KingBollock

What are those pickups like? I have been considering getting some for my Warlock for a couple of years, just because I like the look of the bars instead of poles or blanks. I have read that the BC Rich own pickups aren't so good but I've never had a bass with decent enough pickups to compare (being £600 when they were new, and still being made, makes it by far my most expensive bass (though I bought it secondhand)). But having to get two sets is a bit of a pain in the pocket, especially as I've not actually heard them, and as I would also like to change the preamp. All really for the sake of tinkering. I keep telling myself that I'll definitely do it if I ever get into another band...

I only played in bands for a short time after I started playing bass. I started playing at 12, first proper (they were all much older than me and even had management) band at 13, last proper band at 18. I absolutely loved it. The last band was amazing, with very talented members who were some of the nicest blokes you could ever wish to meet. Unfortunately my personal life became too difficult and I had to leave town, which also meant leaving the band because I had no way to contact them (they had always contacted me and would pick me up to take me to rehearsals. They had just changed rehearsal space and I didn't know where it was) That was one of my biggest ever regrets, I absolutely believe that my life would have been very different if I had been able to keep going with them. But bass was a natural instrument for me, I still love playing it and have kept it up for all of those 23 bandless years. I would love to be in a band again, but not being in one will never stop me from paying.

My very favourite headstock is the BC Rich Widow. Pointy but symmetrical, with a pleasing, shapely buttock feel to it. Sort of like an evil bum. The Beast one is quite nice, too, but sans arse. I like pointyness and symmetry yet I prefer the Warlock body to the Widow body. My Warlock has the Widow headstock, best of both worlds. I can't stand the standard explorer shaped headstock, and most things with Hamer on them make me feel a bit ill.

I have talked about how much I regretted selling my first ever bass, a Westone Raider I, on BassChat as nauseam. I miss it so, so much. But, more recently, I have started regretting selling the second bass I ever owned. When I was sixteen I was given a Satellite P bass with a maple fretboard (I was originally going to buy it, but when he realised that it was going to someone that actually did play, he gave it to me for free). It played perfectly well and sounded fine. I don't suppose Satellite did a not quite so sh*tty line? Because the bloke that gave it to me was rather wealthy. It is still likely that he bought cheap to see if he would get into it (he didn't, which is how I ended up with it) but, like I say, there was nothing wrong with it. But, at the time, I couldn't imagine ever needing more than one bass so, a few months later, I sold it for £35. Anyway, the reason I have started regretting it is because I really fancy a Steve Harris signature bass (in blue) and that Satellite bass would have been ideal to convert. I wouldn't, in a million years, be able to justify buying a proper Harris signature bass, and I can't even afford a cheapo bass to convert. I had a look at those cheap kits, which I think would be loads of fun to do (and probably end up Trigger's brooming it), but I can't find one with a maple fretboard.

It is a cynical, nasty way to go about business. It's something that should be talked about and threads like this are important and would be even better if spread over Facebook and other popular social media. Seeing a conversation like this might encourage someone who is not so internet savvy to learn the skills needed to not get ripped off.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1476455192' post='3154501'] You may find you have to compromise. [/quote] Yeah, I should buy a rig small enough to carry on my bicycle!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1476452185' post='3154456'] I'm always slightly suspicious of musicians who say they can't find a suitable band or other musicians for them to play with. Unless you live out in the middle of nowhere it should be fairly straight forward? Certainly from my perspective, as a bassist of below average ability, who has very strict rules about what types of music I want to play and who lives in a place that while being a decent size has never really had a serious music scene of the likes of Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc. I have never had a problem finding bands or other musicians who want to play music that I like to standard worth bothering with and then get out and gig. [/quote] I must admit to struggling to find a symphonic, blackened death metal band in deepest, darkest Wales. Especially as I don't drive.

I was going to suggest the same as BassBunny, put a selector switch in the spare hole. Or... I have got a couple of basses that have the battery in the control cavity and it is indeed a pain in the bum. I am hoping, one day, to get around to replacing the covers with nice ones made of light steel with an ebony veneer. Then, instead of screws, I want to put little neodymium magnets where the screw holes are, which will hold the cover in place, which will be easy to remove to get at the battery. And they'll look nicer than cheap plastic.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1475570487' post='3146915'] But what else was there in the late 70s/early 80s when these were new? The only place I saw Ampeg rigs was on stage with bands who had a record contract. My local music shop in the 70s was an Acoustic amps dealer but the only person I ever saw saw using one was the bass player who worked there. For the rest of us HH and Carlsbro were pretty much the only real choices, and based on personal experience I'd have picked a Carlsbro amp every time. It was certainly way better than the no-name generic 100W transistor head I was using back then. [/quote] I believe my Laney Klipp was a sixties/seventies amp, though I got mine in 1988. It blew up (because I had no clue about tube amps), which is why I ended up with a Carlsboro Stingray which, other than having to replace the bridge rectifier, worked fine. It was just a toneless box of nothing and I hated it.

Over the last few months I have started gassing for a blue Steve Harris signature. So, one of them.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1475234057' post='3144229'] None of those really apply to my situation, or in a way bits of all of them do. Let me explain - this might be quite a long post... [/quote] I know what it's like to lack support for just about everything. I was lucky that I developed an interest that fitted an idea my dad had. He liked the idea of a musical family, which is why he bought instruments, he also liked the idea of a family that had books. He filled the house with books, but never read them, and I got the piss taken out of me for reading a lot... I was the first person in our family ever to go to college. Which he didn't like because I should have been going to work (though I had left school early and worked until the day I was officially supposed to leave school). He was far prouder of my brother who became quite an accomplished thief. My dad romanticised and was far too proud of his own nefarious background, including prison (well, he claimed to have gone to prison but I never knew whether to believe it or not), to ever have the kind of family he thought he wanted. People think I am cold or odd because I don't put much stock in family for family sake.

