Gareth Hughes

I bought the black fretless MVJ-66 that was in Bass Direct - I’m sure that’s the wrong model number. Beautiful feeling and playing instrument. Bizarrely didn’t have any shielding which meant it buzzed when the strings weren’t touched. No excuse for that on a £1500 instrument. Had it shielded with copper tape and now’s it’s whisper quiet. More frustrating was having zero response about it from several emails to John Files and via Facebook, thought that let the side down quite a bit, but it’s still a great instrument.

This might not be relevant but when this happened to me it was because I had my iPad in a case with a bluetooth keyboard. Case was folded over so iPad could sit on regular music stand. Weight of iPad against keyboard was pushing keys in, causing random scrolling. Turned off the bluetooth from the keyboard and all was fine.

Here’s one:

Have you checked out Miles Mosely? He runs his upright through a lot of effects. There’s a great rig rundown of him - might be a Dunlop produced thing. Will link if I can find it.

And the links are now just a holding page. Hope all is well with him.

Middle of a tour once I got a ridiculously bad head cold, ears felt like solid concrete. Not good for intonation on a double bass. In the break one night I had a massive nosebleed that would not stop no matter how many bits of tissue were wedged in there. So now my ears are blocked, my nose is blocked, breathing in general is great craic, and my eyes (of course, it’s a reading gig) feel like they’re lead weights. More comical is that it’s a pseudo classical gig so everytime the singers do some choreographed walk towards the back of the stage, they can’t help but break out laughing at the sight of me. Oh yes, the show must go on!

I have a Hotone Bass Press - think that’s the proper name - it’s the vol/wah/expression pedal one. Wah is awesome, really the most satisfying of many I’ve tried. The volume pedal part does the job well, complete with a minimum volume setting. The travel on the pedal is great, nice consistent swell of signal. Mine is several years old now so does suffer from a scratchy pot but nothing that some pot cleaner couldn’t fix.

Not official but if you know any builders/welders - my next door neighbour, a kitchen/bathroom fitter kinda guy, took measurements of the screwholes in the head, plus the rack case holes, and a few bits of bent aluminium and black spray paint later and all was good.

Hey! I resemble that remark!!!!

New PM, new monarch and now Lozz is ditching Precisions. I can’t take this much change in one week!!!!

Aside from some/most folks opinions that anything by KISS is their worst record, and (Music From) The Elder falling into the love it or hate it camp within KISS fans, I have a soft spot for ‘Unmasked’. Not necessarily their worst in polls but definitely completely forgotten about by the band. For no logical or sentimental reason it’s a record that takes me to my happy place.

My Realist and Apt-Flex pickups are still going strong 2 years after 3below repaired them. Totally worth giving this a go. Continued thanks to 3below for his talents and help. Legend.

Would your two channel Tech21 Steve Harris pedal not do the trick? Even blend out the Sansamp part and just have the two volume controls on the foot switch.

I’m in the same boat Nige - opted for the third tier version to give the company some breathing space. Unfortunate all round, with their employees ultimately getting the sh!ttier end of that stick. Hopefully one day we’ll get an unexpected and belated birthday/Xmas surprise.

The new-er Fishman Platinum Pro pedal - the square one - is the dogs dangly’s for this. Has a trim pot on the side to raise/ lower the in-coming signal - with an LED to give you a clear too much/too little visual indication of your level. Also has a tuner, compressor, 4 band eq and a separate boost function that’s foot-switchable.

I don’t know about adaptability - more like paint by numbers, doing exactly what it says on the tin.

I don’t play banjo at all, but my tuppences worth is based playing cello (CGDA) while being a bassist. The thought of it was a head wreck until I got one and just tried learning scales, and then a few pieces. They fell into place surprisingly easily. Improvising/jamming is a whole other ball game because my head/fingers want to default into the patterns/notes that I know from bass. So, before trying the new strings, maybe try it as is and learn a few tunes specifically for it?

I would heartily recommend the two Epifani UL112 cabs for sale right now. I’m not affiliated in any way, these are just outstanding cabs. I’ve been using these for over 10 years, can handle pretty much every situation I need. Most of the time now, if it isn’t a loud wedding band, I just use one.

Hmmm, I bought mine as b-stock from Thomann, so maybe the first buyer changed the angle themselves - I don’t remember having to alter anything out of the norm. Absolutely quality instruments.

Of all the basses I’ve had, this is the one that made Precisions click for me, and more than any other I can confidently say this is the one that’s staying with me to the end.

I get that with the first 70 - the PB70 part, but I don’t get the second 70, the 70US part.

My main bass for a few years now is a PB70-70US in Olympic White, with a rosewood fingerboard. Strung with light gauge Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats, something about it is just righteous. Really great instruments all round. I don’t understand the model numbers though - other than US means it came with US pickups as stock. Anyone know what the 70 before the US means?

And they certainly do happen. As a resident of N.Ireland, we all got a chuckle at the recent Jubilee flag ‘mix up’ - I say mix up as in both cases it was probably a bit of ‘it’ll do rightly, sure what’s the difference?’