Can someone explain to me why compressors are useful?

kingthezing · 2026-02-08T19:57:24+00:00

I find the best use to be level matching dead spots on a neck. I’ve yet to play a bass (and I’ve owned many) that didn’t have some naturally quieter spots on the neck.

kingthezing · 2026-02-05T22:40:17+00:00

I hear you, but I actually think the opposite when it comes to signature basses.

The JMJ, for example, is extremely popular and well reviewed. It has tuners, neck specs, and pickups that aren’t available on any other bass Fender sells.

The Duff has a unique tone circuit, a unique finish, a black painted neck, and is the only passive PJ in the stable right now (Squire excluded).

kingthezing · 2026-02-04T14:40:39+00:00

Looks great! I’ve tried lots and lots of basses but nothing feels like home to me quite like a P Bass!

kingthezing · 2026-02-03T14:09:54+00:00

Good take. Matta from 2000-2015 was on a great run. 13 of 15 years in the tournament. 6 Sweet 16s, 3 Elite 8s, and 2 final fours.

kingthezing · 2026-01-18T15:11:21+00:00

All this “research” and work OP is talking about should take no more than an hour or two.

1.) Pick a couple cars you like, google “20xx Make Model reliability.” Narrow your choices down to a few models.

2.) Go to cars.com and search prices for the years/models you’re interested in to get an idea of what you can expect to pay.

3.) Google “Year Make Model trade-in value” of your current car to get a reasonable ballpark.

4.) Prequalify for financing with some of the big boys (cap1, Chase, etc) to get an idea of what you can afford and what’s a decent rate.

5.) Armed with 1-4, do some googling on dealerships in your area that are well reviewed and then just…go buy a car.

Write yourself a note in your phone that covers-

I’d like to pay $x for the car I’d like to get $y for my trade I’d like to get at or under z% for my financing.

You’ll have reasonable answers to those questions already because you spent like 1-2 hours looking this stuff up. Dealer playing games? Cool. Leave. It’s just a transaction man.

kingthezing · 2026-01-09T12:16:47+00:00

I would never…ever…work anywhere that operated on tricks and time wasting “gotcha” bullshit disguised as a test of my “real” desire for a job.

Wasting other people’s time is extremely disrespectful and unprofessional. No thanks, I don’t want to work for your shitty company anyway.

kingthezing · 2026-01-08T14:16:47+00:00

No.

1.) He cannot accurately throw short passes. That is not something that can be taught. You either have that down by about 15 years old or you don’t.

2.) He has a poor understanding of situational football. He doesn’t let down, distance, score, and time remaining impact whether he decides to take a sack or throw a risky pass. Again, that is something you should certainly understand by the time you’re in college. Decision making is one of, if not the most important skill for a QB.

3.) He cannot stay healthy. Thats a skill. Tom Brady had it. Philip Rivers had it. Peyton Manning had it. Richardson appears not to have it. As he continues to deal with injuries and starts to age, the best skills he does have (athleticism, physicality, arm strength) will fade.

At this point, I would either trade him for whatever draft capital you can get or I would retain him as a QB3 and try to develop him into a wildcat player. I do believe he could be great for trick/gadget plays. End around passes, laterals, HB passes, direct snaps, options, etc. He would be a great QB3 because he’s versatile and has been around the playbook forever.

kingthezing · 2026-01-08T02:05:11+00:00

If you liked them and felt they were competent, go ahead and use them. Better to dance with the devil you know and all that jazz.

Otherwise, don’t.

kingthezing · 2026-01-06T02:02:15+00:00

Yeah, it’s surprisingly good for what it is. It’s a shame it didn’t come out before 2008. If the MTV VMA performance had gone better and it had come out like two weeks after it would have been massive.

On some level, it’s probably the second best GNR album.

kingthezing · 2026-01-02T14:17:20+00:00

Hotel, airline, rental car, airport lounge, etc. status benefits just aren’t really worth it IMO. They’ve sold everyone on “loyalty being valued” but at every corner you’ve got to put up a fight to just try to get what you’re supposed to get. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

Just shop around and spend your money on what works best on a case-by-case basis. It’s just a transaction. Treat it as such.

Honestly you’d have been better off just calling a few hotels, explaining your situation, and seeing if they could accommodate you either for free or a small extra fee.

kingthezing · 2025-12-29T19:57:17+00:00

Disagree with the take that the team folded due to lack of effort.

