Cato

I can't imagine my old school allowing 'pop music' at the Christmas concert back in the 80s/90s, far too low brow. Nice to hear things have moved on.

I had something delivered today while I was out. They left the package with someone 12 doors down the road which is a new record. Still, at least I got it today and it's always nice to meet new people.

At some point as he tours the globe he's probably going to find out that there's a drummer in the US already using the name 'Rikki Styxx' and she's already won the 'who comes up first (and only) in a Google search' competition.

Not an album, but a couple of more obscure Christmas tracks.

Maybe start a thread in the Build Diaries section? There's a few expert builders in there that you don't really see much round other parts of the forum.

I see a lot of aesthetically pleasing basses on here on a pretty much daily basis, but that really is a stand out.

I can't remember who said it first but I'm fairly sure the Forum motto is 'Whoever dies with the most toys wins'.

Is it too soon for this to be considered a 'timeless' classic one hit wonder?

Guilty. (The suggesting that left handers learn to play right handed bit, not the encouraging gay conversation therapy part). I promise I won't do it again.

It's just quite nice and friendly round here. I don't know what the the magic ingredient is that stops a lot of the crap that happens on other forums, but a lot of it has to be down to the people that use it regularly and the laid back but highly effective approach of the moderation team.

I got some pickups from them a few years back. It wasn't overnight delivery but I don't remember waiting too long for them to arrive. No problems or issues, they're a legit retailer. Of course you never really know how good a retailer is until something goes wrong and you find out how good they are at dealing with problems, but I wouldn't hesitate to use them again if they had the best price on something I wanted.

In the 30 odd years I've been playing I don't think there's a single finish, feature or fixture on a bass that I've initially hated the look of that I haven't ended up with GAS for at some point down the line. These days when I see something I don't particularly like my first thought is 'I'll probably want one of those in a couple of years'.

It's only in last year or two that I've started seeing US made G & Ls being regularly stocked by UK retailers. I had a hankering to try an ASAT for years but on the rare occasions I manged to find somewhere that had one it was inevitably located at the other end of the country.

There's a fair few of us that have got or have owned Sires, though I think most of us have/had first generation V7s rather than Ps. I've got a fretless V7 that isn't going anywhere. Generally opinion is overwhelmingly positive, the only negatives that come up are to do with the hardware. The tuners and the bridges, whilst perfectly functional, feel a bit cheap and flimsy and the same could be said of the plastic knobs. That was specifically on the first generation V7s though, I think some of those issues have been addressed on the more recent models. But overall you get a lot of bass for your money.

The Eastwood Warren Ellis tenor guitar has picked up a bit of a cult following over the last few years. Maybe this is Fender grabbing a bit of that action?

You've just reminded me of this one note wonder.

Just about every Ramones tune is made up of two or three simple riffs that repeat in each section of the song.

Roundwounds, mainly clean with lots of treble will get close to early Anthrax and Megadeth bass tones, I suspect that both Dave Ellefson and Frank Bello also tended to lean heavily on the bridge pickup for their sound on the early albums. Ellefson is a pick guy but Bello plays fingerstyle as well. Other bass players of the era such as Cliff Burton tended to go heavy on the overdrive, which, combined with poor production is why it can be difficult to hear what the bass is doing on a lot of early thrash, it just gets lost among the distorted guitars.

As a fellow sufferer, this is the best stuff I've found. https://www.amazon.co.uk/OKeeffes-Working-Hands-Hand-Cream/dp/B00121UVU0 It definitely helps with the discomfort and it seems to help the split heal quicker than just leaving it alone.

Anyone fancy £600 off a USA Jazz Elite? https://www.andertons.co.uk/fender-american-elite-jazz-bass-ash-natural-maple-board-0197002721?lgw_code=16284-0197002721&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-4nuBRCnARIsAHwyuPr_WlXBYjcsOpMdI5JM_BtAb5RLK1sRlVpXi_Je1m_3Z_Ce_ZrgZBoaAlOcEALw_wcB

The Fender group has Jackson and Charvel covering the shredders and the metal fans and Gretsch to cover the (dare I say it) Gibson style solid bodies and semi-hollow market. Their Fender branded guitars are never going to stray too far from the traditional models that people expect. Apart from anything else whenever they try a bit of departure from the classics, from the Katana and the Performer to the Dimension, it inevitability flops.

He doesn't come across as a particularly likeable bloke. I also got the impression, rightly or wrongly, that since Hillel Slovak died Kiedis has basically thought of the Chillis as himself, Flea and the hired help. He basically says that he barely knows Chad, and he always thought of John Frusciante as Flea's mate.

On the plus side when the Elite range came out retailers started selling off the old USA Deluxe stock with £500 discounts so if the Ultra range is replacing the Elites there might be some real bargains on the way.

Have you considered getting a pair of these?

I've not actually watched this properly but it's been regularly cropping up in my YouTube suggestions for a while. I know from looking at something else that the Rift combo comes in at about two grand, but I think the other amps they cover are mostly under the £500 mark.