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Yes - little by little it's getting there

The reason it's so difficult is because the UK side didn't want to allow reciprocal arrangements.

There are now enough coats of hardened oil to be able to do a light flattening. I use 2000grit with plenty of water on the paper and regular spray downs to prevent the sandings clogging the paper: This gets rid of any specks, bubbles, minor dips and also prevents the build up of application ripples in the surface while sanding only the oil and getting nowhere near the wood underneath. That done, I pop it onto a wiped down shoe box to get it away from any dusty surfaces, wipe it down with a clean microfibre cloth (I use the ones they sell for cleaning windows with), open a new bottle of tru-oil so I know there is no dust contamination and apply the first of the finish coats wiping it on with a clean lint-free soft cloth. This process may happen three or four times until I get a coat that looks right...and then I STOP

Aye.. I definitely aspire to double denim and a moustache last seen on the hunk fixing the washing machine for the scantily-clad lady in that dodgy movie. 😁

Had my eye on one of these for years now, but either found them too hard to come by or out of my price range. And then one gets posted on an online guitar raffle site (I won’t post the name just so it doesn’t look like I’m promoting them but I’m happy to say which one by PM). I’ve bought tickets for various draws over the past couple of months but never had any luck. Was all prepared to give up and then I go and win this bloody beauty! Absolutely over the moon with it, it’s beautiful and a dream to play and so light! I just need to make the tricky decision to restring and set it up for either Drop A# or Drop C!

Recorded with the 424x today https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hOBgdbTuD7BR_2UqcVARaW-1v-hbnTi6/view?usp=drivesdk

How to get a perfectly decent topic locked, Lesson One ...

The UK ended FoM, ending it was one of the linchpins of Brexit. What many failed to grasp was that we weren’t just ending it for EU citizens, we were ending it for ourselves too. We could have opted to remain part of the SM - a Norway style agreement - that would have solved the problem with NI, it would have solved the problems that exporters are facing. We chose not to though. The UK was offered visa-free travel for creative industry workers, we would have had to reciprocate though, so we said no. This is despite the fact that the creative industries employs 3.2 million people, or 10% of the country’s workforce, and contributed some £111 billion to the economy in 2018 (source ONS).

Ok here's a wee mod i done to my 48, for as much as i love this bass i just couldn't get on with the covers as my comfort zone is thumb hooked in behind the neck pickup and there wasn't much room between the covers so i decided to do away with them, moved the neck pickup 10 mm towards the nut sent a template to B. Pilanz who made a guard for it and here we are, sounds rather utterly smashing with the 2 Nordy big singles aswell

Test fit of eyelet boards (one partly populated) and most front and rear panel components.

Don’t get it. why is the body a trans finish but the headstock is LPB. Looks like it was bought on a holiday market stall…soz.

As a tour manager, who actually has to arrange these things for the artists and crew in the touring party, and has to manage the budget for making the whole thing happen, I'd be inclined to disagree. Whilst we don't need visas or permits for EVERY country within the EU, there's a fair few we do, and some come with stringent requirements, fees, and lengthy processing times, as well as interview visits to embassies, usually in London, for all applicants (which incurs travel costs and a day's pay for each person required to make the trip). Countries that don't require a visa still place a limit on the number of days you can work in said country per year. This might not affect you if you tour Europe once a year but if, like many crew or session players, you work with multiple artists and hop from one tour to another, you might find yourself in hot water when you realise you've used up all your days in one of the countries on the schedule. On top of visas and permits, there's now tax complications in each territory as we're no longer part of reciprocal schemes. There's carnets for your equipment which big tours crossing all of Europe would have had professionally arranged, but smaller DIY/low budget tours would do without and just not drive through the couple of territories which required them when we were members. They're now needed everywhere in Europe. I'll do my best not to delve in to the political aspects of a clusterfck that one third of the electorate voted for, as politics isn't my business. Touring, however, is my bread and butter, and it's been made more challenging, more expensive, more difficult to drop personnel in at short notice if needed, and generally more of a pain in the balls in many ways by our new status as a third country.

