There is a burgeoning new breed of audiophiles coming about. They aren't the old type who would tongue tip valves to detect imperfections in the metal pins sort of audiophile, but they are at least aware of mastering and quality.

So here is the issue with any sort of physical media. When you get something mixed and mastered today, the expectation is that this thing is going on Spotify or other digital services. Nine times out of ten, the master will be brickwalled to all hell and designed to sound good on a standard crappy iPhone speaker. Gone are the days where the expectation that the end listener will have some semblance of hifi speaker or even a car radio. Nope, they expect it to be compressed, streamed, smushed and potentially only then piped via bluetooth to whatever piece of crap they call a speaker nowadays.

However, more and more people are realising that when they go back and listen to their old CDs, they sound markedly better than the remasters appearing on Spotify. And it's true.

Effectively - and to put it simply - mastering for streaming, CD and record all require different processes to get the best results. I have found that a fair few CDs I have bought over the past couple of years simply have the streaming masters slapped on them. I am amazed to find that they even clip on a standard CD player due to it.

A good example being Guns N Roses recent releases of Appetite and Use Your Illusion disks, Now I love these albums, I grew up on Guns. And I'm a sucker for extra content. First of all, digisleeves (not digipaks, digisleeves) can rot and burn in hell. It is impossible to get the CD out of the damned thing without nearly destroying this stupid digisleeve. Second of all, first play through the Appetite album, I was more than a little disappointed. It sounded just bloody weird. And it wasn't my system. I put on the CD I bought in 1992 or whenever, sounded great. Very clear, everything as it should be. This so-called remaster, I don't know what they've done with it. It is just poor! First of all it sounds like someone took an EQ and scooped out the mids to the point where it's actually ear fatiguing to listen to. Second, it bloody well clips! It actually clips my home hifi. Ripping the disk and loading the wave form - surprise surprise - it is brickwalled to all hell. There are no dynamics left in this thing at all. To me, totally ruined.

As for records, I was in a project a good few years back who did a records run because it was popular. Oops sorry, vinyl... have to call it "vinyl"... the trendy kids won't know what it is unless you say "vinyl" and not record.. which is what it actually bloody well is.

We went to the bother of getting it properly masters for record and the guy did a brilliant job. We got our 300 pressed and ready to rock and I have to say, it sounded excellent. It was far better than the masters we got done for spotify and slapped on CDs. We did that because it was cheaper to do so and our mastering engineer didn't seem to understand what we meant when we said we wanted a CD master, not a spotify master, as in don't brick wall it, this is for people with home hifi. He wasn't the only mastering engineer we approached with that though, they had no idea. The guy who did our record master understood this completely. So much so, I went back to him in a later project for separate CD and Record masters, leaving our original mix/master guy to run up the spotify masters. It seems engineers under 30 have no idea what a CD or even record master is.

However, all of that is expensive. We only went these routes as we knew it would sell. If you don't know you can sell physical copies, then don't. I am also a proponent of saying do it right or don't do it at all. But bands have to make money somewhere along the line.

A lot of this already happens anyway. But to be honest with you, with technology and advancements, music is already cheap. I see adverts many times a day for MIDI chord packs... I just have no idea who exactly these are meant to be for. If you don't know how to form a chord, then surely you are pretty damned far from releasing music of any kind?

I mentioned this in another sub but will repeat here. A friend of mine recently went for a shoot for a car commercial. I won't say the brand, but it's pretty unimportant, apparently this is the way these days. Her entire shoot consisted of a few changes of wardrobe with the last one being a green screen suit. The only bits of car that were there was a car seat and a steering wheel suspended by some bits of perspex. Everything about it was green screen. Her main shot was around a city scape, looking all blissful and bright then culminating in her hopping into the car with that "Life is awesome" grin on her.

The point was, no need for a city, no need for an actual car, no need to actually drive a car. Everything else was going to be CGI and stock footage. While I understand it to some degree, it is just a little eye opener that almost everything you see today is fake and it has been for a long long time. What makes you think that most things you hear aren't fake too?

