Burns-bass

Most touring acts, especially those playing festivals, will have people to do this stuff for them. Ticking boxes and moving gear is pretty tedious stuff. Probably a bureaucratic mess up rather than something more malicious.

This thread seems to be turning into a Q&A. Anyway, the diagnosis may be correct, but treatment may be flawed…

To be fair, at £300 they’re probably not an expert in it. When it comes to double bass, you get what you pay for. I’ve personally poured money into a couple of DBs and it’s cash you’ll never get back. (Case in point is my beautiful Musima bass which sounds and plays wonderfully and would make the perfect starter bass but will pay me back much less than it owes me.)

Interesting to see how the day after Keir Starmer directly threatened Russia that Heathrow airport needs to shut for an entire day as the result of some sort of "freak accident".

True, to a point but the tweakable HPF is a godsend in some of the rooms I play in (where feedback seemingly defies logic). It’s also great for doubling gigs too, and the DI is ace. I can mark my settings on a piece of paper, slide it into the case and it’s ready for any gig. (I may be justifying my £240 spend - but I have to!)

Your logic - shared by most politicians it seems - will see us inexorably slide into war with Russia. Fine if that’s what you want, but hugely dangerous and damaging to us all. Trump can see this and is trying to avoid it. (The mechanism he’s using is cruel and punitive, but he’s a mob boss and if you want security, you pay for it. I this case, that’s about $500bn)

No, the NATO expansion is the real issue, supported by the EU. Ukraines neutrality (or perceived neutrality) is the aim. Russia would be a pariah state if it had occupied and annexed the whole of Ukraine. Far easier to have toppled Zelensky and installed a puppet regime favourable to Russia (something the US did by proxy in toppling the elected Ukrainian government in 2014). This is much more complex than Ukraine as a benign and neutral country that was quietly going about its life (as plucky little Belgium was in 2014). The media needs to shift from the idea of Putin as a Hitlerian dictator hell bent on invading Europe. Your analysis of the reasons for invasion are much more likely to be the reason for it all. The attempt to simplify this into a binary good v bad narrative completely denies the complexity of the situation.

Ukraine has been squeezed between EU/US expansionism and a bolder and stronger Russia. Admitting this - which no politician will - provides an explanation (not an excuse) why Russia has invaded Ukraine. But your points here are wrong. Despite the media reporting, the EU isn’t in conflict with Russia, Ukraine is (which is neither part of the EU or NATO - and won’t be part of either in the near future). We are not at war and we should actively do anything to avoid this. The first step a foreign troop takes into Russia will see an escalation that would end in nuclear war. Probably start with tactical battlefield weapons and move on from there.

It may not help you but it could help build a case against them. Sometimes the police will act.