molan

I'm not sure if Steve http://www.stevesamps.co.uk/wp/ really counts as a retailer but he'll give you great advice on what to choose and may have some spares in stock. He did an amazing job on my old SVT and sold me a pair of valves for way less then I'd previously paid

Looking really good - must let us know what it sounds like when it arrives

I've recently played the TH350 back to back with my TH500 at BassGear & I couldn't hear any difference at the sort of volumes you can reasonably use in a shop (pretty loud but not jacking them right up). I love my TH500 & would definitely recommend either of the TH heads. If you're anywhere near BassGear then they had three in stock last week

The Tobias has gone I think - stupidly cheap price so I'm not surprised

That Sadowsky P used to be mine - great price for an NYC Sadowsky & it's only a couple of years old. I think I paid £2K for it used (it was a custom build and valued at nearer £3K new) so at £1,450 it's an absolute bargain! Quite a few other great deals lurking in here too - that Fodera Anthony Jackson sounds lovely & has a really cool 'vibe' to it

I bought a lovely Spector from Andy recently - he couldn't have been more helpful or friendly in organising everything The bass is in perfect condition & very nice as well! Top man to deal with

[quote name='The Bass Doc' timestamp='1331372500' post='1571941'] Can't embed/won't embed, but 'Behind a Painted Smile' contains one of my favourite snare drum sounds and a stroke of genius to stick that bit on the end. [/quote] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foar5MWhiOY

And let's not forget their roots - one of my all time favourite Motown numbers: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsdTjuj6fps[/media] I have an original copy of this on 7", one of my treasured possessions

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1331331748' post='1571681'] Its cheesy but gotta disagree, its part of the song's charm IMHO [/quote] I love Ernie's tone on this! I remember hearing it when I was about 12-13 and thinking how great it sounded amongst the dross on the radio at the time.

This one kills me every time: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVrZdAicYZg[/media] Although this runs it very close, their version of the Todd classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI6Ae0eqjbc

It's generally much better today, longer quieter periods. Less slapping generally and more volume control. There are some bargains kicking around too. Early Gibson era Tobias for £500, Sadowsky NYC active P for £1,500, unplayed MusicMan reflex for £1,300 etc., etc.

Other thing about the slap idiots was how disrespectful they were to some of the stands who put on short artist demos. I was watching Enrico Passini (builder of Wood & Tronics basses) and his main demonstrator Roberto Badoglio on the Vanderkley stand. They were playing some really nice, and very tasteful, stuff. Lots of chordal harmonies, and fast high end runs etc. Some git sat down at the stand next to them, cranked the volume pathetically loud and a good go at drowning them out with, out of time, random slapping. Enrico & Roberto took the piss a little and played bad slap right back at him but he carried on regardless. Eventually The two Italians were about to give up playing as they couldn't hear themselves and refused to turn up any louder. Then the 15 minutes klaxon sounded, Roberto played a nice little descending flourish & they stopped. The git on the slapfest just carried on randomly whacking away. This wasn't a young guy either, I'd say he was well into his 50's. . .

I'm working on the BassGear stand again this year. We managed to get Paul Turner on the stand for 20 minutes or so. He arrived with an awesome pedal board & three Jamiroaquai songs taken from masters with all the bass removed. He played along to these and was absolutely awesome. Seeing someone as good as him from such close range was amazing. The 'official' line was that there was only supposed to be 15 mins per hour of 'noise' but several stands simply refused to conform and that started others off. We took a multiple headphone set-up along but some people were so loud it was ridiculous. Today they are planning to limit to 30 mins in each hour of noise and say they will pull power from people who don't conform.