NancyJohnson

I've never really been a fan of multi-effect setups (we're talking chorus/flange/octave pedals etc, not drive pedals at this juncture); for years I've gone through Sansamp drives, these sound perfectly good for my needs, but where other outboard kit falls over for me is where the entire signal path goes through one effect unit. I guess the XO is giving you the facility to just route highs or lows through individual loops and squirt it back to the main output, also obviating the necessity of running two amps as well (in certain set ups). When I think back to how I was running a stereo power amp into two cabinets, splitter front end to GT2/BDDI. It sounded decent enough, but tonally it was all or nothing over both outputs.

With the first one, I bought in a new singer and I know he wanted us more than we needed him. Things went a little toxic, guitarist left, singer wanted the drummer gone etc. We were a four piece but if we voted on anything it was always guitarist and singer against me, with the drummer just sitting on the fence, so I had no voice in a band that I'd actually started. It just got incredibly frustrating. Much as I hated just jacking in, I felt that if I hadn't it would have just come to blows and no one wants that. Singer was quite angry and malicious; he admits he was drinking quite heavily but kept it private, there were times where I think he was just testing the limits of how far he could push me before I'd break.

If you subscribe to basscentric You Tube channels you should have seen this beauty by now. Man alive, how I could have used this a few years ago rather than trying to build tone off a variety of guitar distortions (GT2), BDDI/VTBASS stomps and ABY boxes. Sadness is that while the XO will integrate with most boards, the new Tech21 XB driver stomp will/should be a one box solution.

Last two breakups both over WhatsApp; it's just cleaner than doing stuff face to face. Oldest one was acrimonious; sadness was I lost a band I'd started eight years before and also that musically we were moving into a very creative period. The straw that broke the camel's back was being questioned why I was pulling out of a gig the day my father-in-law passed away ("Don't you realise how hard it is to get gigs?") Last one I just jumped on the coattails of the drummer, project had just run it's course. While issues had been building (friction/apathy), both these went from being active projects to dead in the water in a matter of minutes.

I was never a fan of Suede, but liked Bernard Butler quite a lot. It was a masterstroke re-releasing People Move On with BB rerecording the vocals; his voice has matured beyond belief. The new album ('Good Grief') is a wonderful thing. If there were comparisons, I'd compare it to the magnificence of Charlie Sexton's 'Under The Wishing Tree'. This is a wonderful, wonderful album.

The big fail with Epiphone guitars was this frankly nonsensical adherence to their (traditional) headstock shape, not that its mattered with Explorers, Flying Vs or the more recent Thunderbirds. Even though I don't need another bass, a faithful Grabber or Ripper reproduction might picque my interest, so long as it's accurate (the Thunderbird bodies are some way off). Let's see Les Paul Jones and Melody Makers as well.

It's 20% off. 😁

Mid-70s Aerosmith. Rocks, Draw The Line, Live! Bootleg. For me, these three are the only albums worth listening to.

Just as an aside, I saw a wiring video on YouTube where a guy was wiring a couple of the controls off a four/five knob unit into a stacked-knob configuration, so it is possible to do this into a three knob affair. The Uni-Pre 3 is three stack knobs (with one being a three function one (bass/treble/high-treble).

I'd been taking turmeric for yonks but had to stop on account of it affecting a blood thinner product I'm on (see elsewhere); after nearly two months, the deep hot throbbing in both trapeziums is back. It's crept up on me quite slowly. Double-edged sword. Turmeric does work to reduce the inflammation.

Addendum. Honestly surprised at the Harley Benton. Loud. I'm uncertain how transparent it is with everything set to the noon position; I feel 'flat' is more akin to the mid and treble at noon and the bass ramped up a notch or two. Running a Sansamp BDDI into it and it's feeding the Barefaced Big One I won at the SE Bass Bash a few years back. Sounds considerably more whumpy through that than the Darkglass 1x12s.

I had a playlist on Spotify that had seven or eight albums on it, all female fronted bands. Once a week I used to have to drive to Wolverhampton and back for work, and I'd shuffle the tracks. JH3 was on there, Bully, Chumped, Cayetana, Veruca Salt, Potty Mouth, Momma, Blake Babies (of course), Snail Mail.

The Juliana Hatfield Three.

I got a replacement amp from Thomann. All good.

One of the John East circuits I have installed has given up the ghost (see elsewhere), uncertain at this point whether it's worth just pulling it out and sending it to John for a service or just trying something else. Looking for replacement recommendations. Effectively a three knob unit for a two pickup bass. I did like the Darkglass circuit that was in my old Spector Euro LX, but specs just seem so vague on that. Help!

Brief meetup with Steve today - he bought an active monitor and tripod stand that I had for sale. Top bloke, tried to get him to the next bash!

I have an extender on my Euro-X, fitted recently. Ahead of the curve, it's strung with Elixir Nanowebs, 40/60/80/100. Interestingly, it hadn't seen much use since I left my old band and was still tuned to DGCF when I fitted it, so I was dropping to C. I didn't actually realise I wasn't tuned to what quantifies as standard pitch, no flappy strings or anything. It was only when I did a studio session a couple of weeks back that the producer questioned my tuning. Flappyness just seems a bit hit and miss all round. The Spector seems fine, another of my basses is the opposite with the same guage strings/scale length.

I'm really not a fan of Jazz/Precision basses, even less so copies thereof, but these look OK. Much as always is the case, the take on the headstock design is, as usual, horrific; I don't wholly understand patent law, but my understanding is that Fender hold the design patent for the headstock shape, but for body shape it's open season. Oddly, pretty certain that while we feel it's fine to alter the headstocks of the Harley Benton and Bass Centre models, this wouldn't happen with Sadowsky or Lakland derivatives.

@cetera I think we need to shoot a video.

Spotify tells me it gets over 100,000 plays a day and it's been played nearly 243 million times. Does anyone really care whether the narrative aligns with today's world view; life's too short and people are too often offended. Just read the lyrics (first time), it's storytelling, nothing more. There's a whole lot worse (and less intelligent lyrically) out there; have a look at 'Stupid Hoe' by Nicki Minaj.

When I saw them, I did a little bit of jizz.

I was up to about a dozen Thunderbirds at one point and I honestly couldn't keep track of those. There'd be a gap in the rack and you'd go, 'What's supposed to be in there?' I've been to the @cetera vault. There's a lot of stuff in there. An awful lot of stuff. 😂

Now then. My only experience was off a guy who owned one in the late 70s/early 80s. Distinctly remember the bass was a bolt-on and there didn't appear to be enough of the neck attached to the body in the rout/heel area and the thing was going like a banana. Horrific action.