fretmeister

1 hour ago, BEADist said:

Depending on the use-case the 8 blocks on the Stomp are not that many. For example if you want to replicate a DG X7 you need:

 

1. compressor

2. LPF

3. HPF

4. a distortion

5. EQ

 

If you then want a noise-gate,  a volume-pedal and some amp/cab thingy for FOH you are already on its limits.

 

To me the biggest drawback of such a 'replication' is, you have to surf 5 different block menus and their pages to fine-tune it. Not a nice thing to do at a rehearsal (I did this with a HX Effects that has a superior UI compared to the Stomp, still not nice).

 

The Anagram is MUCH better with such tasks having the configurable rotaries!

You've used too many blocks. The LPF and HPF are in a single block. But I take your point.

15 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

I don't know enough about Darkglass' products, especially their digital devices, to make an informed comment, but as a totally new platform, one would hope they will work on developing and supporting it well.

 

That said, on paper, it appears to be capable of doing everything my Helix LT does, but in a more compact form factor, which is very welcome. I have considered downsizing to an HX Stomp previously, but I would struggle with the limited block count for some specific situations.

I recently got a Stomp to go with my Helix rack and I'm quite enjoying the challenge of making my bigger patches work with a single path on the stomp. It takes some effort, but I feel I'm getting to know the HX system all over again.

9 hours ago, Russ said:

Line 6 haven't updated the Helix hardware in years. It's starting to look a bit... tired. I thought they'd be chomping at the bit to release an upgraded version after the Quad Cortex took off, but no. 

 

I want to see an upgraded version of the POD Go - just stuff the guts of the HX Stomp in there and you've got a solid, compact single-box gigging solution, complete with expression pedal and built-in wireless. The current POD Go is a bit underpowered compared to the Helix or even the HX Stomp. A few more bass-oriented models wouldn't go amiss either, especially preamps. 

Kemper have never upgraded their hardware (unless you count the power amp version) and it's significantly older than the Helix and still sells well.

I suppose they'll do it when the sales numbers drop enough.

New hardware usually just means more DSP rather than new physical features. 

2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Take all their hamsters!

what about the elderberries?

15 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

But are extremely unlikely to. This will be retrospective, if someone comes to harm, there will be an investigation and the owner will have to show they assessed the risk, mitigated it.

 

Any punishments will be proportionate. They're not going to take someone's house and throw them in jail for running a small local forum. 

Even if you trust Ofcom to be proportionate under a set of rules that are clearly disproportionate, then compliance and dealing with an investigation costs money. Money that a lot of smaller forums just do not have. Some might have to close simply because of that.

The court system is full of appeals due to disproportionate sentencing of all types. There is no reason to think this will be any different.

The age check thing is particularly crap.

At one end it could be a renewed log-in / account creation wording with multiple click throughs like Apple T&C or it could require the mods to actually see official documents which would cause a massive GDPR nightmare. There's no guidance on what is "sufficient" so Ofcom will have the power to shut down any site that just annoys them.

When site owners are outside of the UK Ofcom will just order the web companies to block access completely.

There are dozens of tiny forums set up for things that are far more important than bass guitars or hamsters - disease support forums, addiction forums etc etc. Anonymity is a vital part of their work.

And the bit about videos and other stuff being "objectionable" is undefinable and ridiculous. Everything is objectionable to someone. You just know that someone is going to report a forum for "promoting" pineapple on pizza as being objectionable, and Ofcom are going to have to wade through all that crap.

The test should be whether something is illegal or not.

Hamster forum has gone.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/18/hamster-forum-local-residents-websites-shut-down-new-laws/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first

Hamster forum and local residents’ websites shut down by new internet laws

Scope and scale of Online Safety Act likened to China’s ‘great firewall’ as small websites struggle to comply

James TitcombTechnology Editor

18 March 2025 2:09pm GMT

Dozens of small internet forums have blocked British users or shut down as new online safety laws come into effect, with one comparing the new regime to a British version of China’s “great firewall”.

Several smaller community-led sites have stopped operating or restricted services, blaming new illegal harms duties enforced by Ofcom from Monday.

They range from a hamster owners’ forum, a local group for residents of the Oxfordshire town of Charlbury, and a large cycling forum.

The hosts of the lemmy.zip forum, hosted in Finland, blocked users from the UK accessing the site, saying the measures “pave the way for a UK-controlled version of the ‘great firewall’”.

