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I think you can - I was. i went to art school and was literally trained to be creative, and then given tools to keep being creative and coming up with new ideas - even when I had no inspiration. Admittedly to be admitted to art school I had to show an aptitude towards creativity and a level of skill - but even that I would argue was nurture rather than nature. My mum encouraging me to be observant from a young age made a big difference. my education also gave me the knowledge of the rules and history of art and why to do things. Of intentionally breaking the rules and knowing why those rules are interesting to break. I started playing bass as a creative outlet that had no demands on my to reach a certain level - There are big gaps in my skills. But as I’ve learned to play I can tell that most the better players have a theoretical knowledge that means they can Play better.

Your fourth chord was lost and out of use for a while...then found...and then used again ? So, it was just suspended for a while, yes?

For balance... Years ago, we had a band rehearsal space within the grounds of a local storage company. It was great, after 5pm we could go there and make as much noise as we liked. There was CCTV, two locks... it felt safe. Until the day we show up and EVERYTHING was gone. The CCTV cameras? "oh, they are not working". I felt the thieves knew it because they much have come with a large vehicle, and were probably connected to someone in that place... but could never prove anything. We reported it. An officer was assigned to the case who was a guitar player himself. It was very useful as he knew exactly what our gear was worth. He also had a good list of people and shops to check. We gave him all the photographs we could, serial numbers when known etc. He said our stuff would probably show up within a couple of weeks, and if it didn't... then the chances were slim. Six month slater we got a call. They got EVERYTHING back. Well, except for the footswitch for my Laney VC50 amplifier. They took two guitar amplifiers I had in that place. I was very pleased to get them back, although by then the band was no longer, as some of us could not afford new equipment and had moved on. Pity.

Just thought I'd share this.

Was Beethoven classically trained..? Yes. Did he invent stuff..? Yes. So, it follows that being classically trained is not a barrier to being inventive. End of.

I do like a black/tort combination. Have taken the liberty of a little mockup, although it's obvious what they look like as there are plenty of California series basses using this combination.

I do hope you are right.

This is the pick-up arrangement I'm considering...

There’s a simple, cost effective, customer focused solution: Ashdown.

I've been using D'Addarios of all flavours for years now. I generally get 7-9 4 hour wedding gigs out of the EXLs, 6-7 from the Prosteels and I've yet to see the end of usefulness with Chromes

I can't believe I haven't posted my Limelight in here yet...

Look at it this way. if you know 3 chords, you can only use 3 chords. If you know 4 chords, you can use 4 chords, but nothing is stopping you using only 3 of them...

I think these are better examples of Rocco working with Yussef Dayes, who is one of the most exciting drummers out there

I played Saturday afternoon at an outdoor private party - we had our own open fronted marquee and were able to generally get 3 m apart from each other so singing and brass could all happen. The audience were at tables outside with very large table umbrellas. Of course, Saturday was host to probably the largest amount of rain seen in months in the south east of England but it all went fine and we went down well. Every band member complained of aches and pains the following day and severe tiredness - 15 wks without a gig, then, 2 X 1 hr sets took its toll!!! My bass gear, ready to play - the stuff in the background is all the singer's...... don't ask - Antiques Road Trip influence I think!! Nice saxes! We did a nice version of Bueno, by Morphine and that Baritone was put to great use!

It’s not ‘him’ is it?

