BigRedX

As someone who also plays the guitar and has owned several all-valve guitar amps I would expect to use the gain control to set the amount of "drive" and the volume control for the output volume. For an amp that didn't follow this method I would hope that it would be mentioned, along with the best way to use it, in the accompanying manual. I appreciate that with an all-valve amp some of the characteristics of the sound are produced by the output valves working hard as well as the pre-amp valves, but I would also expect for an amp with both gain and volume controls to be able to get a decent sound out of it at home practice levels.

Not my experience at all. In the days when I was selling A LOT of stuff through eBay, Discogs, and band merch through Bandcamp, pretty much everything (several thousand parcels over 10+ years) was sent by Parcel Force or UPS using Interparcel, which was considerably cheaper than dealing with either company directly. In all that time I had 4 problems - 2 with damaged items and 2 with parcels that disappeared in transit. In every case I was refunded without quibbles in full (both the value of the item and the shipping including any insurance I had paid for). The only time there was a delay was at the beginning of 2021 after all the new customs rules kicked in and the pandemic had further slowed everything down, and Belgian Customs managed to lose my parcel, and that was really only due the various processing delays at the time and needing to make absolutely sure that the parcel had definitely been lost and was not still awaiting customs inspection. However once the delay could no longer be blamed on Customs processing I received my refund within the week. I always found Interparcel's customer services easy to deal with either by telephone or on-line chat. It was certainly far more painless than trying to get compensation for a new album sent to Germany by Royal Mail (dealing with them directly), that was returned several months after sending damaged beyond the point were I could consider even selling as a second-hand item. Having said that, since a significant portion of my sales were to places outside of the UK, I have stopped selling completely as the UK's exit from the EU and various customs changes have made it totally impractical and uneconomical for private individuals to sell to locations abroad. Therefore I haven't sent anything anywhere by any method for almost 18 months now, so my information may be somewhat out of date.

Even some of my all-time favourite albums have one duff track on them. However these three are perfect all the way through: 1. "Parachute" by The Pretty Things 2. "Fakevox" by PlusTech Squeeze Box 3. "Violet" by The Birthday Massacre

Couldn't find any info regarding the scale length other than the Vintage & Rare website which states that the overall length is 102cm, which makes it shorter than my Eastwood Hooky Bass and given that the headstock on the Burns is 6 in line, suggests a scale length of under 30". It certainly looks that way. Does anyone have any more definite info?

This is what I was told when I posted my experiences on here after the lock mechanism failed, and AFAICS there was no way of repairing it. In my case I simply replaced both Dunlops with Schaller StrapLocks. Incidentally this was on a semi-hollow bass (MiK Warwick StarBass II) and I never had any problems with the Schaller locks buttons getting in the way or being uncomfortable.

Nothing wrong with laminate/ply. Even Jens Ritter has used it.

From a comfort PoV the Dunlop button should fit the bill. However be aware that the locking mechanism requires regular lubrication/maintenance otherwise it will fail. I don't know if buying an after-market set will include these instructions, but the bass I bought with them pre-installed didn't so I was unaware of this and within 6 months one of the locks failed just as I was fitting the strap before going on-stage. Luckily I was able to get through the performance by simply not moving about as much as usual, but it made for a nervous 45 minutes.

That's to the cost of the bass plus the cost of shipping.

The problem I always have with Eastwood is not the build or QC (both are excellent on my Hooky Bass) but the fact that the majority of their instruments only bear a passing resemblance to the guitar or bass they are supposed to copying, and are generally cobbled together using standard modern hardware, which might result in a more reliable playing experience, but loses much of the charm and quirkiness (and IMO the USP) of the original. Their "copy" of the Ovation Magnum bass was particular poor. However the Hooky 6-string bass simply wouldn't be possible with on-the-shelf parts, and therefore is a completely different proposition.