The great firewall refers to the strict controls imposed by Chinese internet authorities, which restrict Western sites such as Google, Facebook and Wikipedia in the country and is seen as a model of online censorship.

Britain’s Online Safety Act, a sprawling set of new internet laws, include measures to prevent children from seeing abusive content, age verification for adult websites, criminalising cyber-flashing and deepfakes, and cracking down on harmful misinformation.

Under the illegal harms duties that came into force on Monday, sites must complete risk assessments detailing how they deal with illegal material and implement safety measures to deal with the risk.

The Act allows Ofcom to fine websites £18m or 10pc of their turnover.

The regulator has pledged to prioritise larger sites, which are more at risk of spreading harmful content to a large number of users.

“We’re not setting out to penalise small, low-risk services trying to comply in good faith, and will only take action where it is proportionate and appropriate,” a spokesman said.

“We’re initially prioritising the compliance of sites and apps that may present particular risks of harm from illegal content due to their size or nature – for example because they have a large number of users in the UK, or because their users may risk encountering some of the most harmful forms of online content and conduct.”

‘The home of all things hamstery’

However, many smaller internet forums have said they are not willing to deal with the compliance, or shoulder the theoretical financial burden of the new laws.

“While this forum has always been perfectly safe, we were unable to meet [the compliance requirements of the Act],” wrote the operators of The Hamster Forum, which describes itself as “the home of all things hamstery”.

Richard Fairhurst, the administrator of the “Charlbury in the Cotswolds” forum, wrote that the Act was “a huge issue for small sites, both in terms of the hoops that site admins have to jump through, and potential liability”.

“Running a small forum is much harder than it was when I started doing this almost 25 years ago,” he wrote on the site. The site has remained open but closed a debate board where people discussed off-topic issues.

Mr Fairhurst, who has run the forum since 2001, told The Telegraph: “By putting all these burdens on the small sites its going to push people away from these small locally run British-owned sites and towards the American giants.”

Bike Radar, the forum of the cycling magazine, shut down on Monday blaming “continually rising operational costs” without mentioning the Act specifically. The site has millions of posts.

The Green Living Forum, which was set up in the early 2000s and had more than 470,000 posts, has also closed down, with the site’s administrator saying they were not willing to be liable for fines.

The host of lemmy.zip, a forum for sharing links, said he would block UK-based internet addresses from accessing the site.

“These measures pave the way for a UK-controlled version of the ‘great firewall,’ granting the government the ability to block or fine websites at will under broad, undefined, and constantly shifting terms of what is considered ‘harmful’ content, a message on the site said.

The UK-based administrator of the site, who did not want to be named, said: “If I was living in any other country I’d be ignoring this, but because of this personal risk I can’t. I can’t deal with the possibility of an £18m fine for something I can’t guarantee I can comply with.”

Ofcom defends regulation

Ofcom has said that for small sites, the costs of complying “are likely to be negligible or in the small thousands at most”.

Digital rights campaigners the Open Rights Group (ORG) said Ofcom should exempt smaller sites from enforcement. “The Online Safety Act places onerous duties on small websites and blogs that may lead them to close or geoblock UK users rather than risk penalties,” the ORG’s James Baker said.

“The closure of small sites will not keep children safe but will benefit bigger sites, including Facebook and X, who are laying waste to content moderation on their platforms.

“There is a simple solution – the Secretary of State can exempt small, safe websites from onerous Online Safety duties, and protect plurality online.”

Update:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yljn2vkn1o

Looks like age checks are going to be unavoidable. Presumably that means quite a bit of additional GDPR compliance and record keeping by forums.

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

Be careful with paulownia - I found that it it drinks paint and is very soft as stated above 

I have 2 paulownia basses already. I don't mind dinks.

I now fancy a ray / sterling type without the weight!

Can any of you fine people suggest where I might be able to get a paulownia body?

In an ideal world it would be EBMM Sterling shaped, but a J shape without pickup routs would do if I can't find a Sterling one.

ta

28 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Not if my idea comes to pass.

 

Told the lad in the local takeaway to send a letter home suggesting they convert their held treasuries, 760bn USD, into brick and mortar then build a wall around Trumpland.

The orange BAM may talk but let's face it China perfected wall building centuries ago.

