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👍 Super job Andy! There are now 2 basses in the world made from the last tree felled by my old mate Merv, the 'Wharfedale wood-cutter'. The owd rascal would truly have been proud to know that. Pictured below: Merv aged 17, a couple of years in to his career as an axe-man (1948), and as I knew him in 2008. http:// http:// Edit: Sorry guys, forgot I was still signed in on the Gillett Guitars account! It's scrumpymike here - in case you hadn't guessed 😉

Final knockings before this gets passed over to @fleabag on Saturday. I'll make those couple of changes that @KiOgon recommends and then the only other thing I wasn't happy with was the headstock. The stain was a bit patchy and the gloss sub-base of finish that the decals went onto wasn't quite flat enough. These decals are so super, super thin, the sub-base has to be pretty perfect or the decal itself shows the undulations as a series of stripes where the decal is fully contacting and not quite fully contacting. So off it's all come and I've started again. Stripped it down to wood, re-stained and re-gloss varnished before applying the couple of spare decals I'd ordered. In the flesh, this is MUCH better: So just got to add the satin sealing coats and then bolt it all together and get it to @fleabag !

Drilled the holes for the control cover magnets. and fitted the magnets

As hinted at on my other two builds (yes I’m a greedy pig) I am in a very very lucky position to be having a third bass build this year. All were commissioned in 2018 with deposits at least being put down then, so I’m counting myself still “in” with Sibob’s challenge. The ACG is one which has been in my head since I had to sell my original Finn 5 18 months ago. It’s based on what I learnt from that and from what I’ve learnt with my glorious ash/maple Finn 4. For an ACG it’s quite simple in spec but it’s going to be classy AF and amazing. I can’t wait! Specs: Two piece ash body, no fancy top 5 piece maple/bubinga neck Acrylic Impregnated maple fingerboard with 30” radius 32” scale 4+1 headstock with maple front veneer Two ACG FB pickups in 25mm casings East UniPre3 Black hardware And pictures too!

Picked this up yesterday, ICS serial says a FSR? Who knows.. 2013 and In mint condition. It just a little gem! Lightest Jazz I've ever owned, soft maple body In dark amber. It plays superbly, really low action, no sharp frets. Got a new loom, bone nut and standard jazz control knobs on the way. May stick In a set of pickups too. Anyone else got one of these and did you do any upgrades? Quarter pounders or Antiquity's? Or what? Want the growl of a jazz with a bit more bottom end... Well happy with It. It plays better than my MIM Jazz and CV Jazz!

As always, EQ settings are all about choosing what's right for the context - i.e. the music genre, the venue, the musician, etc. "Scooped mids" are not inherently right or wrong / in fashion or out of fashion. There are situations when such settings would work nicely, and others when they wouldn't. Sorry that's not a definitive answer, but that's the nature of the beast 🙂 But generally speaking... If you want the bass to underpin the mix and help "glue" the band together then scooped mids might help with that (at the expense of clarity); If you want the bass to punch through the mix and be clearly audible then I'd suggest rolling off some of the low end and instead giving the mids a little boost between 500Hz - 1kHz (mindful that's just a rule of thumb and YMMV).

I would scoop my EQ into a nice smiley face, but it would be much easier just to not turn up to the gig.

Sorry, I'm really slow getting to this thread. So cards on the table here - I'm transgender, currently transitioning & I run the Transgender group for a large oil multinational & do global training on trans awareness. I'm also the person that did the Vickibass thread about transgender however many years ago it was if anyone else was around then. So few bits - I have never come across a single trans (short for transgender) person that would be offended by the term gender neutral - its normally used to describe toilets etc that anyone can use, for instance, rather than a person though. I can't honestly see any thing to worry about here or why the person got offended - if you've got the band's facebook please ping me I'd love to have a look in context. Despite all the BS in the press about how easy it is to offend transgender people, its really not, we're the same as everyone else. Sure 1% of transactivists will make a sh*t load of noise about something but that's no different to the 1% or anti trans activists (except a few of those are editors for big publications so more easily get an audience) - the 98% of people are entirely reasonable, just want to get on with their lives without hassle and are more than tolerant if someone calls them a he instead of she. Frankly I couldn't give a toss, I don't need anyone to validate me thanks The extremely low level of education around transgender is frankly the thing that causes almost all the issues to be honest as people jump to conclusions that are completely untrue - its the same as transvestism -"Tranny" - or it's a lifestyle choice are the two most common; both completely incorrect along with all the other rubbish that gets bandied about about shared spaces with women, self declaration of gender, trans people in sports etc. I have a hastily put together website of debranded material http://www.transknowledge.co.uk that I've created for work - feel free to have a look or not whatever you feel like. Likewise I'm more than happy to discuss anything about it and believe me, I won't be offended, I give away a box of chocolates on my courses to anyone that can ask a question so politically incorrect and offensive that I won't answer it - I've given away one in 2 years, so have a go if you like Bobbi PS - Hung Like Hanratty?? - amateurs -spend a morning reading through the trans posts on mumsnet if you want to be offended

