Well, I enjoyed the 2nd version of the Dudepit and learned a lot, about Guilds and other basses.
In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to 'support the home team' and bought some Thomastik strings from Steve Barr, the 'founder' of the Dude Pit. Turned out to be the worst internet commerce experience I have ever had, though in fairness, I don't do a lot of biz on the Web.
Great communication until I sent him the money, then no strings or response to quite a few emails over several weeks.
Finally, I found his cell phone number (maybe on his myspace page, it wasn't listed in his 'store') and called him. Our conversation was short and to the point, 'send money or strings this week or I report the matter to the State Attorney General's Office'.
Steve then sent the strings, a T shirt and an additional set of RotoSound strings. That may sound nice (to somebody besides me), but what I really wanted was my Thomastik strings on a timely basis. I gave the extra stuff away......
Dudepit v.3 was a waste of time. And the new deal with 'tags'? Somehow, it all seems rather strange and aberrant, as if Mr. Barr is setting up a lot of hoops for folks to jump through. Perhaps he's culling out the unfaithful and hoping to make money off of the true believers.
As for me, I'm out. If anybody makes it through the 'registration wilderness' and finds 'the promised land' on the other side,
let me know.
In the meantime, I'm happy to be at LTG. I've had the good fortune to meet DKL as well as the rest of the LTGers who showed up at the Arlington '07 show. I've learned a whole lot from Hans, frono and capnjuan about guitars, basses and amps, plus a lot of stuff from the rest of the Gang. LTG is as good as it gets, amigos!!