cloudburst

Very well done mate! I think I may have mentioned :-) but I'm not interested in various attempts to enter the Guinness Book Of Records for the amazing feat of spending ages in the rain stuffing lots of big stuff into a small car. I'm interested to know what would be an ideal car (which is also 4wd) to swallow my gear with the minimum of effort and faffing around. CB

Rick, That's a really lovely instrument. But what's your motivation, given the original (and similar) '52 that you have? Surely you're experiencing the law of diminishing returns? CB

Why would an A6 be any more of a target for thieves than an A4, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport or Porsche Cayenne? Or even what I currently have? Am I missing something? CB

Hey Gus, many thanks for taking the time to post these. Really appreciate your time. Looking at these shots - seems the case might fit diagonally without putting the rear seats down in the A6 - but not in the A4? Thanks again, CB

cloudburst: I'm thinking of buying a 5 string bass* Guitarist: Oh. Didn't think you'd be a 5 string type of guy. cloudburst: Huh? What do you mean? CB *GreeneKing's SR5 - sorry mate.

You know mate - I noticed the name of the latest poster and thought "Wait for it, this is bound to be a Holden...". You didn't let me down! :-) CB

This is exactly my point. I'm fed up with car tetris (love it SC!). It's starting to look like an Audi S6 or RS6 Avant. Thanks all. CB

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1356429631' post='1910113'] I have an Avant A6 Quattro. There is no chance of fitting 3 normal-length bass hard cases in the boot, you will have to put part of the rear seat down. Why 4WD? There's no way you'd want to take one of these off-road. [/quote] Reason for 4wd is that I'd be getting rid of a Jeep which has proved to be very useful in the snow. As well as SCotland, I use the car in Switzerland and Italy a fair bit. CB

[quote name='bob_pickard' timestamp='1356416209' post='1910054'] Exactly this, I used to take al manner of crap to gigs, now I find the more I do the less I take, I like to be out the door in two trips. All my gear, 2 basses in hard cases, hartke head, 2x12 cab, rucksack of cables and crap, mic stand and my share of lights fits in the back of my vw lupo with room to spare I only take my CRV these days for my double bass [/quote] I know I can get my stuff into the cars I have - by putting stuff where there are meant to be people etc. But I want to avoid having to do this in order to make life easier. The most preposterous gig transport I used was back in the late 80s in the shape of a very rare mid-engined Renault 5 Turbo2 in an even rarer metallic brown. These cars were provided with luggage straps over the carpeted rear engine bay and that's where my HH Bass Baby sat. It was only a 2 seater so my bass went into the passenger seat. I couldn't see out of either the passenger window (right hand side, since the car was lhd) or the rear window. Can't be bothered with all that faffling no more. CB

I've used my jazz bass (74 mocha/maple) as my main bass since new 38 years ago, only retiring it earlier this year. All it has in terms of wear and tear are: - minor marks that wouldn't be noticed in a photo - slight yellowing to the headstock - patina on the tuners - slight lacquer cracking - but again not noticeable in photos - replacement nut - wear to the scratchplate due to trussrod adjustment in the early days - 1cm of bare wood on the heel due to my strap I feel this is representative of an instrument that has had a LOT of use whilst being very well looked after. Hope this helps. CB

Thanks for all the help. Just to narrow it down a bit - the reason I'd focused on Audi estates was because I'd ideally like a 4wd. Whilst I'd love a family, I've sacrificed all that to AVOID people carriers. And please -no small cars - my basses do fit in my current cars but I want to be able to just throw them in the back. Thanks again folks. CB

Tut tut. None of you lot would make it through your first Christmas contract as Santa <rolls eyes>. Obviously it would have to be a Steinberger XL2 in order to fit down the chimney. :-) CB * Although I'd be tempted to mention the recently announced Ernie Ball Music Man 'Sledge' series basses.