The memories of Lars denying thrash (as early as 1988) had me thinking fondly of this BBC Arena documentary, which I watched countless times as a youth. I still have the old VHS tape of it somewhere. It's well worth 60 minutes of your time if you like the heavier side. Great days.

Changes are afoot! I made the bridge with the neck through detailing running through to match the pickup cover but really didn't like it so made the blank again in Ash and then made a new pickup cover from the same piece and really love the look of it being just ash, looks a lot less "try hard" At least for the next one I can plan all these pieces to ensure they all sit seamlessly with each other, but they still don't look bad as they are!

You haven't read the gov.uk link I posted above about foreign entertainers working in the UK. If you did you'd see that: a) the UK market is a protection racket, they don't want foreigners earning money in their closed market b) the UK has spectacularly removed its own nose with a rusted and blunt scythe in order to spite its own union jack-bedecked face, only to whinge that said flag was made in Poland...

Very droll. Here's some rather more useful ones:

Did some work on the “n0b machine” Rough carved the neck …. Still lot’s to do, but rough shape is all good.

Would @Reggaebass be allowed the complete works of Robbie Shakespeare?

So this started life as a fairly normal Harley Benton Jazz bass kit. However, yesterday I finally screwed the new iteration together and set it up. Man, this thing rocks now! Wilkinson PJ pickups, Wilkinson tuners and bridge, an Artec SE-2A preamp and a switchcraft stereo jack. The pickguard is from WD Music - their Blacktop Jazz model. I love it!

Update from me. First time playing in a year or so coming up tomorrow at church. Was practicing at home on the four string. I'm still ambivalent about the five string, in that I don't feel the need to own a 5, or identify as a "5 string player", my 5 is good enough to keep regardless of the fact it's a 5. BUT I just found out that playing the five string has majorly improved my ability to play the 4, learning the fretboard far better, and bizarrely creating more melodic lines.... so that's good!

Rutgar Gunnarsson - it doesn't matter what pose you strike, what bass you play, what you wear , you'll never be as cool as the guy playing bass for ABBA.

The angle of this photo makes it look way more tapered than it is, but tapered the fretboard this evening with the plane. Rightly or wrongly, my plan is to use it as a "template" for routing the neck blank to width once I've taken it something like with the jigsaw (once I've routed the truss rod slot - that's the next job I think, and the scariest so far)

Can I rejoin the BB club please? With this wee number: BBG4sII in white. Theres a story to this. My Dad and I visited sound control in glasgow around 96 looking for my first proper bass. I had been playing a cheap p bass copy which was OK but i wanted something a bit special. I picked this out, and my mum and dad got it for my christmas. Regrettably, around 6 years later, i thought it would be cool to put a bass trem on it, strip the paint, then defret it! I also painted a red stripe on it. I then sold it on ebay. Anyways, I've been hunting another one down for years for nostalgia sake, but it seems they mostly came in different colours other than white. This one came up on Facebook marketplace so had to go for it! Getting this in my hands make me regret mutilating the original even more! It's actually a very capable bass! feels great to play, and the hardware is solid. Sound-wise lets it down slightly. possibly because I'm used to having a mid EQ, but because it only has bass treble you're kinda limited - but it's easily giggable, which hopefully i will soon! I love it. brings back some seriously nice memories of jamming to tunes in my bedroom, through my hifi, with my big earphones. I wonder if theres some muscle memory going on which makes this feel better than it actually is, because I played this ALOT! haha

Two albums dropped here today; Wolfgang Van Halen's 'Mammorth WVH' and another from past Chez NJ house favourite Garbage, with 'No Gods, No Masters'. The Garbage album is just awful. The Wolfie album has been on rotation since 9.00am...4.5/5.0. it's a great shame that these fanboys just want another Van Halen type album, which this isn't; it's just a great slab of modern AOR. Production is top notch.