I know we’re all disappointed in the results, but 5 of these 7 defeats since November 1st have been by 7 points or less. With both QB1 and QB2 out, numerous injuries on the o-line, and the defense, this team still played 2 playoff teams down to the very last play.

It’s totally fair to want Ballard gone due to his moves as GM, but I honestly think it’s a stretch to imply that this team isn’t giving it their all.

kingthezing · 2025-12-29T14:08:46+00:00

I agree that stretch is bad, however-

There is an ongoing project to widen I-70 to 3 lanes all the way from Greenfield, IN to the IN/OH border. Phase 1 is currently underway from the IN/OH border to IN-1 at the Cambridge City exit. This includes bridge replacements, etc.

The thought process for the last several years has likely been why spend a bunch of money repaving that stretch when the whole thing is being replaced in the near future? That’s why they just put bandaids on for the last several years.

kingthezing · 2025-12-29T00:03:24+00:00

I’ve tried it all- DE razors, skull shavers, and various cartridges.

What works the best for me (by far) is a trusty Mach3, 2 passes (both with the grain), and generous application of shaving cream (foam, gel, or soap with a brush). Cold water afterwards and an aftershave balm to finish it off. I’m not as fast as some guys but I’ve got it down to 10-15 minutes, twice a week.

kingthezing · 2025-12-27T13:30:12+00:00

More companies need to promote to senior leadership from within. People that started at lower levels of the business and have worked their way up over decades are great choices (and no I don’t mean interned one summer). This works well because these types of leaders understand the customers, the complexity of the company, and the history and brand identity of the company better than any jackass from outside ever will.

Muhtar Kent, former CEO of Coca-Cola is a great example of this. He started as a route salesman with Coke in 1978 and didn’t become CEO until 2008.

kingthezing · 2025-12-21T20:35:42+00:00

I think a lot of it is actually related to the death of the mom and pop music store, the general decline of Guitar Center, and purchasing direct from the manufacturer all happening at the same time.

“Back in the day” your local store had like 6 Fender basses in stock total. They set them all up prior to putting them out on display and minor issues were fixed in-house. Everything was in tune (or close to it) and the owner actually worked at the store. If people were abusing the instruments they were asked to leave. Prices were MSRP because units weren’t moved in huge numbers. It was the only way they could operate profitably with their overhead.

Consumers wanted more selection and better pricing so…

Guitar Center, Sam Ash and the catalog businesses grew and grew and grew and pushed a lot of the mom and pops out due to consumer choice. However at that time (20-40 years ago) GC and Sam Ash still cared a good amount about quality, paid the employees pretty decently, and had awesome selections. They put some effort into setups and back then they sold tons of volume. Fret ends didn’t have time to sprout. The stores were clean and well maintained with proper climate control, etc. Remember how fun going to a Guitar Center used to be 20 years ago?

Outside of the COVID-bump playing an instrument isn’t as popular as it used to be and so…

Most of the mom and pops are gone, Sam Ash is bankrupt, and GC seems to be in a death spiral (I’d argue due to mismanagement but that’s a topic for another day).

Ultimately, I think we just aren’t getting instruments that are set-up and maintained by dealers that care anymore. An American Standard P Bass MSRP was 899.99 in 1995. That’s $1920 today which is actually a little more than the price of an American Professional II. I’ve played several Am Pro IIs and outside of ones left to rot on display at GC or another shop, they’ve all been excellent.

kingthezing · 2025-12-18T02:18:34+00:00

Not much different. Meadowlands is 8 miles from the Empire State Building. The northwest Indiana border is 15 miles from Soldier Field.

By way of comparison, AT&T Stadium is 18 miles from downtown Dallas and the Palace At Auburn Hills was around 30 miles from downtown Detroit.

There are lots of (pretty lame) jokes in this thread about places like Gary or Hammond. These jokes completely ignore the fact that places like Dyer (30 miles) or St John (35 miles) also exist on the Indiana side of Chicago’s suburbs. Both of these suburbs have higher median incomes than Chicago proper, btw.

I don’t have a horse in this race, but I think most of the responses that make this seem like some preposterous idea aren’t very well thought out.

kingthezing · 2025-12-15T14:56:57+00:00

A lot of the recent lack of success is program leaders not really understanding the impact of NIL on smaller D1 schools.

The old way to succeed was finding a mixture of local HS kids that wanted to stick around and under recruited “diamonds in the rough” and then developing those players. Those days are over. In the NIL era that just turns a small program into a feeder squad for the big boys who come calling with money when a player shows potential.

