Cato

Starmer is walking an impossible tight rope. So far he's doing a superb job but it's only a matter of time before Trump throws his toys out over the huge respect Zelensky gets in Europe and the UK. I saw some speculation in the press that Zelensky meeting the king just might trigger a Trump tantrum. It's utterly ridiculous that the continuing US membership of NATO might rest on such utterly trivial matters, but apparently here we are.

I suppose the Gallup bass isn't to awful once you get used to the 'not quite a Thunderbird' aesthetic. But I'll take some convincing on the Smith guitar. To me it looks like a cartoon guitar that's been squashed and is midway through popping back into shape.

When I think of Schecter I tend to think of slightly dated black spikey guitars and basses and various 'super strat' models that are unambiguously aimed at the metal players. I do know that they've diversified somewhat in recent years into more vanilla Fender based designs but I still tend to think of them in the same bracket as ESP or Jackson in that their products aren't really aimed at me. Even The Cure endorsement hasn't really shifted that perception although it would probably help if the Smith guitar and Gallup bass weren't so odd looking.

I have been wondering how far Tesla sales have to fall in Europe before the board realises that maybe Musk going out of his way to alienate the demographic most likely to buy an electric car might be a problem.

Never thought I'd say this but I'm considering boycotting US goods. I wasn't too bothered about the tariffs or even the open hostility from the new administration towards America's long term alllies but this Ukraine debacle has crossed a line. I don't think I can bring myself to buy another US guitar while Trump is in office.

I'm not sure why Fender get singled out for lack of innovation. I don't think there have been any major innovations in bass design that have actually stuck from anyone since the late 70s/80s when active electronics and headless instruments entered mainstream production. Since then everything seems to be tweaking the same , often Fender inspired, designs. The only other major change in the landscape of electric guitars and basses I can think of in the last 50 or so years has been the dramatic improvement in the quality of budget instruments over the last decade or two.

This interesting, it's skinny stringers again, but even Andertons are sayng that Squier Classic Vibe is superior to the Fender Standard.

As I understand it Generative AI works by scanning a source ( usually the internet but it can be a specific database) for information/ images that fit the keywords in the description it's provided and combining information from those sources to create a new image. At no point does it actually understand any of that information itself. ie. It doesn't know what a bass guitar is, let alone how it's components work, hence the obvious innacuracies in many of the images.

Just a heads up that this is doing the rounds on social media again. It look like a competition where a well known guitar shop ( the one I saw was PMT) is holding a competition to win the chance to buy a Marshall bluetooth speaker for £9.99. I'd already seen warnings about this exact scam last summer but today on Instagram was the first time I've seen it in the flesh and at first glance it looks like a genuine post from PMT, so I thought I'd spread the warning here on BC, just in case. Why social media companies are still allowing a known scam ad format to run on their platform is another matter...

Gibson went through a period of innovation fairly recently that included the infamous robo tuners and the Firebird X 'smart guitar'. It wasn't exactly a roaring success for them. I suspect it will be a long time before they stray from the tried and tested path again.

Total unfounded speculation but without the big volume wheel the Go looks less like the Fender Mustang headphone amp. I wonder if there was a 'cease and desist' involved in the sudden halting of the original run? Great to see it back anyway, mine is still my go to practice set up.

Looks like there's more on the way https://news.sky.com/story/today-is-the-big-one-trump-says-he-will-unveil-reciprocal-trade-tariffs-13308449

Give it 40 years and people will be talking about early Indonesian Fenders the same way they talk about Japanese Squiers.....

From reading your other posts about the band it sounds like there was a fair bit of travel involved? Maybe if you found somwthing a bit more local it might bring some of the fun back? Anyway, all the best for the future and whatever you do it'll be good to see you hanging around on BC.

I can't understand why anyone would want to go an event like that and watch it from a private box. Being part of the crowd is a key part of the gig experience for me.