NancyJohnson

So. My old Aria just sounds a little dull compared to everything else. East don't seem to have the P-retro in stock (ever!), so just looking for something to liven things up. Suggestions? I'm not worried about inserting a battery box, but if the unit has an internal battery, then all the better.

Absolutely 100% this ^^^ There clearly are instances in early Fenders where Leo didn't get it right. I can understand it from a design perspective; it just keeps everything smooth at the headstock end, but it is a major ball-ache to take the neck off, tweak, put the neck back on, set up, swear a bit, and repeat.

Back in the good old days when people lacked the ability to spell things properly, didn't know better but still wondered why their precious eBay sale wasn't even getting watchers, there used to be a website called chubbyfingers.com (or something) that allowed you to type in a search term (ie Squier) and the site would go off and search for near misses on eBay (returning Squire, Sqiure, Square etc.). I can remember typing in 'Gibson' and the site returning a number of goofy spellings where someone's chubby finger had simply picked up spurious characters during the creation of the advert. I'm a huge fan of several authors and regularly picked up ARCs, proofs and first editions where sellers hadn't even bothered to spell the author's name correctly.

Search my posts. Don't believe any nonsense about steroids, heat, acupuncture etc. If the issue is with the A1 pulley, the only thing that will correct things PERMANENTLY is surgery. How do I know? Here's me after surgery number one of five:

Prior to my dUg purchase, I was running this into two channels. Close. The BDDI was always on...I tended to let the GT2 handle the top end tone/dirt.

Which also makes things nightmarish when you're used to recording with (for instance) MIDI drums or live loops, especially if you're making use of cut and paste techniques.

All the drummers I know don't have the space to set up even the smallest four piece kit in their home environment, so the only time they play is when they're in a room with people. They don't practice.

My rack unit failed outside of the warranty period (see thread elsewhere); it still worked (in as much as it made a sound, but did not emulate properly), so it went off for repair, came back the same (the Tech21 appointed workshop clearly had zero idea of what it was supposed to do). As a sucker for Tech21 kit, I went back for more. Bought a dUg and shortly after it became available, a (BDDI-sized) GED2112-DI. Happy with both. It's odd, you can dial in GED-style tone-emulation from the dUg, but the Chunk button just elevates things. The GED-DI is great, just different. In closing, if anyone is considering a GED2112-DI, here's one bit of advice; pop an 18v power supply in your cart. It sounds way better than a 9v one.

There's plenty of threads/posts about Elixir strings...the search facility is your friend! I'd go Elixir (or Markbass coated) every time; I've never really liked Rotosound strings...they were pretty much all you could get when I started playing and they were generally inconsistent qualitywise, so that put me off for good. I'm not really one of these guys who are like a string sommelier, I'll play anything, but on my basses I just prefer to know what I'm putting on them.

Isn't he dead? Keep up at the back.

I think Messrs Meddows-Taylor and May might actually have been better if they'd been fronted by an actual iPad. They honestly need to stop, it's destroying whatever's left of their legacy.

I'm going to leave it to you to search Spotify, but have spent the morning listening to indie pop/rock; a combination of The Beths (from Auckland, New Zealand) and Momma (Los Angeles). Momma are easy, if you like Veruca Salt or The Breeders, there's your new fix. The Beths are just plain fun, they are just a collision of lots of different bands (Snail Mail, Bully, Vedera come to mind, especially Vedera).

Reading this thread prompted me into deep thought about the musicians that went through my old band. The ins and outs read like one of Pete Frame's Rock Family Trees, I'm sure this isn't uncommon. They're still operating albeit without a single original member, going through four different drummers (one sacked), four different guitarists (one who left, came back and left again - no sackings), three different singers (one sacked) and four different bass players (three of which came and left since I left - none sacked). I had to sack the drummer. Nice guy but rubbish. Gear falling apart, always late (timing a problem too). We played The Half Moon in Putney and he missed the soundcheck. We got the headliner's drummer to sit in (she knew our stuff, just sat down and asked what we wanted, 'Something fast, 4/4, play what you want.') Soon-to-be-fired drummer arrived mid-soundcheck while she was playing with us and said to my mate, 'Oh, this isn't good, they're way better with her playing.'

