BASSES

Washburn will have three new basses ere long: the most interesting sounding (we've yet to see them) is the B20 two-pickup active expected (here's the good bit) to sell at around 200 quid. There's also the B30 up-market one at about £570, and another we don't even have the number of, a one-pickup, passive, 150-notes job. Watch out... Norman Cook of the Housemartins picked up a new Trace-Elliot rig recently, the lucky boy. Just right for a cappella bass... Status are working hard to get ready for the Frankfurt instrument show a new 'cheaper' bass, which for them means it'll come in at about £800. It'll have a wooden body in the traditional sharp-horned Status shape, a graphite neck, and will feature new active circuitry which Status are now developing thanks to their recently installed in-house electronics gear. As we went to press it was still known only by its working title of 'The Status Bass'... Talking of names and Status, did you know that Status were called Strata when they first appeared about three years ago? However, Fender rather stupidly got heavy and said the name was too like 'Strat' and made them change it. Funny old business, isn't it?... Ever felt that, even though you're a bassist, the six-string has much to offer? American weirdos Conklin Guitars of Lebanon (s'right) Missouri have a Quick-Connect Double-Neck, a bass-and-six twin-neck that splits down the middle to make two separate instruments. "The only double-neck you can share with a friend," proclaim Conklin. "You're mad," we reply... The world's most expensive bass, did you ask? Could it be the Ken Smith five- and six-string basses, which the Bass Centre, Wapping will gladly flog you for two-and-a-half-grand (each)? And why are there so many questions here?

DRUMS AND WARES

Lots of news for people who hit things this month. For a start, distributors Arbiter are relaunching the Rogers cymbal range. The Red Hot and White Hot series have been joined by Black Rock ("loud & explosive") and Power Rock ("volume & dynamics") cymbals. Prices for all seem to be competitive, ranging from around £20 for a splash, with even the largest chinas under £100...

And Aria, (they do make drums, y'know) have just announced two new 8in snare drums, at £79 and £99 respectively. The cheaper has a chromed steel shell, while the more expensive has the same size sycamore laminate wooden shell...

Following on from Andy Duncan's piece on congas last month, the following story will make complete sense. Finland are contributing to the world's wealth of things to bash with a budget range of glass-fibre shelled percussion instruments. The Kotaja Oy company are producing 18.5cm and 21.5cm bongos, 27.5cm quintos, 30cm congas and 32cm tumbas. Intriguing about these beasts, or we think so, is the fact that the nut boxes are all part of the moulding. The box 'extrudes' from the side of the glass-fibre shell, and the brass claws holding on the hoop and skin pass through them. Solid brass for the FP-1100 series, brass plate for the cheaper FP-1000...

"The instruments have a sound comparable with wood instruments — warm, rounded and with the necessary sharpness," the Finns tell us. Bullhide, we say, which is what the skins are made from...

Other drummy types — specifically those who own Pearl kits — are now eligible for membership of the new Pearl Users' Club. All sorts of tuitional advice will be on offer from Pearl endorsees (well, they've got to do something for their gear), and there's even the possibility of a summer school. More details (mention Making Music) from Club Secretary Tracy Kaye at Pearl Music Ltd, (Contact Details)...

For non-hitters who still like the noise, the Korg DDD-1 digital drum machine will have 31 new ROMs with a total of 155 sampled sounds on them. Electronic Snares, Brushed Snares, Funnel Toms, Swish Cymbals, Finger Snaps, Timbales, Timpani, Tablas, Guiros, Brazilian Whistles, Gun Shots, Frying Pans and (ho, ho) Cash Registers. Ged 'em while they're 'ot. They're luverlly...

PICKUPS

Talking of pickups, EMG have licensed the design of their incredibly wonderful (how did you guess?) low impedance jobs to 'an Oriental manufacturer'. The new pickups will be known as 'Select By EMG' and will be exceedingly cheap — no-one could tell us how cheap, but figures of less than £30 a piece seem a fair guess. There's no UK distributor yet, but we can probably expect shipments sometime in Spring.

THEFT

Whatever you may think of 23 Skidoo (and we recommend their "Seven Songs" album), it's no excuse to nick their gear. Seriously, the Skidoos have had stolen a fretted Steinberger bass (#0052, damaged battery cover), a Thinline Fender Telecaster (#7602219, brass hardware, cream finish, camouflage painted scratchplate), two Boss DSD2s, an H/H MA100 PA amp, two H/H tape echo units, a 6in Remo rototom, and a pair of Zildjian hi-hats. The band is willing to talk to anyone who has seen any of this stuff (particularly the guitars) for sale. Rewards will be in order if they get any of it back. Call us at Making Music, and we will pass on any messages.

GUITARS

On the six-string front, there are three new guitars from Aria, all graced with the not entirely sensible Mega Metal name. These remarkably sane looking instruments have the regular Aria RS slimmed-down Stratty body shape, with angled pointy American-style headstocks. All three guitars have fashionably wide flat rosewood fingerboards.

Top of the range is the active Stage 3 KPi (£499), which has two single coils and a humbucker, well-designed active electronics, a Kahler Flyer trem unit, one-touch locking nut (good idea that, as Fender have already proved), and ugly jagged fingerboard inlays. The Mega Metal Stage 1 KPi (£439) (review page 26) is the same guitar with one humbucker, while the Mega Metal Stage 3 (£359) is a passive version with a cheaper fine-tuning tremolo.

