NancyJohnson

I really felt a connection with Gary PB's Fernandes MV-65NS. It was beautifully set up and sounded lovely.

Yup, maybe the top laminate was applied after the body was shaped.

I have enjoyed the process of integrating this into my existing setup; unaffected output from the GED2112 preamp gives me a decent signal into the dUg. Outputs from both units into an ABY box, then into a stereo poweramp running bridged into one enclosure. I can switch between the two easily enough now. Peachy.

Nope...the website was withdrawn too.

One thing that was particularly nice is that Shudder To Think bassist Stuart Hill (listed under influences) shot me a message earlier to say he'd seen his name and was flattered to see it in print. Here you go...sound is a bit iffy, but they were a great band.

I got a half page in Bass Player magazine this month. What a hoot! I think I did the Q&A about ten months ago...I reckon half that gear and rig has found new homes now.

#chubbyfingersyndrome Yup, new band. You know when you laugh so hard the back of your head hurts? It's like that again. It's freaking hard work after taking some time off though. I still like to have a chuckle at the BS the old act continue to spin on Facebook; I look at the single digit likes but refrain from posting that no one is interested.

Oh stop. But hey, if Tech 21 want to quote me, it's Paul Anthony of the band Lutz.

Right, just reporting in. First off, thanks to Darren for sorting this all out. So, what does this baby sound like? I plugged it direct into a power amp and just had a noodle. Immediate opinion? Well...I also run a GED-2112 and to be honest the dUg is like one of those but on steroids. While I love the GED, sometimes I do/did kind of feel that while it is a great emulator, you just wanted it to go a little further if you get what I mean. The dUg just does this in spades, so much so it's more like you want to roll it off a bit. I've never gotten on with compressors, so the one knob solution does it for me. So after a brief foray, I'm very pleased. The one immediate thing that struck me was that it makes you sound so different, the bass would become an instrument that drives song intros. You just have this huge tone that sounds so amazing out of the box it would obviate the necessity of have guitar as the lead instrument. Does this make sense?

It's tiny! 8" x 3".

Well, mine just arrived! Sadly, the wife is having a pre-holiday haircut in the music room, so I shall have to wait an hour. It looks lovely.

I like Stolen Babies. They're like a female fronted version of Ludo.

It's another nine days. Or maybe it just seems like it's on top of a hill.

Unless this is a rhetorical statement (like 'Its hot, I want an ice-cream'), stick a request in the items wanted section. You might get lucky.

Dream Theater's John Petrucci has used these perspex boxes for years. On one of their DVD boxsets there was this gear rundown piece. When asked about the perspex box, Petrucci made some off the cuff remark about drummer Mike Portnoy being nicknamed The Camel. There then followed a short series of stills of Mr P gobbing out huge dockside oysters in the direction Petrucci' s gear. So back then, he used them as phlegm protection.

Ooh, Friday will be a day of deliveries for me. We shall also be taking delivery of a dining room table.

Elaborate?

Sometimes you just see a list and try to join the dots. As an ex-credit manager, you try and do the maths...look at the Grover debt, $370K. If Gibson are making 170,000 guitars a year, that's an average of c.14,200 a month. A set of Grovers retail at £60-£100, so let's say $100 a set. That's c.37,000 sets or 2.5 months of production. Seemingly, everyone knew Gibson were in trouble months and months ago and I'd have withdrawn the credit facility on the strength of that alone, just to reduce the exposure; no freaking way would I have let it accumulate to $370K. I'm sorry to sound harsh, but more fool Grover etc. for allowing Gibson to continue to ramp up debt. I'd be interested in knowing what Samick were doing for them, given they manufacture guitars in South Korea and Gibson are allegedly US made.

To echo comments made elsewhere, Gibson was/is a brand you aspired to; I remember when I started out, I'd get a Bells catalogue or drool over stuff in Beat Instrumental, but on my paperboy salary Gibson (and Fender) were well out of my league. From a bass perspective, our Gibson choice has been very limited; by comparison with our six string bretheren, we have experienced limited model choice, limited colour pallettes, limited options. Yes, I know other manufacturers are available, but when you want something, you want it, eh? I've seen that Joe Bonnamassa is interested in taking the business over. Honestly, love him or not, having a musician running things might make things better. There was an interesting video posted elsewhere where three guys were discussing the decline of Gibson and summed up that you need to be able to buy a decent guitar for $1,000 as beyond that figure, you're looking at people on doctor and lawyer salaries. Perhaps (if Gibson survive), it'll be a case of giving the publice what they want, less custom shop pricing, more choice, less reliance on Les Pauls and SGs. There's a lot of demand for double cut Les Paul Juniors, so why didn't Gibson start making them again, preferring to go with the Firebird X or these ridiculous limited run models? Because they became detatched from this customer base and diversified into other markets. They're a company selling (apparently) 170,000 guitars a year. They shouldn't be in the state they're in.

I've used racked power amps for many years...I know that any powerstage will add a degree of colour to anything (I have no idea what qualifies as 'true-flat'), but I'd prefer any pre-stage I used (be it, POD, BDDI, VT Bass, RBI, GED) is what does the work into my rig and what goes to FoH.

Cheers to Dave at LBO https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-01/gibson-files-for-bankruptcy-with-deal-to-renew-guitar-business https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-gibson-brands-reaches-restructurin/brief-gibson-brands-reaches-restructuring-support-agreement-to-reorganize-around-core-businesses-idUSASC09YH1

If they survive this, hopefully the restructuring will help this company shed the ridiculous leisure brand acquisitions (Onkyo, TEAC, Philips) and just get back to making affordable instruments. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gibson-brands-reaches-restructuring-support-agreement-to-reorganize-around-core-businesses-300639935.html

It does sound good BUT he still has his amp affected (not flat) before the dUg pedal hits it. I'd much rather these sort of reviews be done straight into the effects return or better still into a poweramp.

I bought some Soldier branded strings off Amazon a while back. They were only intended as a set to put on while I doing a setup on a bass. They're currently on bass #2, an Epiphone T-Bird, they don't get much use, but they still sound fresh. I think they cost £4.99.