chris_b

Somehow my life didn't change as much as I expected!

After I conversed with all those Nigerian princes, I stopped using Gumtree altogether.

My 1968 Fender Precision (A neck) is sitting in its case in the corner of the room. It's only been out of the case twice in nearly 20 years! It was seriously modded in the 90's, so there is little "original" value there. I have no urge to gig it and it's been around for so long I'll probably never sell it either. Here it is . . . .

Ashdown grew out of a split with TE. Why would they want anything to do with putting a competitor back in the race?

I briefly had the exact same one in about 1988. Cost £275 and I sold it for about £250. It weighed a long way north of 12lbs. I've still got the tweed case it came in.

Wasn’t there one in the classifieds awhile ago? Might not have sold. A Super Twin would work well. They are sensitive cabs so your watts sound louder. A500 watt amp would probably be ok.

Not all Leo basses were great and not all CBS basses were bad. @Lozz196 is more of an expert than I’ll ever be, but a bass that feels right and doesn’t sound good can easily be fixed with a pickup up grade. I’d rather be buying an ok used bass and trying to make it better than searching for the perfect new bass.

I owned a 5 string mk2 Custom Wal and then replaced it with an impressive mk3 for a few years and loved it. After I moved genres from originals to rock/blues/Americana it didn't seem to get used much. I sold it to pay for the new patio. I'd love to have it back, but it would be played even less these days. I have nice memories but, these days, I couldn't sink that much cash into a bass for it to sit in a case.

I read that. Also Bergantino 12's and 10's work together, as did my Mesa Boogie with EV 115 and 210. Make your choices carefully and you can find matching cabs.

Oh no you won't.

That's brave. I wouldn't walk around our market wearing spandex and glitter in my hair.

Email Alex again.

I did a gig in Stevenage about 8 years ago, when someone came up to me wearing a loud shirt and said, I’m wearing this for you, for the old times. Apparently he was a regular at a residency I did in Camden in the 80’s, where we all wore very loud shirts. I don’t crave it but it’s nice to be noticed sometimes.

Glue it, clamp it, paint it. A cash offer might work.

Bassists are very important. It's our job to make the band sound good.

Seriously? The reason that manufacturing moves from a "western" country to any country in Asia is 100% about cost. Low wages, non-existent workers rights, low taxes etc. The Chinese can put a man on the Moon, and get him back again. There's nothing wrong with Chinese ability, but their workers are on very low wages and in the case of the Uighurs, probably no wages at all. The reason the Cort factory moved from South Korea to Indonesia was poor working conditions, low wages and aggressive management. So low wages, poor factory conditions and, lack of workers rights are the reason we have low cost items in our shops. I was made redundant in 2005, when my job was outsourced to South Africa. I told my manager that I would work for the same salary as the South Africans, and was told, I could work for nothing and, with all the regulatory stuff, NI, sick and holiday pay etc, I would still be too expensive in comparison. Old chestnut my derrière.

The guy who caused most of the problems at Gibson has gone. Maybe they are sorted with the new management. This news has caused generally negative response here and on TB. That shows how highly MB is regarded and IMO how poorly these takeovers are viewed. MB are saying nothing will change, but plans always change. The cynical view is the probably the realistic approach.

I don't actually know the name. I heard that someone couldn't do a gig and put my name forward. Nothing had been finalised at that point, so I quickly backed out when I realised it wasn't going to end well.

Oh dear!!

That's not going to plan at the moment! Ken Smith has handed over his entire operation to Kevin Brubaker. Pete Stephens handed Wal over Paul Herman. Stuart Spector gave up and sold to Korg. His partner is staying on for a year so we'll see how that pans out. It seems that if you want to maintain your legacy, find a like minded person to carry on. By selling or licencing to a corporation your legacy is in far more danger.

Guys, I hope your optimism wins out over my pessimism. Eden, SWR, Fender, Trace Elliot, Genz Benz all suffered a change of fortune when they were either bought by larger companies, or had "money men" parachuted in. I've been using Aguilar amps for many years. When you find something that just works you don't want it to change. . . . and it will change. I know all companies have to be profitable, but Korg's only focus will be the bottom line, like CBS when they bought Fender. It must be tough, running a manufacturing business in New York these days and paying US wages, so my guess is they'll be moved to China within 2 years and look at the trouble Warwick is having with it's new Chinese made Sadowsky basses! I'm typing this on a Lenovo lap top (Chinese owned), I have a Volvo (Chinese owned) in the drive and my pension scheme was sold to a Chinese company shortly before I started collecting! After the tone, the thing I liked about Aguilar was they're not made in China.

A few years ago, I volunteered to dep for a punk band. I got the set list and dug out my, at that point unused, pick. After 4 hours I called back and declined the gig. I just couldn't play properly with a pick, fingers didn't seem to sound right and I couldn't make finger style sound anything like a pick. l did try.

I just bought a backup battery for my Jazz bass.

Oh dear!!

You've answered your own question. It doesn't matter what they sounded like, you couldn't lift them anymore. If you only think of your current amps as a compromise then you'll always be making yourself unhappy. The 3 and 7 are good amps. They sound good in their own right. Move on.