It seems that even less sensibly named (but very clever) guitarist Steve Vai (D L Roff's group) has taken to leaving a blow-up guitar on stage, with which he assaults other members of the group at dull moments in the stage show. If you'd like to imitate these childish antics, or merely want an inflatable guitar to float in your guitar-shaped swimming pool, you can now get a Blow Hard plastic Strat or Tele (actual size) from Blue Suede Music ((Contact Details)).

AMPS

On the noise-making side of things (preferably down the stairs and round the back), Hohner have made a big bass amplifier called the PB250, and a big bass cabinet called the PBB250. The amplifier has all sorts of knobs on it, including bass, middle, treble, a five-band graphic, and chorus and compression. It is rated at four million... er... 250 watts. The cabinet has four 10in loudspeakers, and is covered in grey carpet (except where the sound comes out)...

Remember those new 50 Series H/H combos you saw down the BMF? The L50 lead, B50 bass and K50 keyboard? Well, they're now in the shops. All have 12in speakers, the lead features twin channels (extra sustain on the second one), the B50 has a compressor, and the keyboard version again has twin channels. Priced just under or over £200, depending on the model.

OTHERS

Owners of the Korg DSS-1 synth now have access to an Owners' Club, which will provide a regular newsletter with users' tips, plus updates from Korg themselves. Expect a sample swapping service. Contact your nearest Korg stockist for details...

Yamaha have opened their own hi-tech music shop in Conduit Street, just off Regent Street, in London. It's called Yamaha Music Pulse, and promises a wide range of Yamaha gear on trial in ideal surroundings...

Good news for roadies everywhere is that the legendary Hammond C3 tone wheel organ (much beloved of bozos like Keith Emerson) can now be obtained built into a flightcase. Northern Organ Centre ((Contact Details)) will make one for you, if you grunt nicely...

Roland have now come up with an 11-box library of pre-recorded sample discs for the Roland S-10. Each box contains ten disks with 118 samples between them, and will set you back £95. A similar sound library for the S-50 will arrive some time in the New Year...

'Puter Boffins know about all about Steinberg Research, who now reside at the charmingly named Spendlove Centre, Charlbury, Oxford. Steinberg have repackaged two versions of their popular Commodore-based sequencers. The Pro-16 Series now include sync-to-tape and graphic editing. There's a scorewriting programme on the Pro-16 Plus which costs £60 more than the straight Pro-16S at £239.

Steinberg also now offer a 24 hour on-line electronic bulletin board, on which they will no doubt be electronically pinning information about their new SMPTE generator, which works... er... interfaces with the Pro-24 sequencer...

Microphones (see Mikes And The Mechanics piece) are not intrinsically interesting. But they are important and necessary. Which is why we're telling you about the MCE80 electret condenser and the M700 dynamics, two new hand-held mikes from Beyer Dynamic (that's how they write it). The former costs £299, and gives 50Hz-18KHz response, the latter is £149, and gives 40Hz-16KHz...

Also — small mike: short story. AKG C410 headset mike, good frequency response (20Hz-20KHz). Light and comfortable. Price £150. And 65 pence...

The future's knocking at the office door. Rumours are already reaching us that Casio have some full-sized samplers ready and waiting for launch at the international Music Fair in Frankfurt in February...

HO HO

Sad story: Leo Sayer's tour bus is trolling up the motorway between gigs, closely followed by the drummer in his own car. Inside the bus, a member of the band decides to make use of the chemical toilet. He reappears from the cubicle some ten minutes later, saying, "I pressed the button, but it doesn't seem to be flushing." "Well, it was working this morning," quoth the driver. Suddenly a police car flashes past, lights blazing and siren whirring, and pulls them in. Out climbs a very irate policeperson, liberally splattered with shit, including fragments of bog paper. It transpires that the wrong button had been pressed, thus dumping the dump on to the motorway, splattering the drummer's car, and the policeman who happened to be booking someone on the hard shoulder at the time. What made it worse was that the policeman was so furious, the occupants of the bus had to refrain from having hysterics. Our thanks to Sue Stanton at Premier for brightening up the afternoon...

We don't like to poke fun, but 60-year-old pop weekly Melody Maker seems to have been suffering from terrible grumpiness in its old age. This attack of premature senility manifests itself in a rather odd attitude to its long-running instrument pages, and to Technical Editor Mark 'Tony Mills' Jenkins.

In their December 13th issue, Mr Jenkins (aka Annabel Scott) was described as "responsible for all that daft muso nonsense that creeps in at the back of the paper". Ho hum.

Heavy duty guitar fans will already know about the arrival of the new range of AMERICAN Stratocasters, the Vintage Reissue Series.

These are intended to be close replicas of the original models: the attention to detail involves such useless add-ons as the bridge cover (anyone remember them?) and a three way pickup switch, though a five way and fitting instructions are provided. Also as per original are cellulose instead of polyester finishing in the vintage colours, US hardware and pickups, and the inclusion of a lead, strap, and reprinted handbook in the accompanying tweed covered hard case.

Big deal. But what do they play like? The '57 model we were loaned divided opinion as to the wonderfulness of the Seafoam Green, but all were generally impressed with the standard of the finish and construction. The slim rounded maple neck was superbly finished, and tolerated any amount of music journalist's professional adjustment (ie lowering the action with the alien key provided).

The guitar arrived already set up, which meant very few tuning problems post wangery, though there was rather too much play in the tremolo arm for comfort. Overall, the guitar felt taut and responsive, and sounded fine. Whether or not it sounded any better than a comparable JAPANESE model, I defy anyone to say. It seems to be that one major point about vintage guitars is that they're old; it may well be that in 20 years time, these reissues will be lusted after as pre-CBS Fenders are today. But in the meantime, the US Fender Strat reissues are rather good, rather expensive guitars.