Are you just a simple tailor by any chance? [/DS9]

This was my attempt at seeing if I could get on with a 7 string. Alas despite giving it a try over a couple of years my brain just cannot cope and I often seem to be playing one string wrong!


A previous owner swapped the pickups for the rather excellent Seymour Duncan Mick Thompson active set. One of the mounting feet on the neck pickup was apparently damaged at that time so that's been repaired in a very janky sort of way. They function just fine - absolutely massive output levels with great clarity. The bridge pickup is the complete opposite of subtle! It seems that the pickups had an RRP of nearly £400!!!

I am unconvinced that the tone control is actually connected as it doesn't seem to do anything. 

At some point in the past the tuning heads have been swapped to gold ones too.

I've set it up so it plays very nicely in BEADGBE tuning. 

There are quite a few scratches and bits of paint knocked off but it's quite difficult to photograph, but this is reflected in the bargain price.

£250 ono collected from Northants as I do not have a box.

10 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

Pedant alert. VAT is the final charge and goes on the cost after Duty is charged. 

I didn't think the duty attracted Vat?

Ah well - makes the comparison with Andertons even worse then.

53 minutes ago, Misdee said:

The golden age  of buying from the USA was in the late 1980s when you got about 1.8 dollars your pound and shops in the States were packed with great gear.

 

Nowadays the world is a smaller place, and international shopping is far more common. .

 

Give the potential pitfalls, it makes no sense to save a couple of bob buying equipment from the USA unless it's stuff that is otherwise unavailable in the UK. There's more to consider than the sticker price on the goods, and so much hassle it would have to be something special to peak my interest.

That's my view too.

I've had a few bargains buying from Japan - but always for used items that were impossible to find in the UK or just over-priced.

15 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Pfft, the golden age was when it was £1 == $2.  I visited the US then (2009?) and chuckled heartily about getting on a bus for 50p ($1).

It was about that in 1990/1 as well.

I came back with a new wardrobe of jeans and trainers.

11 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

Given the current slide of the $, down over 9% since the end of January, are we approaching a golden age of buying from the US?

 

Obviously you're going to need to factor in shipping/duties, but by way of example if you're in the US A Fender Player II Jazz bass.  Guitar Center $800, Andertons £750; at current exchange prices the Guitar Center version at £600.

 

 

So $800 is (at the exact moment) £597.82.

Shipping from the USA would be in the region of $100, so that's another £74.73. But might be as much as $200 (£149.49)

Using the lower sum that's £672.55 that is subject to vat at 20% being £134.51 = £807.06.

Then there's 3.5% duty on the guitar bit as well - another £20.92

Running total is £827.98 + about £13 for the courier admin fee. So £840.98 delivered to a UK buyer assuming the lower end shipping fee.

So there could be a saving of about £77.45 compared to Andertons if it sneaks though without getting pinged by customs, and about £100 more than Andertons if it gets caught. I've had small stuff get through, but never anything as big as an instrument.

I'm not sure whether Fender UK would deal with any warranty problems for a personal import or not. I'm guessing not.

I never measure when I do a set up. Every bass needs something different so I always do it by feel alone.

2 minutes ago, BabyBlueSound said:

Good stuff, really love your shortie, was not familiar with this little Jim Deacon prec!

I bought it on here from @hooky_lowdown about 3 years ago as I just wanted to try a shortie. I swapped the pickup to an Aguilar with a loom made by our own @KiOgon as the stock controls were really just on/off. It neck dived a bit so I swapped the tuners for Hipshot Ultralights.

It’s a cheap bass but the basic quality and build is more than good enough to warrant spending on those swaps. I love it!

I liked it so much I found another one for roundwounds.

I thought the bridge string spacing would be a bit tight but I’ve discovered I much prefer it for everything other than slap, and I don’t do a lot of that.

Bit of Stevie Wonder, the arrangement from the film “Sing”

Moises app to remove the original bass.

Tone by Line 6 HX Stomp

That’s where I saw them too!

I was fortunate enough to see them live. Fantastic performance by all.

Ed Friedland famously has La Bella’s that are over 20 years old.

18 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Retro reel into valve preamp with high end rolled off? 

yes, although maybe the noble. 

Mark Bass Vintage preamp has an excellent versatile tone right out of the box. Flat on the EQ and with the “old” option engaged and it sounds thick but defined, useful if many genres.

I’m spending my afternoon trying to program my HX Stomp to match it!

That does look very cool!