Killerfridge

That "fatness" is the Fodera Imperial influences (I think anyway)

I've only just come around to the look of Ken Smiths, and these look like they've got a bit of Fodera Imperial in their blood too. I'm not sure I like the combination, but I wonder if given time I couldn't be convinced

Holy moly, that is a good looking copy! Like, really good; if it plays a quarter as good as it looks, you've got a great bass

I love his tone and playing, and the little line of fills from around 1:52 are some of my absolute favourites, especially in terms of articulation:

Also I don't know if it's a new thing, but I'm really enjoying the BD YouTube channel

The Gojira plugin has been a surprise success for me. I got it just because I thought it would be fun for the octave effects (and for guitar obviously), but it's got some great bass sounds too

Not a huge fan of the guy, but JHS pedals did a video recently on the costs of bringing a pedal to market, and he pointed out that original designs taken much less R&D than inspired by/clones of other pedals. Just thought it was interesting

You just need to do one

Wowzers!

As someone not familiar with it, can we see a photo of the full thing?

I love the VTC, I think it's one of the best onboard preamps around. It just gives "more" i.e. when people say "jazz bass on steroids", the VTC is the steroids. It boosts just in the right places to emphasizes that jazz bass two-pickup-scoop sound

Back on topic, I'm thinking about something for my 40th, and have been given basically given carte blanche to get/get made whatever I want. It's making me self reflect heavily on what I am actually looking for in an instrument. I was initially thinking some sort of single cut, buckeye burl, fusion style bass. Then I went down the path of MTD, or F-bass i.e. basses that people who's playing I enjoy play. But the more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards just (just) a P bass. It's something I've never owned, and they just sound beautiful. So in answer to the question, I think "vibe" is my number one element when choosing a bass.

It's so bizarre to me, as Sei make some of the most beautiful instruments, yet their headstocks look like they are drawn with a toddlers left hand

Honestly, this one takes the cake for me

That is one beefy pickup!

Who's the builder, out of curiosity?

Holy moly that Ritter is stunning. I don't think I'd ever play it, just mount it on the wall and look at it all day!

The SBP-1 is one of my favourite preamps in it's simplicity. Boost only, turn up the bass and treble, start slapping

I think that's spot on. The thing they aren't great at doing is the sparkly modern sound; they sound like a loud old tube amp and if that's your thing it's great. Re: knobs - yes, they're awful but fairly easy to replace

Yes, the RH line came out in 2010, before the Behringer acquisition, and the BQ was 2019(?), well after. Whether or not that has anything to do with the perceived quality I don't know, but the 2010s are generally considered their "best" era. Everyone was using the RH series to some degree (Rocco Prestia, Mark King, Janek Gwizdala etc.), but then at some point they just stopped supporting the gear and a lot of the artists lost faith. In terms of voicing, the RH is definitely a more "vintage" sounding amp, not super pingy, but warm and full. It works really well in a band context.

I use the RH750 as my regular (essentially the same but with more power) and it's really top notch. The RH series comes from a different era of TC, when they cared and made good quality bass gear; I wouldn't put it in the same league as the BQ series

It's not necessarily laziness, but a sad reality of modern journalism. Some Journos are expected to churn out multiple articles a day if they want to make a meaningful wage, and it's just become a race to the bottom. That's why you see so many "advertorials"; Journos can just take "articles" prewritten by PR agencies that are just glorified adverts for Thomas Cook ("Scientists prove January is the most depressing time of the year [so you should book a holiday with TC]") or Virgin Money or whoever, and just send it to the publishers with their name on it.

That's what I'm imagining: you've got an amp/cab setup that you like, now you can just capture it and send it to FOH/in ears