BigRedX

If the exact shape essential? The Herco nylon picks look similar although not identical.

This. You may need to make up a special XLR lead if your audio interface has XLR outs as you are essentially joining two "outputs" to each other, but otherwise it works fine. This is the method I have used on those occasions when I have tried re-amping.

Depends on the pick and depends on the fingers. In my case the tonal difference between the two is minimal (I have hardened finger tips on my plucking had and favour soft-ish nylon picks) and in a band mix essentially zero. For me the reason for picking one playing style over another is mostly down to rhythmic feel.

On the few occasions that I have tried re-amping it never offered me anything tonally over what I could already get out of the plug-ins I was using. IMO the most important thing (especially with overdriven guitar sounds) is to record the parts while playing through an amp (but not recording the amp sound) so that you get the interaction between the guitar and amp/speaker. No amount of emulation or re-amping can simulate this.

The Harmonised Commodity Code requirement for individuals sending things out of the UK appears to have become a requirement post January 1st 2021. I'd certainly never needed it it before. However it doesn't appear to have stopped Belgian Customs from holding up the parcel I was sending (it sailed straight through UK customs) and then managing to loose it. Also for some items can be tricky to assign and don't always fall into the sub-category you would expect. In my case printed self-adhesive labels were a sub category of Labels - Textile, Leather and Others, rather than Printed Papers.

I've bought instruments (and other stuff) from all over the world and sold them to pretty much all the major continents too. Until the UK left the EU I'd only had two problems and they both happened while the item was still in the UK. However since the beginning of 2020 the situation has become for more complicated, I had one parcel disappear c in customs in Belgium and another returned after several months in limbo for no apparent reason. Therefore I will no longer ship outside of the UK, as it is just too unpredictable. As a result I've lost some sales and what was previously a fairly lucrative print contract for my business because the additional time, effort and therefore cost I now have to put in to shipping things outside of the UK negates any price savings I was getting my customers. The OP is a braver man than me!

IMO there are only three reasons for swapping guitars or bass on stage: 1. You broke a string or something else failed on the instrument rendering it useless. In this case my preferred spare would be exactly the same as my main guitar or bass 2. You use different tunings for different songs (and the songs really can't be played on one instrument with a single tuning). You might be able to get away with on-stage retuning for switching between standard and drop-D if you are well practiced and don't mind the change in tension and feel of the string. Otherwise you need a separate instrument for every different tuning. 3. On the bass you need to play some songs on fretted bass and some on fretless. Everything else is IMO for show only. Fine if you have a large stage/off-stage are for all your spare guitars and a roadie to help you swap over instruments. Otherwise you risk breaking the flow of the set and boring the audience. I've seen it many times from bands who really ought to know better.

And as promised... I currently own three Bass VIs (Squier, Burns and Eastwood Shergold copy) and used to own a HB Mosrite-influenced 28" scale baritone guitar tuned B-B). My take on it is, that while most Bass VIs tend to be positioned as bass guitars for guitarists, the baritone guitar is very much a guitar with a lower range. A lot of this is down to the type and positioning of the picks on the two different instruments. Baritone guitars usually have the pickups in the standard guitar bridge and neck positions and they will either be P90 types or humbuckers. Most Bass VIs will have 3 single coil pickups with the middle one roughly in the P-bass position in relation to the string length. However what I have found to be the most important difference is down to what you can play on them. IME anything you can play on a normal guitar can be played on a baritone guitar, it will just be either a 4th or 5th lower (depending whether it is tuned B-B or A-A). All the standard guitar chord shapes work across all the strings and you should be able to get a clear and articulate tone even with full first position chords. On the Bass VI, while you can play it like a guitar, chord voicing are pretty awful until you venture up the neck or stick to the highest three strings. Play a first position E chord and it will just be an un-defined mush. Baritone guitars only go down to B or A so you won't get the full range of bass notes that you will out of a Bass VI. What I have found with both instruments though is that the supplied strings in every nearly case are much too light to get a decent tone out of the lower 2-3 strings. Baritone guitars suddenly sound much better with the heaviest standard baritone set from D'Addario, and Bass VIs are a completely different instrument once you fit either the LaBella Bass VI strings or the Newtone Axions. The only downside to putting heavier strings on the Bass VI is that the vibrato mechanism (if there is one) becomes almost impossible to use due to the increase in string tension.

