B dirt on my Two Notes Le Bass), however this was partly down to bright / aggressive Nord pups (which I love) on my Ibby SR combining with a very articulate and responsive VK 210 which has a tweeter. The DG dirt has a 'Tone' control which is essentially an LPF and allows you to cut out the top end fizz, and that combined with adjusting the tweeter crossover on the VK cab got me 85% of the way there, and has allowed me to move on several dirt pedals including my 2Notes, One Control HGBM and TC Mojomojo. What I've found interesting is that for cabs with a warmer tone e.g. my Markbass 1x12 which has a tendency to roll off the high-end or with a P-bass rather than a J bass, the high end fizz disappears entirely and actually the high end presence of the DG dirt comes into its own and becomes a plus rather than a minus. The drive channel (which is not a standalone but feeds in seamlessly to the clean channel and clean EQ) also has a clean blend to allow you keep as much 'clean' bass in the signal as you wish which is very helpful in maintaining the low end. So having come to the amp as someone pretty sceptical about the DG dirt sound (but convinced that it had one of the best clean power-amps and EQs on the market today), I find myself being pleasantly surprised by the dirt channel (which is effectively £400 worth of DG pedals) too - always nice when that happens! Intelligent foot-switch Really handy to be able to engage dirt or mute via a compact stomp box foot-switch which is included in the price. I personally also like the fact that (IMO!) it's been beautifully designed. Hope that helps. ...I'm still on the look out for that elusive dirt pedal though

I imagine the clean channels could be anyone’s taste, but the dirt is, IMO, very specific and very DG modern shred....not my cup of tea at all.

It's both. You can assign it to one or both and it'll do a load of other stuff too like assigning variable drive levels on amps or distortion pedals etc. Ive had my LT for a few weeks now and barely scratched the surface of what it can do - basically, if you can think of it, it’ll probably be able to do it.

Your closest reference the two videos mentioned, however to compare this to the omicron the westwood can get 65/70% a kinda similar sound but they are honestly very different the omicron is way more versatile with the two drive engines, but with the if you just want a simple low gain gain drive the westwood is worth a shout do be prepared to crank the bass control tho

I do it two ways. One way is i use my iRig HD interface that plugs in to the ipad via the Lightning connector (NOT FireWire). The bass just plugs in to that and you don’t need any power leasd etc. Using something like GarageBand to give me amp sims I can then play along to any music/videos on the ipad. Works well and is the neatest option IMO. You still have all the slowing down features, as long as you have the right apps. There is a small latency but ive not found it to be an issue. I have found getting the right balance between bass (especially clean bass) and the music to be tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it it works really well. It also works well with my iphone and has been handy for working out songs at gigs backstage. Mostly these days i use my ipad in to my Zoom B3n via the headphone out, and plug my bass in to that as well. Then take the combind audio out fo the B3n via its headphone out. This seems to work better for me as i have more control over the bass tone/volume. More wires of course and the need for a plug.

My backline for a number of years has been a Series 6 AH200 or an SM250 through a cab with the venerable Eminence 3015. Works for everything I do and jolly easy to lug about. I have no gear GAS. Geoff