Honest, I would suggest neither. I used to teach guitar for about 2 decades, now repair guitars and basses. Honestly, I don't rate either of those pieces.

I would highly suggest you find a Squier Affinity strat and get that. Really that is the minimum standard frankly.

I would suggest the following.

Biohazard "Sate of the world address" and "Urban discipline"

Clawfinger "Deaf dumb and blind"

Misery loves co "self titled" and "Not like them"

Entombed, "To ride shoot straight and speak the truth"

Shotgun messiah "Violent New Breed"

Prong "Cleansing" and "Beg to differ"

Sick of it all "Scratch the surface" and "Built To Last"

Sspultura "Chaos AD" and "Arise"

Coal Chamber first album

As a total wildcard, pick up Dub War "Wrong side of beautiful" if you can find i

This, I was speaking with a work mate not too long ago in almost this predicament. His sibling wanted to rent it out asap, but there were a lot of damp and mould issues. Two agents looked at it and said it was practically unrentable. The sibling then wanted top market rate for it which it wasn't worth in its present condition.

He had just spent £35k putting things right but now the sibling wasn't interested in splitting that cost and wanted it rented out again.

If you can agree with your siblings to fix it up and sell it on if you don't want in the renting game, then do so. It's a nice nest egg for you all, call it done. If you cannot agree to spit the costs, either before or after sale, then sell it as it is.

My brother and I aren't in this situation but with two aging parents, I imagine we will be in the next 10-15 years or so as a guess. Frankly, I think we're both in the position the windfall will be nice.

Funny story, a friend of mine was in a car advert recently. 95% of her shoot was in front of a green screen. The end result of her shot was her walking through a city scape and then getting into a car. Yes, looking smug and like life is just all sorted sort of smile. The only thing that wasn't green screen was the car seat and steering wheel suspended on a perspex platform. Everything else was green screen. Nope, there wasn't even a car at the shoot. She did a few shoots in different clothes and eventually in a greenscreen friendly suit. We made fun of her that the only thing that they wanted was her head and she should just rent that out. Hilariously, she said she's seen the end result and is not convinced that those are actually her hands. But then that is the way of the world today. I guess a guy on a computer mocking up the video sequence is cheaper than driving a car about.

I hear you. I have had that same issue in the past. I'm just wondering, who would want a 43 year old metal guitarist apart from the retiring covers band. I've done the covers band thing before, I feel a little bit sick whenever I hear Brown Eyed Girl or Stand By Me now haha.

My take on this is this was 1999. Limp Bizkit didn't really see any major success until around 1999 so as far as playing festivals goes at that point, they were fairly inexperienced. FWIW I have tech'd for a festival overseas which most people could see were hugely unsafe from a crowd control point of view - those of us who had seen festival set ups before at least.

One of the biggest dangers at large gatherings like this is when the crowd is able to move without direction, they tend to spiral. Imagine a tornado but walking pace, the crowd will generally tend to spiral outwards from various midpoints. This is what ultimately leads to people being crushed. This is why crowds must be segmented in large crowds like that. Segmenting the crowd using actual barriers is what prevents the crowd from spiralling outwards. If you have been to a large festival in recent times, if you ever wondered why on earth there is a barrier and clearway right in the middle of the crowd, this is why.

Limp Bizkit in all fairness were still riding that wave of being new rock stars, inexperienced at that point of playing festivals to that degree comparatively speaking and to defend them slightly, they likely had little appreciation that their antics would contribute to the riot. Don't get me wrong, Fred Durst is a idiot and I have no idea how Limp Bizkit attained the status that they have. To me they always kinda of sucked and it isn't like they've aged like fine wine. So for me to go on the defensive, well, here we are. My take is you had an inexperienced band who were not in a position to appreciate the dangerous situation that they contributed to.

