LeftyBassist.com

Several years ago and around the time I was excommunicated from TB there was one helluva saga evolving about a new american made 360 bass amp. I recall a wacky PR dude who would hype the prolonged R&D process a few times a year then the whole thing would go dormant then it would reignite then dead ad nauseum...

Heck, it coulda been 10 years ago now!

PR dude was pure comedy gold. I remember having formed a mental image of him being a hairy, heavy-set hippie sitting around in a dark room smoking weed and groovin' to the Experience. He took all kinds of flak. Most of it was "boy who cried wolf" type stuff and some of it was about the pricing. I think they were gonna be like 5k+....

Anybody know what happened?

I'd rather hear about why you got excomminicated from TB!

That too, but yes, they did come out and there was a minor burp about them because Flea bought a bunch. And yes, also they are very expensive.

FYI - the May 2013 issue of Bass Player magazine has a nine page feature article on the new Acoustic 360 along with a cover shot of both the new and old 360 from the early 1970's. I owned a pair 360's in the early 1970's, great amps in their day but not sure if I would be willing to lug those monsters around today..............

9 pages!? Wow. Haven't read it in years but isn't that beyond the norm?

I'll keep an eye peeled.

I haven't seen a 360 (new or vintage) anywhere (being used or for sale) in forever.

Was that short lived because I thought just recently I saw a feature, like on youtube or something like "Rig Rundown", detailing a GK setup.

Then again maybe I recall a phase he toured an old Jazz around Stadium Arcadium album and had those 360s?

Lately the whole issue hasn't been too many more pages than that.

Looking back all these years later I realize I was very naive. I had no idea how big a business these forums can be or become. And when that happens especially with gear oriented/centric sites then that means corporate (or even not-so-corporate) employed posters become financially involved and influence the dialog. A forum like TB really is another arena of commerce that is to valuable to be ignored by the mfgs. and their agents. There's too much to gain from all the profiling, marketing, data mining, trend-watching, etc. for those with a stake in the industry to not try to control the debate. There's just too much business to conduct and a tiny few of my opinions were bad for business.

I was embarrassed for TB at the time as I witnessed them do the silliest things in order to stamp out anything perceived to be controversial. And by controversial I don't mean anything nefarious or even against their rules...I simply mean things that were not pro consumer "buy buy buy" anything whatever it's all good just buy. IIRC they made up four or five new rules (just in "amps" and all of which were "stickied" for a while) in a span of maybe three weeks all aimed to quelch discussion of "the amp that shall not be named"

The owner, a couple of the more senior mods, and some up-n-comers organized in Town of Woodbury Walking Dead style a la The Governor, Martinez, and Tyreese to excommunicate me because they got tired of making up new rules to sticky.

All that being said I don't have anything against TB or any of those people. Overall it's a great site and nothing can be perfect. Every now and then I'll put on a and slather on some zombie guts and slip in the back door over there for whatever reason. I mean it's not too hard to blend in when you're a right-handed 8-string playin' SS-amped tweeter (and horn!) 15 yr. old girl bassist like me now is it?

The last I heard anything from/about him was this: http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=6335.0

Banned from TB!!? Now how could that happen to anyone?

in a thread I cant remember it has been so long ago, some lurker saw me bashing TB on harmony central or UG and reported me, and I was "AWARDED" an infraction.
something about "by agreeing to our TOS, you will not bash us anywhere publicly" - or something like that.

my only gripe about that place is....well....uh,....nothing

( can't risk another lurker reporting me )

I dunno man, those 8 strings would make you stick out like a sore left thumb

How in the h#ll did I miss this post! Great to see you PBG!

p.s. how are the fur balls? Mine's doin' OK about to turn 15yrs.

I don't know about "these" forum so much as "that" forum.

I spend my fair share of time on TB and there's plenty of good people participating there, but an anecdote about KoA's post is when this place started I PM'ed the mods of various boards I post on about starting a lefty specific board and the response was the same from every one of them, "that's awesome, post on here to let people know about it, good luck with your board!"... except TB, whose response was essentially "that's a stupid question, of course you can't post about a competing board on our board". So yeah, different mindset about the business side of bass message boards.

I think TB thinking of this place as competition is a bit like the manager of the Coca Cola factory worrying about the business the kid's lemonade stand on the corner is costing them in sales.

Yeah, me too. I've been hiding behind the name "JimmyM" over there for a good run...

I just realized I reanimated a very old thread with a completely off-topic post. I know there's a name for that!?

How about this for a save?

G/f asks me to go next month to see some band I've never heard of: "Atoms for Peace"

so I look like big idiot when I discover Flea is the basser???

If I go am I gonna see/hear these new 360s or what?

I only remember 2 things about jimmyM.

The rally that was started in his name and on countdown timer websites when he was banned to bring him back, and the AWESOME AMPEG PA system with amps and cabs that was a dead ringer for his collection that he said he didnt need when I PM'ed him