Doctor J

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.

Why not just turn up the input gain on your amp instead and leave the eq you already have flat then?

I really struggled with this. The picture largely steered towards a set of instruments I don't really participate in. On the plus side, I finally figured out how to get midi instruments working at last, so that's nice. Anyway... here 'tis

I have a Centaura guitar and it’s fantastic. I would love to try their basses.

Funky!

In the midst of an enforced cull at the moment but this was the state of play last year

Ooooooh nice!

Would this have been during Ringo’s long and spectacular coked-off-my-tits period? Maybe that’s why he couldn’t do it?

Clickbait, yes, but sadly wit-light parody of some of the muscial and ergonomic violations already in the hands of some serious musicians. Not fully, in the hands, mind, they're too big and ungainly to actually fit in a human hand, but... well... partially in the hands?

Once it stops being fun, get out of there. Doing nothing is better than being miserable.

Moral outrage is my bedfellow.

Yes, exactly what the entertainent industry needs is more people who keep quiet and don’t have an opinion on anything. That’s entertainment. The saddest part of this is the reaction of so many who are outraged by one man speaking his mind. Remember when having an opinion and talking about it was a regular thing? What an utter shambles the world has become where speaking openly and without fear draws the ire of those who’d rather live in a bubble with the precious fallacy they’ve cultivated around their sacred cows. Let the man speak. If you don’t like it, tough. Learn not to get offended by opinions other than your own. There’s a lot he said which was a little uncofortable to read but I’m guessing he got to where he is by being a straight-talker and not someone scared to upset a Beatle or two. Consider that maybe they tried harder and did better because of his directness. Being a producer is a lot more than just “Well done, boys, you’ve just recorded your first number one!”