Never been sacked from a band, but have needed to let people go for the greater good. Conversely, it is quite delicious to go and play with a bunch of blokes who are just terrible players and desparate to get you in.

I honestly thought it could be a possibility to integrate a EUB into what I'd classify as my regular gig (sixteens!). Things are distinctly busier on the EUB, but it's never going to happen. I need to find a trio playing ja-hazz, but fuzzy ja-hazzz.

I got my EUB start of December 2021. With the exception of a three week period when we had the builders in, I tend to play daily. I think for me the one thing I realised early on was that there was no way I was going to be as proficient or as fast on the upright as I would be on a regular bass. I simply don't have the speed in my fingers to be playing punky stuff on that baby. I just enjoy playing along with solo piano stuff, the slower the better.

Doesn't bother me any way. I've always considered a neck-through construction to look a little classier from a build perspective, but having owned/played several of each derivative, neck-through/bolt-on/set-neck, I don't feel there's any benefit one way or another.

HP Desktop... honestly couldn't tell you what processor or specs. It's an omnipresent low volumed hiss/static/crackle, not a (traditional sounding) ground hum. It doesn't matter how high the output is on the interface or how high the volume us on the monitors, it's always there.

I'm curious whether anyone has (and has had any success) using an iFi iDefender between a PC and an audio interface to reduce monitor noise? Ever since I switched from an old Dell PC to my HP I've experienced a quiet static noise/interference through my monitors...my setup is PC > Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 > M-Audio BX5s. It doesn't matter what setting the interface is on, the background static/noise is always there. I also get a little bit of noise if I'm using the scroll wheel on the mouse. Nothing comes through on recordings, it's just blumming irritating.

I'd wholeheartedly concur. If you're the type of person who gets moist over new Jazz and Precision basses, then you're going to be made up visiting GAK, Andertons, Guitar Guitar etc. There's nothing particularly special about them, they're just like instrument supermarkets, all selling the same price-fixed stuff.

I've always found it odd (and a little quaint) that people will continue to take this stance and shop at places with a storefront. Sure I can understand my 85 year old mother-in-law browsing round department stores, but in the main, we're all net-savvy and should know better. Barring my Barefaced win, all my current kit (guitars, basses, amps, stomps, enclosures, accessories) was all purchased sight unseen from Thomann, Andertons, Bass Direct or Amazon, honestly can't remember last time I bought anything from a music shop...possibly a Laney 2x10 from Kingfisher in Fleet early 90s. As a prodigious reader, the only shop I'd make any effort to use/visit would be Waterstones and even then only if they had a Waterstones-exclusive content or there was a signing I wanted to go to. I even buy shoes online. When all this was fields, I worked for a company that tried to dissuade online sales by the customer-base and only supplied businesses with a regular shops; eventually they trialled one customer online and realised very quickly how many units they could shift and the floodgates opened. Quicker than you could say Where's Montgomery? (chortle) we'd jumped in bed with Amazon and sales rocketed. The High Street as we know it is on it's last legs, folks. Nail shops, beauty parlours and hairdressers.

This came up again over the weekend. Mate of mine mentioned the (now long-gone) Horizons pavilion at the EPCOT centre and asked whether I remembered the small-scale holographic projection on part of the ride ('There's my wife talking to my daughter...'); it was a little 'Help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope...' I suppose there's a degree of that concept at work here.

Can someone explain to me what you're likely to see if one were to attend one of these shows? I've seen a brief 50 second promo clip from the song Mama Mia and that's it. I'm interested, but I will not be going. I couldn't give a rat's bottom as to the technology behind it; at the end of the day whatever is up on stage isn't them and irrespective of how they've achieved the motion capture and do the projection isn't it just the equivalent of watching a film or video game? I just took a look at tickets; this thing is running until May 2023 (at least) and tickets are £40-£200, five days a week (Mon/Thu/Fri) with two shows a day at weekends. Jesus. But hey, we're all getting a £400 fuel rebate, so what better to spend it on, eh? Who needs to keep warm. The sadness (beyond the fact that people are shelling out a fortune to watch) is that it's almost certain Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are rubbing their hands together and going, 'Oh man, do you realise we can sack the two imposters and still make a fortune into our eighties and we won't have to put these ridiculous outfits again.'