Maude

Happy Birthday 🙂👍

On A Rope - Rocket From The Crypt

I got my copy before Christmas but as it was to be a present it went straight to the gifter for wrapping. I then got six books for Christmas so as with Ped, it's in the queue. Although I haven't started any yet and it might well be first. 🙂👍

I took the bridge and tailpiece apart today to give them a little clean. When the string holder part was separated from the baseplate I found, possibly, initials etched into it. It might be M. G. Quality Control? More mysteries never to be solved. The string saddle and its baseplate appear to be cut from sheets/slabs of brass which are chromed before the parts are cut out as, on the baseplate, the edges are brass and the faces chrome, and the saddle the opposite way around with chrome edges and brass faces.The brass surfaces are too clean to just be worn away chrome. Presumably they use large pre-chromed slabs of brass and cut/stamp out the pieces before machining. They've cleaned up nicely, even the brass screws.

Whilst I've no idea how this sort of thing works, a thought relating to that had crossed my mind. All these separate reports to Action Fraud need to be linked to the case. I'd worried that they might all get treated as very small individual cases and somehow slip through the net. Hopefully they'll all be linked as this is clearly bigger than individual cases would suggest.

I thought the same when the saw the ad on Facebook. It just seemed odd that he had many top end guitars for sale but claimed to know nothing about them. It seems he's in bands, is a promoter and has been in the papers a bit. It was starting to sound like friend of Basschat, Mr. Mason. But faith restored, he seems like one the good ones. Sang in an incarnation of The Animals for a decade, whilst absolutely no one could replace the vocals of Eric Burdon, that's not a bad gig to have. The feature in the papers is for setting up a charity to put on concerts to try and raise £1m for a hospital where his grandson was treated. Maybe he's cajoled these guitars from friends and celebs in bands to sell to raise money for the charity, or maybe they are his and he really doesn't know a lot about them, who knows. I'd still love the bass but can't justify that sort of money. Maybe if I told him we do a version of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place and several Jam tracks then he'd give me a discount. I know, I doubt it too 😁. https://m.facebook.com/groups/167660810099231/permalink/1610510605814237/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009091483962 https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/15018795.miracles-happen---promoter-using-music-stars-play-lancashire-gigs-hospital-saved-grandson/

@Happy Jack, yes I'm well aware I'm probably fretting far to much about the details of this bass, but I was just trying to decipher the historical mods and pin down, as close as possible, what it originally was. It's just to satisfy my personal curiosity and it passes the time while waiting for suppliers to open up again to get the parts I need. I'm happy that we've narrowed it down to the model and the year, give or take a year either side. Also just a point I've read when researching, as you mentioned The Beatles explosion, apparently these were all red in the UK due to the popularity of The Shadows so it seems odd that they all had black scratchplates and not white. So much for cream body and copper pearl scratchplate then 🙄 😁

Bye Bye Baby - Bay City Rollers

There She Goes - The La's

From being in the automotive refinishing trade all my working life I can say that every 3M product I've used has been excellent and does exactly what it's intended for, they're just one of those manufacturers you can rely on. I've not come across this cutting tape though as it's probably relatively new. Whilst not being into wrapping I have wrapped a few panels and it's easier than you'd imagine, as long as your pretty good with your hands. It's surprisingly tough and will happily take to being reapplied a few times while lifting, heating and smoothing it into awkward areas. A bass should be fairly simple as it's mainly flat and then just heat to shrink or stretch it into the curves. It would need joining around the perimeter of the bass which I assume is why you're looking at this tape, which being 3M I would imagine would do the job as intended. Wrap isn't expensive and can be taken off with no damage, as long as your original paint is good and you're careful around the cavity edges, so I'd just get some and try it. A plain colour would be easier to start with than a pattern or picture due to distorting it around the curves. Hopefully someone who actual does wrapping can advise further though.

Colours appear as colours to us due to which frequencies of the visable light spectrum they absorb. Red has the longest wavelength through to violet which has the shortest. If a material absorbs the longer wavelengths and reflects only the shortest it will appear red (turn the light off so there's none to reflect and everything loses its colour). For something to appear red it has to absorb all the other wavelengths of light, getting progressively shorter as you move up the spectrum. Shorter wavelengths have more energy and destroy the pigments in paint quicker than the less energetic long wavelengths, causing red pigments to lose their 'colour' the quickest.

