NancyJohnson

I have a pair of Darkglass 1x12s. Why? Small, lightweight, capable. Can double up to make a 2x12. It's really just unnecessary (for me) to go bigger. No brand loyalty whatsoever.

Punters don't know or care, in general. You might (as mentioned in other posts) get someone in who knows their shizz and will go, 'Nice bass, man,' but beyond that, nada. The crowd watch the singer, lesser so the guitarist. Incidentally, years ago I did a gig somewhere in Kent @Wolverinebass was at that one. I took a Hamer (current worth, c.£3.5k), I overheard a conversation from the coked-up soundguy and someone else: 'What bass is that bloke (me) using?' 'Some cheap Thunderbird copy.' Half right, I suppose.

My basses range from a wonderful 1978 Aria Primary bass (a Precision copy that came as part of a £50 job lot on Gumtree) up to an equally wonderful £5.5k Mike Lull custom build. There's a bunch of other stuff in between. Given the amount of money I've haemorrhaged on basses over the last four decades there's a few things I've learnt: - punters don't care what bass you play, - punters don't care how you sound, - your fellow bandmembers don't care what bass you play or what you sound like, - all basses sound more or less the same. If I were starting over now, deciding on a preferred bass would be based around choices that on the surface seems to be fairly trivial; I'd decide what shape of bass I liked (Jazz/Precision-ish, Thunderbird-ish, etc), my preferred colour, preferred fingerboard choice etc. You want to love what the bass actually looks like to make you want to pick it up in the first place and, when it comes down to actually buying something, fundamentally make a decision on buying something you're going to love, cherish and keep, rather than falling out of love with it and continually chopping kit in in search of the dream. Ultimately buy what you want, new or used, but buy something that you adore and see yourself playing in forty years time. Had I gone with my gut, I'd have bought that white Gibson Bicentennial Thunderbird I saw in Denmark Street when I was 18 and I'd wager it would still be my #1.

So, many moons later. I just saw some artwork online by a guy called John Brosio, I subscribe to an art site and this came up today (it's a delightful piece called 'Dinosaurs Eating CEO'): Figured it might be interesting to see what else he'd done and da-daaa, his work features on both Mammoth albums: A bit of creative licence here. Might be interesting to see what comes next.

I've owned three or four Spector basses over the years...one of these (an 8-string far east NS thing) had a Tone Pump Jr installed from stock; I didn't like it one bit and replaced it with a John East unit. (Obviously I understand that it was a budget model and Spector need to keep the price down, but I'd have preferred a passive bass over the TPJ.) I had a Euro Lt for a while and that had a Darkglass circuit in it from stock. I really liked how it performed; it was quite hot and when pushed through a Sansamp BDDI it sounded lovely. Obviously tone is subjective. I've got a Darkglass Tone Capsule in one of my Lulls. It's fine...does what it says on the tin (boost/cut of bass/mids/treble), but it will not turn your bass into something that sounds like a Dingwall unless you're using external processing.

Rambling post. In my youth, I seem to remember Schecter being a cheapish go-to kit guitar brand business (like Allparts or Warmoth) before going into a fully fledged guitar brand. Cursory interest back then, but didn't really care. Just took a look at their website; honestly didn't realise they did so many bass models. Aside from a couple of more traditional offerings that I'd never consider purchasing (the J-4 or the Model-T things), there's no appeal whatsoever. The designs look quite meh, there's not much in the way of finish options. Some horrific headstock designs. Looking at the recent Signature model basses...the Sixx, dUg, Gallop, Michael Anthony; we all know which basses these guys are famous for but their signature lines fail miserably.

This is me. Two different bands. Co-wrote Let's Go with the guitarist and I wrote the music for Human Resources. I'm not looking to change the world or, for god's sake, 'make it'...that ship sailed many moons ago; realistically it's just to have a creative outlet writing/playing three minute songs and have hassle free fun doing it. Like I say, it shouldn't be this difficult.

Despite WvH's upbringing and exposure (and having lost my dad when I about his age), I really feel empathy with the guy. He comes across as a fairly nice, humble bloke that's experienced more exposure to the rock lifestyle that we'll ever see. Despite having released two very decent albums, where he's played everything, he has to find it somewhat exasperating having to live in his father's shadow with so many hardened Van Halen fans/whackos feeling it's necessary for [him] to somehow continue his father's legacy by going out and playing his dad's material or giving them a tribute show as some kind of closure. Nobody pressed Sean Lennon to do this. We live in odd times.

A few of you may have seen the Billy Corgan interviews that are dropping onto You Tube, have watched a couple (Gene Simmons/Wolfgang Van Halen), both thoroughly enjoyable. Where Billy Corgan wins is that he's got shared experiences and is a fanboy/man of the people he's interviewing, even by association. While he says he's never met Wolfie, he knew Eddie and loved Van Halen. Recommended!

