Cato

To be pedantic I don't think that's synth bass, I'm pretty sure it's a standard bass through an envelope filter pedal. That seems to be how he played it live in the early days... Although I've also seen clips of him playing the bass on his synths pretty much all the way through. As aside I've had some success copying the synth bass on Bruno Mars' 24k magic with a fretless and an envelope filter. Edit: sorry, Dr Stingray I didn't fully read your post before putting up mine.

Do we know that these workers have low pay and poor working conditions? It's very emotive to hear that a worker in x profession in x country only gets paid £100 a month, but what's actually important is what that £100 buys in their native country. If they can feed ,clothe and shelter their families for a month for that sum then, in real terms it's actually the equivalent of a UK wage of much higher nominal value. I'm not saying exploitation doesn't happen, it obviously does, just that detecting it isn't as straightforwards as just looking at a weekly or monthly wage directly converted into pounds or dollars.

Also one of the best live bands I've ever had the privilege to see and ,when they chose to be, an excellent funk/jazz 3 piece (guitar,bass,drums) in their own right.

It's been said before in other threads, but a Zoom B1on with a £20 pair of Sennheisers makes the perfect silent practice rig. You can play any hour of day or night without disturbing anyone or giving her an excuse to disturb you. Until she thinks of something else to complain about.

As far as I'm concerned any piece of equipment that can used to create music is a bona fide musical instrument in it's own right. There's a fair bit of snobbery about DJ decks, sampling software and the like from 'proper' musicians, but then apparently 'proper' musicians used to look down on electric guitars and keyboards, in the erroneous belief that those instruments somehow did most of the creative work by themselves, with minimal user input. I suspect that something similar is going on with the newest generation of instruments, but it will pass.

I just did a quick test and was able to sustain a note at the 12th fret of the G for 20 seconds with vibrato before I got bored. OK it's not technically pure 'one pluck and let ring' sutain but surely that's enough for any scenario?

I think we generally concentrate far more on muting, don't we?

Sorry, looks like we posted at the same time.

Is it Radiohead suing, or is it whatever record company has the rights to their first album?

I've still not got mine back. How about you?

It might just be a loose connection. How are your soldering skills?

Define 'weird'. If it's just gone a bit scratchy, there's a good chance it's an easy fix with a bit of gentle cloth action and/or contact cleaner. Anything else is and you could well be looking at getting a new pot.

I absolutely love the look of Ritters but I don't think I could ever own one. They look like they should be played exclusively by the young, beautiful people in Princes backing band. I suspect they look somewhat less sexy on middle aged, overweight Brummies. Less sexy, and more ridiculous.

I think he's got an active jazz with a pan pot rather than the standard VVT. So at a guess he's balancing the pickups with the pan pot, with the pot set more or less in the middle, maybe with slightly more bridge pickup. Easy to do with the pan pot, a bit more fiddly with a VVT.

We all have aesthetic foibles. I don't like sunburst on basses, but I like it on Strats. I don't like black bridges on any instrument. I have no rational explanation as to why.

There are these. http://swisspicks.com/ Not sure if they have a UK distributor though.

I used to read Guitarist magazine in the early 90s. One month they interviewed Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, one of whom caused a riot in the next months letters page by saying he vastly preferred his Tokai Les Paul to the genuine Gibsons he'd tried. We're talking full on flaming torches and farm implements. I've found it interesting in recent years that opinion seems to have swung round to agree with him that early 90s Japanese Tokais were indeed better instruments than US Gibsons of the same era.

Even if the worst comes to the worst, the Gibson brand will survive, although it may take a while to unravel it from it's various subsidiaries and partners. Under US bankruptcy laws I'm fairly sure that once bankruptcy is declared it's possible to sell on the brand without the new owners taking on any of the associated debt. How much of Gibson's manufacturing heritage would survive such a move is a different matter entirely, although personally I find it difficult to imagine that the new management wouldn't want to keep at least some manufacturing in the US and preferably at one of traditional sites.

Again?

Agreed. I can't see Ibanez being too happy about one of their retailers casually undermining their hard won reputation as a quality guitar/bass manufacturer. 'The fit and finish of Ibanez guitars at this price point and even higher is never perfect. They have crammed a lot of features in to the guitar for the price.'. I'm pretty sure Ibanez would have something to say about that statement.

My fretless V7 is bob on 9lbs, which I reckon is pretty decent for a jazz. There's no reason why they have to be boat anchors, although admittedly a lot of them are.

The crack in the heel of the neck would be enough for me to ask for a replacement. It might not represent a huge structural problem, but it's not good enough on a brand new bass from a maker of Ibanez's repute.

I had a similar experience. As a youngster I used to lust after Les Pauls, SGs and 335s. In my 20s I had a girlfriend who's dad had an extensive collection of Gibsons. The only one I actually got on with playing wise was the Firebird, all the others just felt 'wrong' to me, either the necks felt too flimsy (335 and es175) or the balance felt wrong (SG) , or in the case of the Les Pauls they were just all round uncomfortable. My loss I reckon. I'd have a Firebird in a second though.

No idea. Looks a lot nicer than Pau Ferro though.

Personally I never say never anymore. There are just too many basses and guitars that I despised for years, only to end up lusting after them.