NancyJohnson

Sweetwater have just added a Schecter 12-string bass. Amazingly, it's only $1.100. Sadly, the body design is a bit Rickenbackeresque, which I'm not particularly enamoured with. It's instruments like this where I ponder the idea of finding a luthier who could cut off the wings and glue the central core into something else. (I may have a noodle in Photoshop later today.) It's going to be available in the white option below or black with a maple neck. No black/rosewood option.

My old one is great, but the lining is nightmareish if you have a hangnail (it just makes the hairs on my arms stand up even thinking about this!). They've changed the interior finish, thankfully.

I've just been using a variety of smallish Gator bags. I've got one (12"x12x5.5" - bought ten years ago), that will snugly hold my (class-d) amp and it has front pockets which are adequate enough to hold Speakon/power cables. If I need to take anything else, I'll just take a bigger version of the same bag. Gator bags are competitively priced, incredibly well made, decently padded, robust zips, spacious in a TARDIS like way. (God, I should work in marketing for them.) Here you go: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gator-G-MIXERBAG-1212-5-5-Inch-Mixer-Gear-dp-B00T0OJG5M/dp/B00T0OJG5M/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

The original Hamer business was acquired by Kaman at the end of the 80s - some production was done in Korea and Indonesia - Fender acquired Kaman end of 2007 and shut down Hamer five years later. Kaman owned several brands, Fender hived off some of these but ultimately killed off Hamer as a brand. They weren't a threat to Fender or anything...they were a business producing Gibson-esque instruments, but there's innovation for you. Hamer could have continued, but Fender effectively wiped them out.

1. Micro-tilt neck. If the fit and finish of new instruments was 100%, there should be no requirement for micro-tilt necks (or shims). These are machine made basses/guitars; any adjustment should be able to be achieved with truss rod/bridge/fret-dressing. 2. Aerodyne body shape. Well fundamentally, these are just Jazz/Precision body shapes with binding and without rolled edges or too much chamfering. Surely Gibson were making Les Pauls in the 50s with binding and 90° edges? 3. TBX tone control. Hmm. Never seen one in use, but in theory doesn't it just ape a regular Varitone pot (which Gibson used on the Ripper)? 4. Partnership with Lace sensors. Isn't this like saying Gibson partnering with DiMarzio or something? Businesses collaborating with other businesses to create a product isn't particularly new. 5. Antigua finish... Stretching things here Stub. 6. 'Paranormal' series mixing and matching features. FMIC board visiting Mexican/Japanese plants: "What are all those bodies and necks over there?" Floor manager: "They're parts that we haven't put together yet." FMIC board (hearing the sound of cash registers riging): "Try just building things from random parts, see what happens and report back in 48 hours. We can give it a range name of something funky and sell our unused inventory at a bloated price, then pull the range once that junk is cleared.' 7. The little string hook thst fits on the A tuner. WOW! 8. Fender Fatfinger. Good grief. I have some snake oil in my garage if you're interested. 9. Grasping that the 'budget series' should offer a quality playing experience to help build loyalty and aspiration to the more expensive instruments. They are the masters of market segmentation. I think this is spot on. 10. Modelling amps that focus on one classic amp and do it well. Why not just keep producing those classic amps, rather than dozens of amps trying to be those classic amps. 11. Custom shop. When Fender bought and shut down Hamer, Fender described Hamer as a custom shop; a small team of builders producing great instruments in reasonably small quantities/runs. Hamer were building as long ago as 1977, ten years pre-Fender. 12. Relicing. Nope, just nope.

What an album.

If anyone needs one. Shoot me a PM.

While I reckon this statement is reasonably accurate, if I see bassists using Fender stuff it's almost like marking the whole band down a point. It was like this when I saw Geddy Lee photographed with his Jazz bass on the inner sleeve of (I think) Farewell To Kings. 'That's not a Rickenbacker,' I almost shouted out. I'm so glad that guys like Mick Karn, Jeff Ament, Eddie McDonald, Muzzy, Pete Vukovic, Overend and (early) Nikki Sixx bucked Fender. Despite owning three Fenders over the years, 10+ years since last ownership, I despise the brand.

I've seen many TE bargains over the years and once in a while my heart does this little flutter; I'm thinking how I simply couldn't afford that kit when it came out originally and how you can now pickup serviceable kit for takeaway prices. I ran a ridiculous Trace rig in the '90s. Tri-amp. GP12 preamp, stereo and mono power amps, selection of cabinets including a 4x5 bright box. Mental. Amazingly, I could fit everything into a Renault 5. Sadness is that a pair of current 1x12 cabs and a class-d head will likely outperform all that. Sadly little use for it now. I'm geared up!