That's the beauty of Basschat. No matter how much you've spent or how much gear you own there's always someone who's spent more and owns more gear.

and in a strange coincidence:

Probably worth also noting that not all scoops are equal: there's the "gentle scoop," such as @Lozz196 describes when going for that gnarly, JJ Burnel-esque sound, and then there's the "nu-metal style" scoop, where there just seems to be a massive chasm in the middle of the frequency range, until you're left with a rumbly, indistinct, wet-fart-distortion sound right at the bottom end, and a horribly thin, trebly, clackity-clack which sounds like two mice fencing with lolly sticks.

A few more changes since Nov 2018 so updated list of (now) 72 basses: (PRE-KRAMER) SPECTOR SB-1 USA 1976 (Walnut/Maple) (PRE-KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Cherry Sunburst) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Black) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Black) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Gloss White) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Tobacco Sunburst) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Red/Black Lava Crackle) - Ex-Barry Dunaway (Yngwie) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Red Stain) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2A (Gloss White) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2A (Black) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2A (Black) (KRAMER) SPECTOR NS-2A (Teal) SPECTOR NS-2 USA (Custom Holoflash Black & Abalone) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro CR (Holoflash Black) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro CRFM(Purple Stain) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro CRFM (Plum Stain) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro CRFM (Forest Green) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro LX (Gloss White) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro LX (Red Flame) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro LX ‘Ian Hill’ (Black) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro LX ‘Doug Wimbish' (White) SPECTOR NS-2 Euro LT (Violet Stain) - INCOMING May SPECTOR NS-2 JA-CR Euro RI (Gloss White) SPECTOR NS-2 JA-CR Euro RI (Black) SPECTOR NS2000/4 (Dark Grey Quilt) SPECTOR Legend 4X (Holoflash Black) SPECTOR Legend 4X (Black Stain) STUART SPECTOR DESIGN NS-4 Euro (Red Stain) DINGWALL D-Bird (Blue/Purple Colourflip) - INCOMING June WAL Mk1 Fretless(Mahogany with Stained Maple facings) WAL Mk1 “Geddy Lee” (Black with Gold Hardware) FENDER Precision ‘70’s Jap RI “Phil Lynott” (Black/Mirror) FENDER Precision ’62 Jap RI (Vintage White/Red Tort) FENDER FSR Precision PJ Deluxe Active (Sea Foam Metallic) 1 of 150 JACKSON "Kip Winger" Sig (Cherry Lacewood) JACKSON TBX-Pro ‘Jacksonbird’ 1 of 56 made (Black) JACKSON Ontario ‘Concert Bass’ (White) HAMER Impact USA (Black & Gold ‘Marble’) HAMER Impact USA (Red) HAMER Scarab USA ‘Rick Savage’ (White) KRAMER Forum I (Flipflop Blue) KRAMER Forum III (Dark Teal) KRAMER Ferrington Electro/Acoustic (Black) ESP The Surveyor 1984 (Blue Stain with Blue fingerboard!) ESP PPJ-160 ‘Masayoshi Yamashita’ Sig Model (White) ESP/Zep-II PPJ-160 ‘Masayoshi Yamashita’ Sig Model (Black) PEAVEY RJ-IV “Randy Jackson” Sig Model (Red Sunburst) PEAVEY RJ-IV “Randy Jackson” Sig Model (Grey/Silverburst) PEAVEY “Rudy Sarzo” Sig Model (Dark Natural) TOKAI ‘Hard Puncher’ P (Black/Mirror) TOKAI Works TW801? (Black) FERNANDES MV-65NS “Nikki Sixx’ Non-Reverse Spectorbird (Black) FERNANDES MV-65NS “Nikki Sixx’ Non-Reverse Spectorbird (Black) FERNANDES MV-65NS “Nikki Sixx’ Non-Reverse Spectorbird (Black) FERNANDES TB Ltd Edition ‘Thunderbird’ (Off-White) FERNANDES PJ-50 Ltd Edition P/J (Red) YAMAHA BB3000 (Black Sparkle) HARTKE XK-4 Active (Black/Chrome) GUILD Pilot (Purple Burst) GUILD Pilot (Red) HAGSTROM Super Swede "Rutger Gunnarsson" (Dark Mahogany) EPIPHONE Thunderbird Vintage Pro (Black) ITALIA Imola GP "Ricky Phillips" (White) HOHNER B2A w/D-Tuner (Black) SIRE “Marcus Miller” V7 (Vintage White) FELINE/SPECTOR "Gene Simmons SB-1" Copy (Black) FELINE/KRAMER "Gene Simmons Axe" 1980 Hybrid (Black/Silver) PUNISHER "Gene Simmons" Ltd. Edition (Signed/#’d) (Black) AXE "Gene Simmons" Ltd Edt (Signed/#’d) (Black/Silver) CORT “Gene Simmons Axe-2” (Black/Silver) CORT “Punisher GS-2” (Black) STACCATO MG Active (22 of 34 made) (Black/Magnesium Alloy) I also have 10 'guitards'....

