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I think my first audition made the band giggle. They're a covers band that will cover anything from gossip to audioslave to GnR. I had never been in a band before, and was terrified turning up to the audition. I'd played the bass for years, at home.... When I get there the bassist before me was just tearing down his 2 4x10 rig with Trace head and I immediately thought "shi what am I doing?" I place my 25 watt peavey practice combo next to it and tell the other bassist I was ready to bring the thunder - we have a laugh. I take my guitar out of its bag. Did I forget to mention I didn't actually own my own bass? It's my sister's that I stole years ago and it still has pink ribbons on the case. Anyway... I play my heart out and barely get heard over the thunderous drums. I place my tiny amp in a corner at head height to allow us to just about hear me and somehow I get the gig! We've just booked our 8th gig in July in front of 200 festival goers.

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Oh bollards, I put Sir first time and quickly changed it, no point changing it back, I’ve already pi55ed in my chips.

Well just picked one of these beauty up of ebay, oh man it just a beauty sound wise in real good condition its obviously live a charmed life, how much you ask I won for princely sum of £44.00 pounds , get in, happy as pig in stinky poo

These are the two fretboards I'll be using on the twins. As I mentioned before they are not wood but Rocklite a wood substitute made from wood fibres impregnated with resin. One is an Ebony and the other Rosewood substitutes, I think they are very impressive, they even have actual grain just like the real thing. I've wet the Rosewood version to show how it will react to an oil finish

I thought maybe a posh one might have a cravat and paisley smoking jacket and a common one is just wearing Burberry check (sorry I’m just being facetious) The macassar ebony veneer does sound really nice (that’s what I’ve got planned for my 5 string single cut build)

This morning I opened the new bearing cutter, a very impressive looking thing it is, it has a split bearing at the shank end, I suppose it can be used in a restricted space? Who knows but it worked well enough, probably the best bearing cutter I've used so a bargain all in all I also re planed the wood for the top down to 21.25mm (I need 20mm eventually) and jointed it and glued it up. It is sat there now until the morning when I'll plane it flat on one side and glue them to the backs ready for the final bits of shaping etc.

Done. Nice to see an online community working like this, cockles, heart etc.

Done. Glad to help. Not a pleasant story and I hope the scammer gets what he deserves.

Glad your little one is doing well!

Ironic.

Well, my other P sold so I’m gonna keep hold of this for now and see if I’m afforded some more time to play now Iris is home and doing well. I am however going to go the route of making it less black rather than a refinish. Just while I’m making sure. All mods will be reversible.

It comes down to what 'better' actually encompasses. Super smooth, refined, hi-fi sound quailty might not be what some players are looking for, while for others it might be top of the wish-list. Over the last couple of years I've abandoned any prejudice against Far Eastern equipment in the face of overwhelming evidence that there's some excellent, affordable gear out there (which currently comprises most of my instruments).

The only bit of potentially useful info I can give is that when bluesparky sadly missed of this parish was very ill and out of work a charity for musicians helped him greatly, some of us donated to this charity and they checked out as a good legit bunch, they are there to help people who have done their bit as pro players, they may even be able to assist with the medical treatment, they will be named in this thread somewhere. Best wishes.

Not all plain sailing though. I remember when he was jilted.

