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This guy try to scam me once many years ago (over 12years) he rented some radio mics from me for a long term hire and then never returned them. Turned out he’d pawned them to find his gambling debt. I eventually got them back by sending a local nutter round to have a word with him. Mick Mason / Michael Mason whatever he calls himself is a long time scammer.

The old vs the new

Not the design but the finish. Sunburst and/or tort are disgusting enough on their own, but when combined they are truly hideous 🤢🤮 Just add gold hardware for the holy trinity of awful bass aesthetics!

This is one of the reasons I love Basschat. Discussing "ugly basses" is prohibited on Talkbass, just in case it offends someone.

Can you send him around again?

There's hundreds of them. Noted author Mark Phillips aside, I saw these on eBay a while back and they were so awful it was worth taking screengrabs. No idea who made them. Lest we forget...

Here you go

I’m amazed at the prevalence of gambling advertising. I think it ought to be treated the same as tobacco.

The One Show item was presented by Watchdog's Matt Allwright and he invited anyone let down by any online marketplace to contact: [email protected] As I mentioned in the other thread on this subject Matt Allwright is a guitarist so it's likely he would be interested in this story.

Almost a year after paying my deposit it finally arrive this week. I was a bit nervous about having paid so much money for something I'd never played, but it's an amazing instrument. The construction is solid, the neck is a little chunkier than I'm used to, but it plays pretty easy after a few days. It balances perfectly seated and on the strap, and it sounds HUUUUGE!! The B string is massive! The body is mahogany (I think) and the neck is roasted maple, which I asked to be left unpainted. I was going for a 70s Fender look.

I’m afraid I’m one of those gullible people that would happily pay extra for a tweeter… and then pay even more for an off-switch.

There y'go.

I follow Rhett Shull on YT and he posted a video about this singer songwriter. I quite like it, Joni Mitchell meets, er, The Meters, maybe? Anyway: Madison Cunningham…

Robert Smith is still managing to headline festivals and play incredibly good (and lengthy) live shows even whilst looking like an overweight dinner lady after a drug fuelled weekend. I don’t think appearance matters if they can still cut it live.

You are going straight to hell

I've never seen a bass so ugly that I didn't eventually end up gassing for one. Even those Foderas that look like a whale swallowing a ladder, I want to play one just to see why they built them like that, I'm imagining some sort of supreme ergonomic experience that makes perfect sense of the questionable aethetic.

I’m not sure what body woods to use yet, but I do want Birdseye maple with ellipse inlays!

lol, I started my pedal journey with a HX Stomp thinking it'd suit me nicely. Then got a Boss OC 2, well, it's an analogue octave that the Stomp doesn't do that well, then an Aguilar Filter Twin, well, because it's an envelope filter that the Stomp doesn't do that well etc etc. Ended up trading the Stomp for a spare amp and continued to acquire a few more pedals ... ... and these are the ones not (obviously) on one of my already built 4 boards. Madness it is indeed!!!

Ate Bush

Fresh out of the oven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K86-a9X9DQ&t

See it here!

I agree with this sentiment, but this also need not be the case. This doesn't account for compressors that have discrete ATTACK control, and further, not just any variable attack range will do. I also prefer to preserve the attack dynamics of my sound, and thus set the attack parameter of my compressor ( currently, Source Audio Atlas ) to be fairly long, 40msec or so. Many compressors do not allow for these longer attack times, and thus wind up squashing the attack when it isn't desirable. When set for long attack time, what happens when the compressor is working is that it compresses the tone AFTER the primary attack has passed through, and it does some very pleasing things to the fullness of the tone. I will say that I learned the hard way with compressors, and it took a lot of trial and error with many different comps to figure out which tools are better (or not) at performing certain tasks. Just as a rubber mallet is used differently than a sledge hammer, though they are both in the "hammer" category, they are used differently for different tasks. Given the vast number of compressors available, from simple to sophisticated, it seems a shame that compression gets a bad rap for lack of a full understanding of what is possible, and misunderstanding. Typical compression - when not used as an obvious effect - will almost always enhance a (bass) tone when applied APPROPRIATELY. Not all compressors are capable of executing what may be appropriate for a given sound. What is appropriate varies greatly on many factors (the player, the tone, the context, etc., and the personal taste of the person employing the comp). As a bassist, one may or may not care to use or technically NEED to use a compressor. But the person at the mixing desk may have many good reasons to do so, for different reasons than the bassist may be aware of.

Same method for fitting the inserts for the M3 pickup screws using locknuts to screw in the insert and a couple of locknuts to provide the twisting force with the spanner: And done: Next and last set of inserts will be for the bridge, but that will need a mockup with some sample strings for alignment - which means waiting a day or two for the headstock clear-coat to harden. But all the time, the body is continuing to harden for its final polish.

Have you had a look at this (Monster Drums...)..? A free Vst plug-in that, I'd say with confidence, rivalises any of the same category. Easy to use, sounds more than 'fine', plenty of variants, and at an unbeatable cost (it's free...). Don't be fooled; it's free, but isn't 'cheap'. It's inexpensive, but sounds better than many costing... well, $250 for a 'Producer's Suite', for instance. Worth a look..? Monster Drums ... Disclaimer : I'm a drummer. I use expensive drum plug-ins, but also Monster Drums, as they're very good.

