Steve Browning

... and you got one of the rare ones with the ATL decal. 🙂

Lovely bass and congratulations. You have a bass for life there. No surprise you're happy, you have noted the build quality. They're exceptional and I've not seen a bad one.

Southsea Guitar Centre has one available at the moment. I saw it in there just yesterday.

Reminds me of a story about the first batch of Datsun cars imported to the UK via Shoreham (Datsun were HQ'd in Worthing). With great ceremony, the first 6 cars were unloaded and driven onto a transporter - never to be seen again. There's seemingly nothing that audaciousness can't overcome.

My point wasn't about legality. I meant that both affect the cost and we can't influence either, so no point worrying about it.

It's ultimately a personal decision that no-one else is entitled to criticise. A bar is a commercial enterprise and so should expect to pay for anything it uses in order to generate a profit. If it can blag a freebie then it will. In these odd times I would be prepared to help out a venue that's supported me over the years (a bit of mutual back-scratching). Experience tells me that exposure is an empty 'promise' and is a scam. The live music scene is a free market. Cheap bands drive down the price for other bands, that's a fact as a matter of simple economics but it won't ever stop. Everyone has to accept it in the same way uninsured drivers drive up the cost of insurance. We may not approve but we won't stop it.

The horrible cynic in me is wondering if they'll actually happen, as keeping to promises doesn't seem a high priority.

He'll be hoping you don't change to flats!!

Nicky Wire used one of their basses on Your Love Alone. They seem to have had the video taken down from YouTube.

Rotosound, as a company, support the Guitarwrist fundraising enterprise. Ian Rendall (the founder) receives donations of used strings and, with the help of other jewellery makers, turns the strings into items of (you guessed it) jewellery. It is not just Rotosound strings that are used and any profits are distributed to the charity of the donor's choosing. I am attaching a link so you can see what they do and the results. There are some very imaginative uses of the strings and they make some exceedingly nice pieces with stuff you'd usually bin. Follow the link, if you feel you want to support this excellent initiative yourselves, send Ian your old strings and help fund charities at a time when they really need the help. He accepts any make of strings, Rotosound are mentioned because they endorse the enterprise and mentioned it when sending my latest batch. I am hoping the mods are ok with this? Other than being a Rotosound artist, I have no connection with Ian or Guitarwrist. https://theguitarwrist.co.uk/#whatwedo

I have a Sterling SUB and had intended to replace the preamp and pickup. Having changed the preamp I have found the sound is fine. May I suggest you do your preamp swap and regroup. You may find (may!) that your have what you want and the pickup swap is unnecessary.

I have had a few Fender Japan Precisions and always go for the PB70 model. The neck profile is the same as the B profile which is, as you say, between a Jazz and a 'standard' P bass. Exceptional instruments. I always swapped out the pickup for a Kent Armstrong Vintage P but there are loads to choose from.

There was a clear sonic difference. No lack of 'heft' but a clear difference. Of course the modus operandi of each amp is different. In some senses a comparison with a WD-800 would have been expected to be a better comparison. The TT sets out to emulate a different tone stack. Both amps sounded great though. I was perfectly happy with my M-Pulses and would have continued to be so, had I kept them. In my post I proclaimed the comparison to be a draw and I think that's a fair result and a huge thumbs up to Andy and the guys at Mesa. The ability to get a genuinely vintage sound out of state of the art package (valves notwithstanding). The tonal difference in the cables was probably the bigger surprise. I had experienced it with Robs' Lyric cable but the clarity was very evident and unmistakable. The same with the balance across the fingerboard. I can hear a lot of people thinking it's cobblers but I have to disagree. Whether or not you feel you can justify the expense is another matter but I figured if people who could afford to use anything chose that then there must be something in it. I am firmly in that camp now.

