Jean-Luc Pickguard

I'm loving the La Bella white nylons on my vintage pro thunderbird. Not tried them on a precison yet as the TI jazz flats on my Precisions are only about 10 years old so have plenty of life left.

I added one in that position on my CIJ mustang bass to add to the 60s vibe. I doubt it affects the resale value, but that is not something I am worried about as the bass is a keeper. If you like the look of a tug bar, I’d say go for it.

I believe there was a manufacturing fault with the first run of Pro V thunderbirds where the wrong pickups were fitted (I think the same pickups as the 4 string version were mistakenly fitted) which resulted in low volume on the B strings. There was a program to replace the pickups under warrantly at the time, and the issue was corrected on subseqent manufacturing runs. I have a later one (which has the front strap button at the heel of the neck rather than the top 'horn') and the B string works well. The neck is rather wide though.

I seem to recall that Lodestone was a sister company to Ashdown so I'd suggest contacting them.

A modification I saw a few times on basses of the 80s was a balanced XLR fitted in addition to the jack - like the one my original Hohner B2A has as stock. Maybe its an XLR on the side of Bruce's bass?

The chap who did the Jazz bass repair is local to me & makes his own brand of guitars called "Flame". He seems like a nice affable bloke. I've only taken a banjo to him for some minor work so far.

I have an CIJ mustang & a JMJ - Both with fender flats as fitted to the JMJ as stock. Both are excellent basses & the JMJ is my main rehearsal/gigging bass. The biggest differences for me are the finish - I prefer the thin nitro on the neck of the JMJ compared to the gloss of the CIJ and the neck profile. The CIJ has a very skinny neck like a jazz whereas the JMJ’s is a little chunkier & more comfortable for me. I’ve wanted a daphne blue mustang with 'lollypop' tuners since i bought the (white) CIJ & I was initially put off by the ‘roadworn’ finish of the JMJ, but it looks a lot better in person than a lot of Fender’s stock images which I think were of an early prototype where they went a bit overboard with the aging & made it look really grubby. Sound-wise there’s not a massive amount of difference between the two & I’m happy to gig with either using the same fx/amp settings but in a side by side comparison I'd say that the pickup in the JMJ has the edge with a slightly chunkier tone.

No way is it a highway one and not even a real Fender. its probably fairly safe to assume that the signatures are fake also.

I had no idea that Jack Whitehall was a drummer

Mediahuman audioconverter works well for me & is free to use. I use the MacOS version, but a windows version is also available. https://www.mediahuman.com/audio-converter/

£600! It looks like a toy that would cost a few tenners from Wilko at xmas

I have an Epiphone thunderbird pro five string but don't play it much. The B string does work as a nice thumbrest though.

I used to have an HB Kahuna - I used the 1/2 size guitar case (case 2) which fitted it perfectly. The bass is a bit bigger than the Kala u-bass I have now so I doubt it'd fit in the baritone uke bag.

The strings La Bella make specifically for danelectros might also work for a Dan Armstrong. I have a set of flats on my (30" scale) Longhorn & they have the small 'guitar-style' ball ends rather than the usual chunky bass ones.

My JMJ mustang came with Fender 9050 flats (.045 - .100 long scale) with green silks as standard. Normally I'd change the stock strings to my usual favorites as soon as I get any new bass, but the the 9050s were just perfect in terms of tone, tension & feel so I kept them on & I've bought a set for my MIJ mustang plus another spare set.

Certain colours seem to suit some basses more than others. Blue is my favourite colour for short scales like my daphne blue '72 musicmaster & JMJ mustang, and my blueburst danelectro longhorn, but I'm not so keen on blue long scale basses which look better in sunburst or candy-apple red.

Here's my small pedalboard which contains everything I need [sfx] Micro Thumpinator TC Electronic Spectracomp Tech 21 VT Bass TC Electronic Spark mini booster powered from a caline CP-02

I'd try stringing each bass with both flats & rounds in turn to see whether I had a preference.

Looks like that nut was cut with a cheese grater

The Tech 21 VT Bass pedal works for me

I saw one of these in the Sutton (Surrey) Trash Converters for £100 today - looks pretty good for a beginner's bass

I used to have a couple of ashborys which are lined fretless and tiny - you get used to playing them. Also violin players seem to manage without frets.

The only real lemon I bought was a Harley Benton uke bass which I really wanted to like and tried to get on with, but compared to the ubass I have now it was a piece of junk. Thomann exchanged it twice due to manufacturing defects but the third one wasn't much better than the others; it was difficult to get a decent tone and it was not much fun to play so I sold it on and upgraded to a Kala.