After seeing the docu and speaking to other techs I've crossed paths with on that rare occasion when I have, it was 100% down to the organisers. Fred Durst should never have been put in a position where he stood a remote chance of igniting the crowd to that level. He was also a 28 year old new rock star who had established himself upon bucking the trend and giving the finger to authority.

100% the organisers on this one. I really don't give a damn what Jonathan Davies says. I appreciate what he witnessed and hindsight is 20/20. I don't believe that if he were in Durst's position he would have suddenly had an epiphany and chilled everyone out with some smooth jazz odyssey.

If you want to point fingers at any performers who you could hold responsible for tipping the point, I would look at the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Fire was not a part of their standard set list and there was only one reason for its sudden inclusion in my view. But either way, it doesn't excuse the organisers one bit.

Well this is far too much of a loaded question to get a straight answer.

If you're a mega artist with huge capital behind you, then yes it can be pretty cool. The big mistake most punters make is assuming that just because a band is playing a 2000cp venue that they are loaded and are living regally. The truth is they are not. FWIW I have been a touring musician before, depping for some larger name artists. To facilitate I was working contract positions at the time. So when they dry season came up, I was back to 8-5s as were most of that roster.

On a more budget level, you have to decide what touring actually is. Don't mistake touring for a bunch of dates slightly further away from you. There is a huge difference. Either way if you don't have mega capital behind you and big brand names (including your own), your best friend is the person who does your accounts. Touring is not always tour buses and catering. It's lovely when it is, but those times are rare as hens teeth. Most of the time, it's bargain stores and a big bag of rice to feed all of you. Most of the time, you almost have to become unwilling vegetarians (protein is expensive) in order to undertake these things.

One of the cheapest "tours" I did (or in my case, collection of dates), we hired a few spots at some camp grounds. We had our van with our gear in it - who is going to think of robbing a van at a camp ground? - and pitched two decently sized tents. There were showers there, a bbq pit, toilets, etc and a couple of them even had a TV room. While most people can't stomach two weeks living outside, if you can it's absurdly cheap. We averaged about £40 for two tents per night. You cannot get that rate anywhere. Sure we were proper haggard by the end of it, but it's one of the gigging stretches I did with my own originals bands that actually turned a profit! It put a huge dent in our recording budget when we got back that's for sure after selling merch and what have you.

I have seen people wearing my bands' t-shirts out and about over the years. It's nice to see, but half the time they don't recognise me when I'm not covered in sweat with a guitar on me and hair in my face haha.

The oddest one I had was I was doing FOH for a touring act and was out for three months on a good old trot of the globe. We had some long days so I would start about 10am my time and be wrapped up about 1-2am. I'd have that for three days and then get a day off. There were this couple that were obviously following the act around on a load of dates. I would see them there when I got dropped off with the crew at the venue and they would be hanging around for the whole day.

They were harmless enough but were definitely on the security guys' radar. We used to call them Cagney and Lacey, with me being just about old enough to understand the reference. Whether the act was due for a photoshoot, or an in store signing, or an interview, somehow they knew and would be at or around the location.

As I say they were harmless enough, more just looking to say hi, being superfans and what not. As most of the security team were ex military, it gave them something to be all het up about every so often. So you would be busy and you would hear on the radio "Cagney and Lacey have been sighted gate 3. Charlie Mike." I didn't know anyone on the team with that name, so I assume that meant they were going to kick someone's ass or something. Who knows. The most important thing was establishing their FOB which to me is where they basically mostly were. Not many of them were the "I was in nam!" types, but obvious and respectfully had seen some action I take it. So they did take themselves quite seriously. Whatever, if someone was headed to screw with us, would sooner they be there than not.

Anyway, Cagney and Lacey, I did speak to them more than a few times. Sometimes just to chat and say hi, other times tactfully if the artist was basically showing up on the other side of the building. I would sometimes get sent out to do a walk by to see if C and L were there and to engage them as a cover. I did it a few times. As I say, they were friendly and harmless really. I saw them on at least 6-7 weeks out of that whole tour while I was there. Thankfully never on my day off which was sometimes spent catching up on sleep if I didn't have to go fix something that had broken or arrange to have it fixed.