The flat fingerboard suits me fine, and IIRC is exactly like the Shergold original. Mine also has the tab on the top of the control plate. AFAIK the tab is designed to dig into the wood to stop the switch turning on instruments where the controls go through the body rather than being mounted on a plate. Normally, on a plastic or metal control plate you wouldn't bother fitting it at all. I haven't looked under the control plate but I would hope that there is a serrated washer stopping the switch from turning.

Exactly how I felt when I first played my Eastwood Hooky bass. All the parts that I had to really concentrate on not to mess up were suddenly simple to play. I won't be going back to a Fender style Bass VI ever. I've been looking for another one second hand to use as a spare, but as you say they never come up for sale.

The synth player in Hurtsfall uses one. Very nice and appears to be a Nord Lead with the ability to use samples (and user created samples) as oscillator waveforms. The Nord Lead is probably my all-time favourite synth and I even preferred it to the Jupiter 6 I used to own. If you have decent keyboard technique you should also look at the various Hydrasynth options. At least one of them has polyphonic aftertouch which is the "holy grail" of proper keyboard players' performance requirements.

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The general consensus over on the SOS forums seems to be that 8GB on an M1 is equivalent of having 16GB on Intel. This is because of the close integration of the processor and memory (and why the memory can't be retrospectively upgraded). If you've been able to make do with 16GB on your previous Mac then 8GB on an M1 should be fine.

The bass I have owned that had the widest string spacing at the bridge also had by far the narrowest string spacing at the nut (close to narrow 4-string width for 5 strings) which is why if I'm going to be interested in the measurements, I need to know all of them, and not just how far apart the strings are at the bridge. I had a similar situation when I was on my quest for the perfect Bass VI. The Fender/Squier has a fairly well spaced bridge, but (for me) an unfeasibly narrow neck, while the Burns Barracuda had much better string spacing at the nut but was standard "Strat" string spacing at the bridge (too narrow for me).

In the early 2000s after a band I had dedicated most of my non-working hours for the previous 13 years split up I took a break from bands. However this co-incided with my discovery that my very first band from the late 70s/early 80s had acquired a bit of a cult following and a couple of rather impressive review including one by Johan Kugelberg and as a result of this the Hyped To Death label were keen to release a CD of our back catalogue. Therefore I spent a very pleasant 2 years slowly working my way through digitally restoring about 5 hours worth of recordings and along with my old band mates deciding which songs should go on the CD and then designing the sleeve artwork to go with it. It was a pleasant low-key alternative to my previous musical activities; although I think having a definite outcome (having the music released on CD by someone else) most certainly helped. When I was ready to join another band, I looked for one where I could simply turn up to rehearsals and gigs and play bass, nothing more was expected of me, in terms of song writing, recording, organising gigs etc.

For me it's all about string spacing at the point where I usually pluck the strings, which is also dependant upon the string spacing at the nut and the scale length. Therefore string spring at the bridge on its own is meaningless for me.

For me at least it is completely different. I know what all the symbols mean, and should I need to, I could probably transcribe a piece I had written almost as quickly as someone who can sight read. I just can't do anything meaningful with them in real time in the context of playing an instrument, although as I said in my previous post that may be linked to my dyslexia as I can't do anything in real time with tab or my own written notes either. As for whether it is part of basic instrumental skill it depends on whether or not you need to use it on a regular basis. I don't. I would rather concentrate what time I have on writing more songs, something I think for me is a more valuable skill.

The poll should make the distinction between being able to read music and being able to sight read music, because they IME are two entirely different things. I can read music in that I know where all the notes are on the bass and treble clefs and what the note lengths are and what the common symbols mean (and I know where to look them up if I come across something I don't recognise). However I couldn't sit down and play from a sheet of musical notation. This might be something to do with the fact that I am mildly dyslexic. I couldn't sight read from tab either, and anything other than the simplest guitar chord sheets will leave me struggling. The only way I can play anything that doesn't involve improvisation is to completely commit it to memory. I can't even use a crib sheet because it would take too long for me to find my place should I forget what I was supposed to be playing. TBH the only time in 45+ years of playing, I have needed the ability to be able to read or write music was in the mid 80s when registering songs with the PRS require you to supply write notation for the vocal melody and any other notable musical themes. Myself and the the other synth player in my band of that time divided up the songs between us and spent a couple of months preparing the sheets and checking each other's work before sending them off to the PRS. Since then no-one in any band I have been in has supplied me with written musical notation to play from, or asked that I should do the same for them.

