Doctor J

It’s never fun to do but you know in yourself that it’s the right thing for you. I’ve just handed in my notice to a band I joined just a few weeks ago. I liked the music but the 3 hour round trip to rehearsal is something I just can’t live with anymore. I wish I had known this a few weeks ago and I thought it wouldn’t be a big thing going into it, but it took a few trips for me to realise that’s not the case. Younger me didn’t mind long drives like that. Older me doesn’t want to spend so much time on the road. You live and learn. Good luck with the next one.

Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson are the pinnacle, for me. I have a lot of time for Cliff WIlliams and Phil Rudd, too - simple, perhaps, but very effective.

Nothing can go wrong which won't be a source of laughs for years to come. Enjoy it and, rather than think of what can go wrong, focus instead that every single person there will be wishing you well and use that positive energy not just to play well, but perform to your best. You'll have a blast and it will all pass too soon so enjoy every second.

Hopefully they’ve addressed the tail pull-up issue too

Orion is a very comfy set-neck ride

Al sold me his MB500. He did what he said he would when he said he would do it and was a pleasure to deal with all the way. Top marks from me.

Never under dispute and, be that as it may, there are still nicer options to address the straight-on headstock than that which they have gone with, which looks like a crude afterthought after a rummage through the scrap parts bin.

Looks like a photoshop trainwreck, although it could be a very linear grain anomaly with that piece of wood. They only offer maple or ebony, not a combination of both. As an aside, am I the only one who finds their use of two round string trees plus the string guide on the B to be a complete eyesore, a very ugly solution to a simple problem? Surely a bar would be far easier on the eye while providing a uniform break angle over the nut? It reeks of a solution which developed in a scattergun fashion over a long period of time an no-one has thought of re-evaluating the situation.

This is sad to read. I have bought from Jess a few times in the past and his service was great. Shame. I bought some strat pickups from http://www.qpickups.com/ recently, based in Croatia, and they are superb. I haven’t tried their bass pickups yet, but based on the build quality and sound of the strat ones, plus the service quality, he will be where I go next when I need something for a bass.

30 years have passed, add 40% to the price.

Nicky Wire used something like that on the Everything Must Go tour.

I made this a few years ago. 70's spaced J bass which I installed a reversed P into. The neck J and P are wired to a 3 way mini-switch and the output of that is routed to the blend pot with the bridge J. It's Vol-Blend-Bass-Treble There are some interesting tones to be had but, in all honesty, you're not really missing out with just two pickups and an onboard preamp.

I believe they are. There's a claws.

Hmmmm... it appears the pic is polarising opinions

I recently sold a Bacchus Woodline P Classic, I've never played anything better in the wide world of P. Lovely and light, too. I'm just not a P guy.

When I moved out of the city to a real rural setting I was delighted to see a music shop in one of the closer big towns. I saw they stocked Elixirs so asked them to order me one of the .135 B strings instead of ordering off the internet. I told them I had a .130 but it wasn't taut enough for me so I was very specific about the .135. They said no problem, it would be a few days, they would call me when it was in and asked me to pay a deposit. No problem, I thought, paid a €10 deposit and went on my merry way to wait for the call. After a week of waiting, I asked my missus to check if it was in, as she was going into town and gave her the rest of the money. She arrived home, said they had the string, and had paid the remaining €18. I was a bit whizzed off they hadn't called but they got the string so I'd let them away with it. She opened her bag and handed me... a .130. She was also going back into town the next day so she brought it back. I was annoyed with them and if they didn't have the .135 I just wanted a refund. Crap service sends me to the internet. She came home and said they refunded her and handed me... €18. They hadn't refunded the deposit. I changed my plans and went in the next day, having to argue with the goon behind the counter that A) he had ordered something I was very clear I already had, not the string I asked them to order - he even checked his notebook and, sure enough, there was 135 written there - and B) he had not refunded the deposit. He pointed at the €18 written on the invoice slip I had. I reminded him that the string had a €28 price tag on it and he had not sold it to me for €18 and if he couldn't remember me paying the deposit that was his problem. I had to point out that he didn't order things in without a deposit. Eventually, he relented and reluctantly handed me the rest of my money back. I left and have never crossed their door since. Perhaps the money I would have spent there would never be missed, but I've bought a lot of gear in the last 10 years and I would have loved to support a local business but every single thing was wrong about that first experience. Life is too short to go through something like that more than once.

Thanks one and all, great efforts by everyone. Much toner will be squandered on this day!

Most guitars don’t go away, either. Saturation point approaches at speed.

Price drop guarantee, too. Nice one.

I usually bypass the EQ at home. Every bass which wants to stay must sound good with no EQ otherwise I move it on. Any adjustments for gigs are no more than a couple of db either way to suit the room.

Time to raise the bar... I give you John McEnroe, Pat Cash, Roger Daltrey, Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain

The problem with the Firebird X... ok, one of the problems... was that they built hardware obsolesence into it. As the world heads towards using phones & whatever replaces them for signal processing, utilising endlessly customisable and upgradeable software, Gibson filled that guitar with hardware and connectivity with guaranteed future uselessness built in. It's still baffling it made it past the first couple of design meetings.

Elton also played on Black Gives Way To Blue by Alice in Chains

Go with what’s lightest followed by what looks nice. Your electronics will determine what it sounds like.

I’m not sure what you mean. In the previous post you say you like the preamped sound but now you say you don’t like the sound of the preamp. A non-eq preamp should really just amplify the sound you already have without colouring it. You end up with the same sound, just louder. If your bass has passive pickups then the whole purpose of a preamp is to colour the sound by applying eq to taste. If you don’t use the eq but you like the sound flat even though it’s too quiet then turn up the input gain on your amp.