Dood

United Plugins still have a sale on. Some really good plugins in the sale I use often: https://unitedplugins.com/discounts

And a fretless..

Finances definitely don’t allow and probably won’t for many years now sadly, but: I have a bass and a guitar that need routs for new pickups One bass that needs routing and I want to refinish it in my “signature colours” .. flip paint, you know me! Another bass that I’d love to customise with a new finish.. flip paint! Two basses that need refrets/dressing. A pick guard designed for a bass. A new neck for my Tokai maybe.. I want a Candy Apple Red / Candy Cola body or respray for my Strat. For gig tools, I’d love an active FRFR solution, the ole Barefaced FR800 would suit for guitar and bass needs I think, but I might be looking at a combo or PA cab. Failing that I could use a passive 1x12” with my Berg head when my big cab is OTT. I’d love to get a custom PJ bass made, I seem to be playing way more 4 strings at the moment and something for the bass magazine to use in every review would be super cool. I quite fancy a little guitar valve combo too, like a Laney LC for tinkering around with..

I remember picking one up for the first time and finding the overall adjustment time incredibly short - my review of that very bass on the very day is still on YouTube. It was, for me at least, an easy transition, but I will agree that for some things adjustments are necessary. Jonathan Herrera has recently made a video of his first experience with a Dingwall bass, in the shape of the John Taylor Signature. He noted the same example as me, playing Minor 7th chords around the 15th fret and higher difficult (R b7 b3 or even R 5 b7 b3 arrangement) - that's easier on parallel frets I think. Most other techniques seemed to transfer easily - I was actually surprised that fast tapping was not that much more difficult, I thought I'd miss frets, but again, a small adjustment - and practice got me there. I liken it to getting a new car, a new, different car. Everything is in a different place, the brakes are sharper, the biting point on the clutch may feel different, the gate on the gears is tighter, buttons and switches are in a different place - it's frustrating and sometimes annoying, but we get over it and muscle memory kicks in quite quickly.

Not gonna lie, I love this bass sooo much! I remember playing it at the London Bass Show and falling in love with it then and there, but sadly my pockets aren't deep enough for even a tuning peg these days. How's it getting on? Still playing beautifully I am sure!

And the witty answer… (Shuker Series 2 Elite Custom)

Early 70’s TV Script Fender P with nickel (tall stem) tuners. Just something so “right” to my eye.

I also like headless basses, prog and "too many strings" and will happily play Jean-Michel Jarre, Gojira and Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia on the same playlist 🤷🏻.

"There's somthing wrong with the left phalangeee"

Aside from the technical benefits that a well designed HPF would have, it would ultimately be down to how the marketing department translates that in to layman's terms. "Removes the bass from your bass.." big no. "Protects your valuable speakers from sub-sonic transients and aids efficiency." Much better. "A High-Pass filter removes sub-sonic frequencies that most speakers can't reproduce. These frequencies waste amplifer energy, affect speaker excursion and can lead to early driver failure. Using an HPF can improve bass tone." I think I'd write something like this ha ha!

I've just been alerted to the existence of this cool gadget. It's a VST player: https://octavetech.eu

At the moment they are hand made by a small team and are knocking out about two a day, so very much a boutique build right now. They, or rather Wilson, doesn't have the same manaufacturing power as, say, Line 6 or Neural. Mentioning those in regard to flawed execution, there are plenty of pedals and devices on the market that use the same or weaker power connections. I'd like to see the same as the Line 6 LT etc that has a proper IEC power socket. 'Wall warts' and 'laptop' type power supplies and virtually every single USB connector available to the consumer market just isn't gig worthy. Well, although I agree, I don't use a separate pedal board (at the moment) for my Quad Cortex, there's plenty of people who do mount it to a board along with other devices, so I can't see why this would be flawed if it were also on a board? What's your thinking there?

P.s, Wilson seems like a really knowledgeable and friendly guy. I wanna meet him!

I wan' one of deeeeeez!!! A PC with touch screen, full compliment audio interface and a programmable MIDI controller (amongst other functionality) in one box. You can also connect a keyboard and mouse ha ha!! Wilson demonstrated running Neural, IK M Tonex and a whole bunch of other apps (including wacthing YouTube and running a DAW) in his videos on the Paint Audio channel. Wilson has plenty of demo videos on his channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Wilson-PaintAudio/videos

I can't believe this! Not only have you got a Marshall IBS, but I've been wanting a Laney LC15 too! (Ok, I'd be happy with the LC30 mind!!) Absolutely brilliant lil amps!

I thought I'd double check (as I was reading the schematic diagram) and have found the manual for the amplifier for you - page two describes the outputs: https://www.drtube.com/schematics/marshall/ibs.pdf

If you connect a guitar amplifer to the treble output, the bass side of the crossover is still sent to the internal amplifer, thus you can do exactly as you'd described. furthermore, using the crossover, you can sculpt the crossover point to decide how much of the signal goes to the combo or the external amplifer. Plugging an amplifer in to just the bass output acts as a full range slave, sending the same signal to both the internal amplifer and external device. You'll be safe even running a full range (instrument level) signal in to a distorted guitar amplifer, as nearly all with drive channels have a High Pass Filter at the input by design that will also filter out bass and sub frequencies.

I was once recognised in a Morrison's supermarket. Does that count?

I recall that the drivers in my cabinet might not have been that efficient, so, for gigging I was nearing the limits of what the stack could dish out when needing the extra volume. I also think that as a teen I had a bit to learn about EQ'ing - but boy did it sound good!

Thank you, it was a fun review! For the Bass and Treble EQ, the Amp Feel switch changes the behaviour including: Vintage mode is 70Hz peaking and 5kHz shelving, Modern and Off modes are 40Hz and 3Khz shelving.

Thank you! I’m the only reviewer who has had access to the Boss Katana designers and explanations of the technology behind Katana, so this one is a good’un!!

My full written review in Bass Gear Magazine with EXCLUSIVE access to the Boss Katana designers first! https://www.bassgearmag.com/boss-katana-500-bass-head-and-1x12-katana-bass-cabinet/