All these delays don't help if the parcel actually goes missing in transit, as by the time you are allowed make a claim it will be long gone. At the beginning of last year I had an expensive shipment for my work disappear while in customs in Belgium. The number of days I had to wait before being able to make a claim seemed to increase every time I contacted the shipping service, and at the same time I was having to apologise to my customer almost daily for the lack of information I was getting and was able to give them. In the end the parcel was declared lost and I was able to make an insurance claim which was paid in full, but the process from initially sending the parcel to receiving my insurance money took about 2 months. My customer found an EU source for the items that didn't involve customs clearance so I lost out on a quite lucrative part of my business that up to the beginning of 2021 had been going flawlessly. Also after having several records and CDs that I sell for the for various bands I am in (or was in and still sell) go missing or been returned back to me after months in transit, I no longer ship anything out of the UK using Royal Mail/Parcel Force and their EU country equivalents. I will now only use services that are the same in both the sending a destination country like UPS or FedEX (and not the cheaper end of those company's services where the pickup or delivery is farmed out to a 3rd party). That means that my shipping charges are now considerably higher than they used to be, but it the only reliable way of getting stuff to recipients outside of the UK. I know this is not what the OP will want to be hearing, but they should be preparing themselves for the fact that their amp has gone missing, and if you are going to want to have a replacement rather than refund, they should persuade the manufacturer to use a more reliable shipping method.

But it only worked because the rest of the band including the drummer were going crazy around him. Is the rest of your band on the verge of demolishing the stage every time you play?

What sorts of sounds are you after and are you going to want to program your own or be happy with tweaking what is already there? For me, in hardware synthesiser the following are most important: 1. As many actual controls as possible, and the less I have to delve into hidden menus the better. Don't be fooled though, simply by the number of controls on display. I used to own a Waldorf Microwave XT which has a massive number of knobs and switches on the front panel. However all the modulation routings and additional envelopes and LFOs were hidden away in the menus which made all the interesting options much harder to use than the layout of the synth initially suggested. 2. At least two oscillators and two envelope generators per voice, oscillator sync and a ability to modulate each oscillator separately. I'm not that bothered about loads of different filter types. One good low pass filter that is capable of going into self oscillation will be fine. 3. Modulation routings should be easy to see, either with dedicated front panel switches or a display that shows all the routings on a single screen. 4. User program memories and the ability to name them. Most synths have them , but a few are still going for that "old school" vibe by having numbers only. 5. Polyphony. This will depend a lot on what sorts of sounds you want and what sort of a keyboard player you are. I'd be happy with 8 voices, but if you are a "proper" piano player you might want more so that sounds with long release times sound more authentic. However, the ability to limit the number of voices assigned to a patch is useful as is both monophonic and unison modes (and ideally the ability to set the number of voices used in unison). Split and layer modes will depend on how you intend to use the keyboard live as will the number of keys. If you like the Roland sound, my choice would be the System 8 hardware version.

There is no real answer to the OP's question. All the usual suspects mentioned are worth investigating, but you can't beat going and trying some mics with the singer who is going to be using them. Last time I did this with a female singer in one of my bands we ended up with something by Electrovoice. It suited her voice far better than any of the more "conventional" choices we tried.

If you play live and don't give the audience something interesting to watch as well as hear you might as well stick on a Spotify playlist. Doubly so if you are a covers band.

What's so special about 59 Les Pauls? What makes them better than ones made in December 58 or January 60?