Cato

I like that a lot. Takes me back to when the cool kids at school were playing Nephilim/Sisters stuff in the common room

Maybe he doesn't have the skills to write his own? In the same way I can learn a reasonably complex guitar solo note by note but I don't really have the chops to write an original guitar solo myself that's any more complex or interesting than a basic blues improv.

I think I'm creative. I definitely think describing myself as an 'artist' would be to raise people's expectations way too high though.

I quite like it, but then I like a lot of those odd looking Soviet Union era guitars and basses. This looks like it could be a Danelectro Longhorn copy made in Yugoslavia circa 1974.

I've recently finished 2 weeks of jury service in a different county. Slightly different because it was Crown Court, but suffice to say very little happened at the time and date it was orginally scheduled for during my stint.

I generally like the more avant-garde designs but I'm struggling a bit with that one.

The fact that it's at Magistrates rather than Crown Court suggests that , should he be found guilty, a serious prison sentence is probably not on the cards.

I'm not a huge fan but a while ago I read an interview with Alex Lifeson where he was talking about how him & Geddy still hang out as friends and play music together on a regular basis. If they still love playing and they have an audience that wants to see it then it makes perfect sense for them to tour again.

I was skeptical when Sire broke the £1k barrier with the V/P 10 range a few years back, but not only are they still in production, Sire have actually moved upwards in price bracket again with some of the new F series range. So it's apparently possible for a brand that was once perceived as budget (I think my series 1 V7 fretless was less than £400 brand new) to successfully move upmarket.

When Fender bought Jackson/Charvel one of the first things they did was discontinue the Surfcaster line because they considered it direct competition for their own Jaguars andJazzmasters Fender's other brands all cover different markets. Charvel for modern rock players, Jackson for the heavy stuff, Gretsch covers a lot of the same ground as Gibson , none of them are in direct competition with Fender. I think the problem G&L may have is that, L Series aside, a lot of G&L models are based directly on Fender models and have been marketed as upgrades on those original designs for a long time. I can't see Fender selling Fender clones (albeit upgraded ones) under a different brand.

At the very least I'd expect Fender to discontinue all the Fender clone models, which is a substantial chunk of the G&l skinny stringer range. Hopefully the L series basses will stay on account being substantially different from anything Fender are currently offering, but I wouldn't be totally suprised if Fender stopped continous production of all G&L models in favour of doing limited runs of specific Leo Fender designed models. As mentioned by @Jean-Luc Pickguard above, if the rumours are true, I suspect Fender probably see more value in the company's heritage and assets than they do in the actual brand. They may even just be motivated by the desire to stop another company buying G & L & acquiring their rights to use Leos name in conjunction with their products.

Their UK suppliers never seem to last long, every now and then someone like Andertons will get a few bits and pieces in but when those are gone that seems to be it. I was very interested in trying an ASAT bass a few years ago and couldn't find one, new or used, being advertised anywhere in the UK. I always assumed the US made stuff was fairy low production numbers so most of it stays in the States. It'll be a shame if they do go, a lot of their stuff, both bass and skinny strings, guitars are an interesting twist on Leo's original designs. I'd be sorry to see some of those designs go.

I reckon there's a big difference between calling out other social media influencers on youtube as opposed to inserting yourself into a situation that involves alleged criminals, the police, lawyers and at least one ongoing court case. I can't imagine he'd go anywhere near it.

I think we're moved away from the OPs original point about being uncomfortable about playing a specific song rather than an issue of whether or not whole genres should be taboo. Having looked at the lyrics of that song I would say that the casual listener is very unlikely to have a clue about the real events it's referring to so I probably wouldn't be worried on that score. It does however appear to be in a dialect or patois which is likely going to sound very odd if sung in an English accent and probably even more ridiculous if said English person tries to 'do' the correct accent, so I'd probably be out on that score.

Only going to get worse with AI. Even in it's current imperfect state there are people creating fake images of real events and tragedies purely to farm engagement on social media. If the tech keeps inproving at it's current rate it won't be long before anyone with access to a smartphone can instruct AI to create entirely convincing video imagery of anything they want and claim that it's a real event.

You can over think these things. Some of the best songs tell a story, you don't have to have a connection or even empathy for that story in order to retell it. Indeed sharing stories is one of the ways that people learn about each other. Having said that I'd feel pretty silly if I had to sing Redemption Song in front of an audience, so there's definitely a 'Partridge' line somewhere, but it's probably very much an individual decision rather than a blanket rule you can apply to all situations

It's a nice enough looking intrument, I'm sure it sounds decent too. Absolutely nothing outstanding or even particularly 'metal' about it though, just seems to be another black P shaped bass. Click on any guitar shop webiste and there will likely be multiple 'stealth' looking instruments with similar specs from various manufacturers.

Loose string tree or maybe a loose screw in the bridge somewhere?

That's a fine looking thing, even by ACG standards.

Yep I'm not sure what kind of technique you need to make good use of the half fretless thing, but I definitely don't have it.

I like that a lot. I wonder if they might do a limited lower specced MiM or USA production run if this generates enough interest.

That Ibanez is a welcome reminder of a less tasteful age. I remember going into Musical Exchanges in Brum in the late 80s and lusting after the crackle finished BC Riches, I think Washburn & Kramer did something similar as well. Hot neon guitars and basses in almost painfully bright pinks and yellows were definitely a thing at around the same time as well. I don't remember seeing any animal print guitars, but they wouldn't have been out of place. Then, as mentioned above, grunge pretty much killed all the flamboyant finishes and it feels a bit like fashion wise guitars have been doing the same sensible retro/vintage finish thing for the last 30 years or so.

I suspect we're about to be hit by a tidal wave of AI generated music. The idea you can potentially get an AI to write a hit song for you in minutes despite having zero musical ability has all the makings of a classic 'get rich quick' scheme. Of course most of the resulting music won't get any commercial traction at all, but that won't stop large numbers of people churning the stuff out in the hope of getting that one track that hits the jackpot.

If AI video generation keeps advancing at the current rate in a year or so the scandal won't be that influencers are decieving their followers, it'll be that they never existed in the first place.

Once you get beyond promoting your next gig or your mates mates posting their holiday snaps most social media is fakery to some extent. Whether it's lifestyle influencers faking an idyllic, carefree existence or the fitness fanatics who enthuse about a healthy lifestyle while neglecting to mention their own heroic steroid intake, or the straight up thieves trying to steal your money with crypto scams. Even most of the funny animal clips are clearly staged. Add in that posting content can also be highly lucrative and it's not that suprising that a lot of content creators don't seem to know or much care where the moral boundary is between presenting the best version of yourself and outright deception. I'm not sure a lot of the audience it's aimed at is that bothered either, right up to the moment the outrage bandwagon starts rolling.