I'm abstaining. It's such a subjective question that the answers are useless and do nothing more than show personal preference. My favourite song / band changes at least every week. That automatically changes how I feel about the question posed, every week.

Well here's it finished........ I should have done this in the first place....... 😀

I do the mid-scooping but I have a very specific sound, a lot of high end, and a good bit of gain when digging in (which is all the time), think Duff/Lemmy/JJ etc. As we are a 3 piece I need to fill out the sound when the guitar is soloing, but also as the guitar is an overdriven/distorted Les Paul, similarly keep out of the way of durging when chords are played. It’s not my automatic choice for a bass sound, it’s the one that fitted best with the guitar and style of music, as we tried a good few other sounds as well. I’m not one of those players with a sound they take with them, I try to get the best for whatever band I’m in at the time. And given the number of comments I get I think we’ve managed it, which I have to admit is very gratifying. Certainly the only band where anyone’s ever mentioned my bass sound up til now.

What? Read the manual? And risk this?

These, for me, are still the best two posts on compressors on any thread I've read in several years on this forum and IMO worth digging up and sharing once every while! (1) COMPRESSORS AND PUB BANDS What are transparent compressors good for in a pub band? Not about to try and teach anyone to suck eggs, if you know this stuff, sorry for the post, if you are not really interested please skip it, if you want to know why a compressor might help you in a live situation when it apparently 'does nothing' or 'kills my dynamics' then feel free to have a read. It's like a very cut down compressor 101 chat I gave once, which some of you are still scarred by..... Originally compression was supposed to be a transparent tool to prevent an engineer from having to ride a fader throughout a take or a mix. All it was supposed to do was keep that level more even - as often as not by just slightly modifying the envelope of the input sound, hence the attack and release control. And with VCA compressors they pretty much achieved it. But before VCA compressors there were Vari-mu compressors (real tube compressors), Optical compressors and FET compressors. All these types have pluses and minuses, they all have different attack and release curves all of which do more than just transparently alter volume and help out an engineer. On top of these types of compressor there is tape compression and and amp/driver compression - no driver is completely compression free when you push it hard, no amp is compression free when you push it hard, all overdrives and distortions and fuzzes are also compressors, just totally not transparent ones. The best ever compressor you will ever experience is the pair you have strapped on to the side of your head all day. Yes your ears/brain are simply the most powerful compressor you can buy. The quietest sound you can hear is equivalent to your ear drum moving the width or a single molecule apparently, whilst the loudest sound you can hear before deafening yourself pretty much instantly is hundreds of thousands of times louder (you need to look into the way sound pressure level measured in micro pascals and decibels work as units of measurement). That amazing set of compressors on the side of your head has an unfortunate side effect, without a direct reference you are almost totally volume blind, small changes in volume are beyond you to describe, you can not reliably perceive them. Unless they are compared to a level that has not changed and is not changing. Obviously bigger differences are easy to perceive but the differences that can make or break a mix, if you aren't listening to the the mix happening at the time, nope, not a hope. So a deliberately transparent compressor you can't hear working on your signal in isolation, until you are doing way to much with it, and that's about when you feel your dynamics disappearing, because you are doing huge amount of compression in order to hear anything much at all. In a mix way less compression would be 'enough' to change the envelope of your signal to make your instrument be easier to hear, but you aren't in a mix so in order to hear anything at all you put way too much compression on. Thing is, a studio engineer has the time and choice to select the right type of compressor for the particular part of a track he/she wants it for and then set it up just so. What it does to an instrument in a mix then is help prevent 'masking', this is where the envelope of the signal drops in such a way, either because of the player's technique or their instrument or their preferred tonal choices that some other instrument makes it hard to hear when it plays at the same time. Near the end of a mix when two instruments are masking each other I have found that a change of as little as 0.1dB can sometimes make a real difference to the way a pair of instruments sound in a mix. Back to live then. If you are trying to use a compressor to help you