Deep Thought

Gotta be JJ for me with Norman Watt-Roy a close second.

And if it's damaged, no matter how much insurance the counter staff have sold you, they won't pay out more than £150 for a musical instrument. I think that absolutely sucks.

I have a particular dislike for the 9 volt battery attachment system in most pedals/tuners etc., that bit of ? cardboard covered in plastic with two press studs on it and two flimsy little wires. The studs usually grip really tightly, requiring excessive force to disconnect the battery, which the whole effort lacks the strength to withstand over repeated uses. My Korg Pitchblack has this, and I don't have much confidence in its longevity. Systems exist where it's possible to just drop in a 9 volt without use of the press studs, give me one of those any day.

I've never been able to work out the shape of those-is it supposed to [i]look[/i] like a buzzard? I have nothing but respect for John Entwistle, but he did play some silly basses.

On the subject of batteries, I have found the advent of the Pound shop advantageous-two Kodak 9v's for a quid. I don't own an active bass, but good for pedals and tuners.

Pick almost exclusively these days. Can use fingers and have often done so, depending on the song, but by and large I prefer the pick. Last practice we were working up some new ones, I was using fingers and it was OK but not really quite there. Started using the pick, big smiles all round. Just seems to work better for me and the stuff we play.

We have a slow blues called 'Can't get home', by a band from the Midlands called True Grit which I've been playing for 20-odd years. It's become our standard soundcheck song, it's now 'usual?' and off we go. Generally only play the first few bars, we're not too fussy.

Well I appear to be in a minority here-I owned a fretless (defretted Ibanez), which I kept for a couple of months as an experiment, then sold because I didn't get on with it. Didn't really like the sound, didn't feel I had a use for the sound, have never liked any music that included fretless. Don't miss it.

Yeah, I'm the lead singer in our band, purely because nobody else could do it. Most songs I can sing and play reasonably well, some I just can't-we don't do those. Our guitarist and drummer have both started trying to sing and play recently, and both have expressed sympathy for my position now they've had a go! Sight reading? Forget it.

Just bought a Washburn AB10 from Paul. Splendid chap, no hesitation in recommending him. A pleasant, straightforward transaction, item as described, excellent communication, everything totally fine. No worries. Thanks Paul!

[quote name='markorbit' post='1280439' date='Jun 24 2011, 02:11 AM']I had an early Shuker JJB.[/quote] Now owned by me!

Will probably go half a dozen times pre-gig, but once we're on, never bothers me.

I'll agree with Kim Deal, and Tina Weymouth. Also Ginger Reyes of Smashing Pumpkins and Caz Campbell, formerly with Hugh Cornwell and now working with Cradle of Filth I believe.

Love everything on the first two except the oval scratchplate-which I've never liked on MM's anyway. Love the headstock and the way the pickups and bridge mirror the frets. Not mad about the other one-never liked the original style Precision scratchplate, and I prefer my headstock the right way up. Beautiful renditions though.

+1 on the shift work. Thankfully all three of my band are in the same job, so we can manage to get together during the day etc. Don't think it would work with somebody from outside the job. We only get about one rehearsal a month as it is. We don't do badly considering.

Just bought a Korg Pitchblack from Andrew. Perfect transaction, easy as they come, and a pleasure. No hestitation in recommending.

I don't think it's unattractive (except it's not black!), but either you're going to have the 50's style pickguard with 50's style neck and pickup, or you're going to have the later style pickguard with later style neck and pickup. Don't really get on with the mixup of both.

I sometimes question the wisdom of playing small pub gigs like we do with 1500 quids worth of bass. I could play my Mex Precision and leave the Shuker at home, but at the end of the day I like playing it so much, and it sounds so much better, I can never resist using it. It was made to be played, preferably live, so I think it would be a shame not to use it. If we stop gigging I doubt I'll be able to justify keeping it, so I'm making the most of it while I can.

[quote name='gingerfish' post='1241959' date='May 23 2011, 05:59 PM']Is that a stock bass or is it modified? Cause I want one. Now. Pleeeeeease.[/quote] It's stock-a Rickenbacker 4003 Shadow. They only made 50 of 'em, and note the price, so I wouldn't hold your breath... [url="http://www.andybaxterbass.com/details.php?id=141"]http://www.andybaxterbass.com/details.php?id=141[/url]