MichaelDean

Sounds quite nice in this snippit.

The prices of the "entry level" ones have gone up so much. I got my Combustion for £1350 new in 2019 from Bass Direct. The equivalent model does come with a gigbag and a quilted maple veneer now, but it's £2100+ depending on the model. That's a huge increase in 6 years.

Really good rehersal last night. First of the year and good to blow off the cobwebs! I love my current gear. My Dingwall just has so much fundamental, it's almost like the concentrated tone you get from a short scale. My Digbeth just does exactly what I wanted it to do, be bassy and a bit darker sounding plus a bit overdriven with gobs of power. I've also started programming banks of patches for specific songs on my GX-100, and it's going to be revolutionary for me! No more tap dancing, just selecting the right patch for the bit of the song. I'd assumed that I'd not have enough options per song until I'd started on it, but the GX-100 lets you have a different set of toggles if you press again on the selected bank (CUR NUM option if anyone is interested), so I can arrange things within the banks of 4 patches and then have some optional weirdness should I want it with the CTRL buttons. It also means that I can get rid of bits not being used in specific patches and maybe look at other options to get weird with my sound... I want to try splitting my signal and sending some to a guitar amp for heavy sections or when someone is soloing. We recorded some quick reference tracks for an upcoming studio session and did a bit of writing too.

We use SumUp. It's really easy to use and has definitley resulted in sales because we can take card. They took 25p from a £15 t-shirt. Totally worth it to have made the sale rather than not made one.

You don't need it though with the full fat one though. That can be controlled with MIDI anyway.

https://github.com/Builty/TonexOneController?tab=readme-ov-file

Fresh from NAMM, it looks like Anderton's have got the Hils headless shortscale on their site. Single humbucker, passive, 5 piece neck, stainless steel frets, comes with a gigbag. Should be very light if the guitars are anything to go by, I think some of those have been around 4lbs. https://www.andertons.co.uk/hils-hnb3-headless-shortscale-bass-satin-ivory/

I was looking at that yesterday with the view to maybe getting a ToneX One and controlling it from my GX-100. I'd be very interested to hear how you get on with that!

I think they are the same, but with the Thomamn branding. It's at the top of my list for a replacement gigbag.

They do have a workshop in Japan that makes custom shop instruments, owned by the parent company of Ibanez, Hoshino Gakki.

The serial lookup on the Fender site says Lake Placid Blue. Lovely looking bass!

Just got an awesome gig lined up for March, local support for Dopethrone at Exchange in Bristol! Plus, we've organised this in May, which should be excellent:

It's more about convincing the Mrs that I need a new one!

I need one of these in my life. The black sparkle with blocks and binding? Yes please. Need to work out how to make that happen... https://www.andertons.co.uk/sire-v7-alder-5string-bass-2nd-gen-in-black-sparkle/

I can't really remember the first song, but I did get the tab book for Rage Against The Machine's self titled album very early on. That was a really good introduction to bass. Lots of good rhythmic work, some speedy fingering, and a whole lot of fun.

Ooooh, I didn't notice it yesterday and it's more expensive, but I think I much prefer the black flame burl finish. It doesn't look so empty with the wood grain. Still, the G4M one still appeals to me more because of the longer scale length.

A new range that was teased ages ago. Not entirely sure about these! Feels like there's a lot of body with nothing going on. 33.5-35" scale, 4 different finishes, 18v 3 band preamp, stainless steel frets, glow in the dark side dots. https://www.thomann.co.uk/multi_scale_basses.html?manufacturer[]=Harley Benton&gk=GIEBMS&sp=solr&category[]=GIEBMS&cme=true&filter=true

My Laney Digbeth can go very dirty if you want it to. And blending in the clean channel doesn't sound like having two separate signals, it sounds more integrated than that.

Looking at Ashdown's website for the Rex Brown amp, it is just a UK made Rootmaster. None of the specs are any different, but they've just added his name to it. Other than the initial description, the rest of the product pages are the same.

The new Sire stuff all has prices on the Anderton's site actually... https://www.andertons.co.uk/browse/all-namm-2025-releases/namm-2025-bass-guitars/ £729 for most colours of the headless 5, £779 for the black swamp ash. There's a lovely black sparkle V7 as well: https://www.andertons.co.uk/sire-v7-alder-5string-bass-2nd-gen-in-black-sparkle/

There are new Fender Standard series guitars and basses. Made in Indonesia, presumably the same factory as the classic vibes? There's a few different colours, the Fender link I put didn't work, but they're up at Andertons. https://www.andertons.co.uk/fender-standard-p-bass-mn-black-pickguard--olympic-white/ https://www.andertons.co.uk/fender-standard-jazz-bass-mn-white-pickguard--aqua-marine-metallic/

Ooooh, I like those a lot!

Yep. You can do everything without the touchscreen. You can even turn off the touchscreen functionality. Sometimes accidentally dragging a cable over it can change parameters 🤦‍♂️

You can do all of the same expression pedal bits on the GX-100 too. I've been using the heel down tuner for ages. My top tip for the tuner in that setting is to have the tuner on thru mode. You're putting the volume down with the heel down anyway so it's allready muting. Then it doesn't just do a hard cut of your volume at a certain point and any reverbs or delays will still finish their various noises.

Can't go wrong with a Zilla Bass Fatboy in my opinion.