I really don't need a small amp for home use as I practice with headphones, and I have the little Vox Pathfinder 10 for chucking in a carrier bag and taking round a mates house for quiet practice (I would recommend one of these for the budget), but in true Basschat style I now find myself wanting one of these. I really like the style of it. 👍

Two Minutes To Midnight - Iron Maiden

I saw this pop up on FB. This could be a load of waffle as I do seem to dream up a lot facts. I think he recorded Start with an Epiphone. He's been using this bass, which is a Waterstone I think, for the last decade or so. The ad seems pretty vague and aimed at someone who wants 'Bruce Foxtons bass' rather than care what actual bass they're buying. The seller, again I think, is/was in The Animals. I would absolutely love to own and play this bass in our Mod band, but I fear a £2.5k starting bid is a bit rich for me. Also I can't see it'll ever be particularly valuable as it's not an iconic bass used to record an iconic song, rather one he's used for one song at each gig for the last few years, and now wants shot of.

It looks like his own fb page is gone along with the Take That and Carpenters tribute bands that he was involved in.

I think this is the list so far, note that some have got their money back. @prowla@walshy @nick_gontarski (allegedly owed gig money) @ForbiddenWytch @DIYorDie @Jamie Snell @Jamiexsilver @wavydavy @Dangreen326 @SamPlaysBass @misterhank

Because The Night - Patti Smith

It's mad isn't it!? Whilst I agree with you, and also feel that overall they look a bit 'cheap' (I know, they are), years ago I'd have said beggars can't be choosers, or something along those lines. I mean, what do you expect for £150? Well these days? Quite a lot. There's all sorts out there for that sort of money new and I feel these will have a hard time competing. While the Glarry may look/feel better in person, all of the HBs I've seen haven't looked/felt cheap at all. I know it's a short scale but the Ibanez Talman shorty is the same money and looks/feels, and more importantly sounds, great. What's the equivalent HB P bass cost now? Genuine question as I haven't looked lately.

My Coo Ca Choo - Alvin Sawdust

New Order - Confusion 😁

I Like To Move It - Reel To Real Edit- It's the artist name not the song title, sorry.

The band is predominantly centred around around the Mod and Ska revival of the late 70s early 80s and Northern Soul, whilst also playing some original Mod stuff, The Who, Small Faces, Spencer Davis Group, Kinks, etc. So while you are correct about the basses of that era, the late 70s was all about the Rick, albeit the 4001 or 4003. Ok,ok I'm completely wrong, but the 4005 is going nowhere so pack it in! 😄

The caravan job, was five charges of fraud by false representation, and two of falsifying articles for the purpose of fraud, which his current suspended sentence is for, 22 weeks for each of the fraud charges and 26 weeks for each of the falsifying articles charges, to run concurrently. Again according to the media.

On his caravan holiday scam he created false bank statements to 'prove' to customers that he had refunded them. I should add that that's according to the media reports, which I've no reason to doubt.

On the subject of funding this project, my son, who has just started work a couple of months ago, has said he wants to buy me the bits for this bass for Christmas to repay me for all the help we've given him while he was at college, so I'll have something I can keep. Which makes me very proud. I wasn't intending on spending a lot to start with and certainly aren't now. The pickups and electrics I'm happy not to have original items, just decent mods that suit the style. I've narrowed down the pickups to a choice between three (at the moment). The originals would have been a pair of Hofner mini humbucker 'staple' pickups. I found a page on the Seymour Duncan website which interested me. https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/sd-mini-humbuckers-and-the-hofner-beatle-bass After looking up prices, the Hofner staples are about £200 a pair, and the Duncans are just over £200 a pair. Too much really, I might stretch to that but I'm not letting my son pay for them. Anyway, the Duncans are essentially Gibson Firebird mini humbucker replacements. So there's a starting point for looking up some budget items. I found some Warman mini humbucker for £35 a pair. I've got a Warman musicman pickup in another bass and it is fantastic, bought on recommendation from folks on here that I trust, so I'm happy to try another Warman. Whilst looking on eBay for them I saw two other types of rail pickups, a style Hofner used later on the 185/Artist and will probably get one of these three (well a pair of these three, but that doesn't make sense). Chrome mini humbucker. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warman-FireBucker-Pair-of-poleless-Chrome-mini-humbuckers-/164480598945?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 A pair of hot rails, different output neck and bridge) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warman-Warblades-High-output-rail-humbuckers-/184477106915?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 And another hot rail type but sold individually, so the same rating for neck and bridge. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warman-Jazzbar-bass-humbucker-13-31k-8-56-H-4-wire-overwound-/184564330420?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 The mini humbuckers look the most original and are probably the closest spec to original. But then I thought do I go for a more modern high output pickup like the rails? The style will work as the twin rails mimick the fret marker inlays. The pair of rails don't have casings though, just taped coil and might feel odd as I'd use them as thumb anchor points. I'm going to try and find out the specs of the Duncan mini humbuckers before deciding.