I'd say UFO's Strangers In The Night is one of my favourite albums and I was a fan of the early MSG stuff (including the live album); saw this album was out and gave it a listen. For sure this album is a rocking affair, but I just can't reconcile the rotating vocalist choices; I just hear the songs in my head with Mogg singing and can't get past that. I doubt whether I'll give it a second listen.

Currently spinning Bux - We Come To Play. Who, you say? Bux featured Ralph Morman on vocals (better known for fronting an early iteration of The Joe Perry Project and Savoy Brown), plus Punky Meadows and Mickie Jones from Angel. Good old rock.

That's a fair old wedge for a blind purchase on an instrument manufactured and sold exclusively through two retailers. Conflicted with stuff like this. While I'm never going to buy one, even if I did I'd be asking myself how much it'll be worth (or how much I'm going to lose) when it inevitably gets moved on and whether I just should have simply have - given the inevitable comparisons - saved a bit more swag and pulled the trigger on a Warwick or Spector instead.

The DNA of the Thundergun shares little with an actual Thunderbird; the raised centre block on the body and the word Thunder in it's name... that's pretty much it. Beyond that it's got more in common with a hybrid Jaguar body and P/MM guts.

I keep thinking about buying a cheapie Indonesian/Korean Hamer Chapparel 12-String bass, amputating the neck, getting a UK luthier to clone my Lull JAXT4 body and bolting it all together. Food for thought here.

I have seen a handful of NR Thunderbirds in the MOD collection - they do come up periodically:

Much as I harbour disdain for all the big manufacturers, at least Gibson are trying to mix things up with their MOD Collection stuff; sure they're as guilty as everyone else in their custom shop offerings, but the MOD stuff is truly one-off mix and match experimentation, finishes, pickups, electrics, tailpieces/Bigsby units.

I think you'll struggle to find original parts for a Integra or even a specific bridge for whatever particular year/model that one actually is. If it was mine, I'd scrap the desire to retain originality and just pop a replacement bridge in...it would also be quicker and likely more cost effective as well. I wouldn't worry about holes not lining up or anything; stick a Hipshot Kickass on it.

In general, I replace hardware if, a) the original part has failed, b) if the original part falls short in adjustability, or in rare occasions c) fails to fulfil a visual aesthetic (ie swapping like for like hardware, chrome to black). Sure, I've swapped out BBoT bridges in the past (to both BA2 and Hipshot KickAss units), but purely down to necessity; one project bass had missing bridge parts and another bridge used to cut my wrist. I prefer the feel of a bigger bridge under my wrist so naturally either of these units fulfill that remit, but I'd also say that adjustability of the Bad/KickAss units is probably on par with the BBoT units they've replaced. On the subject of the marketing claims, I'd take these with a generous pinch of salt. Do these bridges make any differences to sustain or wood transfer (whaaaat?), it's all nonsense. Ask yourself, how long do we hit a note and let it sustain for? A second? Five seconds? Ten? Sustain as an argument is ridiculous. Of wood transfer, what? Also rubbish. Reckon if you did a blind test on two identical (as feasibly possible) basses one with a BA2 and another with a BBoT, I doubt anyone would be able to differentiate the tonal nuances between the instruments.

Where's the innovation exactly? Very likely same old shapes, same old pickups, same old electronics, same old. Imagine if Fender were a car company; everything would still look like Christine.

So easy...

Live/Muse at Brixton Academy. Everything was just awful. Hours to get there, hours to get home. Dreadful sets. Dreadful FoH sound. Too loud. Too full (over capacity?).

Nope! All real. Honest.

I tend to rip everything to FLAC and the Blu-ray content to MKV and then to MP4 with Dolby/DTS pass-through. Any stereo stuff off the Blu-Rays gets converted to FLAC with Foobar. All this sits on a NAS and just gets squirted into our surround system via Plex.

While I'd agree with most of your points, the surround mixes I've got are just glorious. It's not like the stereo mixes are dumped. By way of example, XTC's Skylarking SDE from 2016, which cost under £20.00. You're getting (thank you Wikipedia): 1. 2016 5.1 mix – same running order as 2016 stereo mix 2. 2016 instrumental mix – same running order as 2016 stereo mix 3. 2001 stereo remaster – same running order as original vinyl (includes bonus tracks "Dear God" and "Extrovert") 4. 2010 corrected polarity remaster – same running order as 2016 stereo mix (minus bonus tracks) 5. Album in demo and work tape form – same running order as 2016 stereo mix (minus bonus tracks) 6. 30+ demos/early version/WiP versions. There's also a second deluxe reissue that includes a 2024 Dolby Atmos mix on a CD/BR two disc set. £21.00, not £150.00. This is how you do this.