Long story below, but my point is, what do you get for the extra money on a custom shop Fender? Seeing them at £4,400 up to over £10,000 now. I played one last night and have to say it was.... Alright. Last night I had the opportunity to play a lefty fender custom shop jazz. Journeyman relic, lollipop tuners, rosewood board with white binding... It was OK. I recently saw the Andertons video on the new Fender custom shop basses they have at over £4k each and thought they looked good and had good reviews. Luckily my friend paid about half that when he ordered his some years ago. I'm going to get my MIJ 75 Jazz reissue out later today to compare properly, but I just didn't see where the money went with this particular bass. The relic work was a lot more authentic than most I've seen, the neck felt lovely, but it just sounded OK. It seems the extra cash went in to relicing, matching headstock, a non standard colour, but I couldn't hear where any extra cash had gone. The bridge pup didn't honk like other jazzes I've played and the tone control had less range than others too. If I had been wearing socks I'm confident they would not have been blown off. I gave the bass a good tickle as everyone else was setting up, played the first two songs through a familiar amp, then put it down and got out my Stingray. The Stingray is a very different beast entirely but the feel and sound of quality was just a cut above the custom shop jazz I felt. From how this had been described to me I was expecting to going home, selling everything and getting a custom shop jazz on order. That will not be happening. I'd rather have a brand new US Jazz and Precision and enough change for a second hand car.

Bought one of these yesterday - Kiloton™ | G&L Musical Instruments (glguitars.com). Bit of an impulse purchase. Having become a Joe Dart fan during lockdown, I fancied a simple, passive bass with a single humbucker. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and already have a P. Surprisingly tonally versatile and very nicely put together for a budget instrument. Took it to bits when I got it home as I do when I buy a new toy. Good quality fittings and decent pots - not the usual flimsy tiny things you find on Far Eastern budget instruments. It's always pleasing that manufacturers don't skimp on the stuff you can't see. A little heavy, but nothing a wide strap won't take care of. Very solid sound with plenty of midrange bark and high output. Must give a mention to Guitar Guitar in Epsom. I bought the bass (which they had at a considerably lower price than elsewhere) and a gig bag and they threw in a set or Ernie Ball Group III flats. Very helpful shop and absolutely no pressure to buy. Just set me up in a demo room and left me to get on with it. Very pleasant experience.

Yesterday I received a EBS TD650 from Bagsieblue of this parish. Only had a low volume play through of it so far, but very impressed with what I've heard. I bought it to replace my HD350 which has an intermittent fault, and I've had a Fafner in the past, so I knew pretty much what to expect. Straight away was that glorious, powerful, crystal-clear sound that EBS are famous for; first impression is that it's a little tighter and more refined sounding than the HD350, probably because of the bigger power stage. However, it's early days at low volume and I've not actually used the HD350 in over a year, so make your own mind up about how much value there is in that comparison 😀 First gig will be a wedding on the 26th of June, assuming no more restrictions, can't wait to use it in anger.

What a band. Having seen (and met) them a few times back in the day, it’s hard to believe they’re not with us anymore. With all due respect to the other incarnations, Motorhead will always be the Three Amigos for me.

Might be tricky to sound like this though:

Here's a pic' for you

There’s a lot of ignorance about working in the creative industry following Brexit. It’s not a simple matter. American musicians did indeed perform in Europe, but only those at a high level with financial backing. It costs money, a visa is required for each country. Most people working in the creative industry are self employed, and follow a DIY style of working. I’ve performed in Europe and worked as an academic in Sweden. The budget for the kind of things I do - and most others too - isn’t sufficient. It’s not just visas - as you’d discover if you did a bit of research. There’s VAT payable upfront at each border on merchandise for instance. You claim back what you don’t sell, that takes months to come through. It’s not just musicians and artists either. There’s actors, technicians - lighting, sound engineers etc. People who work in film and TV production are also affected. Many were employed as freelancers, you can't now just be employed by a French or German company, they need to have offered it to an EU resident first.