Since the original post, I've had four contacts through Bandlink/JMB and all are of a similar ilk. Yesterday I spoke to a bloke in his 50s who seemed proud that he was predominantly a drummer and decided to switch to guitar about a year ago because he was a Foo Fighters fan. This alone just sounded the alarm for me. Explaining he had 'lots of songs', I was given a link to a Google Drive location. Again, disappointment. The material was absolute drivel. Awful everything. Sigh.

Does anyone remember the scene from The Dead Zone, where on shaking hands with Presidential candidate Gregg Stillson (Martin Sheen), Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) has this future vision of Stillson - now as President - threatening to cut a General's hand off if he refuses to have it scanned to start the launch sequence for nukes? I think the line of dialogue is something like, 'My destiny, gentleman.' This is the kind of vision I have with Trump, pretty much every time I hear his name. It's the quickest of flashes, but every time. A trigger response. Trump. 'My destiny.' Trump. 'My destiny.' He actually scares the shit out of me. He's batshit crazy.

I just saw the video of Trump Gaza. Jeepers. It's like you just couldn't believe this Presidency could get any more bizarre, considering it's come through an official channel and there's probably a million MAGA-types going, 'Oh, yeah!'

Counting Crows. Face The Promised Land.

It's inevitable. The Gibson bass choice is limited to three or four models and a limited colour choice. You'll probably find a larger breakfast cereal aisle in you local Lidl.

Gibson are as guilty as Fender. They bought out the Theodore, which is allegedly based around some unproduced designs from the 1950s (I bought one of the original run, it's lovely), but I'd struggle to name anything new beyond that.

Take Fender. Their instruments, be it bass or guitar, are all fundamentally based on body designs and innards that are over 60 years old; end of the day, if you want a Fender bass it's going to be a Jazz, Precision or maybe a Jaguar. The whole reinvention element of their business model is to offer different colours, different woods, vintage-styled pickups, mixing up the guts of the basses (offering P/J pickups, active EQ) and so on, in the belief that it's something new, when it isn't. I'm sure many people are of the belief that buying into Fender is like buying into Jaguar or Ferrari; this belief that the mass produced CNC'd instruments produced in Mexico or the far-east somehow share the lineage, legacy and pride of those built in the 50s and early 60s, but they aren't those instruments. Don't get me wrong here, I don't detest Fender, I've owned several of their basses, but I would never buy another one, new or used. There's way more gear out there that's better, more versatile than anything they make.

Fender and Gibson. The masters of reinvention. New year, same old shit.

I'd concur on the QC; I had two different 10" speakers (from Hydrive cabinets) that just start rattling, but Korg replaced them without question. Beyond this, the cabs were faultless. Larry is just a lovely bloke. Does what he does best; front of house, working the customer base, getting his product out there.

The Hartke one is 100%. Barry said they were just trying to entertain themselves at NAMM years ago. Even as an (ex) Hartke endorsee, I could see the humour in this!

We talked about trying to get Tech21 to drop Rocky Road, go with us and go the direct sale route. Remember that?

In answer to your first paragraph I'm of the belief that RSD just brings out several groups of people; 1. Those that have little desire to buy/consume music the rest of the year but see RSD as a reason for going to a record shop, 2. Those that see RSD as a means to turning a quick profit, 3. Genuine fans whose purchases are usurped by #1 & #2 above. While I have little (cough, zero) interest in vinyl, I don't mind looking around record shops should the occasion arise, although I find the whole experience (to use a '90s metaphor), like going to Gap. It's the same stuff everywhere. I just find the RSD fever all a bit exasperating.

I only bothered once, about five or six years back for a Tears For Fears at Massey Hall live CD. We had a little record shop in a craft centre about a mile from me so I thought I'd give it a punt, so I rocked up 8.30am, stupidly of the allusion I'd be home by 9.00am. On previous visits the shop it had been empty, in fact, I'd never seen anyone in there, but on RSD, nooo. I reckon there were 200 middle-aged men queueing all clutching pieces of paper with lists of albums; the shop owner was giving everyone raffle tickets and letting a couple of people in at a time, each of those people were coming out with carrier bags of vinyl. It was a shambles. It was just a classic case of Dad's Army-esque organisational incompetence. I went home clutching said raffle ticket and returned a few hours later and was still some way off entry. There was no whiteboard showing what was left (thus, no indication of whether it was still worth queueing) and when I finally got in, the proprietor advised me they didn't actually get any copies of the album I was after. I got home, fired up the inter web and ordered it from Sister Ray on condition it was still in stock on Sunday night, it would be mine. It arrived midweek. Waste of time.

I know there's some love for these here. Welwyn Garden City. Looks clean! Nice paddle headstock version. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326420402512?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=NCWIl1-VSH2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=DxWFUN6rTdK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I've never seen that clip...to be honest, Fashion were never that high on my You Tube search list. This is pretty good!

Singer at the time was Dee Harriss who was also guitarist. I don't think Martin Recchhi (bass) ever did lead vocals...they went through a few line up changes, would be interested to see this!