Any bass that suits your playing style will make you play better. Because you can no longer claim that your bad bass playing is due to a poor quality instrument holding you back and because a bass you enjoy playing should encourage you to play more. Certainly when I got my first really good bass (a second hand Overwater) after having owned 3 very cheap and at best very average basses, my playing improved massively.

The most important ingredient to sounding like Jaco Pastorius is being Jaco Pastorius.

Having owned both they are too entirely different instruments. Will explain in full when I’m on a proper computer and can type properly.

Fantastic looking instrument. Be aware that the string spacing is tight at both the nut and the bridge.

Those "cool shades" are all standard automobile colours. It's not like Fender are in the paint shop formulating their own.

They certainly show off the fact that someone at Fodera has some serious carpentry skills, but in every other respect these three instruments epitomise what is (IMO) wrong with aesthetics in the boutique instrument market. Showing off technical skill over integrated and ergonomic design. And the decoration is applied to just the top with no thought as to how best to integrate it with the rest of the design and construction. And what is with those nasty plastic pickup covers and mis-matched knobs on the second a third photos? And the arrangement of them? It's boutique pedal syndrome all over again. Must try harder and go for some lessons in design and ergonomics.

Please explain using proper science how the plastic components will affect the tone of a pickup.

I bought a Squier Bass VIs many years ago when one of the European retailers was selling them at bargain bin (<£300 inc shipping) prices. I liked the concept but wasn't that impressed with the actual bass mostly because of what I considered to be a very narrow neck even by normal guitar standards (it is certainly narrower than any of the guitars I own). It was fun but a bit of a novelty item, and it would have stayed that way and probably been sold when I did my last big clearcut, but then the guitarist in one of my bands quite rather than replace him, we tried a couple of rehearsals with me playing the Squier, and rearranging the songs so that the synth player took over the bass parts when I was doing the "guitar" lines. It turned out to be quite effective, but I really couldn't get on with the neck on the Squier so I started a search to find something more suitable. For a while I was using a Burns Barracuda which had a wider neck but closer string spacing at the bridge compared with the Squier, but overall was easier to play. The Eastwood announced that they were going to be producing a Peter Hook signature version of the old Shergold Marathon 6 Bass. This is the Bass VI for me. A wider neck and string spacing at the bridge compared with all the other Bass VIs I had tried/owned. I'll almost definitely be selling the Squier and the Burns and buying another Eastwood to use as a backup at gigs. Here I am with my band "Hurtsfall" at last year's Leeds Goth City event playing the Eastwood:

Firstly do any of those things actually make a noticeable difference? Secondly you have to remember that technically better from a electronic, mechanical or magnetic PoV does not automatically equal a better sound (which is subjective any way). If it did valves would have disappeared from audio circuits a long time ago. Scatter winding which is one of the buzz-words when it comes to pickups is probably less good in terms of pure physics than coils wound in a more regular manner. Who's to say what is "better"?

The one time I changed the pickups on a bass I owned, it made absolutely no detectable difference to the sound of the bass.

I have opinions, I would like to make people think. Surely that's the whole point of posting on a forum like this. Alternatively I could just passively absorb all the crap on TV and Facebook...

Once again the important question is what exactly has Sting sold. Most reports don't bother with the details, but AFAICS it's just the publishing which ought be less than 50% of his performance royalty income.

I think the more important question we should all be asking is "Is a Fodera good enough to be played by me?" In my case the answer is "no". Its far too boring looking.

Before the 6U, I had 8U of stuff in one of those metal-covered plywood rack cases. Not only was it unfeasibly heavy but all the weight was distributed towards the front of the rack making it even more unwieldy.

Julian Cope Andy McCluskey

Having been a user of rack gear since the late 80s, I ditched all of mine a couple of years ago for a Helix Floor. Rack gear sounds like a good idea until you have lift it all. Even with lightweight stuff in it my 6U rack case was only just a one person lift.

The grey background behind the text doesn't match the grey background behind the guitars. Clearly fake.