Folks, Just wondering if I could get the benefit of your experiences with transporting your basses and amps etc. What I'm looking at is to get a car which I can throw 2 or 3 basses into in their hard cases (eg. the standard MusicMan molded case) along with a small combo. The important thing is that I can fit the basses in the boot in their large cases with minimum faffling. I have 3 cars at the moment (as I live in various places) and none of them are any good for space. They are a MINI Cooper S, a Jeep Wrangler and a BMW Z3M Coupe (odd 2 seater shooting-brake effort). What I'm looking at is a (secondhand) SUV or an estate car. I'm going to do a trawl of the dealerships in the holidays with my biggest case, but would welcome any views on the following (only if you know from experience whether they easily accommodate a large bass case). - Range Rover - Range Rover Sport - Porsche Cayenne - VW Toureg - Audi A4 estate - Audi A6 estate - Audi A3 sportback Thanks for any guidance. CB

Some more of my favourites: Shoot Down The Moon - Pino for Elton John New York Minute - Pino for Don Henley Graceland - Bakithi Khumalo for Paul Simon I'm Your Man - Wham! CB

Call Me - Pino for Go West Rio - Duran Duran There It Is - Shalamar Forget-Me-Nots - Patrice Rushen CB

I've just had a look at a few live performances of Rio and John's hands seem to be in all the right places at all the right times. Thank goodness for that. Please nobody burst this bubble. :-) CB

Has anyone read John Taylor's recent autobiography? Are there any clues in it? Is there much talk about bass playing at all? Wouldn't mind reading it - but not really interested in an exposé on the best supplier of frilly shirts and what not. CB

I know a chap with the same name as the customer on the receipt. Spookily, he had a MIJ 51RI. But it wasn't sunburst. Probably just a strange coincidence. CB

[quote name='12stringbassist' timestamp='1355698647' post='1901649'] I was referring to the replacement of John Entwistle (in The Who) with Pino Palladino as being laughable. [/quote] I'd agree that replacing one of the most overrated, unmusical bass-players who had terrible tone, no idea when to be silent and who got by on quantity of notes rather than quality, with Pino was indeed laughable. ;-) CB

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1355519882' post='1899664'] Just checked it out, and am amazed - it sounds sooooo much more complicated than it actually is. Which I suppose is signs of true quality. [/quote] You got it! I had the same feeling earlier this week. Wonder what other lines fall into the same category?!? CB

[quote name='lefrash' timestamp='1355518226' post='1899637'] When I was 15 and we were playing one of our first gigs in the big city (Glasgow), we were sound checking and I had leaned my bass up against my bass cabinet. The drummer stepped back off the small drum rise and stood on the 90 degrees jack, which then cracked the scratch plate, and pushed all the gubbins into the bass. The resulted in the jack lead being stuck in the bass. It somehow worked so I decided to just leave it until after the gig. First full volume note though I noticed my amp was seriously distorting. After looking about I realised a tuning peg had gone right through to the cone and punctured a hole. It was 'just about' giggable at alot lower volumes, which obviously ruined the whole gig for us. I then snapped a string which resulted in another bands bassist jumping over to give me a loan of his bass (which thinking back, was seriously nice). My bro had his car window smashed whilst at the gig with me. That was one of the worst gigging experiences I've ever had! [/quote] Just "one of the worst" gigging experiences? There are more? OMG :-) CB

Once, in the interval between songs, one of our singers unplugged my bassamp to plug in an electric heater. CB

Played the Bongo live at an event in O2 Glasgow on 30th November. Listened to the DVD today for the first time and I have to say I'm really happy with the tone. I'm pretty high up the mix too, without being overpowering. It's not often you get to feel happy with the sound of your own bass, and I normally hate listening to myself - so respect to the Bongo! Here's a photo. I will attempt to post the video when I can. CB

[quote name='ern500evo' timestamp='1355509522' post='1899514'] It really is a fun part to play, I think as Zuma says in his video suggested by gub, it's all about the ghost notes. [/quote] Yep - totally agree. Not difficult to play - but how the heck do you invent a bassline like this from scratch??? Respect. CB

O2 Glasgow 30th Nov. CB