fretmeister

That interesting - I hated my real BDDI!

The Sandberg VS4 passive is a wonderful bass. I'd still change the pickup though But for your budget - a used Fender American Special Precision would be perfect. Neck is a little slimmer than a regular US standard / pro etc and it has the risible Grease Bucket tone control (easy enough to turn into a proper tone control with a new capacitor and a soldering iron) but they play really well, and tend to be a little lighter too for some reason. They are effectively US basses with mex hardware, like the slightly larger / heavier tuning heads etc. All of which can be upgraded in time. I got an immaculate one with a case for £600. It was only 8lb when I got it, now it has Hipshot ultralites on it and is now 7 3/4 lb and has a comfy balance. Well worth looking for.

I quite fancy one of these as well. Demos sound really good.

Lovely!

Missing a Stingray. And short scales or EB0 type things. School Report: Must try harder!

I discovered the "No Amp Bass DI" model that for some reason is in the Distortion list. It's a bit quiet so I added a gain block after it - it's lovely. Tweak of the mids, P bass with some foam, and I'm right there for "Sitting on the dock of the bay"

Thorpyfx Fat General. So good it made me sell my Cali76

You can’t do it live. internet lag is too large. drummer plays and you hear it 0.25 seconds later. You play, and you drummer hears it again only now it’s a full half second out from the original. Best you can do is record your parts separately and email the file.

I love the idea of them, but the fan puts me off. How loud is the fan noise? Can you hear it at TV watching levels?

This. Or start with a regular P neck and get a good luthier to shave it down? I know Jon Shuker has done that sort of work for people in the past.

I've got EZdrummer 2 and an Akai pad, but I'm having a lot of trouble programming the pad to do what I want in terms of layout. I'm sure it's user error but that doesn't help!

Cedar and paulownia are the future! Loving my Sandberg Superlight. Slowly saving up for a 5 string. And then probably after that a VS (precision type). There isn't a VS superlight in the catalogue but I'm informed by their marketing dude that they will make one if asked. Ability to save up is somewhat hampered at the moment though!

No one else will notice. Not your band mates and certainly not your audience. They don't even line up at the bottom on double basses

Measure from the ball end to the start of the silk. Then cut some off the silk end. Then measure from the ball end again to the start of the silk. It will not have changed at all. When you install them they will change because different gauge strings stretch at slightly different rates. You got lucky with your existing set. Nothing more than that. You could go through 100 sets and never get them lined up again. I have to say though, I've been playing 30 years and I've never heard of anyone be worried about it, and I have terrible OCD!

Not trimming the strings - I mean trimming the silk covering a little to make it match.

The length it was trimmed at is irrelevant! That's only the bit that wraps round the tuner. The remains of the string would be the same - the effective speaking length plus the extra between the nut and the tuner and the saddle and the back of the bridge. You just got lucky. Even so - the A string isn't level with the other 2.

Is trimming them a good idea? Are the silks part of keeping the string together?

Definitely just luck. They all stretch slightly differently. If it bothers you I think you'll have to swap to strings that haven't got silks at all.

The Office of National Statistics have confirmed that the govt figures are wrong because thye exclude care home deaths and when they are included the deaths are 41% higher. (reported today on Sky news website) There is increasing evidence that people can get it more than once and that the level of antibodies in those who have recovered are insufficient to provide protection. There is also no agreed and tested evidence that those with antibodies cannot spread. Cannot assume they are not spreaders as that would be a very dangerous assumption to make. And today it's been announced that over 30 different strains of the virus have been identified, some far more dangerous than others. This further reduces the chance of finding an effective vaccine quickly, if at all. Herd immunity only comes in 2 ways - vaccination, or that the virus kills enough of those genetically at high risk BEFORE they reach breeding age so as to remove that weakness from the next generation's DNA structure. In other words, a genuine selection pressure.

The Dingwall Super J and P are 35 inches with a shorter G and D.

Are they open at all at the moment?

The benefits of having a scientist as leader, perhaps.

Now I'm interested in one!

Economic activity will have to resume even with some life cost (I hate that, but I'm also a realist), but entertainment will be low on the list. It's very difficult - I work a lot of hours, and my Saturday big band is really the only stress relief / escape from work I have. Now that has gone. It's run by a local charitable trust and I have no idea if they will survive. I miss it, and just as importantly, the people there very much. It was only 3 hours per week but it is / was massively important to my mental state. I do some other things of course - enjoy films, do low and slow BBQ etc but nothing compares to the music gang. There's just something special about playing with a load of musicians - not that I have to explain that to anyone on this forum!

I get that. But I can't see anyone building or converting to close quarter housing while the virus is around. Too risky, surely?