EliasMooseblaster

Yes. I speak from the perspective of someone who has only owned a fiver for a matter of months, but I can honestly say that once you get accustomed to the extended range, it does change the way you play certain lines. Typically, I've been given acres of space for improvisation with the basslines I play, so I'd second @josie's point above - the extra string gives me more options for places to go, especially if I'm walking through the changes. Sure, the notes below E are nice to have, but if some strange (and purely hypothetical) quirk of design and physics were to ever force me to choose between low-B-through-Eb and the extra hand positions, I'd keep the hand positions. As a few others have mentioned, being able to fret the low E does make you look at the board differently.

That does surprise me - I understand why Gibson basses are an acquired taste, but I've always found the necks very comfortable on the (admittedly rather small selection of) Thunderbirds I've played. Perhaps I've been lucky!

I'm not particularly fussy - I've never even thought to measure the string spacings on my basses - but then I have the advantage of long arms and big hands. Conversely, I remember hearing an interview with Joanne Shaw Taylor, who explained that she mostly stuck to Fender guitars because they suited her smaller hands, and had trouble finding Gibsons with a neck profile she could get her fingers around comfortably. This reminded me of an Aria bass I owned years ago: it had a two octave neck and quite a small body, which meant that the lower frets were quite a long way away if you sat down to play it. My sister tried to play it a couple of times and had to quite literally lean sideways to reach the low F. Spare a thought for those bass players of smaller stature!

Bear in mind you'd end up paying the current asking price at least twice over if you really wanted some strings on it! Egads...I've noticed it's just down the road from me. I dread to think what that crass embarrassment must be doing to the house prices locally.

I'm led to believe that the output transformer is one of the most commonly upgraded components in a Fender Blues Junior. Unfortunately I only heard the "before" and "after," via a former bandmate's amp a few weeks apart, but I think there was some subtle improvement to the tone. More discernible than gold-plated jack plugs or good ol'fashioned snake oil, at any rate...

Aha! Just looked up the Tenor model, where the description confirms it is indeed Nick Cave's current writing partner. I also didn't realise that tenor guitars were basically tuned like violins - so I have learnt something new today.

It's basically a Bronco with a posh pickup, isn't it? No bad thing - I didn't realise what a good bit of kit my Bronco was until I'd sold it on, though the pickup was one of the more idiosyncractic aspects! Is this the same Warren Ellis of Dirty Three/Bad Seeds fame?

1) There appears to be enough room to store my amp under the strings 2) Innovative proof-of-concept that you can, apparently, attach a neck using a rivet gun.

Keep the 1x15 for neighbour-friendly volumes; get a good quality 2x12 and you could probably do medium-sized pub gigs.

Yes, indeed, much as the others have suggested above, it will send a mono signal out to both sides if the pan control is centred. Just a couple of things to watch out for: - most importantly, I think some of those channels will only work as mono. I'm trying to do this from memory, but I think inputs 3 and 5(?) can be used as separate channels, or as the second part of a stereo pair, depending on what you plug in where. If you plug into one of those, you may only get a mono signal out in one ear! But the other two (2 and 4?) will give a stereo output if there's nothing plugged into their complementary channel (3 or 5, respectively). - there's a mic preamp on channel 1 only (hence the treble and bass controls on that one). This does provide some gentle colouring to the tone, so if you want a completely dry signal, you may be better off going into channel 2. I personally found it was a bit too much when combined with the amp sim element of my BDDI; that said it may be handy if you ever find yourself plugging a passive bass directly into the Xenyx.

I do live in the South of England, and I suspect it won't be long before this isn't an exaggeration.

Sounds like a good deal to me. Especially if it's in your neck of the woods; it's always nice to be able to go and give it a quick test drive and make sure all the knobs are working before you part with your cash!

I'd second all of the above - not owned a Peavey, but I've plugged into a few TNTs at rehearsal spaces and gigs, and I've been pleasantly surprised by them. Depending on what's available, it might also be worth considering Laney (e.g., RB3 or RB4) or Ashdown at this sort of price point. (Going second hand can also get you a lot more bang for your buck!)

Reminds me of an old friend of mine who, to be fair, was never on the same planet as the rest of us. I remember him telling me excitedly over the phone that he'd got his mitts on an electric guitar. "Oh, nice. What have you got?" "Erm...I think it's a Fender Stratocaster." I nearly choked on my coffee. The rest of us were all playing Squiers and Epiphones if we were lucky - where had he found the money for a real Fender? Then something struck me as odd: Wait... I thought, you think it's a Strat? Surely there's a big, helpful label on the headstock that would tell you if it is. But, as I say, he was often on a different planet from the rest of us, so I thought better than to labour the point. I managed to stifle a laugh when he showed it to me. The headstock was blank - it was one of those unbranded starter kit guitars from Argos. In fact, I'm pretty sure he even bought the pack from Argos...but rather than do any research, or ask somebody who would know, he fell back on the fact that he knew roughly what a Strat and a Les Paul looked like, and since this one looked more like the former, it couldn't possibly be anything except a Fender Stratocaster.

Perhaps I got a duff set!

It will, but I'd like to lower it in any case - I've gone up two string gauges from the ones the guitar shipped with, so the strings sit quite a bit higher in the slots that were cut for them at the factory. It probably doesn't help that this shift in gauges has meant going from an unwound G to a wound!

Did you find they did the job? I bought a set of those to make some adjustments to a skinny-string, and it was a bit laborious, without yielding great results. (I might try the sandpaper trick tonight, as the D and G still have a habit of popping out of their slots during bigger bends...)

Interesting; I have an uncanny ability to change the atmospheric conditions myself, though I'm not sure it's a feature people would pay money for.

Psst! (whispers) Argent (/whispers)

See also In the Garage from Weezer's first album!

I managed to rig up a fairly compact setup for about £70-80 including headphones...you may want something more Hi-fi than I'm about to describe, but here goes: - Small Behringer mixing desk (Xenyx-502) - probably not exactly FRFR, but gives you a pretty dry signal and less colouration than a regular guitar/bass amp - Behringer BDDI-21 to make it sound like I'm actually playing through an amp - which it sounds like the OP may not want/need (- A bass...not included in the above price, but still kind of essential) - Pair of Sony MDR-ZX100 headphones - surprisingly clear and balanced sound for the money - plugged into the headphone out on the mixer. Not as satisfying as firing up the real amp, but given young Master Mooseblaster's early bedtime, it beats practising unplugged.

Sorry, I'll open a window...

Just a quick bump before the big night...

I'd hazard a guess that Ibanez's marketing department decided that "Professional" was a more sellable term to use that "Premium"! Didn't Fender recently do something similar, with the "American Standard" line of guitars morphing into the "American Professional" series?

One for musicians and spectators alike: Upper Norwood Library Hub are starting a series of live music events, and the first Thursday of every month will be Acoustic Night. This entails an open mic/acoustic jam with a set from a featured artist. This coming Thursday, 7th Feb, I shall be said featured artist. Saddle up your bass/DB/guitar/ukulele/kazoo and come join me. Or kick back with a beer and some great music. Free entry, fully licensed bar, sign-up to play from 8pm, music from 8.30. (All ages welcome, though under-16s must supply their own adult.) 39-41 Westow Hill, London SE19 1TJ. (Nearest stations are Gipsy Hill and Crystal Palace.) FB event deelie at https://www.facebook.com/events/227591768147791 I sound like this, in case you're wondering: