BigRedX

When I first saw photos of the original Gus designs (which more much more radical than the ones being made now) I knew that I wanted one. The design was everything I was looking for in a guitar or bass. I'm lucky enough to own two basses and a guitar.

But most people aren't joiners, and IME can barely wield any kind of bladed tool without making a mess. At least they managed to keep everything out of sight (although it would depend on how good the cut out in the original scratch plate was). Whether or not it bothered me would depend on how good the bass was otherwise.

Gus. Although Simon seems to be snowed under with orders for purple and gold guitars. When I last enquired (pre-covid) about having another Gus made he was talking 12-18 months depending on the specification.

The only problem with this method is that there is no guarantee that either the manufacturer on filling in the customs declaration, or the HMRC, will pick the same commodity code when calculating the duty and on a pricy item like this that difference could be quite expensive.

Probably because when it was done (I suspect in the 70s) it was just another run-of-the-mill, mass produced bass with no special value, and it's owner thought it might be improved by adding a P-pickup and switch. They may well have been right. Remember also that the sort of tools that anyone even thinking about dabbling in customising their guitar or bass would take for granted nowadays were both expensive and hard to come by. When I built my guitar in the late 70s almost everything was done using hand tools and a significant amount of my time was spent sharpening chisel and plane blades rather than shaping any wood. Also it's all hidden under the scratch plate so what's the problem? And finally no-one can tell how good an instrument is going to be simply from looking at some photos. Even without the very DIY modifications it might still be a dog to play and sound rubbish.

I also get that page from time to time on Safari under Mac OS X 10.13.6. Clicking on the Basschat logo takes me to the home page and still logged in, so for me it's only a minor inconvenience.

As a rule of thumb add 25% onto the combined cost of the item and the shipping price and add an additional £15.00 to cover customs clearance fees and you won't have any unpleasant surprises.

The one I had looked more like the cheaper of the two and was the only suitable Warwick Rockbag available for the StarBass at the time that I bought it. However looking at the detail photos of both I notice that the more expensive version has the same terrible (and uncomfortable) strap fixing system as the one I had. For that reason alone I would be very wary of it.

I had a Warwick Rockbag for my MiK StarBass (similar sized hollow body to the EB2 but long-scale neck). Fell to bits after about 18 months of normal use. I certainly wouldn't want to trust it to protecting anything valuable and/or difficult to replace.

Not too bad with modern gear and they had the balcony steps open so the public used those and we loaded in through the other set. Wouldn't have fancied lugging an old-school PA system into the venue through. When I used to go and see gigs there (in 1980-81) it would be a bass bin, 2 mid-range cabs and a set of horns either side of the stage and one or two heavy racks of amps and crossovers to drive it all (plus a massive mixing desk and multicore).

Tube amps also introduce a fair amount of compression as you reach maximum power output so they tend to sound louder even the the peaks in the signal are no greater than a solid state amp the average signal level is.

These days almost all software is purchased by licence, so unless your DAW and plug-ins are all Windows only, you'll be able to download the Mac versions at no extra cost. If you are happy to buy second hand you'll get a much better deal on a used Mac, and as others have said they tend last longer and hold their value better than Windows machines. This is being typed on the Mac I use to earn my living, which is 12 years old and still going strong. I'd steer clear of ex-gamers machines, because they'll have probably been drive hard/hot by their previous owner(s) and may be on the verge of failure. Also for non-gaming use the graphics card will be over-spec'd and for your needs over-priced. All good DAWs will de-prioritise screen redraw when the system starts to run out of power, so unless you want to run multiple large monitors you'll be paying a premium for a component you don't need.

In that case, IMO anything with a reasonable amount of padding and a carry handle on the side will probably do. I'd be looking at something in the middle price bracket from any of the standard gig bag manufacturers like Ritter.

Thanks! It's actually been 42 years. I've edited my original post. It turns out it was easier for me to get a gig on the main stage at Rock City than The Boat!

First time playing at Nottingham Boat Club, the scene of some great gigs I went to when I first moved here, and it's only taken me 42 years to get on this stage. No gig photos as yet, but here's one from the afternoon soundcheck...

What's the gig bag for? Something light (and smaller than a hard case) to hold the basses while they are in your car and being carried to and from the venue, or are you planning to walk any distance (more than 10 minutes) wearing it? As far as protection goes the Mono bag is great, but yet again on Friday I was reminded why I don't use it to carry the bass any distance. On me the the bass hangs so low that the bottom of the bag is just above the backs of my knees and it slaps against my legs with every stride. The straps are so long that it is impossible to do them up tightly enough to make the bag secure like a rucksack would be. The 30 minute walk was a massively unpleasant experience which ensured that if I have to do it again, I'll be patient and wait for the bus. AFAICS in order to be comfortable the straps need to be arranged as they would on a decent backpack. That means not close together at the top and ending much higher up than the bottom of the bag. I don't see any gig bags like this on the market at the moment. Probably because this arrangement would make to top of the bag too high and it would be hitting door frames no matter how small the wearer was. However, I would be grateful if someone proved me wrong.

No. None of the necks on my basses have changed much with temperature conditions and given the fact that it will all be over in a week or so, if I did make any adjustments now, I'd just be reversing them again when summer reverts to the UK normal, so I'll put up with very slightly higher action than normal for a few days.

I've just had a read through the Custom Skins guidelines and FAQ, and I'm impressed. They haven't made it complicated for those who are just going to cobble something together in Paint or Word Art and at the same time it's not been over-simplified for those of us who know what we are doing when it comes to presenting graphics for print. On that basis alone they should be congratulated.

Does it have to be a laptop? While they are pretty good for portability, the compact design is the main reason why they fail more regularly than desktop machines and especially in hot conditions, and on the whole they are never as powerful as the equivalent price desktop, plus that tiny screen doesn't make life easy especially for most music apps.

From a practical PoV, I've tried that, but I keep coming to the conclusion that I have a favourite bass to play and nothing else comes close for the playability. As a result I've sold all my 4 and 5 string basses except for my 2 Gus G3s and I'm in the process of getting rid of the unplayed Bass VIs and replacing them with a second Eastwood Hooky. If I could afford two bass VIs from Gus I'd have them instead. I'm aware that the Gus doesn't visually suit every band, but these days I'm unlikely to want to join any band where I didn't think that look would be appropriate.

Different band images require different looking instruments.

As I said, the bass that was in my single Mono gig bag survived having a heavyweight 2x10 cab dropped onto it. Whether a double bag would offer the same level of protection would probably depend on how good the padding is between the basses and how rigid the case is with the extra width. If the bass has been in a regular padded gig bag it would have probably suffered some damage (and so would the cab). Some hard cases would also have fared quite badly in this situation.

Other than having a similar body and headstock outline it has very little in common with the original 1963 Thunderbird bass.

Really? I like Underworld's music, but I only got into to it because I'd been a fan of the previous version of Underworld, and Freur before them. All the things that make the second version of Underworld you like stand out from the other "Progressive House" acts of the time had been repurposed from Karl and Rick's previous bands. IMO Darren Emerson always looked like the weak link in the band and unsurprisingly after he left, very little changed and he's done nothing of note musically since then.