Happy Jack

Probably not helpful during a lockdown, but the numbers are really no substitute for actually hearing the thing in action. I've owned 2000W power amps that left me thoroughly underwhelmed, and 200W heads that are just ridiculously loud. And I'm only talking about solid state amplification. Move to valve amps and you have to start all over. This last two days, I've been playing through my old WEM Dominator open-backed combo (built 1971). Way too loud in the studio to crank even to the halfway point, and that's rated at 15W. Which is rubbish because everyone knows they actually put out 17W. With modern amplification it is highly unlikely that you will manage to blow anything up, and extremely likely that (in real world gigging volume terms) you will have more headroom than St. Paul's Cathedral.

Who did you bury under the patio, Chris?

I'm with Mick ...

Tempting, tempting, very very tempting, that's very tempting. But I shall act like a grown-up (stop laughing @Silvia Bluejay) and leave alone ...

Is it a very short song? 😂

Incidentally, having dissed so many choices by other Basschatters, it's only fair that I put one up for people to shoot at. For me this is easy. I am a HUGE fan of The Beatles so the only covers I actually prefer to the original song are when the original song was either complete **** or was a throw-away joke song, of the sort usually given to Ringo, one on each album. And that takes me straight to

At the time of writing, the best price online for a new Boss LS-2 is just £79: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/boss-ls-2-line-selector-pedal-connect-and-switch-between-multiple-amps-and-fx-devices-provides-2-lin?gclid=CjwKCAiA_9r_BRBZEiwAHZ_v12anRUQKA8Ru0RX1zdeHVgt3LPPjClPt6D-eynxjdaotmxUNOcHXuBoCW3sQAvD_BwE Alternatively, you could buy one pre-owned on eBay from ed_stratospheric of Coventry for £69: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-Boss-LS2-Line-Selector-Guitar-Channel-Amp-Effect-Switcher-Pedal-LS-2/124492605851?epid=1004331537&hash=item1cfc56699b%3Ag%3AUukAAOSweGVfeGEJ&LH_ItemCondition=3000 Do note the distinctive white brickwork and fake wood of the desk. Another option would be to buy from steveskingle of Coventry for £69: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-Boss-LS2-Line-Selector-Guitar-Channel-Amp-Effect-Switcher-Pedal-LS-2/324423876005?epid=1004331537&hash=item4b892b7da5%3Ag%3A64oAAOSwDiZf3e6h&LH_ItemCondition=3000 Do note the distinctive white brickwork and fake wood of the desk. Even better would be to buy from steveskingle of Coventry for £69: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-Boss-LS2-Line-Selector-Guitar-Channel-Amp-Effect-Switcher-Pedal-LS-2/324425387179?epid=1004331537&hash=item4b89428cab%3Ag%3ANU0AAOSwjGte5I8P&LH_ItemCondition=3000 Do note the distinctive white brickwork and fake wood of the desk. Don't be fooled into thinking that this is one person trying to sell the same pedal three times. It is clearly three different pedals, all identical, that one person owns. Or maybe two but they have similar taste in decor. You can easily tell that they are different pedals because the knobs are in different positions. 🤨

A perfectly reasonable question. The answer is, if you want to record a 'cover' that is completely unrecognisable as the song you've copied, then your time would probably have been better spent writing an original song. Or in SRV's case re-writing the same song as last time. Again. YMMV For the avoidance of doubt, I am actually an SRV fan. No, really I am. I like his style and his sound, and I'm no more bothered by the fact that all his songs sound the same than I am about many other musicians where the same applies. I just don't see how the piece of music linked to managed to achieve anything. He made The Beatles sound like SRV. Congratulations. Well done that man. 🙄

I'm assuming that many of my Basschat friends are genuinely posting cover versions that they genuinely like, and that they genuinely want to share them with their friends. That said, most of the versions posted above are such complete and utter **** that I am genuinely staggered that anyone would waste a few electrons on posting them anywhere except to Trump supporters they're trying to wind up.

Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!! Not a trace, not even a vestige, of the original song left ... just SRV playing yet another SRV sound-alike.

The biggest issue I have with my MonoSynth is that using the stomp switch momentarily kills the signal. I'm talking about less than 1/10th of a second but that's easily enough to be noticeable (and to throw me off my rhythm!) so like @stewblack I run mine in a loop to maintain signal. Does yours do the same?

