NancyJohnson

I ran an Ashdown MAG combo years ago, it was a 2x10 model; I ran several different MAG cabinets as extensions. 1x15, 4x10 and 2x10. They all worked fine...I think the 1x15 was the more pleasing of the bunch; it just gave me a bit more wobble. We get too hung up on what'll work with what; gear nowadays is pretty robust and in truth it's probably quite difficult to break. 40 years playing, never experienced anything major.

Wood shrinks and swells, if the frets are well bedded it's unlikely that they'd move but if the neck material contracts the it's feasible you could have a tiny bit of overhang. Just buy one of those fret levelling things and run it along the side of the neck a few times. Sorted.

What colour do you want to stain it? I've had very good results with Fiebings Leather Dye...it's not very forgiving, so application with a Q-tip and mask off thoroughly. I stained the fingerboard of my Lull from a rosewood light brown to black with no issues (after it had dried, I used meths to wipe the excess off the dot inlays). I've seen a few aluminium headstock thingies pop up on Facebook (https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DroplightIndustries?ref=l2-about-shopname) - it's customisable, 10 characters in a Fenderesque font. It might be a different alternative all these waterslide decals. You could just have Polvobass on it.

As soon as I saw 'Signature' in the headstock I thought of the Lee/Lifeson backstory. Considering the legacy, I'm surprised how little information there is on the brand - there did seem to be a time about 15-20 years ago where there seemed to be just too many Jazz bass clones on clearance with unmolested headstocks sporting the Signature logo.

It might not really be a buyers market IMO and an awful lot of very samey basses. I have something new coming in the next few weeks (Spector Euro-X) and I'd like to get another Darkglass 1x12. I am obsessing a little over getting a Fender Jaguar bass at some point (my wife's idea to buy something I wouldn't lose sleep over if it got nicked at one of the sh*tholes I'm likely to be playing in the next few months).

Most of the day I've been listening to the Super Deluxe of Thin Lizzy's Live & Dangerous. I'm not a huge Lizzy fan by any stretch, but (much like UFOs Strangers In The Night super deluxe) it's interesting to hear how the band's playing differs over the shows. It's all good, although I was disappointed there's nothing from when Midge Ure was gigging with them.

I loved Fabrique. The original vinyl is up in the loft and I bought the reissue ('The Height Of Fashion') a few years back. Dave Harris oversaw a multidisc (4CD) reissue a couple of years back, just couldn't justify the £140+ price and hoped it would turn up on Spotify at some point.

Just scanning through posts here, I'm in my 50s, probably easier to say I have more affinity with guitar based music than stuff like (for instance) 80s synthpop and rap/hip-hop. Given the playlists I posted above, it's quite reassuring to see a lot of youngish guitar bands writing reasonably well crafted 3-4 minute songs. I've always had a love of female-fronted bands, so bands like The Beth's and Momma really tick all the boxes for me. I think we all know what we like to listen to and reckon (as musicians and not as people being force fed a diet of oldies and formulaic product) that we can all see what's better than the rest within our listening genres.

Modern music, huh? For quite some time, I've listened to an American radio station during the day - W-EQX; they're based in Manchester, Vermont (listen live here: https://www.weqx.com/) - it's been a revelation. I've just discovered so many stellar new bands through them. Every new year, they have a top 100 countdown - here's the last three years. Obviously there's going to be some clunkers, there's so much great stuff. Momma. Snail Mail. The Beths. Beadbadobee. Sports Team. Soccer Mommy. Men I Trust. Glass Animals. Go listen! 2022 here: 2021 here: 2020 here:

Made in Mayfield, East Sussex by any chance?

The Beths. New Zealand indie pop. If you like these two, it's pretty certain you'll have some affinity with their entire back catalogue.

WE CALL IT THE JACO "BASS OF DOOM II" ...because nobody else does.

It looks as though Epiphone have discontinued the Thunderbird and EB/SG basses for 2023 and resurrected the Newport. https://www.epiphone.com/en-US/Collection/bass

Gene Simmons and Rex Brown, anyone? Well, OK. The Thunderbirds probably come out for a song or two...

These bridges (humorously referred to as BBOT - bent bit of tin) are all going to be interchangeable - Allparts would be on a hiding to nothing making something that wouldn't fit. If you want to stick with this style of bridge, it would honestly be worthwhile putting a request for one in the wanted section; there's loads here that have swapped these out for different ones and have their old bridges sitting unloved in their parts boxes. Hell, if I have a spare one, I'd send it to you just to be shot of it!

I was given a set last year. Nasty. I suppose if you're being given them for nothing, they're going to be brilliant, but nah.

I always think the red-headed girl looks a lot like my mate Beatrice.

Bit of a thread resurrection here. I've had the LongEvos on a Hamer Cruise bass for a while; pandemic/no band has meant that the bass hasn't been out of the house, but it's had some play-time at home - I don't know how long they've been on, well over a year, but lightish use. Joined something new recently, had a couple of four hour rehearsal sessions - took the Lull to the first one (Elixir Nanowebs) and the aforementioned Hamer on the second (LongEvo) - by way of observation the LongEvos were a little like running through treacle. They felt a bit sticky (for want of a better description) if that makes sense...I tend to do a lot of work at the nut end and slide up to dusty end for embellishments, but they were quite hard going. The Elixirs are almost self-lubricating by comparison. There's no evidence of the coating coming off, but they just felt a bit like they'd been on for years. In their defence, they sounded fine. Might be a case of this being a real world process - maybe the coating has just deteriorated a bit.

This is the same bass:

Much cop? Are you high @Highfox?

My #1 is perfect. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have bought it now, would I?

The singer in my old band argued that drums and bass were pretty much expendable and interchangeable on his whim. While we'd argue we were a band, a musical unit ('Apes, stronger, together')...hell, we had an online calendar where we'd post dates we weren't available, but he'd just book gigs for these dates anyway. I remember he moaned at me because I pulled out of a gig because my father in law died that day. The guy was besotted with the guitarist (who couldn't stand him) and if the guitarist said he wasn't available, well that was okay. [I'll chuck in an edit here. Things came to a head shortly after my father-in-law passed away and the furore surrounding that. We had a band meeting via WhatsApp and I asked nicely that if one of our number were unavailable for a particular date, we should politely decline it. I was just looking at the archived WhatsApp conversation a few minutes ago. Christ, what a knob the singer was.] Oh, and he was a c*nt.

PC, USB to a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2, to powered monitors. See my thread elsewhere about cabling. The PC needs to be on as the Scarlet needs to be powered (you can't jack in an external power source). Finally, Cakewalk (in its current form) is alive and well. It's 100% free and available from bandlab.com.