be heard in a mix you need very very little for it to make a difference. If you are using compression for a definite effect then you may need bucket loads. If you like your tone as it is but feel you sometimes 'disappear' in the mix and are constantly turning up, then a transparent compressor, set just right, could be the answer to the fight. But you need good critical listening skills, you need to do this 'in the mix' unless you have great metering on the pedal to help you out otherwise you probably will put too much compression on the sound in order to hear it happening. Compression is difficult to master when you are in the safe space of a mix down with no distractions and lots of time to experiment. In order to make it 'easier' to use many pedals have no 'confusing' metering and not all the required parameters to really control the compression. This is a double edged sword, no metering and 'doing it by ear' are nigh on impossible with a transparent compressor unless you are setting it up in situ in the mix. On the other hand a full featured compressor is waaay to complex for an average bassist to get the best out of, and also remember that little detail about setting it right for a particular song? Well you can't with an always on compressor, so you have to set it to help you a little bit all the time, and that's another skill. Ultra low ratio (1.5 to 1 even), very low threshold, slow-ish attack (50 to 80 ms) and fast release (less than 30ms) giving not more than 3dB total compression on the loudest parts is probably a good target for a general touch of compression type of setting on bass live IME. No you can't really hear or feel it if you are just playing solo (don't be concerned if when playing normally the 3dB light doesn't light up at all, you are still getting some compression if your threshold is set right). In the mix you will be easier to hear, whether you are a loud or quiet band. Not because of tonnes of compression but because your individual note envelopes are changed just a smidge so that the post transient part of the note envelope is a touch louder than before. (2) COMPRESSION SETTINGS: AN INTRODUCTION Right, compressor talk 102 in short then (if you know this stuff, skip it etc etc etc):- OK so there are 5 not 4 parameters, and they are as follows:- THRESHOLD LEVEL (level above which the compressor starts compressing) ATTACK TIME (time taken to reach n% of your total compression ratio, this is complicated by the fact that different circuits do this with different curves and get closer to 100% of the ratio by this time) RELEASE TIME (time to turn the ratio back down to 1:1 after the signal drops below the threshold) RATIO (slope) (amount that the compressor prevents the sound getting as loud as it would otherwise, i.e. 4:1 means the output is 1/4 of what it would have been) MAKE UP GAIN (level) (amount of gain to apply to the signal after compression, its always on though, not only when the threshold is exceeded) If you are looking to add a little 'something' extra to your bass tone, but don't have hella ears/metering/experience then I suggest this process:- Initial set up (this is actually all about setting the threshold level very accurately):- Set the attack to about 20ms, the release to 200ms the ratio to max (at least 10:1), make up gain leave at unity (0)dB Then playing at a quietish level on the A string lower the threshold slowly until either you first meter light (3dB) lights up or you hear it start to squeeze the volume. OK, this is entirely unusable right now, except from now on pretty much every note you play normally will start to compress (oh my God, think of the poor dynamics!!!) Second stage to set up:- So, we now set the ratio way back down to as low as it goes (1.5 to 1, or 2:1 are good) Set the attack back to about 50ms Set the release to about 45ms Play normal stuff. Turn the compressor off, and on, try and equalise the volume with the make up gain so that the volume is consistent whether the compressor is off or on. Now if you need a bit more 'bite' to your tone open up the attack a little, if the initial transient peak is too loud, or you want to hear the compression happen when you dig in then speed up the attack (faster than 25ms will getting very frustrating dynamics freaks!) If you feel your playing is choked by this lower the ratio, if you feel its not doing enough in the mix try raising the ratio very slightly (2.5:1 would be an absolute maximum) If you play streams of notes one after another legato and the attack of the first note is loud compared to the following notes' transients shorten the release even more (10ms is fine), I play a lot of 16th note lines, my release time is very very short Don't worry if you only see the 3dB light when you slam the strings as hard as you can, you know you are always compressing, just slightly, and just the meat of the note, after the initial transient peak. There you go you've effectively emulated a tube channel that is creeping in to saturation, on the meat of the note but left your transients untouched, and you aren't distorting. Hope this helps someone. [Source: @51m0n Dec 2017]

