Russ

A combination of scarcity and charging what the market will bear. Wal was out of business for quite a few years until Paul Herman took the reins, which created a huge amount of pent-up demand. Have you seen what Wals change hands for secondhand? I saw one the other day that was up for $10,000. The worst part is that it will sell, since interested buyers would rather pay that than wait four years!

I think they're lovely, unique instruments with peerless build quality and a sound all of their own that can't be easily replicated. But they are a bit of an acquired taste.

Wal have announced they've had to stop taking orders for the time being, as they currently have a four year waiting list! So there's obviously no shortage of people willing to pay £6k for one... I wonder if they've ever considered an import model? Not Chinese, but maybe Eastern European, like Spector?

From the videos I've watched, those Red Sub basses, through a Darkglass pedal, sound remarkably like a Dingwall. If you want that Nolly sound on the cheap, that could be the way to go. Upper fret access looks a bit dodgy though, thanks to that massive neck heel.

Fanned frets? "Metal" look? G4M might have you covered. Saw one of these reviewed online recently and it's supposed to be pretty decent for the money: https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/RedSub-Coliseum-Fanned-Fret-5-String-Bass-Blue-Burl-Burst/31J3

Yep. They need gear that will survive being repeatedly manhandled and thrown into the back of trucks. A big, powerful Class A or valve head that's either rackmountable or that comes in a strong wooden case, would be a great halo product. Class D heads, particularly more recently, sound great and offer a lot of bang for the buck (my go-to head is a Mesa Subway WD-800), but they're light, relatively fragile and not necessarily built to be thrown around by roadies. Blackstar - if you're reading this, I'm happy to throw my hat in the ring as an endorser...

Their amps are good. Very good, in fact. But the only way to break into that market is to land some high-profile endorsers. To get that, they'll need something a bit more substantial than some combos and a Class D head - they need big, solid, tour-ready gear that plays on the same level as their guitar stuff. Or at least one big, traditional "halo" bass amp. Trace and Ashdown's reputations were built on the SM and Bass Magnifier series, but that hasn't stopped them selling a load of Elves and Rootmasters.

Just got myself the new Line6 Pod Go Wireless, and, all in all, it's rather nice. However, I'm having some issues with the wireless system (it's a built-in version of Line6's Relay G10T-II) in a couple of my basses. All my passive instruments work fine with it. Three of my active basses (my Spector, my J-Retro-equipped Revelation and my Orangewood acoustic bass) are fine. But my two Musicman Bongos have a nasty high-frequency whine that I can't seem to diagnose. It completely goes away when used with a cable. I tried a TR-to-TR adapter for the wireless dongle, and it did nothing, just in case it was something to do with the wiring of the output jack. So, right now, I'm flummoxed. Has anyone else had any issues with the Relay G10T-II transmitter?

Why couldn't they, at the very least, make the curve of the lettering match the curve of the headstock? Looks ridiculously tacky and cheap. Call me shallow, but that's almost a dealbreaker on its own for me. I won't buy a Sire on principle because I think the headstock is ugly, and these new MetroExpresses are no better with the tacky, misaligned decal.

While we're talking about moody prog metal, if you've never heard them, check out Kauan - a Russian band who sing in Finnish! Wonderfully atmospheric stuff and fantastic use of strings.

Yep, they have a big hefty dollop of 80s influence. Danny's voice is straight from the Simon Le Bon school of singing, for a start - that whole earnest baritone thing. Alex never misses an opportunity to play some slap. And Jan Hammer would wholeheartedly approve of the keytar. There's footage on Youtube of a festival set they did, with Alestorm also on the bill - a keytar battle ensued.... that's something I'd never seen before and am unlikely to ever see again!

Maybe fellow Perth proggers Voyager? They're fantastic. They also nearly represented Australia in Eurovision last year! They have a brilliant bass player in Alex Canion too. Gets awesome tones out of his Mayones basses.

They're standard 40DC size, so yep, EMGs (or anything in that size) should drop right in. Remember that EMGs are active pickups and will need power, so if you're planning on retaining the stock Ibanez circuit, you'll have to wire them up properly.

Is anyone aware of companies who make anodised coloured hardware (tuners, bridges, strap buttons, etc) for bass? I was looking at Per Nilsson's new Strandberg guitars, with their coloured hardware, and was hoping something similar might be available for bass! Any ideas?

I don't know the guy's name, but the singer who was on their Queen medley video was phenomenal - if you closed your eyes, you'd swear it was actually Freddie. Benni Jud is fantastic too - he's also a really good singer. And I love his Marleaux Votan bass.

It's Tom Jenkinson's band - of course, he's better known as Squarepusher. I have two Bongos - fretted and fretless 5-string HH models. The fretted one is candy apple red, older, heavier and has the older design hardware. The fretless is purple, a couple of years old, weighs practically nothing and mwahhhs like there's no tomorrow. Absolutely love 'em.

Spaffer and his cronies have absolutely no interest in the performing arts or in doing anything to help. Just look at the whole Fatima ad campaign from a couple of months back.

The biggest competition for these basses is the likes of Sire (who are also burdened with the issue of an ugly headstock), so I'd imagine that's what Roger has benchmarked these against. He's not exactly going out of his way to promote them though. There is not a single mention of them on sadowsky.com and there seems to be very little talk about them elsewhere - there's no hype, basically. The Sire stuff was very well hyped before it came out, and were sold out and backordered from day 1 due to their popularity.

I'm sure Roger is noting that people don't like the headstock logo and will do something about it. Warwick also have form for this - people hated the huge Rockbass headstock logo when they first used it, and it's now been relegated to the truss rod cover. G&L did the same with their Tribute instruments, replacing the ugly, single-colour Tribute logo with the proper G&L one. It wouldn't be half as bad if the Metro Express logo actually lined up with the line of the bottom of the headstock!

On another note, can you believe dUg is 70? That's one well-preserved bloke.

Congrats! I have some personal issues with Bernie regarding his politics and will not be putting any business his way in future, but, as a former GB owner, there's no denying he makes some beautiful instruments. The Merlin is a stunning design. I prefer his older headstock design though, with the notch in the corner - the new one is more like his old Lowden/Goodfellow instruments.

Whatever happened to Toasted? Back in the day, he had a lovely Celinder J-Update just like that one. Maybe he sold it to The Gallery?

Yep, the website's pretty much 20 years old and hasn't really been updated in all that time. I'd love a graphite neck on my Bongos, but the Status ones are too short - Bongos have two-octave necks. Moses used to do a drop-in replacement Bongo graphite neck, but they've gone out of business now.

At this point, Trujillo has been in Metallica longer than Newsted was (he's been in Metallica for 17 years now, Newsted was in the band for 14 years). I guess he just hasn't made his presence known in the music - there's very little in the way of exposed bass parts in the albums they've put out since he joined, and he didn't play at all on St. Anger. Which is a shame, as you rightly say, Trujillo is an absolute monster bass player - check out his work with Infectious Grooves, Suicidal Tendencies and Mass Mental for some absolutely immense playing.

It is an active bass, and it has a 5-position switch with a bunch of presets, rather than being passive with just volume and tone. That might be cool if you had a way to edit the presets via an app or something, like the Game Changer guitar they came out with a while back, but I don't think it does.