SumOne

What could possibly go wrong?! 'America's top vaccine regulator resigns over anti-vax health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr' 'The scientist said he had been willing to work with the health secretary to address any concerns about vaccine safety and transparency - but it had "become clear truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary". https://news.sky.com/story/americas-top-vaccine-regulator-resigns-over-anti-vax-health-secretary-robert-f-kennedy-jr-13337939 But who needs 'experts' with their 'facts' and 'truth and transparency'.

I wonder if there is an element of 'cultural revolution/great leap forward' type of power play from Trump? Purge the intellectuals, get everyone working in working-class manufacturing and farming jobs. That's probably giving him too much credit, he's probably just trying to please his key voters, stay in the headlines and consolidate his power and making it up as he goes along.

They've got the better end of the deal though and is where the massive profits are. I'd have thought a country would much prefer to own Amazon as a global 'shopfront' than the factory making the stuff it sells.

Partly why I think Trump has things wrong - manufacturing is old-world stuff, polluting, and increasingly doesn't actually employ many people (see 'dark factories'). If it isn't competition from cheap plabour in Asia then it'll be cheap labour in Africa or S America etc. On the other hand, if a country can make money on things like Amazon and Instagram and franchise food chains and that seems the better option than actually having the grim factories make the tat.

And things like: Programme the car to swerve onto the pavement to protect the passengers of the car from a head-on impact with another vehicle - even if that means running over pedestrians? Or vice-versa, let car full of passengers have a head-on collision with a school bus vs running over one person over on the pavement. It all gets very complicated, someone has to give the AI guidance on what is best - then they are partly responsible.

Perhaps one of these ACGs as a 4? I'm quite keen to get this 5 myself: https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/product/acg-047s-j-type-5-34-greenburst-pre-owned/ They are about £1,700 new, but in your price range second hand. For the 5, I like the string spacing, preamp, tuners, weight, and the look of it, (and I always like a front facing jack but active preamp - quite a rare to find though), I would like to give it a play to check the pickups and ergonomics though and how the neck feels. I'm not too fussed that it's UK made, but I suppose it is a bit of a selling point, and nice to have something a bit more rare than a production line fender/ibanez etc.

Looks to me like it could be good news for the UK. If every country in the world had a 10% USA tariff then it'd be a level playing field - possibly lose some business to USA companies or USA consumers buying less, but probably not much difference in the short term until they get their manufacturing going. However, almost all of the rest of the world has more than 10%, so the UK goods are going to be more attractively priced - suddenly, something made in the UK is more expensive in the USA, but so is every import, and is now it is 10% cheaper comparted to the EU goods. And if China with 34% tariffs doesn't sell so much to the USA then there will be more supply available = lower prices for the UK. That Chinese made Bass now costs 34% extra in the USA, (or Indonesian one 32% more) that'll reduce sales and they'll have a lot of stock - I'd assume they will try and make up for that by selling more to the UK and elsewhere by reducing prices a bit - rather than reducing them in the USA by 34%. The world might be going to hell, but at least I might be able to save few quid on a new Ibanez!

But isn't that something tariffs can potentially help with? e.g. Product imported from China currently costs $100 for US consumers, similar product produced in the USA costs $120, but add a 25% tariff on the Chinese import and consumers will buy more of the US made product - and the US company can even afford to put their prices (and wages) up a bit and still be competitive. The main problem I can see is that consumers (who are those same workers) lose out, they no longer have the option of the cheaper imports (unless they want to pay that tax - which goes to their government and in theory helps the government then fund things voters want)

That is the sort of 'business as usual' thing that fans of Trump are against though. Things change quite drastically and quite often throughout history. This level of global trade is a relatively recent thing and things can quickly change - possibly for the worst, but potentially for the better too. Asian living standards are going up, they will be demanding more money. And if people in the USA are forced to pay more due to tariffs then that's just what'll happen - they will pay more and/or buy less (either imports or domestically produced). It was a deliberate move by China to subsidise industries to get a foothold in the west so strong that the west loses its industries and completely relies on China for many manufactured goods. Next China step would be to put up prices. Perhaps it isn't such a bad thing that the world becomes less reliant on subsidised cheap labour from other countries and we move away from a constant drive to reduce costs however possible.

I don't want to seem a fan of Trump, but I do feel that people take these tariffs as some crazy global market disaster - rather than just being reciprocal. Of all the Trump policies, this one feels the most sane. It is an upheaval, but possibly needed doing if the USA wants to bring manufacturing in-country and for supply chains to be less globalised, it is a big enough country that it could potentially do that (the UK would have bigger problems trying the same). I don't know about every industry or if the tariffs will actually be fair and reciprocal but the UK, and EU and almost everyone else either have subsidies or tariffs to artificially skew markets and favour themselves. If the UK subsidises UK Steel then why shouldn't the US add a tariff on its import to balance things with US Steel prices? If the EU charges 24% tariff on US Jam imports, and USA charges 4.5% tariff on EU jam imports - why shouldn't the US do what it can to balance that?

Cheers all. As I've been through dozens of distortion pedals and always come to the same sort of conclusion I think before buying anything new I'm going to try some of the suggestions like using clean for the rowdier bits, perhaps moving about where I have compression, and possibly it is something to do with my Amp/Cab (or at least the EQ I have on the Amp) as they have remained constant while I keep swopping distortion pedals - they sound good clean, but perhaps need something different going on when it's distortion time (e.g. distortion in the fx loop). There is probably an element of the fact I'm stood right in front of the cab when playing live with the band - so what I'm hearing in those rowdy parts is a mix of that and the stage monitors, the audience might actually hear something quite different (I only have crappy phone recordings of that so can't really tell). I do think it is something other than 'use pedal XYZ' or 'use a clean blend'.

I came to the conclusion of distortion not really adding the extra oomph that I want on a gig this Saturday and ended up not using it. Playing at loud volume through an Amp/Cab and along with drums, 2x distorted guitars and the rest the main thing the bass needs in this band at those rowdy points is a clear pulse/thump/definition of notes within that I guess <400Hz sort of range. The rowdy parts of songs have the guitars going distorted, if I also click on distortion it just makes the fundamental thump of the bass get more mushy and distorted and actually loses impact, it adds mid/high distorted noise - but they are lost in with the guitars. Can turn up the bass but that doesn't bring back the 'tump'. In isolation it sounds big and heavy, but I think almost by definition it looses that when distorted. So yeah, I think it might well be more of an issue of where the compression is, what is going on with my Amp/Cab and the mix with the rest of the band rather than needing new distortion pedals.

I think compression and where it is in the chain might be a good call. I currently have an idiotbox blower box and there is no problem with the amount of bass it can produce - it's more that the defined 'thump' is lost and that seems to happen with almost all distortion I've tried. So yeah, perhaps it is something that the right compression after distortion can sort out, or a blend and changing the clean compression. I've tried so many distortions and it seems the same thing always once playing through Amp/cab and with a band, so I'm starting to think it isn't actually the distortion pedal as such - it's down to something else.

I can't get one a third time! ......or can I?! 🤨