Maude

The Jam, greatest cover band in the world 😯

They almost got plopped on but they ran, ran so far away.

The trouble I've always found with HMV, and this is going back a few years but into the Internet buying era, is that a bands current CD was a normal price, tenner-ish, but any of their older cd's were through the roof pricewise, where other retailers sold most older cd's for less than the current release. There's been quite a few artists I've got into and bought their back catalogue on the Internet, mainly amazon if cheap enough new or ebay second hand. A few times I have bought a back catalogue for £30 where in HMV it would've been a couple of hundred. I've been in there and seen a CD for £17.99 and gone on Amazon while in HMV and bought it for £4. It's sad but I've had no reason to use HMV for a long time, and I don't do streaming preferring to own the physical item.

Not sure they'll go on a Hofner either, they have very small guitar style tuners with small holes.

It's a great song to play on bass isn't it. There's so many bass-centric songs in our set, it's great, Pinball Wizard, The Real Me, Down in the Tubestation, Town Called Malice, Keep on Running, the list goes on. We've got a reasonable following and they all know what the bass does, it's quite uplifting compared to the average pub goer who has no idea.

I'm going to suggest a live album which is basically a greatest hits because the tone Nelson gets on it. A bit odd as my favourites were played originally by the great Stuart Morrow but Nelson does a fantastic job and this is a fantastic live album.

Ooh I didn't know that, off to look it up 👍

Can I upgrade this to their entire back catalogue?

I haven't played NYE in years through choice. It's always, without fail a nightmare. People who don't normally drink get sh!tfaced and act like d!cks, couples who don't go out very often go out and argue with each other, people who do go out all the time get territorial and act like d!cks to ones who don't go out all the time, the night never lives up to anyones expectations and it all ends up a very sad, depressing place to be. And I'm stood, sober on a stage watching it all unfold. No thanks. Merry New Year 😄

BTW could anyone tell me if the strap buttons are for Schaller straplocks. I've only ever used the Dunlop rings that you twist or rubber washers, my strap doesn't fit nicely/safely over these. It also came with a similar pair without a knurled edge rather that the smooth bevel on the fitted ones. The thread is larger than a standard strap button so would need plugging to revert to what I'm used to. I'd rather not got to a certain straplock or I'll have to change all my basses or buy a strap specific to this bass. Can you get a standard button with this thread?

And no stupid pick up covers in the way and razor sharp front bindings to dig into your forearm. To me a 'normal' Rick bass looks nice but just trying a bit too hard, where the 4005 is just effortlessly beautiful.

Ah go on then.... .... lucky. 😁

No more than Limelight I suppose 🤔 It'll never be able to be passed off as the real thing, there are things which aren't right like the placements of control knobs, but the biggest give away is that it just looks too new, the newest genuine ones will be 35 years old and this wood is as fresh as a fresh thing. 🙂

Great looking bass! I could see John Entwistle playing that. Congrats and hang on to that wife of yours 😄

Totally gratuitous, but here she is reclining in my little reading corner.

I'll second that! 😁

This is part of the blurb about me on my bands website, Being a "dyed in the wool" bass player, rather than a guitarist covering the bassist role, Al was an obvious choice....... That was written by a guitarist as well so some do understand our role.

I really have struck gold with the band I'm currently in. It's Mod/Northern Soul/Ska so plenty of The Who, The Jam, Specials, Toots, etc and most Northern Soul has great basslines. The band actually want to the bass to be upfront in the mix as well. In 'The Real Me' I was told "more overdrive and louder". Happy Days.

Totally agree with that. But at the risk of sounding like the moaning old fart I've always vowed never to become, if Kate Bush were a new artist today then within three months of her first single reaching number one, every other record label would've got themselves a 'Kate Bush' in a bid to cash in on the success. I'm sure that's why there's a sea of female singers around at the moment with that 'quirky' breathey voice that sounds as if they have Icelandic roots in their immediate family. Nobody is distinctive in pop anymore because if they're successful the record companies flood the market with their own version. My musical journey started in the late 70's, early 80's and if I slip my rose tints on I'm sure there were far more distinct bands out there. Madness were instantly recognisable, as we're Duran Duran, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Cure and many, many more. The Cure were massive but I don't remember any other singers copying Robert Smiths style, or David Byrne, etc. Sure there were similar styles but not the carbon copies that flood the airwaves today. I'm sure A&R men were more focused on finding the 'next big thing' rather finding their version of the 'current big thing' years ago. OMG, I'm like, so old! 😁

I'm going to spend some time getting The Who's 'The Real Me' sounding better. We gigged it three times before Christmas but I'm not happy with it at the moment.

If any of you are still wearing Grolsch bottle tops in your shoes, could I have the rubber washers for straplocks please. Thank you 😁

Same, the one bass I'd love to own. I'm pretty meh about every other bass. I'd considered a Chinese copy from AliExpress and then fill the PU holes, route in the correct place, sort any issues and refinish. But it still wouldn't have any correct hardware. It wouldn't look right and would cost pretty much the same as this one once done.

Apparently the bass cost £1300, the pickups £210 and the Gigblade £170, its not even a year old and is as new. I've looked at it as £900 all in, £100 for the case £50 postage, so £750 for the bass. Its hard to price something like this and it's as close to the real thing as I'll get so I went for it. Wise or not, I don't know 🤔

Quite possibly. It looks very similar but then it should, shouldn't it? 😁

Last being made in '84, I think, the price of genuine ones vary wildly. But they seems average at about 7 or 8 grand, obviously dependant on condition and originality. I will never be paying that whether I could or couldn't justify because I'd never be able to gig something of that value. I paid £900 including delivery and the Gigblade. A lot for a copy but not a lot for a luthier made custom bass? Who knows if it's a good deal, but I like it.