That's exactly it, there are always some 'tone is all in the fingers - no need for effects pedals' people but generally they are playing something like motown (and often they are getting different tones via owning many Bass guitars, different strings, amps and cabs etc. which is stuff certain pedals can sort of do). You'd be hard pressed to do envelope filter sounds or big fuzzy riffs or synth sounds without effects pedals....but perhaps those sounds don't go with what you play so aren't needed. They're fun to practise with though so a cheap multi fx like zoom is probably worthwhile to test the waters.

Spector fans! Here is a cool video for you to watch. Ish guitar's Jesse Wilson visited the new Spector custom shop facilities. Very interesting. Check it out!

Ungigged might be a more accurate word as it has been to one band rehearsal but I'm looking forward to giving my new Epiphone Embassy a run out at a gig soon.

This caught my eye on the Facebook BB owners group. In the “so bad it’s good” category

I agree, some of the QC issues mentioned such as the rising fretboard that meant the action couldn’t be set very low are more comparable to the steering on a car not working properly rather than not having power steering (to use the analogy on here). It wouldn’t have been acceptable then and wouldn’t be now. Also, not all CS Fenders are supposed to be exact relics from the 50s, 60s, 70s etc. I’ve briefly toyed with the idea of a CS Fender and I’d probably just go for a non-relic with a scale length, colour, pickups, pickup position and tone circuit that suit me. I’d be furious if I spent £3k+ on something like that and it had QC issues.

You can't do deals with individual EU countries - that's why it's a trade bloc. Norway, Iceland, and Lichtenstein are all signatories to the EEA but not EU members. We won't have any deals with any EU countries until all 27 members can agree on terms. Also I've played gigs bigger than Liechtenstein. Norway was nice though and Iceland means at least Airwaves might be doable.

I think the big thing that people miss with these kind of topics (and you can substitute Fender Custom Shop for any other high-value instrument) is that sometimes, some processes and finishing points are just more expensive or require expensive expertise. For example, having a person making the parts instead of a machine. Simple econimics, it costs more. Choosing quartersawn wood for the neck means you have to pick a cut of wood that is statistically more difficult to get from a batch, and it costs more. Does it deliver that same % increase in the quality of what you hear? Definitely not. A nitrocellulose finish is much more difficult to get right and requires expertise, more costs etc etc So without going too much in to every part, skill and process that makes the CS basses far more expensive (and different in terms of specification) than say, a MIM Fender, Sire etc, it’s just an economic thing and I think that’s why a lot of people wonder what THEY get out of spending the extra cash. I suppose it’s a bit like fine dining. If you don’t really buy in to the subtleties of what the CS offers (more expensive period-specific clay dot inlays would be a great example!) then you’re right, it probably doesn’t seem worth the extra spend

It’s pretty unlikely; they are very invested in their separates idea.

The first CrossOver band:

Exactly right, the Performer whlist it was a very nice bass was a bit 'sterile' the JMJ is full of mojo and tone still love it and I've had a PJ MiM, MiJ, Performer and the JMJ is a keeper

It took me a while, but I worked it out in the end

I think he's got it dead right. Be in one of the biggest bands of all time, make shed loads of cash, live anonymously ever after. A plan I'm following, I just missed parts 1 and 2 off.

Not sure about undeserved but on overdrive pedals I’d like to gear them with a touch of break up rather than full on. Additionally I’d like to see demos of pedals with Jazz or Precision type basses rather than coffee table type basses. Nothing against those basses, it’s just with a Jazz or Precision I can get an idea of how the pedal would sound for me, whereas demoed with a bass that I - and many I’d guess - have no experience of it’s difficult to gain an understanding of how the pedal would work for me.