KingBollock

I always keep my thumb on the back of the neck. I even have the neck angled in a classical position. And I’m crap, so….

My two oldest basses were bought from shops when I lived up in the Midlands, where if you tripped over in the street, you might fall into an instrument shop. I have a bit of an issue when it comes to shopping, though. I absolutely fall apart if there are too many people about. But looking around music shops is ace! I have another bass that I bought in a shop fairly locally. However, the last time I went in there they hardly had anything of anything. Living where I do now, it is difficult to find instrument shops locally, and even harder to find one that might stock basses. I remember wondering around one guitar shop and remarking to my wife that they only had one bass in the whole place. The chap behind the counter overheard and said that he thought I looked like a bass player when I walked in. I took that as a compliment! Several years ago I got my Warlock from Ebay. There was precious little detail in the advert and the single photo was atrocious. But I knew the model of the bass and that it was The One! It was stupid of me to trust it so completely, but I did the buy it now thing and paid immediately… And then I waited. Eventually a couple of weeks had gone by and I finally got a message back from the seller. He apologised, saying that he’d been on holiday and forgotten he’d put the bass up for sale..! But he did send it. It arrived in a hard case with a bin liner over one end and two pieces of cardboard taped to it… And it was unplayable! No wonder it was going so cheap. The action was incredibly high, and it had to have been right from the factory because there was no way to lower it. The neck was flat and the saddles were bottomed out. I tried to find a lower profile bridge to replace the one it came with, but had no luck. In the end I ground the saddles down to half their original height. Now it plays like an absolute dream! Yesterday I bought my first ever bass on BassChat. To say I am nervous would be a huge understatement, but I am a very nervous person. It all happening around Christmas and with mail strikes going on, well…

I have been wondering why I chose £600 for my upper limit and I think I have realised why. My favourite bass, my BC Rich Warlock is my “The One”. In about 1989 I was asked what my ultimate bass would be and I described the Warlock that I currently own. They didn’t actually make this spec at the time and only started in 1999 and only for ten years (I think I’ve got the date right). And they sold, new, for £600. Also, I have sometimes looked at signature basses. I remember the Blackie Lawless BC Rich Widow was sold for £5000 (at least, that’s what it said in the Inside The Electric Circus cassette cover. And which I have seen people convert standard versions of for a hell of a lot less than that). The other, obvious one, for me, would be Lemmy’s bass (rather more difficult to replicate), which also sold for £5000. (Though, to be honest, I preferred the blond one with the iron cross and “born to lose” on it). I just don’t think I’d ever go that far. However, the one signature bass I would be interested in is the Steve Harris blue one from the 80s which, I believe, sold for £600.

They seem to have good feedback. Collection in person can’t happen, they’re about 250 miles away. We’ll see. I don’t even know if the bass is still definitely for sale.

I hope not… My wife has just told me I can have it! Only now, because, as little as it is, it is still a not insignificant amount of money for me, I am nervous because I have never bought anything from BassChat before. I have only bought anything bass related, used online once before, and that was well dodgy and only really seemed to work out by a fluke!

All this money people are throwing about and I am gassing really badly for a bass for sale on BassChat that’s less than £300. I don’t know if I am hoping he’ll sell it or if he doesn’t sell it and I can talk myself into it in the new year… And I don’t mean it in a bad way, I just find it quite humorous!

Seconded. I have used these on a couple of instruments.

I only have one bass that I bought new and it was only £200. My other three basses were £250(x2) and £225. Should I come into some money and saw the right bass, I think I’d pay up to £600.

Yup, that’s the one that I use. Does the job nicely.

I’m not so sure there is. Not official, anyway… I found this: https://www.roland.com/us/support/service_repair/service_centers/ The only one I saw was in America. But I’m finding the map a bit fiddly on my tablet.

I used to work for a Roland service centre and we often repaired Boss pedals (it was a bunch of Boss PS-2s that got me the sack! Actually, that’s not true, it was the boss not liking being proved wrong that got me the sack…). That place is long gone (this was 1991/2), but I know we were one of five in the UK. There must be some still knocking about.

Definitely this! Whenever I have taught people, the most difficult thing has always been to get them into a proper position. I think it’s just something that people don’t know to think about when they start playing. I’ve been teaching my mate and it was a joy to see his face light up when I finally got through to him that he needed to be in a more ergonomic position, and he was finally able to get his fingers where he wanted them to go.

I stopped listening to anything that man says after seeing his interview with Alex Jones. I don’t normally bother myself with what musicians think/believe/say, but sometimes you can’t avoid it, and he is particularly loathesome. I swore to never buy anything Megadeth after that. The only other musician I have sworn to boycott is Blackie Lawless. There are plenty of tossers about, and no doubt I listen to stuff by some of them, but there’s a mark that is a step too far.

Really? Oh… I don’t know anymore! I really like those two albums. I used to keep all my metal albums sorted by genre, but now I just keep it all under “Metal”. No more “Is that symphonic, blackened death metal, or is it blackened, melodic death metal?”. If it gets too soft it goes into “Rock”.

I was surprised to see Megadeth mentioned there. The only time they really softened was Risk, and that was only in an attempt to make a record that would make Metallica money. That was a genuine attempt at selling out (though I still bought and liked it), after that they seemed to go back to being Megadeth. Mustaine might be rich, but he’s still ticked off that he isn’t in Metallica, or, at least, as rich as them!

No, you didn’t. I was following on my train of thought from arguments that I have been reading for decades, arguments that I have avoided because they’re futile. I like what I like and I don’t care what other people think of that or what they think it should be labelled. Why would I? To be honest, the christmas thread has rather skewed my mood. That and the fact that my wife plied me with too many painkillers, just so I can go and get the christmas decorations down from the attic. Double-bummer.

I shall give that a listen tomorrow, I’m having an 80’s Iron Maiden afternoon.

I wonder what the first two Metallica albums would have sounded like, production wise, if they had the money they had by the time they did the black album? I’m a bit of a black metal fan and, while I like early stuff, I actually much prefer later, better produced stuff, by the same bands. I actually like hearing the music. I hate the gatekeeping reverse snobbery about it. Better production doesn’t mean selling out. And selling well isn’t selling out, either.

That’s a ridiculous thing to say. It might not be a thrash album, but there are plenty of heavy songs on it that are definitely metal.

I sometimes wish that Master Of Puppets had the quality of production that The Black album or the Loaded albums had. I often used to think that it would be the perfect album, one of the best metal albums ever if it did. But then, I have to wonder if it would ruin it somehow. I love Master Of Puppets, and really like The Black album and Reload. But, when it comes to what I choose to listen to, I most often pick Megadeth over Metallica. They’ve just done more consistently good stuff. Though, to be honest, I don’t often listen to either anymore.

I recently found a pick that I had forgotten I had. It’s a 1mm Pickboy. It’s, apparently, made with a mix of plastic and ceramic. The raised pattern on it makes it feel a lot thicker than it is, and also makes it very grippy.

One of these was my first bass. I really, really regret selling it (financial difficulties, that weren’t caused by me, forced me to sell it) I would kill to get my hands in another.

The first song I ever covered was Motörhead, which was originally a Hawkwind song. But the version I had was the Motörhead version. Though, to be honest, with me on vocals (I was only 12…) it sounded more like the Lawnmower Deth version.

Lemmy.