Suffice to that, C and L became mini fans of mine for a bit. When I did speak to them, sometimes they would ask how the artist on tour was doing. I'd just say yeah great, give them little snippets of what they were up to, what tv shows they were watching. Sometimes I'd point out that they were in a big epoch of culture and they should go check it out. They did a few times and brought me some cool little bits. I got a couple of little ornament things and a hat from the places we were in. They didn't have to do that at all but that was really cool of them. The funniest thing was when they showed up with matching shirts at one gig with [my name] rock written on their shirts. They had had them printed up earlier that day. I still have the picture somewhere. That was my last week with the band, it did cross my mind to get a shirt printed myself with their names on it too but yeah, there just wasn't time for that. Most of that week was getting the last few shows done and then sorting the gear out to go back into storage for the next time the act came back, returning gear to rental companies, etc. It was pretty much move all the heavy things by that point.

The obvious Slayer influence aside... I think it's one of those albums that if you put it down after the first listen, it's a mistake. I've had it on in the car since it came out and to say it's grown on me is to say the least. Shrapnel and Residue are probably my favourite tracks on it. But to me the whole album sort of works together. Rather than taking single tracks and calling that a representation is doing the album an injustice.

The one thing I do take issue with is the drums. I don't know who did them but they sound very very gridded to fuck in a not ear-pleasing way. I understand Kerry has made some adjustments to his guitar sound and the overall production to try and get it away from Slayer a bit, but the drums are may biggest bug bear. I think if he could have dialled down the quantize on it, the whole album would have been better.

At the end of the day, it's his first full album with nobody else to influence him. I think it's a great first effort and if Slayer is indeed completely dead and gone, fair play to him.

I loved Outlaws. Out of that list, I would love to see that get a remake potentially even using the original samples. Where are ya Marshall....

Duke Nukem 3D was an absolute movement when I was young. Moreso than Quake. In my school, we were all making maps for each other to play using that cursed DNBuild engine which would continuously randomly corrupt should you make an incomplete sector, etc. We persevered though, continuous backups! I did play that again recently and I have to say, I seem to remember it being a little more fluid on my old Pentium 133 compared to today. I can't quite put my finger on it. It's a shame I don't have any of my maps anymore. I spent forever making them. Ah well.

Yep, it's worth a few hundred quid at least. If you don't want it, why not offer to take care of selling and shipping it for, I don't know, a small percentage off the top?

All in all, I would say £300 or so is a fairly decent price on the entire lot. Could whack it on amibay or even ebay. I would wager that she would have a buyer in no time if she just wants rid of it all.

Though I think they are still working out some gremlins, they are markedly better overall. I feel the days of me having to cut a new nut for a Gibson from new are nearing an end. I must have cut hundreds from blank in the Henry era. I was amazed how many of them were simply not right from the factory. Still I got good at it.

Gibson are not immune from the world's dwindling decent timber stock. Personally I feel that they reserve the better timbers for Les Paul's over all else. I've only come into contact with one recent Explorer and it was a very heavy and dark beast. Not at all the explorers of old. But that's the only one. Still it's a suspicion I have overall.

So yes. Markedly better. I am still an advocate though if you have Les Paul money then you have to go and try them before you buy them like almost any guitar.

But yes, on the whole, much better.

Pretty much that. I have had students back when I used to teach, not really get the idea of why guitars cost £250 and £2500.

When they come along a bit and still ask them the question, I have happily plonked a USA strat in their hands in place of their Squier. It takes them about 2 minutes to get it. Same with Jackson for the metal heads, just vice versa it. They've been clutching their £250 Jackson JS, the complete difference next to a USA, well, it's done in seconds.