Fleet (Hampshire) A bit of a departure, this one. Week #1 DDD is the singer who wants to put together an Elvis Presley / Buddy Holly band. Now I've been here before, and I know (from bitter experience) that you can't put together the band and then look for Elvis ... a bit cart-before-the-horse that way. So here I am with the Elvis I need, he already has a drummer, I play bass, all we need is a guitarist, how difficult can this be? DDD says "let's catch up after Easter". I ask him for some YouTube of his own performance. Week #2 DDD sends me YouTube links of him fronting a serious holiday-camp-style 60s tribute act, full matching silver suits, the whole thang. There's not much of it, but he can certainly sing. He can't find a guitarist, do I know anyone? The email ping-pong continues, I suggest we meet face-to-face and have a chat over a beer, maybe even jam through some of the proposed material. Week #3 DDD wants to hook up but can't do so for a week or two. He starts copying the drummer on the emails. Have I found a guitarist yet? I'm currently chasing FIVE of the buggers. Week #4 DDD circulates a short list of a dozen songs, six each by Elvis and Buddy. I've found just one guitarist who seems to be up for this. We all agree to meet the following Friday. Week #5 My guitarist is up for it, but needs another week to prepare. Week #6 My guitarist is no longer my guitarist. He's decided to stick to bedroom widdling. At least he has a more realistic view of his abilities than most guitarists I've met. Week #7 DDD says he will try again to find a guitarist. I make supportive noises whilst quietly thinking "Game Over, move to radio silence". Week #10 (yes, 10) Things get surreal. DDD emails out of the blue - would I be interested in playing a charity gig on Sunday during the BH weekend? My reply was, and I quote: Deano can apparently bring in both a guitarist and a keyboard player. It's a MacMillans Cancer support gig at a big pub in Fleet. That's all I know. There's nothing on the Web about it and the pub is closed for refurbishment. Several days of email ping-pong follow between the three of us regarding whether or not there will be a PA, will there even be microphones, is back line provided, etc. What could possibly go wrong? Halfway through, Deano adds a fourth person to the email trail - who he? Is he a guitarist? Is he a keyboards player? Week #11 Silvie and I drive down to Fleet. We're taking no chances ... we've left the van fully loaded from Friday night's gig, with complete PA, bass rig, etc. in case we turn up to find a child's karaoke set being used as the PA. And yes, I've seen it done. At the venue we are greeted by the sound of very loud, very live music. There's a large beer garden alongside the car park, a very serious PA is in use complete with proper sound engineer, and the band before us are a professional functions band. Hmmmmmm. Whatever next. I meet the others for the first time. Deano and Roy (the drummer) are relaxed, the 'guitarist' is laid back to the point of limbo-dancing under toilet doors. I say "You're the guitarist, right?" and he replies "Actually I'm a bass player who dabbles in guitar". Oh dear. I ask him if he's worked through the set list. He says he looked at it briefly last night. "But what about the key changes and so on?", I ask him. "What key changes?", he says. Oh dear, oh dear. "Are you going to be OK?", I ask him. "I'll be fine" he says, "I can play anything, and I play harmonica too, and of course I'll sing a few of these. If I'm in doubt, I'll just copy what the other guitarist does". Oh dearie dearie me. We set up on stage and - inevitably - the layout requires me to stand between the two guitarists. In the event it probably doesn't matter, since the sound guy turns down the guitarist as soon as he hears him play. So, how did my audition go? Judge for yourselves - here's the edited highlights with all the cockups skilfully and surgically removed:

I'm presuming you value the craftsmanship, design skill and fabulous tone of a bass at this level, produced by one of the top makers of basses as worthless then? Not to mention the input to the instrument of one of the most revered of electric bass players ever. I too don't care for the bass personally but to describe it as rather nice wood and strings rather misses the point by a country mile if not an entire world 🤔 😐 unless you were joking of course.

If he does live in the 18th century it will make the bass very valuable by now!!

I’ve not noticed any latency. I was a little apprehensive about it & had until recently, used a decent usb A-B cable. Many DJs & electronica musicians use a laptop these days. They rarely have any issues if using decent kit. The laptop & interface sit on a stand or small table next to the Seaboard, so the only thing that’s near them is me. I use a decent jack to jack from the interface to my rig. Tbh, things can & sometimes do go wrong with instruments, hardware synths can fail, amps can fail (I’ve had that too). There’s many big name bands using laptops. Devo used nothing but 4 laptops a few years ago. Yes, they probably had plenty of back up, but thenguitar based bands have backup guitars too.

Ah yes ... of course I'd also need to buy a MacBook. Outstanding. I've hated Apple kit for over 30 years. Can't see that changing any time soon.

My pedantry!? Bwa-ha-ha-haaaah!!! Let's go back to basics. The title of this thread is, 'Finish - Is It Important?' To which my answer is, 'No, it isn't'. I'm done.

Ha ha. Someone has convinced me putting it on its end is better but the card game is still on the table.

Thanks to everyone who has donated this will really help us cushion the hit we are going to take, really appreciated you are all legends

Understandable with that level of sensory impairment. Thank God for pinball.

See that nun? she's his sister...

I know it's a different thing, and I'm always up for proper medicine where it's available, but my Brother was completely messed up with a weird form of tendonitis in his hands due to his job, and an old Indian guy at work recommended a paste of Tumeric and water daily (utterly disgusting), and it worked brilliantly for him in relieving the swelling and soreness. Also, My Mum (not a bass player), has badly messed up hands with Arthritis. For years she's been taking Glucosamine after a recommendation from a fellow sufferer. While her hands look really messed up, she suffers hardly any pain and her mobility is excellent despite their appearance. I hope you find something that works for you.

