Kiwi

Steinberger, Status and Gus all use completely different fabrication techniques. Steinberger use an injection mould based system with graphite fibre impregnated resin. A bit like fibreglass reinforced bitumen or concrete. I like these necks, they're warm sounding and fairly consistent. Everything that a graphite neck should be. Status (and Modulus) use monocoque construction which is the same technique used for making Formula 1 parts. That involves lining a mould with up to three layers of resin impregnated, woven composite sheets in the same way as fibreglass. It also gives the manufacturer control over directional stiffness through orientating the sheets in different directions as they're laid down. However it can produce issues if the design relies on a phenolic fingerboard for strength. Modulus had issues with their necks for both Alembic and Musicman due to the phenolic (aka Bakelite) fingerboards not being stiff enough in the early-mid 80's and then Modulus again around 1994. I've played necks by Vigier and my own Alembic which are superb but arguably over designed. The 80's Status Series 2000 basses also have fabulous necks when properly dressed. Gus, as has been mentioned, use pre-impregnated carbon fibre sheets wrapped around a wooden core. I think Status have used this technique on bodies as well. It's practical, relatively easy to set up and some forms don't even require a kiln to set the resin. There's a nice dampening effect from the wood core but still a feeling of evenness and consistency across the whole fingerboard. Rob played around with dampening in the Stealth 2 basses, injecting epoxy foam into the hollow shell, and it resulted in instruments that were still characteristically bright sounding in that Status way but with a pronounced upper midrange purr. Graphite composite neck, resin body. Status did something similar with it's Series 4000/5000 basses. A bass with a graphite neck needs some form of dampening for it to accentuate the warmer sounding frequencies. Traditional choices of ash or alder are too bright, mahogany is nice (and I used it on my self build) and maybe there are some softer, cheaper woods like paulownia or tulipwood which might work as well. Steinberger used maple in it's M series instruments which produced some pleasant sounding instruments but perhaps that wasn't just down to the wood. He actually messaged me last night and revealed that he's almost overwhelmed by emails these days. Last night alone he had thirty to respond to so yes, it seems like there's always a chance he might miss one or two. A call seems to be the most reliable way to get in touch, as I suggested before.

Maybe give him a call. He usually checks his emails in the evening at the pub. Well if the wood can experience heat then it'll expand/contract but perhaps to a lesser degree than say a Jaydee or Musicman neck. Even aluminium necks suffer from heat expansion but I doubt Jon's necks will be affected by humidity. I think he uses cedar for the neck too as maple is a little overkill and lively.

Jon Shuker's JJ Carbonlite basses have a similar construction. It's a good way to build, low overheads, sound great with most of the stiffness without being too stiff and brittle.

China has very limited experience in composite musical instruments. It's restricted to a few companies although it's growing slowly. Only one of those builds guitars and they're acoustic. Even before then, Steve Mosher wouldn't make custom anything for less than an MoQ of 10,000 units. I hated the jazz necks they made but the steinberger music yo necks are alright.

I'm looking at my FPPR Series 1 5 string hanging on my wall right now. I know Rob has built up an allergy to phenolic dust over the years so goodness knows what else he's been exposed to over that time with all the resins and epoxies he's worked with. However that commitment to quality is a hall mark of his work. His basses are superbly engineered and he makes some of the best necks in the business, a well dressed phenolic fingerboard will often allow action a gnat's nadger above the frets. That's a hell of an indicator of the precision to which their basses have been made to and I really hope any plans to license go to someone who has the drive and commitment to sustain that. I really wish Rob and Dawn all the best. They're good company and have certainly made a mark on British music in their own modest way.

If you're using Chrome as a browser, cookie management is all going to change next June anyway.

Is it a browser cache issue? Have you tried the old CTRL+F5 trick, Silvia?

There's a way to do it but I can't recall off the top of my head. Drop me a PM with a link to the ad and which picture you want to use as a thumbnail and I'll see if I can figure it ou.

We can combine accounts if we have enough info for the old account.

I share the same sentiments. I was thinking something more amber coloured might be nice.

This leaves the question of where the supply of these opamps is coming from.

Does the cab weigh less than the rack?

I like it when the technical side backs up the circumstantial or qualitative. We knew something unique was happening with the electronics and it seems that this is indeed the case.

Clearly the overhead banner that was up for three months on the home page was missed too! Even after I took it down due a complaint. https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/464213-guitar-chat-nag-bar/

Could it be TXT records or other certificates? I had a similar issue for one of my own sites recently that caused it to be seen as spammy.

Norton isn't very good, bloated and invasive - a clean uninstall is occasionally problematic. Guitarchat runs off the same server and membership database as Basschat. This is why you can log in using the same credentials. If you're concerned about protection in the future, Kaspersky might be a better option. They've been among th lead analysts for a number of significant virus detections in recent years.

With Anthony Jackson? Those are massive boots to fill...

I remember he had a pearlescent pink Warwick Thumb bass back then. I've been a fan of Skunk ever since they broke. Their songs were intense and angry and seemed a lot more genuine than most hard rock bands that had come before. And Skin in full cry looked like she was about to chew a chunk off the planet and spit it out for breakfast. I've been lucky to have a passing chat or two with Cass at bass shows and he's a very laid back guy and very approachable. He's also a Cutlass bass collector and was offered my Cutlass 2 at one point by the Gallery who had it on consignment.

Not only a great story but check out that riff at 10:00 in!!!

Not for too much longer...

I'm glad we're 2 pages in and noone's mentioned Level 42 yet.

Hi everyone, This is just a heads up that I'll be closing the Guitar section on Basschat at the end of the week. Originally it was set up to try and seed some activity before shifting the whole shebang over to Guitarchat. But it's at the point now where we'd like to catch it before the transfer process becomes too unwieldy. Each topic will be vetted because of crosslinks and whether members who posted on BC in the Guitar section are registered on GC. The transfer of guitar topics from BC to GC will also be gradual and probably take months. If you have content you started that you would like ring fenced for transfer, feel free to post a link below. During the transfer, the guitar section will still be visible but I'll post forwarding links to GC for the sake of channelling interest to the right place. If you have posted on BC in the Guitar Section but haven't logged in at GC yet, please take a moment to do so. It'll help us make sure your posts will still be attributed to you when we're ready to start moving them. If you can't use your existing BC password to log in at GC, try doing a forgot password reset and up date your password to whatever your BC one is currently. Then you should have no problems logging in. Thanks in advance, Kiwi

Toto. That would have been a killer gig. Having said that, I would happily and gladly take over for Jerry Barnes in the current Chic line up, or for Chris Brown who played bass on Kylie's Fever tour. Both would have been fun gigs but hard work, no doubt. The Simple Minds gig would have been awesome as well, so many anthems in their back catalogue.

For how much bands are getting paid, the promoter is taking a bit more than a chance. If they can't be professional then they can't be taken seriously IMO. The one and only time I agreed to loan my backline the following band's bassist dialled everything up to 10. They weren't even punk, just some indie rock thing. That was the last time.