Cato

The time for Gibson to go after other companies for copying their designs was 60 or 70 years ago. Gretsch essentially copied the Les Paul shape for their Duo Jet in the 1950s and did the same with the 335 for the 'Country Gentleman ' in the 1960s, both of which are still in production and have a fair bit more in common with the instruments that 'inspired' them than D Bird does with the Thunderbird. Will Gibson finally now go after Gretsch after all these years? Probably not. Gretsch are owned by Fender these days and are quite capable of meeting Gibson's lawyers in a courtroom on equal terms, unlike some of the other companies Gibson are going after.

Dingwall haven't explicitly said exactly why they changed it, but they issued this statement on their website. To all our friends and customers, Due to circumstances beyond our control we are discontinuing the award-winning D-bird model. In it’s place we are introducing the D-Roc. The good news is that all the performance features that made the D-bird such a standout will be carried over to the D-Roc, the only changes will be to the body profile and headstock. Early feedback to the new D-Roc has been unanimously positive so we see this as a very positive move. Customers receiving a D-Roc will be getting the first run of a new and exciting design. We appreciate everyone’s patience and support as we faced this challenge to steer things to a successful and positive outcome for our customers. We are very proud of the efforts of the entire Dingwall team and suppliers. Best regards, Sheldon Dingwall Which sounds like that whatever happened was sudden and unexpected as they seem to be altering the design even for customers who have already ordered a D Bird. It seems likely that they either got nervous after Gibson went after Dean and made the change pre-emptively or maybe they heard that a legal challenge might be on the cards. Dingwall isn't a big company, the legal fees involved in fighting any kind of law suit would hurt them badly regardless of whether they won or not.

Bizarrely that song has been on a loop in my head for about 2 weeks after it featured in something I watched on the telly (Killing Eve maybe?). Reading this has just set it off again, so thanks for that.

The corner of the brass string retainer nut thing on my Washburn Status is so sharp that I quickly learnt never to put my fingers anywhere near the end of the neck. I'm not sure all headless basses have this useful feature though.

I've been hankering after a 51 style P for years. I've never actually played one, I'm certain it would be considerably less versatile than any of my current basses, but every time Fender announces a new range it's the first thing I look for. It's a certainty they'll release a version at some point, it's just a matter of how long it will take.

Pretty sure we'd all vote for the most ridiculous/impractical hat we can think of and Teebs will end up going on stage in a giant pink sombrero. Then we'll have to live with the guilt when he inevitably gets beaten like a pinata for cultural appropriation by the outraged Mancunian Mexican community.

I joined the Stomp club in January and I really do rate it very highly for bass (although I think it really excels as a skinny string guitar multi fx unit). But it hasn't replaced my £50 B1on which I prefer for silent home practice, mainly because of the looper and drum tracks. I also think the envelope filters are better for bass on the B1on than on the Stomp, but that may be down to me not yet mastering the Stomp. I still like the B1on so much that I'm actually seriously considering getting a B1-4 even though I've already got more multi FX goodness than I really need.

Lovely looking bass.

I'm not sure that most do these days. Whatever the original reason was why manufacturers used to fit them, a lot of them seem to have found a way around it in the last decade or so.

A '51 style Precision is near the top of my 'future acquisitions' list. I'm not really interested in another split pick up version, no matter how 'period correct' it may be.

Apparently Stevie Wonder is a fan.

Spot on.

Apparently I'm Hunstanton Thatch-Tavern. Thatch for short. Which is a bit ironic given the direction my hairline is moving in.

Quite often. Every now and then I pop into the place in town when I'm in the area, just to see if they've got anything interesting in. Usually I leave within 5 minutes.

I used to love Megadeth when I was a teenager I must have seen them live 4 or 5 times. Bruce Dickinson resumed his career after a brush with throat cancer, here's hoping for a similar outcome for Dave.

Going to Glastonbury in the early--mid 90s was one the highlights of my late teens/early 20s. I loved pretty much every second apart from the inevitable points where I had to take a seat in the latrines. Even that was useful life experience. Whenever someone warns me about 'the state of the gents' in a pub or on a train I can go in confidently knowing that I've almost certainly seen and dealt with worse.

Steve Harris is about the only one I'd be confident of getting right in a blindfold test.

He's taken a bass and amp with him. The wildlife is not only bothered, it's absolutely traumatised. The locals are reporting deer walking around with rabbits stuffed in their ears.

That was just a bit weird. If he's seriously trying to stop other guitar manufacturers making Gibson shaped guitars then he's about 6 or 7 decades too late.

Playing a six requires really good technique. I play fours with my thumb over the top edge of neck and I use that thumb to mute the lower 2 strings when required. You can't really get away with that on a five, let alone a six. Because of the width of the neck it really needs the classical thumb-on-the-centre-of-the-back-of-neck fretting hand position. Muting strings to stop sympathetic resonance is more difficult. It won't stop me getting one at some point, but I know it's going to be a bit of a challenge.

Reminds me of a 15 year old me, bashing the crap out of my Axe bass through no name 30 watt amp in a vain effort to be heard alongside a guitarist going through a 50 watt Marshall. I got through a lot of strings. I initially switched to finger style for mainly economic reasons.

Unbelievable by EMF. The track has a sample running through it that repeats 'Whoah! What the F*ck' throughout the song. For the avoidance of doubt the wording of the sample was included with the lyric sheet that came with the CD. The unedited song received widespread nationwide airplay. Apparently no one noticed the naughty language.

I'm not sure where this bass fits in the timeline but the PRS bird inlays started out as a feature on one of PRS' top of the line guitar models before eventually expanding to most of the rest of the range over the years.

I'd guess Mr Miller's visit is connected to Andertons position as the UK's biggest Sire dealership. I'd be surprised if Marcus isn't playing a Sire for most of the event and I'd imagine there may be a few Sire's available for the atendees to check out as well.

If he shrugs his shoulders he's going to be singing soprano for the rest of the night.