I bought this yesterday from the gentleman known here as @lowregisterhead and I've only tried it briefly before purchase (to confirm it was as epic as the YT videos suggest) and for about half an hour last night (until Mrs Axe complained about the windows rattling). I'm therefore very much in the honeymoon period! Although there are more knobs than I'm used to dealing with, it didn't take long for me to get familiar with their operation: Character switch - too much bass boost for this to be useful to me, so I'm unlikely to be using this function. There is plenty of range on the Gain control. The Comp/Limit feature goes from just limiting peaks, right up to a pronounced sustain. My gigging amps have tended to have valve preamps with passive tone stacks, so the active Filter section is a bit of a departure for me. I quite often need to cut bass when using my BF Super Twin, but (at least in my living room) this control sounds right at about noon. I boosted some Mids at 200Hz for my favoured sweet spot. The Treble control is really effective in bringing out the clank of a Precision. At first I thought it might be adding noise, but I discovered this was coming from the bass (with hands off strings) rather than the amp. The Bright control doesn't do much for me. It is focused on 10kHz, whereas the Super Twin doesn't reproduce much above 4kHz, plus I use flats. It might be different with roundwounds. The facility to make quick comparisons between flat and EQ'd sounds using the Filter switch is handy. The Comp/Limit circuit comes after the Filter section, so with some Comp engaged, boosting the Bass can change the tonal balance without massively changing the volume, and still lets the fundamentals come through when playing up the dusty end. I set it so that it controls the transients on the one song where I (reluctantly) have to slap (Ashes to Ashes), evens out the harder attack when picking with a plectrum, but otherwise leaves my signal alone. I like it. Drive is great for adding in some 'fur', in fact at settings below noon it is not a million miles from how my Ampeg PF-50T (sold to fund this purchase) used to sound when pushed. I see it is switchable, but it does bring in a significant volume boost, so I don't know how useful that would be in a live context. I might investigate foot-switching, but I'll probably just set and forget - I am not a mid-gig amp-knob-twiddler. (If anyone knows what goes on in the RM-4 footswitch, please let me know - I expect there is just an LED and current-limiting resistor on each switch.) As I understand it, this model has the filters from the HD350 (which people seem to prefer) with the extra features of the HD360 (e.g. light-up push-switches). Although it's possible to pick up an HD350 for quite a bit less, I much prefer the look of this version's front panel, and it has a strong 'Rolls Royce' feel about it. The amp really brought out the difference between the basses I played through it, rand somehow seemed to increase the range of their passive tone controls. This may seem like an odd thing to say, but the thing I liked best about the TC Classic 450 I once owned was the ability to dial in some subtle compression and drive for a vintage-y sound, and then leave it. This amp does that too, but in a much classier package. It has also save me having to put together a pedalboard. Roll on the first post-lockdown band rehearsal. You're going to want pics, so here are a couple of photos from Dave's ad:

Yeah, he couldn't hold a candle to their light operas.

A more interesting debate is the one currently bubbling away on the classical music scene. Up to about 120 years ago, improvisation was the norm, so your 'classical' musicians at the level of soloists would be expected to be able to extemporise and innovate on the hoof. It was only during the 20th century that playing by the score became de rigeur; rather like the standardisation of all the variations of Shakespeare's plays (many of which had been cut and pasted with each other or had large chunks by other writers inserted by 1900). Just as theatres like the Globe try and recapture an 'authentic' Tudor performance, the debate is now should improvisational skills be taught as part of a classical music education and brought back into performance. The mere existence of this debate suggest that, at present, formal musical training does, at least discourage experimentation - at least among performers, if not composers.

'78 on the left, '86 on the right. You can just see the beautiful birds eye neck on the '86. There's a difference in the tones between the two, the' 86 being a lot brighter whilst the '78 is more "classic" tone. I tried to compare the pre-amps but the '78 one is potted so no idea if the circuit schematic and values are the same as the '86.

But if I've found it, it can't be the lost chord?

But that's a different thing! Gilbert was a music school kid and Skolnick had a decent level of musical training, including being taught by Joe Satriani. Both are trained musicians who happened to grow up loving heavy metal and other types of classic rock. Neither of them are Ludwig van Beethoven and nor have they have been associated with anything as basic as Status Quo. On the other hand, Rossi served his apprenticeship playing old time rock and roll in British holiday camps in the 60s and made his mark writing pretty basic 12 bars. I would say that is a considerably different arena to that inhabited by Gilbert & Skolnick.

I found the fourth chord the other day, turned out it had been down the back of the sofa all the time!

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I am too dull for this thread My ultimate dream bass would, in all likelihood, look and play exactly like my Bass Collection Profile.

The amount of fake products in Amazon, makes it hard for me to trust them. If it says "fulfilled by amazon" anyone can send stock to Amazon warehouses and its sent out. I use strings direct.

I don't know, I am tempted...

The deadheads in Oxford I played a sort-of gig with a week or so ago (outdoors, in a field, about 70 or so in the audience) are doing it again this coming Saturday and possibly on the Monday bank holiday as well. No pay, no power, just battery powered amps and hand drums. There were 4 bands last time, hopefully the same again. OK, so it's not putting food on the table, but it really helps keep the spark alive.

