simisker

If there's anyone I trust to do a worthy sequel, it's these guys. They'd have called a halt if it didn't feel of the highest quality. They have nothing to prove, and - as far as I'm aware - no alimony to pay.

I hope I didn't come across as derogatory in my earlier post, because I think it's a stunner on every level. I'm just thankful I'm fully satisfied at the end of my bass-owning/GAS journey, otherwise I'd be speccing one up as we speak 😍

Interestingly, I'm a User Interface / Experience Designer and I have the opposite opinion, tau! The seemingly industry-standard approach to bass knobs - i.e. unlabelled with no numbers, lines/gradations, and often no pointers - has frustrated the hell out of me for decades. That Pbass-originated piss-poor UI has inexplicably become the norm - even on instruments of expense with complex electronics. I recently bought a Dingwall. £2500, and 5 blank unlabelled knobs. Want to know what the knobs control or what they're set at? Have a twiddle and see if you can figure it out - it's the only way to know. Good luck!* 🤷‍♂️ It's doubly frustrating when you consider that Leo himself got it almost perfect first time with the Stratocaster's knobs. We've gone backwards through laziness, naivety and misguided aesthetics. Having owned a Wal myself, I can say with certainty that they are still my benchmark rotary control. Ian and Pete knew what they were doing. Admittedly, they're not the best looking, but boy, they are a delight to use. Great work, @remizik ! * And don't get me started on unlabelled Active/Passive or Series/Parallel switches!

No way that's a bass. That's a cake. An absolutely mouth-watering tour de force of a cake. What do I win?

I bought a lovely LTD Deluxe bass from Quent. I would buy from him again in an instant. Here's why: Advert: Lots of detailed and honest info and photos. Didn't hide a thing, and highlighted all the things that you'd expect to be highlighted for a used bass. Comms: Quick, detailed, efficient and friendly. Perfect! Condition: the bass was even better in the flesh than described, surprisingly! Quent clearly looks after his instruments. Packaging: Seriously, the best packaged bass I have ever EVER received. double-boxed, everything bubblewrapped, itemised and labelled. He'd even taken off the bottom strap button so that it couldn't cause any transit knocks, and then wrapped it in its own labelled padded baggie, along with the screw which he'd gaffa-taped along its length, so that the thread wouldn't scratch anything. Absolutely superb attention to detail. Overall, Quent is a fantastic example of why this community is so great. So: recommended, then

I can echo what Lemmywinks says here - I've got a Cort that came with Mk1 pickups and a proper Bartolini preamp [HR-5.4AP/918], and the combined output is totally usable. In fact, the sound has even drawn compliments from my guitar tech. The MK1s get a bit of a bad rap because they're usually paired with a cut-price preamp, as Lemmywinks points out. Unless you really need the hi-fi sheen of top-end humbuckers, I wouldn't worry about them - It's the preamp to which you need to pay more attention.

Judging by the extremely underwhelming poplar burl facing, I'd say it was a modern Spector.

One for the Furrow & Ball catalogue.

Egg pun.

Yeah, I don't think we need to be afraid of being singed by the white hot crucible of innovation after all There are some sensible upgrades/evolutions across the range, the colour options are nice and non-vintage (I love the Solar Flare) - and it's great they're still giving the Meteora their backing. But oof - over £2k? That's a grand per mid-range frequency option. Not even a sweep! Two grand!!

You won't regret choosing the Neve. 👍 It looks a bit odd on paper - "20Hz? Twenty?! Really?!?" - but it's just like Neve console preamps: musically sweet rather than surgically precise, and with a noise floor that's in the basement - even at the extremes. It's just quality.

I don't think anyone's going to argue that ALL Fender's core basses were innovative when they were first released. The problem is that every one of their birth years starts with a "19". EDIT: And to be fair to past Fender, every time they've created [or acquired!] something that starts with a "20", us bassists have gone "ooh no, can we have one of them 19-something jobbies, please?". So as much as we're having a dig at Big F's marketing, we collectively have to shoulder some of the blame for an industry-wide reticence to innovate.

I've found the best way to deal with people who find the concept of sweepable mids tricky is to hand them a tambourine and tell them I'll meet them in the car park.

This is an industry where we don't even have battery power indicators despite 35 years of active instruments. Let's not get giddy about any promised "innovation"