I think the general impression I get from most things on the www is the planet would appreciate none... in fact if I could find a tall cliff myself...

I've long stopped giving a damn about that sort of stuff. Doom and gloom is extremely profitable.

I repair guitars and amplifiers as a sideline. I have seen more than a few reviews and sat there mouth open, thinking, did they get the same guitar? There are a few manufacturers that absolutely top that list but this whole dynamic of guitars have gotten better and cheaper over time is not one I agree with sadly. In fact, I think it is wholly the opposite. I have seen some utter trash walk through my door with £500 price tags on them that if I were selling them, I would be embarrassed to do so.

Moreover, I think we are definitely in a time where you need to try before you buy. This idea of blindly ordering mail order on the basis of reviews is well over. Whatever golden era we enjoyed for that is very much over. I have had incidents where I have had the same actual model multiple times in a row with absolutely astonishing differences in build and material quality between them. The same brand, model and price tag, one has been an absolute pile, the other passable only just.

As for a truly truly great instrument? You need budget and time. And you need to go out and pull everything off the shelf to find it. They are rare as hens' teeth now and no matter what you think, it's unlikely you struck gold the first time out. When someone does show up with an instrument like that which just damn near plays itself, I will always tell them. Sadly I've not found one build in the last ten years that didn't cost North of the £1800 mark. You get what you pay for these days - and sometimes even then you don't!

There was a lot, but what really made me pull my finger out and get an electric was this moment right here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xttJCBZLfio

Scotti Hill's solo about 18 seconds in. I saw that live when I was no age at all. There's a bit of a story behind all of it. In short, my parents didn't know I was going, I shouldn't have gone, my Mom would have gone absolutely nuts if she had known. But it was totally worth it to me.

I was there with a schoolfriend and his brother and I was sure as hell watching Skid Row. Loving the whole set so far, Scotti came on and did that solo and it was so bloody lyrical and like a wolf howling. Definitely a moment for me. I thought, what am I doing messing around with piano and classical guitar, constantly listening to people telling me I need to learn all that first, when what I really want to do is... well... whatever that guy just did.

The same week, I sold my Sega Master System to cash converters, called in a birthday gift from my parents and got myself a Squier Strat and a Rocktek 15w amplifier. I still have both haha. But that was my crowning moment. There were obvious precursors to all of that. Hendrix, I had only just heard of Nirvana, someone had just given me a copy of Vulgar Display Of Power which was what I was listening to in my walkman going to Donington ironically. But yep, that was the moment of clarity so to speak.

Three is a good number haha. It's our target too. I guess I have good few guitars for them to have a go at too.

Oh I hear all of that. I'm prepared for the changes, but also prepared for the cost of living. The one key thing I found from all my peer group is back when they were having kids, the second they landed, they stopped everything. Bands, gym, quick half down the pub, the lot. Now it could have been by choice, maybe it was something I said, but I did notice that a lot. They did come back. It took ten years but they did come back.

I'm cool with it. As I said elsewhere, my main band's lineup imploded last week so I'm in a bit of a limbo at the moment.

I have a very supportive missus in that arena haha. The sad part is the lineup on my main band has just fallen apart. I'm wondering how justifiable it is to keep the gear for it.

I wholly agree. I've had so many of these guitars through my hands. I repair guitars and amplifiers on the side, these are probably the most common I get to work on The amount of kids I have come through who insist that their Epiphone "kills every Gibson out there"... yeah... no. I mean, I make nice and smile and nod, but the reality is, Gibson guitars really are just leaps and bounds over Epiphones. Sure they make a dog every now and then and the Henry era has just been tragic. But when you get a good Les Paul in your hands. boy do you know about it. I don't care what anybody says, its all in the wood.

Nice Les Paul.

TBH, I did go the other way round with it I have all my guitars and amplifiers, work in a couple of bands. Now the wife and I are looking to do the kids things. While it may mean the end of frivolous purchases, given what I have got I'm good with it.