I absolutely despise the whole advertising 'warning'... when it stops being fun, just stop. W T F! Yeah because someone addicted will just be able make that rational decision. Boils my urine!

I am hoping to see Roger Chapman in the spring, by which time he'll be approaching 81. Last saw him just before lockdown. Yes the voice has changed, and the songs (new and old) adapted to suit, what a voice still. Still producing new and strong material.

Basically the previous owner had bought this bass in 2021 and a load of other high end gear, had been working internationally so hardly touched it and then tragically died in his early. 30's, his widow was selling them off, there's not really a way to work out the prices of used LeFay as they aren't that common but I didn't quibble her asking price and it was the very max of my budget... and yeah she's lovely and very high end thing... I've never played a headless before, it sits a bit differently and there is definitely no headstock dive. The bass is simply a work of art.... like this is really high level of craftsmanship, the sculpting of the woods compared to say a Warwick thumb is another level - and it feels very much design led. Everything seems and feels thought through and there for a purpose rather than rushed quickest way to do something. The bridge is very sturdy ... and, maybe this is the cleaness of the tone, or just all headless bridges but tunes so easily. I've got an HX stomp and using the fine tuning mode the other basses take a bit of coaxing to get bang on... this just does it - it's crazy Padauk neck! Really easy to play, the widest point is a few mm below the top of the fretboard so it kinda starts to curve back in on itself. Anyway very easy to play. These things in the faux headstock. I will learn more about them when I need to change strings. one of my half thought-through ideas was to learn to make a neck and then make my own Padouk neck... safe to say if I ever installed frets I would not be even attempting them to look like this... it's crazy the top is gently curved and the back doesn't look bad either ... like crazy woodworking chops... and also the bits to the bridge pins - the mind boggles. But what I like (and I work as a designer) was I was playing it and thinking about how well it seemed thought out... someone else pointed out the crazy woodwork to me, it's not ostentatious craft for crafts sake, and also no coffee table wood on view... I like that. Another one of the back... This looks odd to me - there's nothing on the back of the headstock!! pointy grey/silver paint! woop How does it sound... so not like a fender at all.... it's really really clear and consistent all the way up and down, the low notes on the B string are clean and defined and feel in character. It was initially set up with super low action and straight neck, so I imagine I could do a Charles Berthould impression with tapping and slapping if I practiced for about 10 years and had any talent... tonally if I was trying to describe it it's in the same ballpark as Charles' Herr Schwartz - but played by an idiot. It's quite piano like in the way notes have clarity and it seems to reward playing melody and multiple notes at once... The preamp is really nice, volume, passive tone and the 6 position pickup selector (best described as: rear coil, parallel MM, parallel Jazz, front coil, series MM, series jazz) and then 2 band bass and treble boost only. The bass control is really nice, it adds a boost at about 80Hz but nothing below 30Hz - so none of the subby stuff, the high end boost is a nice high end boost. And then the 6 position control makes it sound like completely different instrument. So yeah, I feel a bit like a 17 year on their birthday old let loose on a Ferrari ... and the temperature of the house it previously lived in down south and my cold room the bass live in up north mean I need to tweak the setup, the bow on the neck isn't quite right at the moment. Like I said a 17 year old in a Ferrari!

Salt 'N Pepa - Push It

....and over time your brain circuitry and chemistry will change which means that you will come to think, feel and behave around gambling exactly the same way as a heroin or crack addict thinks, feels and behaves around drugs. Sadly however, you will run out of money even faster than does even the most addicted drug addict, from where you will find yourself lying to family and friends in order to borrow money (which you will never be able to repay), from where you will start to act with questionable ethics around money that comes your way via your employment, a process that might start with minor theft but which can quickly escalate to major fraud, from where you will start to borrow larger sums from dubious people, and from where you will finally progress to out-and-out criminality that, because unlike the worst drug addiction you can never have enough money to fuel a gambling addiction, will result in either your being arrested and likely imprisoned, or worse still as the people who you owe money to - either the gambling debt or the money you borrowed to gamble in the first place - catch up with you. I'd rather take my chances on drugs frankly

I’ve flown to the Isle of Man a couple of times for gigs (guitar gigs) and just took my Telecaster in my carry on bag with the neck removed. Quickly assembled and strung up on arrival at the venue.

Ian Anderson, one of my all time greats from the late 60s to the 80s, should have given up quite a few years ago. He can't sing any more, his voice is shot, and it pains me to see the Tull legacy tarnished.

On the One Show tonight there was an item by Watchdog’s Matt Allwright about people getting scammed on the Vinted web site. Not dissimilar to the experiences here. At the end of the item he said if there was anyone else who’d been scammed on any online marketplace to get in touch and report their experiences. I know that he’s a guitarist so he’ll probably be interested in hearing from anyone on here who’s been affected. I would suggest all affected members to get in touch ASAP to create some noise about this story.

Pear of Destiny