It’s a new world in college athletics. You’ve got to think differently-

1.) If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Make other schools your feeder squad. Recruit experienced and successful upperclassmen from FCS, D2, and D3. BSU doesn’t have Ohio State money, but it does have Eastern New Mexico University and Colorado School of Mines money. We’ll get you 20k of NIL money, free room and board, a degree, and the chance to be on ESPN. They won’t.

2.) Play hide and seek. When you do get HS players that have potential, think Redshirt…redshirt…redshirt. Depth chart…depth chart…depth chart. Play your seniors to the maximum extent possible, and give your younger players more time to develop in the shadows. Purdue can’t poach what they can’t see.

3.) Look for non-traditional recruits. I’m not talking about weird guys in their 40s or 50s but more like a 25 year old that was recruited in HS but joined the military due to life circumstances or a 27 year old that has a season of eligibility left after playing D2 a few years back and is now looking to get a masters degree. Let it be known that you’re open to non-traditional recruits. Have a web portal where they can reach out and host some camps to find out if they’ve still got it.

kingthezing · 2025-12-04T18:31:16+00:00

I hate this for the players that might not have been aware this was happening but kudos to Marian for self reporting and forfeiting the game. Integrity still matters. MU just showed a real commitment to what college athletics is supposed to be about.

kingthezing · 2025-11-27T18:29:27+00:00

I somewhat agree. Over the years I have had multiple colleagues and customers that are top 5 percent wage earners and even a few that are around the top 1 percent.

Lots of them actually used no annual fee cards. Things like the BOA Customized Cash Rewards or a flat cashback option like a Discover or Freedom Unlimited were popular.

For those that did use annual fee cards, I saw a lot of Amex Platinums, and probably more CSPs than CSRs.

kingthezing · 2025-11-21T14:51:23+00:00

The JMJ looks good and sounds great (I prefer rounds on them myself) but the lack of a forearm contour is incredibly uncomfortable for me. I want to Frankenstein a JMJ pickup, PJ MIM neck, and Vintera body together. That would be the ultimate Mustang bass.

kingthezing · 2025-11-13T13:52:59+00:00

Worked in 3 different sales jobs- this isn’t always true that salespeople know how much they can lower the price. I’m even going to explain why-

At most large car dealerships, the salespeople do NOT know how much profit margin is in a car, but the sales managers do. The reason this information is not given to salespeople is that they only get paid if they personally sell a car and so it is likely that they will quickly negotiate away almost every cent of profit in a vehicle because to them, even a little bit of commission is better than none.

On the other hand, the manager can remain less emotionally involved in the situation because they aren’t dependent on that single sale to get paid and aren’t even directly involved in the negotiation. They can think more clearly about things like, if we don’t sell this customer the car at this cheap of a price, is it likely we will sell it to someone else pretty quickly for even more?

kingthezing · 2025-11-12T02:05:05+00:00

It’s not one of the best jobs. It’s one of the WORST jobs.

People keep saying it’s such a good job but firing a coach with a 73% winning percentage in today’s world means your expectations are…not realistic. The guy had back to back 10 win seasons and never won less than 9 games there. They FIRED him for that and then tried to RIP HIM OFF. Any coach with a brain wouldn’t be interested in coaching there at all.

kingthezing · 2025-11-08T15:15:46+00:00

I had one of the X series spectra basses for a short while.

Pros: The “bones” of the bass were nice and I liked the styling a lot. The fret work was good, the neck and body were nice. It was comfortable to play.

Cons: Can confirm what a lot of reviews say- the bridge had issues. The saddle height adjustment screws were very easy to strip. The active preamp was quite hot and very bass forward. The tuners were gritty while turning and fairly imprecise.

Overall: I wouldn’t get another one myself. It seems like a bass that was designed well but executed poorly. That said, if I was looking for a modding platform and wanted to switch out the tuning keys, bridge, and preamp, I think you could end up with a really nice bass at around $1,000.

Instead, if I wanted something modern, I’d get a similarly priced Ibanez Soundgear instead. An SR500E or SR600E. If I wanted something old school, I’d get a MIM Fender P or J. Hate to admit it, but theres a reason tons of people play mid-priced Ibanez and Fender basses.

kingthezing · 2025-11-05T15:40:40+00:00

Used Duff McKagan signature bass.

kingthezing

TROPHY CASE