My parents listened to music, old 60s and 70s stuff and the top 40 on Sunday's. I used to spend hours listening to records with my mum. Somewhere around the early eighties, my dad, for some unknown reason, bought a nylon stringed guitar, that no one showed any interest in, other than me, and that only a little. He also bought himself quite an expensive harmonica, but never played it. Then, one day, when I was twelve, my dad decided that he wanted to manage a band and that his four sons would be that band. I desperately wanted a radio controlled monster truck (I still do...) but it was decided that I was to learn to play drums. I wasn't going to let him have it all his own way and, being a motorhead and Iron Maiden fan, I though bass would suit me better. My dad was actually quite pleased, because he hadn't thought of about bass. He paid for a few lessons, but he did a deal to get them as cheap as possible. So, once a week, for a few weeks, my brothers and I went to the teacher's house and I played walking bass lines, that I had learned at home from a book (he told me that my timing was natural and spot on. Which was nice), while he taught my brothers to play stuff over the top for half an hour. My brother Steven was a natural on guitar, but drugs and mental illness got the better of him and he didn't keep it up, which really was a shame. The other two were rubbish and soon gave it up. I actually own that nylon stringed guitar that my dad bought, and I still play it.

[quote name='bobbass4k' timestamp='1474738085' post='3140168'] Inside circle is boost/cut, outer circle is q factor/centre frequency. The inner knobs follow resistor colour bands (couldn't get any brown though so I had to settle for dark red for 1), though because I preferred the way it looked, the outer circle is reversed... The sweepable centre frequency meant marking the frequencies each band covered would have been super complicated, I've calibrated the bands to cover a fairly comprehensive range, so really it shouldn't matter, red is low, grey high, everything beyond that is down to the ears. [/quote] That is utterly genius!

That Columbus bass is a generic one. You can find loads of them, all identical but with different names on them. My one is a Westfield one. I have seen others labelled as Rogue and others that I can't remember off the top of my head. They went for £200 when new. Mine has Chromes flats on it, which probably doubles what it's worth now. They are a very good entry bass, though.

I got my chair from these people: http://chairsforoffices.com They're not cheap, but they're not hugely expensive either. I got mine from there because I am a rather large chap and they do a chair that suits me perfectly. It takes my weight effortlessly and has a huge amount of positional options. The arms on mine can be raised or lowered or taken off, which was another reason for choosing it. They also do spare parts. I get the feeling that my chair will outlast me. This is mine: http://chairsforoffices.com/tall-person-heavy-duty-office-chair-seat-slide-black-grey-seat-height-62cm.html?filter_name=140033gk

For me it is my BC Rich Warlock NT. I sold my first ever bass and regret it to this day, but my Warlock is the first since then to feel like "mine". Back when I was a kid working in a guitar shop, I was asked what my perfect bass would be and I described this Warlock. That was ten years or so before they even made this particular model (and they only made it for nine or ten years). I know I would regret selling it, so I won't.

I'd be chuffed to bits to own that. If I'd found it in a skip. Then I'd strip it, repaint it, clean or replace the rest, then flog it.

See if you can find a disco equipment shop with a dark room where you can see the stuff working. Those places tend to be quite reasonably priced, too. I am fortunate in that I don't know of any around here and I am scared to look. I have a bit of an obsession with pretty lights. I still have a bunch that I just couldn't part with when we packed up doing mobile discos (which I only put together so that I could play with the lights). An alternative is to build your own if you only want boxes.

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1472920334' post='3125370'] http://youtu.be/NrHnerXEx5M [/quote] Is it bad that, while listening to that, I kept thinking that he'd get a more consistent sound if he used a pick?

[quote name='Number6' timestamp='1472847811' post='3124838'] Last time i saw them was on the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son Tour.....Donington 88' and twice at Hammersmith Odeon. I haven't bought much of their stuff since really. Every song they write now is a mini rock opera. [/quote] I got into them in 1987 and the last album of theirs that I love is Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. They then went on a two year break and thirteen year old me didn't have that long of an attention span, so there was only a very short time where I would have wanted to see them. I still listen to all the albums upto and including that one, but they lost me with everything since.

Steve Harris is the main reason I took up bass, though he doesn't really influence my actual playing. Would like to get one of his signature basses, too. The blue one, like the one used in the Live After Death video.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1472672471' post='3123198'] Either you are all lying b'stards or the quiz is broke, I didn't even pick throw keyboard player out of window option! I answered honestly and got Sid Vicious, surely I have more talent than that.......hang on, white / black Precision, pick player, ex punk / still punk at heart, actually used to have the nickname Sid, the good looking one in the band....it's all coming together [/quote] I got Sid, too.

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1472247784' post='3119873'] I dunno, I leave you lot alone for an hour................. I've always wondered how Freddie Kreuger managed the toilet [/quote] Perhaps it's a seemingly complicated arrangement that is obvious to those who know. A bit like the sea shells...

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1472204435' post='3119371'] When it comes to the internet I never cease to be surprised by the absolute self confidence of the immature, inexperienced and logically challenged. [/quote] [quote name='Wikipedia']The [b]Dunning–Kruger effect[/b] is a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability as much higher than it really is. Dunning and Kruger attributed this bias to a metacognitive inability of those of low ability to recognize their ineptitude and evaluate their ability accurately. Their research also suggests corollaries: high-ability individuals may underestimate their relative competence and may erroneously assume that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others.[1] Dunning and Kruger have postulated that the effect is the result of internal illusion in those of low ability, and external misperception in those of high ability: "The miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."[1][/quote]

This is the worst one that I own.