When I had my Warmoth '54 Precision made I was really into Sting's tone at the time. He uses a Seymour Duncan 51P bass Stack pickup. I managed to find one on Ebay and it was indeed a mighty sounding pickup http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/51-p-bass-stack/

I use a Mcmillan 12 step with a minitaur, all mounted on a pedal train. works well, when I can be bothered to take it with me unused for a couple of years now

As a Danelectro fan , I’m bound to agree to a certain extent! Does my Longhorn have the ‘best’ tone of my basses? Maybe not, but it’s probably my favourite nevertheless. There is a lot of pleasure for me to be had from getting good results from stuff that hasn’t cost an arm and a leg , and the arguments over where instruments were made / materials used can get tedious. You just know when something feels and sounds good to you, and can hopefully see beyond the hype that often surrounds buying an instrument. The gap in quality has narrowed so much over recent years between budget / medium to upper end basses, and it’s a great time to be starting out buying kit now.

It would also make sense that the older a bass is, the more its tone and playability will vary with how well it's been treated. I went hunting for a Gibson EB2 a while back and found two, same year (1966), same price (US$2k), in very similar condition to look at. One was dull dead wood, the other warm and resonant and a complete joy. I'd be surprised if two much newer basses, originally so similar, were so different to play. (Unless one had been seriously trashed.)

IMHO The greatest live album of the 70's.

Well, at least there is a silver lining. Let me know when who ever is selling is ready to sell as I may be interested in a deal. Good luck with the crowd funding.

I've said this before, but BC is one of the most polite, friendly and supportive forums I've ever come across. Mind you, what would you expect? - we're bass players aren't we ?

Thank you and thank you to everyone for being so giving and supporting this, this place is full of wonderful people

Great idea... I'm in! Can I request that any surplus is put towards breaking the futhermuckers kneecaps?

Playing bass for Trevor Horn ... no pressure, then.

I'll just leave this here...

Toss-up for me too, this time for the Passions - either Sanctuary or Africa Mine. Not exactly sophisticated numbers, but I really like them. Much better that I'm In Love with a German Film Star. Just MHO, of course.

Suggest it on Talkbass! The SA people are always on.

Done a little bit this morning, just routed out the cavities. I'm leaving the outer edge for now, I've ordered a new cutter from Radian tools 4 Flute Dual Bearing Router Bit 19mm x 51mm seeing as it looks like we'll be leaving the wood showing. Some of you might recognise the router, if you do that's the Mk1 model, to give you an idea of how old it is, still on it's original motor whereas the Mk2 I have has had about 5. Funny seeing as they brought out to Mk2 replace the old unreliable motor! Routed in a channel between the switch and control cavity and stuck some shielding in. Planes the neck laminates and glued them together, well I glued two together, I had enough usable bits to make four necks so I'll glue up the other two in the morning and they can wait for the next job ( a pair of deluxe Thunderbirds ). I'd thought I'l lose more bits than I did but they all stayed pretty flat this time; I just lost three to winding, you can see them in one picture next to a decent piece on the bench Oh, just a note, when I glued the body up I mentioned that I didn't think that a surface from the planer was good enough for glueing so I planed them by hand with a slight hollow along their length if you remember. If I did that here I would have a total of eight curved surfaces stuck together which would leave a noticeable curve along the neck. What I did in this case was to use a cabinet scraper with two passes diagonally opposed which left a nice clean glueing surface and dead straight necks

By all means! I'd leave to hear any responses, keep us all posted 😁👍🏻

I've had many basses over the years including some fairly expensive examples, but my current go-to is a modded HB P-50. Admittedly I upgraded the tuners, electrics, bridge and strings but all you really need to do is buy one and put some decent flats on it. The necks on these are remarkable and very playable. Real old-school vintage thump, for peanuts.

PMT is the worst, especially the one in Oxford. They're so accommodating and let you try stuff, bend over backwards not to look happy when you hand over your card...I once went in for a plectrum and walked out with two new amps! I think I forgot the pick, too.

Got a 1x12 600w DB, great little cab - minimal weight, tiny footprint, excellent sound dispersion and easily keeps up with an aggressive drummer in gig situation. My only gripe - not a fan of paint finishes on cabs. Each to their own.