asingardenof

Definitely worth doing. After @Merton's ABM 500 went pop on me (no such bad luck with my ABM 600 yet!) I bought a TE Elf and it was well worthwhile.

Record yourself playing along to songs, then play it back without the background music. It'll probably be a bit of an eye-opener in terms of highlighting any quirks or flaws in your technique or timing, and give you things to work on.

We play Adventure of a Lifetime which seems to go down OK, that's from 2015.

Apart from those strings being slightly thicker and stiffer than mine (oo er missus!) I have the same ones and think they sound great for pretty much everything I want to play. EQ and tone controls tame most of the high end so they sound very flattish, but having the ability to get them clanky is also good.

As you say, with Squiers the QC can be hit or miss. My VM 70s Jazz was excellent other than being a bit on the heavy side.

I'd be surprised if that was the case, and would have thought they'd use the same for both like they have the same bridge across the V series, however I stand to be corrected. If it's a similar spacing to the SBMM Ray5 then I found that quite comfortable.

Lobster reckons it's a decent buy as well.

Sire have very much put a shot across the bow of SBMM. I'd been eyeing up a Ray5 as a possible future purchase, but other than it having a cooler headstock and the cachet of the model name there's no advantage to getting one rather than the Z3, given the Z3 is cheaper, better built and sounds more than a MM Stingray.

Tickets purchased to see Katy Hurt at the end of November, featuring @Merton of this parish on bass, the night before I also have a gig to play. Just need to find a babysitter now!

I can happily recommend a Sire V7

*adds to Christmas list*

I wouldn't bank on that, the tuners on the V7 are still pretty cheap, and the bridge is a hand-me-up from the V3.

Been with the band for about 2½ years now, and while the core of the set is still the same we've had eight new songs make it into the set (not counting our abortive experience with the New Order song that dare not speak its name) with a further two potentially in the pipeline.

Caldy or Lower Heswall?

Hallelujah - take your pick

I'm in a fortunate position because our Evri delivery person is local (lives on the same estate, is part of the estate's FB group, son goes to the same school as mine) and, most importantly, competent, so I haven't had any issues where I am at the moment. You can always tell the usual person is on holiday because that's when the typical Evri-ness creeps back in.

Probably, but I wonder if they've factored in the aversion to Evri that may make people stop buying things from them if they keep using Evri as a courier

Breed - Nirvana

Have you tried replying to others' adverts as well?

I bought a string winder in there to show willing 😎

They had a bit of fanfare when they were first launched, with The Bass Channel for one giving a glowing review on their YT channel, but Warwick and Sadowsky's marketing has been, frankly, awful. I suspect they're likely to be pretty good, with some of the issues the first iteration faced now resolved, but it'll be interesting seeing opinions on whether it's clear cut that being double the price of a Sire V7 is justified.

I think I bought my old Marshal 4x12 cab in there back when I were nought but a student with student loan money burning a hole in my bank account. It looks a lot more salubrious in there now than it did in the late 90s!

In that case let me point you at Music & Bean in Okehampton, Devon. Great little shop!

I know the upgrade was borne of necessity (well, technically it wasn't strictly necessary) but the replacement of the stock preamp in my V7 with the Sadowsky one has done wonders for it.