Wil

I'm not sure of the details but I think I've read somewhere on talkbass that cavity shielding paint doesn't need to be incredibly conductive in order to work effectively. No figures off the top of my head though.

Stainless rotos have always felt rough as a badgers chuff to me. However, I've currently got a heavy guage set on my bass and they sound great. I prefer the sound to the DRs I used for years, in fact.

I think St Vincent is due to play on one of the new shows... Floats my boat at least!

As far as I can work out the standby switch on the AC30 is there so you can mute your guitar and cook eggs on the amp at the same time.

Zappa and the Mothers - We're Only in it for the Money. The 1985 remix, I havent heard the original version. I love this one though!

A friend of mine recently bought a VOX modelling amp that gets great reviews, and I have to admit at home it sounded very good. Come band practice it couldn't compete with my valve amp even when I scaled the volume back to very low levels. No presence in a band situation whatsoever. Now, that's not necessarily a fault of the modelling preamp, but the fact is was paired with a solid state poweramp. Perhaps that is skewing this discussing somewhat - how can you objectively compare modelling at the preamp stage with any number of variables depending on the choice of power amp, and valve kit where the power amp is very much where the action is?

I've found a little (narrow) boost around 800hz can give the bass some body even when I've had to cut lower to make room for the kick drum. Horses for courses though. I really need to get myself some monitors, I'm mixing on a set of DT100s at the moment which is not ideal...

I'm also still utterly convinced a proper valve amp working hard sounds better than any modelling gear that I've heard or used (which is a POD, and assorted Sansamps). I wouldnt bother carting a heavy AC30 about with me, if I had anything smaller/lighter that sounded as good. The kit is getting better all the time (thanks Beatles) but I remain to be converted.

I had a GP7SM combo, 15" speaker version. Was a decent enough little workhorse until the amp's PCB cracked where it mounted to the chassis. I believe mine was a later one and had no red stripe.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1334004014' post='1609593'] Is the guitar on the Black Books theme a baritone? [/quote] Not sure, but I reckon that theme tune was very much inspired by Mark Ribot's angular playing on the Tom Waits album Raindogs.

Fantastic - very cool. I'll check that demo out when I get home tonight, cool looking thing. I've actually now decided I have no use for the Braguesa, so it's up for sale if anyone wants to dabble in something a bit different!

My first bass was a mid 90s Encore P, and it lives on in my parts bass (the body at least) - the only bass I've kept hold of in fact. It's a plywood body as far as I can make out (a few dents in the paint over the years have shown the layers underneath), certainly fairly heavy.

I've taken a guitar to practice on a motorbike before. Never again.