Woodinblack

They were, and probably vice versa, but those are patents, and some of them very obvious patents. That is why the world doesn't use gifs any more and many other things. Patents are supposed to be about protecting innovation, although not what they are used for by large companies these days. But this is not the same thing as actual piracy. Clearly when the android operating system came out the second time, it was a rip off of the iPhone and as such it was an infringment, but what it wasn't was actual theft of the code, it was just doing the same thing in a different way. Apple and Qualcomm was about contract terms, nothing to do with copying anything, apple tried to use intels radio system and qualcomm thought they had an exclusive deal (maybe they did, maybe they didn't). Apple had to pay in the end as intel couldn't make them. I suspect you are clearly misunderstanding my point here, I am not talking about pure angels, I am talking about if a companies way of making an effects pedal is to just copy another company, it doesn't say anything about the quality of innovation. If they did it in such a way as to be stupid enough to even be able to be in breech of copyright in a Chinese court, then it really doesn't show much about their engineering. So I wouldn't be looking for any sudden advance of technology from them, unless someone has already done it. OK, maybe they will be like a behringer, start out copying and end up doing something new, but it doesn't seem to be their business model and when I look at the GE300, it doesn't look like unfamiliar territory. Why bother wasting time with the reviews, you know you are going to buy it anyway

Moving on? In that they were actually prosecuted 5 months ago for theft Yes, but these days actual companies cloning fender basses don't actually slap a fender badge on it (and if they do, then they deserve to be prosecuted). Mooer didn't clone the design, like many people did, such as copying a circuit design or making something that looked like a thing, they actually flat out pirated the software of another company and put it in their product. And it would concern me that someone that did something that amaturish (I mean, couldn't they have at least removed the other companies copyright to make it look like theirs) might not be able to come up with something that original themselves. Maybe they copied the helix this time - I guess we will find out soon! Problem i see with the screen shot you showed is that is the easy bit - any old fool can slap the oscillators, filters and envelopes together*, that is pretty trivial step, but it is the pitch following and triggering that is the bit that makes the problem tricky. Tricky on a guitar, incredibly tricky on a bass. So overall - if they have come up with something that is as good as a helix, what have we gained? Competition? I mean, the helix is already there. Is it much cheaper? And also, if they have come up with something as good as a helix, haven't you recently replaced the helix on your pedalboard with something you acknowledge is not as good? * literally. ie, I could do it, and you don't get older and foolisher..

As is your option, but that doesn't make it necessarily a bad offer, in that you aren't interested but you haven't lost anything. When i was young I had to sell things for way below their value because I had no money and would have been homeless otherwise. Yes, it hurt to sell things too cheap, but not as much as sitting in the street with a nice guitar would have.

I'm guessing that isn't actually a euphemism?

Certainly will help in your quest to have owned all the effects pedals Mind you, as Mooers way of designing effects pedals appears to be stealing them from other people, unless someone else has cracked the problem you want solved, chances are they haven't.

Which is not very many gigs is it?

That looks fantastic!

I would imagine it sounds great in your garden, in the same room it is just way too loud to enjoy last time I saw them

Used to for a long time, but sold it not so long ago. If I ever get a chapman stick I might get another

It looks interesting. I have only once had a problem with the Sh when I forgot to change the batteries and it died - its hard to see it is going to do that. My only problem with it is that it is a bit frail really - the battery compartment is sort of held on with tape and I think the jack plug would be coming off if it wasn't always tied together. But fundamentally, it works, so I have no need for a new one for now. However, that is a good deal for the 75, if you have room for that base unit!

Yep, looked on there, shows me loads I missed out on and none currently!

I understand that, that is why none of my basses are in cases. Something in a case doesn't get played. Getting very keen on getting a stick. Finding one is a bit of a pain though!

The varitone is disconnected in one position anyway. I was thinking of putting a varitone on my gretsch bass.

They store in the fridge ok

Had a great sunday afternoon outdoor tent gig at a local beauty spot, the start of the summer season, got 1.5 songs in and the guitarists amp crapped out (makes a change from the leads), so we had to stop. Someone in the village said that he had an amp and went to get it. So only a 15 minute delay. The rest of it went really well, and always a good sign if you get people dancing on a sunday afternoon. The place was heaving. Unsurprisingly, considering they don't pay much they said before that they would pay us £50 if it was busy, but apparently it wasn't busy enough (never seen it so busy). But that is what I assumed would happen. Still, loads of people came up afterwards for a chat, and got a few more likes and comments on FB than normal, so its pretty good.

I would regardless of the price, I think he would get a larger audience if he appeared somewhere other than a golf club in Ormskirk!

Beautiful colour, waiting / hoping this is going to come out in a 5 one year. I would love to get one but know it would end up unplayed as a 4. Work of art though.

Local football club, but it was a bit of a pain as we had to wait for an award ceremony before we could start. God knows why people go to those things Anyway, the room was a total power suck, everything was way up, was seriously concerned the ashdown was going to run out of steam. It didn't though. Still, although it seemed quiet at the start, it was very busy and fairly rowdy. Not any hassle though just the large collection of drunk women dancing but no fights and not many people collapsing, which to be fair, there are worse things (and normally at this venue). Anyway, seemed to go down well, got the usual best group ever comments at the end, which is always nice even if you don't believe it! Onward and upward to our next event of the weekend, which is an outdoor one during the day, one of our favourites as it gives you a free night - light one this weekend, only 2 gigs!

In the right voice, that sounds like the start of an action movie

I probably will get one but I am not allowed to buy anything in the month of may as it is my birthday next week so there is a 'no buying something that I could have been bought'. Easiest way of that is not buying anything!

Like anything, its familiarity. If you go to a download site and download a guitar pro tab (normally scroll to the bottom for that), then when you see the notes you can just select them and move them up or down a string and it goes up/down by 5. I had to do quite a bit when I was looking at son of a preacher man, as the tab sites have crazy fingering for it.

That certainly wouldn't be tricky and depending on the speed you are playing maybe that is a better way of playing it. The whole point of tab over notation is that it has the fingering. If you don't like the fingering, what is the point of it? I find it very rare that tab is either right or the fingering I would use. GuitarPro lets you move it around flexibly, but it has the advantage of using both tab and notation at the same time (you can export ascii tab though). I have quite a lot of tab around, but it is normally stuff I have done for myself or modified.

I think the idea is that you randomly turn them a bit until you get the sound you want, then write down the setting! Honestly there doesn't seem to be an immediate correlation between the knob positions and the tone, although the switches above the knobs have a bit more of an effect.

Actually one of the odd things about a bass is that you don't often play chords on it. But if you did, a chord is basically the same pattern everywhere, unlike the guitar (the more strings you have the easier this is). It's easier to see the chords by pattern rather than remembering the actual notes or offsets of them. Then slide it round to see where it fits.