If I'm reading this right, the Focusrite 8i8 gives you somewhat enhanced capability over the 2i2 at a cost of £309. https://www.gak.co.uk/en/focusrite-scarlett-18i8-usb-audio-interface-3rd-gen/927813?gclid=CjwKCAiA_9r_BRBZEiwAHZ_v10AcHkK45zVHZTH51rRBJJzXCKyiSURK2Ht0JrTVNKLplo37VOFz6BoCpMoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds On t'other hand, the Behringer XR18 with X-Air app gives you a complete 16-track recording studio for £389. https://www.andertons.co.uk/behringer-x-air-xr18-18-channel-12-bus-digital-mixer-for-ipad-android-tablets-zb852?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=CjwKCAiA_9r_BRBZEiwAHZ_v101t4mH-E0XfYrqvVr7Ci2bERFfEl5YU6CqcGNgqPb7lmKa2q3k58BoCGIkQAvD_BwE @Silvia Bluejay and I use our XR18 to front-end Reaper v.6. It's early days yet for us, but it clearly works.

If you're recording direct with a PreSonus (or a Focusright or whatever) then I'd suggest running with the Canon which - I suspect - will be higher quality and suffer less from latency than the GoPro. I haven't checked the specs mind, so I could be completely wrong about that! For laying out guide tracks to play along with later, I'd also recommend: https://www.studiospares.com/zoom-h1n-portable-recorder_378720.htm?gclid=Cj0KCQiA3NX_BRDQARIsALA3fILoVoCoZF4E3jBr_OiAjR_j7UbRIRCXuRQdUDIhIuqKWClt-CRwdaIaAsjeEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds I've used exclusively Zoom handheld recorders for many years and @Silvia Bluejay now defaults to her H1N for pretty much all applications. Incredibly simple and reliable, and the sound quality is just superb. The last recording sessions I did in a studio (just before Xmas) we took along the H1N to help us sync the multiple videos we were taking. When we later compared the 'raw' sound from the H1N with the early engineer mixes from the desk, in truth there wasn't that much difference in quality!

For my Santa's Sleigh video before Xmas I used one of these for vocals and (separately) for bass and guitar: https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/170823313769008--presonus-audiobox-usb-96-audio-interface?gclid=CjwKCAiAudD_BRBXEiwAudakX5vqH1zj25p0qZk0eciynnMdrYs_xYHH5N2LvRkbll1VuuxL3EluLxoC1-cQAvD_BwE It offers more than you need if you're just recording a bass part, but you can't go far wrong for £72 and it will provide you with additional possibilities such as playing your bass through the Sansamp into your bass rig, run the Sansamp DI into Ch.1 and mic up your cab into Ch.2 ... instant bi-amping. I've been using Reaper for three months (video) and one month (as a DAW) and I'm happy to recommend it. The elephant in the room is your "suitable camera". Can open, worms everywhere ...

I have the almost-matching PBAC version, and it's a seriously nice instrument. The preamp on these things is really very good and my PBAC has a glorious Jazz neck on it.

You have clearly met fewer drummers than I would have expected, Roger. 😉😂

Chaps, not only did I have a fine birthday but (if you're really unlucky) I might even share with you soem video of the preparation of the Chinese Banquet that occupied a fair proportion of the day. 😉

When Sgt Pepper came out, I was 11. Seriously. Hearing a song about being 64 made no sense at all to the 11-year-old me and by a couple of years later I had classified it with Yellow Submarine and Maxwell's Silver Hammer as being a mere joke song. At the time, my grandfather (b.1899), for whom I was named, was 68. He'd been a fine figure of a man in his day, 6'1" with athletic build, served in WW1 and was a colonial policeman for 40 years, but by 1968 he was a shrivelled-up stick-like man, gaunt and tobacco-stained. Today he would pass easily for a man in his 80s. At the time, pretty much everyone over 50 looked (and smelled) like that.

Unbelievably, that turns out to have been Post #13,000 by me. You couldn't make it up.

Many thanks to y'all ... currently engaged in preparing a Chinese banquet for ce soir.

but I knew I would see the day.

I can do all that with my Westone 'The Rail' bass with a sliding pickup!