SumOne

+1 again (so that must be = 4 now?!) for the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ if going for 'hands-on' analogue. I kind of regret selling it, but once you are considering £250 for an EQ and compressor I started considering multi-fx. The Zoom B1-Four or MS 60B will do the similar EQ and compression and whole lot of other stuff for half the price....Or personally, I've now gone for a Boss GX-10, £75 more than the Fishman, but decent compressor, EQ and everything else it has. I mostly just use it for EQ and compression and drive though so Fishman +Drive could do similar- but having presents is useful.

The much more worrying side of that is shown in this BBC documentary 'Praying for Armageddon' (the synopsis calls it a 'political thriller' for some reason, which makes it seem like fiction - but it is a documentary) "Praying for Armageddon is a political thriller that explores the power and influence of American Evangelical Christians as they aim to fulfil the Armageddon prophecy. The film observes American believers as they prepare for what they call The Holy War and exposes the powerful megachurch pastors who call for the 'final battle' that they believe will trigger the Second Coming of Christ. Completed before the current crisis in Israel and Gaza, it also unveils how politicians driven by faith embrace the State of Israel as the key to their prophetic vision for the end of days." https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001z96s/storyville-praying-for-armageddon It is mental, very powerful people in the US seriously believe that there needs to be Armageddon for there to be Rapture for them to be saved, they've tied that all in with Israel and religious war and bible interpretation of Jesus returning once there is this righteous 'end of days' war and him then basically doing the opposite of the 'turn the other cheek' stuff by smiting the enemy and non-believers. They actively want religious Armageddon so they can go to heaven. These religious groups also have very strong links to the US military and basically turn it into some sort of crusade - with crusade icons on US fighter planes and inscriptions on weapons etc hence them being called Crusaders by the people they fight and fanning the flames.

I must have bought and sold on here more times than I care to remember! Probably 50 transactions. I've never had an issue with bank transfer of Paypal F&F. As others have said, a quick check of feedback is useful, and check that they seem like a real bass player (e.g. getting annoyed about 'tonewood' opinions!) , if it is someone brand new to the forum with no feedback (or only feedback from another brand new account!) then use caution. Basses being more expensive and delicate I've tended to try and meet up with people and do bank transfer. Pedals I've usually just done by post so there is a bit of trust involved.

I'm not sure I'd accept selling via Paypal as a business as isn't the issue then that all of the risk is with the seller: If I sell a £1k Bass as a Paypal 'business' rather than F&F and the buyer scams me (e.g. says it never arrived, or isn't what it should be) then Paypal refunds the buyer and leaves the seller out of pocket. Or I imagine the onus is on the seller to somehow prove that the buyer did receive it and it was what was described (good luck with that! my experience with trying to talk to Paypal is 'computer says no').

I think sellers sometimes go off RRP and that's possibly it is what they bought it for - but often there are shop reductions a year or so later (when they are also trying to sell second hand). I'm eyeing up a new Ray34 that is £800 from one shop, RRP £1,200. Someone that bought one for £1,200 new would perhaps try to sell for about £800 after a year of owning it and they'd think that's fair enough, it is the average sort of price on eBay and Reverb. For me though, as a buyer it'd have to be quite a bit cheaper (£500 ish) for me to get a second hand one from eBay with all the risks associated and wear and tear etc vs £800 for a discounted brand new one from a shop with Warranty etc.

Any owners of new versions of the Sterling Stingray Ray34 on here that happen to know the weight? I've got my eye on one but the shop can't/won't tell me the actual Bass weight and I can't see info online apart from some old Talkbass and Reddit threads where people are perhaps talking about older versions.

Exactly my point. If people really want a selfish 'charity begins at home' view to international aid, then actually they could just look at what China does - it does a lot of foreign aid and isn't doing it for votes or as altruism, it is for the quid-pro-quo. It is worthwhile, even from a selfish perspective. Trump and Farage types say they are against foreign aid is because that view plays well with a lot of voters. They don't actually care about what is best for their country, or other countries, they care about themselves short term - getting votes.

Put a donk on it!

The most tricky thing about overseas aid seems to be communicating the value to voters. Voters can see their money being spent on a new boat/wall whatever and news footage of them stopping and deporting migrants. It is much more tricky to show in a 'soundbite' sort of way that long-term supporting vaccinations/education/farming/industry/rule-of-law etc. abroad has made it a better place for people to stay and stopped so many wanting to migrate in the first place (and that a lot of charity campaigns will be quite short-term, e.g. give money now to feed people starving in a crisis today, rather than less newsworthy long-term aid programmes that strategically help build up a country to not have war/famine in the first place). That is just one aspect of it, there are all the soft power and other advantages that are hard to quantify and communicate e.g. reducing risk - reducing the chance of of pandemics etc. I think most politicians can see that foreign aid is generally a good use of tax money - but not a good way or getting themselves elected. It is one of those times that a country like China has an advantage - they will do it strategically long-term without worrying about votes. ... the fact that China does a lot of international aid work without disclosing the cost probably says a lot - it isn't to brag, isn't to appease domestic voters, so are they just doing it from the goodness of their hearts? or are they doing it because it will strategically benefit China?

Not to sound like a Farage (the word should be an entry in the Profanisaurus), but the impression I get is that the EU would needs much more of an 'all or nothing' thing for an effective EU army. It would be almost impossible to get agreement from 27 states for any quick, decisive action, perhaps some non-lethal 'peacekeeping' army could get agreement, but nothing that would scare Putin. It just seems the EU member needs/opinions/budgets are too varied to all be properly united on anything other than slowly agreed non-politically charged (or at least not so obviously newsworthy/ political to voters) things like regulatory policy. I mean, really, how much do Slovakia and Ireland, or Estonia and Malta, or Cyprus and Belgium really have in common? It's all a bit artificial. But I suppose the same could be said for NATO.

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No, which is partly why even though I play a lot of Reggae/Dub I have quite bright roundwound strings - because as I also play some more Ska/Punk stuff with distortion. Can take off the highs, can't really add them if they were never there though. The general view is Reggae = Dull Flatwound, but I've heard at least one famous exclusively Reggae Bass player (I think it was Flabba Holt) say he used brighter roundwound as can take off the highs, but it is good to have the option to include them if ever needed.

I think EQ makes the biggest difference, and what your Cab can reproduce. I've gone into the finest of details testing pedals A-B and picking apart why one preamp or distortion is better than the next, but nowadays I've pretty much come to the conclusion that once it goes through an Amp/Cab and playing with a band the difference is almost imperceptible - especially if using EQ to match the sounds. Perhaps a keen audience member could hear the difference between a Rat vs Muff vs Tube screamer, but I doubt anyone could notice any more detail 'that sounds like Green Russian , they should be using a Ram's Head', likewise- bright Roundwound strings can be made to sound a lot like dull flatwounds with the right EQ.

If the band agrees that playing Bass live while a backing track also has Bass is a bad idea (it is!) then there are a lot of ways to remove Bass from a backing track (e.g. Moises app). I suppose the other option is to remove the live Bass - mime, or don't bother attending.

Nice. I've got tickets to see African Head Charge in May, looking forward to it.