Absolutely cato, I love it 🙂

Sadly they didn't go too far Dave. No sad ending though 🙂 Gregg Parker runs the Blues Museum in Chicago and Tony Saunders (bass fella) has kept busy. I exchanged a few emails with him,said he had fond memories of the Parker days.

If you're interested in the Warwick Streamer PJs, you should also look out for Spector basses.

It’s been a great bash the last couple of years so you should enjoy it! See you there. Cheers Jez

-

Who doesn’t enjoy a well finished cavity?

Great photo Mike and the last of that Merv wood has gone to a good home, thanks to Andy

let's not forget Cardiff's finest.. Budgie. hammer and tongs still on my regular playlist

I go for the grumpy face EQ at live gigs and find that it matches my own grumpy face rather well.

I remember in 80's seeing a band called Parker (i think that was there name) doing Black Dog by Zep and the bass player was using one of those Staccato basses. What a fantastic tone he had and it still sticks in my head to this day. Dave

I suspect that with the number of guitar/bass players generally in decline and guitar based music becoming less popular that the number of people interested in buying vintage/collectable instruments will eventually start to gradually decline as will their value. Instruments associated with specific historically important artists like Hendrix or the Beatles will probably always be desirable, but my guess is that the value of things like pre CBS Fenders is probably going to peak at some point in the next 20 years then begin to fall as the generations for whom such objects hold the most cultural significance diminish.

The only thing I'll say about the cork-sniffing of a zillion types of wood is that luthiers make a premium product and it's hardly in their interest to say "We made this out of the most easily sourced and most easily worked wood we could find, tonally the wood isn't that important in the grand scheme of things.". Exotic woods look exotic and expensive, and we buy basses by sight as much as anything (more in my case). Active EQs need to be learnt, and once you've learnt what they do, then they can be set and forget, until you need adjustment. I had an ACG filter EQ once, and didn't like it because I never took the time to learn it. My fault entirely. Same with amps - some people like extensive EQs (GB Shuttle 12, anyone?), others are happy with a two-knob Bass and Treble. I like mids; mids are my friend, and the East U-Retro with sweepable mids even more so.

A lot of carefully argued points of view. But the UK has Hawkwind. 😎

derrière! There I was happy to have determined that I need to be getting an ovnifx smoothie to replace my rack comp moving forward. Now the bigger one of these really does look rather like my personal wet dream of a compressor (if only it was optical, that would be it, kidney selling time)....

I have wood.

Cerys Matthews !!!! that's who i was thinking off and couldn't quite put my finger on it. Its like adding an oustanding pop singer like Cerys to a Prog band. What a great combination it makes and def appeals to a wider audience. Dave

My copy of the CD arrived yesterday, I gave it a quick listen last night and was thoroughly impressed. Even my good lady liked it and it's not the sort of thing she normally listens to. She commented on your singers voice reminding her a little of Cerys Matthews, must be a Welsh thing

When I pull my finger out, but that usually takes forever when you're as dry and withered as I am!

As promised..

great stuff but I thought the ladies and gents doors were bloody great speakers to start with!