I think there are many motivations for doing this thing we do and some of them require an intelligent approach and others not. If you want to 'entertain' and are happy to pulse root notes all night then actually, you don't really need the theory. As long as you know where to put your fingers to make the right noise, you are be fine. If you are more a 'performance artist' than a craftsman, then, again, you can probablty just get away with a superficial knowledge of the details. If you want to blow over Coltrane changes in all the keys or to re-write Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring for a quartet of basses, I guess 'winging it' is probably not going to get you there. We are all on a continuum between ignorant bliss and profound and intimate knowledge of the mechanics of music - where we are on the continuum is likely to be the consequence of any number of variables.

There are four chords..?

For me there is no "background music". If there is music it will be the most important thing - even if it is something that I don't really like. This plays havoc with my enjoyment and ability to follow the plot with a lot of films and TV programmes that like to use songs as part of the sound track, as I'll be far to wrapped up in the music the concentrate on the dialogue. If it's a piece of music I really like, I'll be on my computer or iPad trying to find what it is, rather than following the action on screen.

Not sure it's going to be an issue with Thomann after January. They already provide paid for returns to Germany - I'm sure they will continue doing so, otherwise they are going to risk Andertons mopping up their UK sales. I think our EU neighbours are very aware of the importance of UK consumers to their export (and tourism!) industries - most of our EU neighbours have individual trade surpluses with the UK and in my experience it's generally a good idea to look after your key customers! Obviously shipping costs are substantially higher to the US.

I'd cut their hands off - at the neck ............ 😎

At least they turned up, in my case it took a week for an officer to call me! My conversations with the officer suggested a really narrow view - ‘based on what I know now can I arrest this person?’. I’m thinking - does the seller have my other gear, or that of any one else? If not, they can surely get some intelligence. But nothing like that at all. I really don’t get it. I assume that people join the police to do some good. There always seems to be plenty of resources to deal with social media trolls or motorists, but there seems to be little desire deal with crimes like theft. I can only infer the police focus on those crimes they can get quick and easy prosecutions for, compared to actually doing some good in the community. Presumably all related to improving crime stats and budget cuts. I’ll stop my rant now.... George

I played a Stingray Special in Wunjos last year. I'm not sure what they call the neck shape or profile but I call it "perfect".

This was doing the rounds on Facebook a while ago. Happens to me all the time.

It's not so much smugness as an air of 'Look at me. I'm in control not only of my instrument but also of my life and everything going on in it. That's because - at my core - I'm a stable, well-adjusted person to whom integrity and authenticity are more important than financial gain or transient popularity'. So, basically, the mating signal of the (current) younger generation and one which musos integrate into their recordings and performances the better to engage with their audience. It's the old 'dress and act like your punters only 10% more'. Permit me to expand. Crudely speaking, I am of the second 'rock muso' generation where both musos and male consumers (sometimes) attracted sexual partners through displays of an unbridled, nay, rampant masculinity reminiscent of Vikings on a North Sea cruise. Fast cars, random destruction of property, indiscriminate porking, heavy consumption of recreational narcotics including but not limited to Heineken lager, cheap bourbon, red leb and pills. Girlies liked that sort of (falsified) image or so we thought. Bands sold their records off the back of it. The third generation was all about 'Oh, I'm so sad, I'm crying, everything's all too much, it's all black sheets of rain. I might sometimes play loud, discordant guitar but underneath I'm just a little boy who's grazed his knee and wants mummy to kiss it better then, if possible, work upwards'. That's everyone from Cobain through to the afore-mentioned Sheeran*. The current Gen 4 is all about character and identity and moderation and dressing down and having the latest app, and looking all buttoned-up and extremely unlikely to make a sudden lunge for the jubblies, this on the basis that to do so would be a shameful loss of control and antithetical to the ethical framework of their lives. Basically, it's a way of looking un-threatening and a bit superior to the norm, and those who practice this modus operandi undoubtedly do so in the hope of enhancing their chance of playing 'sink the brisket' with whomsoever may be the object of their interest. Punters do it to get shagged; musos do it to build an audience. It's not a bad tactic though no more likely to succeed than those which preceded it.. One awaits Gen 5 with interest. Will those musos go further down the route of restraint? Will they dress like 1950's Dads, embrace temperance and write letters to The Church Times expressing their disquiet at mounting evidence of moral degradation? Or will they throw caution to the wind, don buttock-less leather trousers, neck meths and sing songs about dining at the Y? I do not know but I think we should be told. * I instance Cobain and Sheeran because they both sit (sat) on the cusp between eras. Cobain started as the wigged-out junkie and ended as the poor little dead boy. Sheeran started as a whiner but has transitioned to self-obsessed, socially-conscious 'entrepreneur'.