Since getting the amps and installing them in the rack and wiring them in, a bit of covid GAS descended. That and a bit of an unexpected financial bonus. I was interested in the continued controversy surrounding different cables and any effect they may have on sound. Our mutual friend @rumblefish has demonstrated an Evidence Audio Lyric cable before and we both heard a clear difference with that cable. So, after some email correspondence with Tony at Evidence, I ordered some Monorail cable and solderless plugs to rewire the rack and to run from the pedalboard to the rack input. I then ordered three of the EA Reveal cables for the three basses going through the switcher. With Tony's help I had decided that the Forte was too much of an outlay, the Lyric was a little 'stiff' for my purpose and the Reveal had the flexibility I wanted and (to quote Tony) 99% of the performance of the Forte. To complete the package, I ordered Siren speaker cables. All this was done through Custom Pedal Boards here in the UK (thanks to Chris Ryan for his assistance). Just to go completely barmy (and because the amps can be left on without a speaker load) I ordered a Mike Hill mini isolator. This means that I have split the output from the tuner and both TT-800s are being fed. Having got an order for a 2 x 12 in the pipeline I will be able to run the cabs from an amp each (who knows when Wembley beckons!!). We also took the opportunity to do a side by side comparison with his M-Pulse 600 through his Berg 2 x 12 which is a great cab in itself). At the same time comparing a number of cables to see what difference there was. With regard to the amps, we concluded there was a minor difference but certainly not enough to worry about. The amps 'work' in different ways and so I would chalk this up as a draw. To me this just underlined the fact that the choice of the TT-800 was spot on. Again, a sizeable difference in volume with the two channels set with the same eq and switched. There will some reason for that (and I'd never do it live anyway). Just needs some tweaking to level them up so no issue. What of the cables? We had EA Lyric and Reveal cables, a Lava cable and another (which I forget). Using the same bass and the same settings the differences were obvious. As we went up the price chain, the level of detail and balance was clear and improved with each step. Very pleasing for me, having drank heavily from the snake oil jar. We concluded that the Lyric would be your studio cable (it's not as flexible as the Reveal), the Reveal would be your live cable. Overall, the Reveal was the winner due to it's closeness to the Lyric and the fact that it was going to be longer lasting in a stage environment. It was the better value option by a way, in my view. I am not going to suggest the snake oil argument is dead but it is to my ears. I firmly believe that I have reached tone nirvana and all my bum notes have been freed to be heard as never before!! Rats!

Worst gig - I can offer 4 (although 2 are supports) - Meat Loaf (Brighton Centre), National Health (supporting Steve Hillaqe at Lancaster Uni), Supertramp (Brighton Centre again) and Doctors Of Madness, supporting the wonderful Be Bop Deluxe. Best gig - hard to narrow down - Queen on their first headlining tour, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Rory Gallagher at the Marquee, Dr Feelgood at Portsmouth Guildhall (the John Mayo version).

I won't ask where you plug the bass in!!

I see you also practice setting your guitar alight.

This mess is half of my home set up. PC comes in via usb, bass into the mixer (as you see) and phono output to old Yamaha hi-fi amp. The speakers are a pair of Acoustic Electric (now defunct speaker manufacturer) Studio 10 monitors. Not pretty but perfect for home use.

I have also replaced stock pickups with Vintage P's and they have been excellent. Very close to the sound (I daren't say tone) of my genuine vintage pickups.

I would be decidedly miffed now and incandescent on 7th July if there's no satisfactory conclusion. I would be inmstigating the charge back at that point, bearing in mind the time USPS give themselves.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164920764531?hash=item26660b2873:g:aI4AAOSwso5gzeNt Oddly, this is in my 'manor' but I don't know the owner. Slightly strangely light on detail.

I used to encounter Terry Shulman regularly at a jazz jam I played at, in the mid 70s. He was a brilliant trumpeter and a street cleaner by trade. A lovely guy. I confess to seeing National Health and saw them support Steve Hillage at Lancaster University. I'm afraid I was praying for their set to end from very early on (apologies to a certain BC member who was present at the time).