I've been having a bit of a rearrange of how I'm fitting all the gubbins in the cavity. I want to change it from what I've done previously as I'm using magnets to hold the control cover on this time. I need to ensure everything is well clear of the cover so it stays on and doesn't get lost!! I've made a copper tray to hold the battery securely - having said that the magnets are pretty strong. I've also marked the holes for the brass inserts. These will be drilled and an M3 insert fitted.

<DUCKS> Actually the reality is closer to this:

Seeing as it’s a day after Transgender Day Of Visibility and I did nothing because I am recovering from surgery, i’ll bite. I’m transgender and the sound technician’s stance and pretty much everything following that confuses me. No alternative sound technician contingency at the venue is equally just as unprofessional... That being said the cis (look it up if unfamiliar) world gets away with all sorts of slurs against trans people and once in a while trans people just... snap... Mumsnet or Newspapers or Newspaper Comments sections are a great example of what anonymity + entitled + whiny cis fear and loathing leads to... So, apparently on these places trans ppl want to destroy society... actually yeah, I do kinda want want to wreck it all... but that’s not because trans people are trans, but because there are forces out there that want to eradicate non-conforming people from existence by any means possible and our/their survival mandates we want to make sure a society is made where that cannot happen, that starts with being pretty hard on slurs. Sometimes people overreact, sometimes people don’t react enough; I probably should do more. If I stumble upon anti-trans attitude I just roll my eyes and say, “oh gawd, the cis are at it again..” (seriously there are some dumb folk out there) and move on. Normally I’d not go looking, sometimes it’s unavoidable -- I never read the newspaper comments sections. Last time I did Ugh. Now I’m the dumb one for letting their stuff affect me. I won’t share any gory details about my life before transition (it’s textbook) but after entering the Scottish NHS Gender Reassignment pathway a few years ago with years of waiting, years of tests, then years of medication, interim procedures and dreadfully dreary therapy (mostly consisting of “are you sure? No... are you really really sure?) Gatekeeping upon gatekeeping: following adams-apple removal in December, I had Vaginoplasty (aka “have you have ‘the op?’” — a question I am under no obligation to answer) last month by one of the UK’s preeminent urologists and reassignment surgeons in Brighton... I am midway through 12 weeks of recovery, I am sore (but now not walking like I have a tennis ball stuffed up my bottom) and able to refurb Trace cabs. The gubbiment gave me my Gender Recognition Certificate and I changed my Birth Certificate. Passports, Banks, Taxes, Council Tax, Lang Registery ownership sets... it all just glides into place as life becomes more normal, yeah, i’m very happy I went through it all. When this surgery is healed I get facial feminisation performed this year (again, I am under zero obligation to tell people this, but it’s all part of the journey). You know, all that progress really chills one out. Waiting months and years between anything happening really messes with a person. I’ve been there. I’m still confused about the sound tech, the band description is not offensive to me, (just really really unimaginative, dull and a bit stupid — typical of clueless Cis folk being a bit free with their privilege) but I don’t experience much of the anti Trans hate or the TERFy/Gender Critical nonsense first hand because I go stealth and I mostly pass, so maybe they had enough or had a bad day so something snapped — I’m lucky and privilege allows me to disappear into the cis world. I am so far into transition that most people just assume I’m yet another angry woman with a precision bass... and truth be known I am just another anonymous punk bassist so being trans is... or rather was for me a major all encompassing and now rapidly normalising transitionary process; transition for me is a series of corrections so I can get on with life. That’s apparently normal, but I know it feels so out of reach for the person waiting… waiting… as time bloody passes and that’s gonna skew ones sensibility. That’s really it. when I come across anti trans stuff, like mumsnet in real life I generally just oppose their view without outing myself or offering a show and tell because it’s not really anyone’s business.. Backfiring Irony aside, (I keep going back to check: it’s a really lame band description) I cannot see why someone else could not run the faders, it’s not really difficult. all I can say is trans people’s experiences are not uniform or the same (despite clinically me describing my experience as “textbook” earlier - ha!) trans people all have wildly divergent experiences and psychologically can cope with different levels of stuff, some trans people are comfy in transition, some are not (that’s not for anyone to judge), some trans people go for “the works” and to ascend into heteronormativity, some don’t, some trans people don’t regard themselves as trans once they have gotten through the meat grinder of the NHS or the WPATH protocols. Some trans ppl even play the bass! I want my chocolate now...