paul_5

I always find that live albums are the best way to discover what a band is capable of. Good suggestion.

Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me - Die Schmitts.

Teenage Prostitute - Zappa

Nope. I refuse to read things that are in comic sans font too.

Agreed. BSSM is pretty much the perfect album; incredible performances of great songs that were recorded and produced in a manner that embellished all of the above.

The Chicken - PeeWee Ellis (& Jaco)

Poultry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson.

Disintegration gets my vote.

I've managed to remove the battery connector on my iPod classic (in my defences they are held on by small amounts of bugger all) and wondered if any BCers know of anyone who can res-older either the existing socket, or fit a new one? My only alternative is to buy a new logic board at £100, and I'd rather not spend that much if possible. I'm in East Lancashire/North Manchester, but don't mind couriering it if someone comes recommended. There re lots of phone repair shops locally, but I think they just do cracked screens/part replacement and they're a bit of a mixed bunch.

^This guy gets it^ 'Sir Psycho Sexy' for me too. Funky Mutron goodness from Flea, tight rhythm work from Frusciante, and a wobbly vibraphone to boot. This track has it all. If I had to pick a 2nd favourite then it would most likely be 'Coffee Shop' from One Hot Minute. Flea is ON POINT!!!

Yes, MOSFETs are behaviourally as close to a tube as you’ll get with needing 300volts to a plate. How it sounds is just a question of taste.

Did they ever tell Cousteau? E.S.T.

I think the MOSFET version just inches it, what with the new 'Video Plus' feature ;).

I know what you mean. Every 'open mic', studio job, and sometimes even some dep gig I've ever done has had an Ashdown combo somewhere. Never found one that I liked. Plenty of folks swear by them though, so they must be doing something right.

No matter what the bass was they'd all be going through Ashdowns at this time, no?

I’ve had this - it’s was a pickup height problem.

I'll see your Lenny Hill and raise you...

iRig and my iPhone, and sometimes a Vox amplug with rechargeable batteries, although I mostly play unplugged. Another vote for the excellent KZ ZS-10 in ears. They're available on amazon for less than £50.

Can't really recommend anything that doesn't have a tube in it to be honest, nothing else sounds or responds exactly like a starved-plate overdrive.

All of those issues can be solved by sitting it on top of your amp. Kinda stops it being a pedal though... I had a VT1 EQ for (Many happy) years and used the 12v supply from my Donner DP2 power unit - delivers 12v at 500mA, so I just used a polarity reverser that it came with and never gave it a second thought. Before using the Donner I used to use a 12v laptop power supply with no ill effects - 12vdc at a couple of amps and it was already centre positive, so no need to invert the power supply. The only thing that I've heard that came even close to the DHA unit was a BlueTube 903 Tube drive. 3 band EQ and a 12AX7 (ECC83 to you and me) tube that is fully enclosed. They tend to be rare and expensive these days though. TC electronic do a Tube Driver for a LOT less than you'll find DHA kit for, but I've never used one. As with anything there's the Behringer version - the VT999 which again uses an honest-to-goodness vacuum tube with an EQ circuit, but again, I've only seen them.

Evelyn, A Modified Dog. - FZ

^Mag-bloody-nificent^

What I'd recommend is to take all of the pedals out of the chain and put them back in one at a time. This will identify where exactly the distortion happens, if you're still getting distortion without any effects then the problem is either before them i.e. your bass, or after them i.e. gain structure of your sound card/interface. If you get distortion using just the DI when the drive or blend is set to clean then it could be your power supply isn't delivering enough voltage and you're running out of clean headroom way before you should. It's time consuming, but it's guaranteed to work.

In their defence, both of those albums are incredible!