Maude

Yeah cos I 'need' another bass, just like I 'need' another project! 😂😂

This is completely true, and why I'm not overly worried. I'd hoped it might've just been a quick clean and polish and it would be like new(ish) again, but you can't win 'em all. For the money I've done alright. The other good thing is that although I really don't need another project right now, it's kind of forced my arm, and now I don't need to feel bad about ripping a perfectly good BEX4 apart and doing something different. It'll all come good in the end. 🙂

Slow down, slow down! 😂 That would look amazing though. You can see just how thin the flame maple veneer is in this picture. The blue stain is impossible to completely remove leaving the veneer intact. On the plus side, if you look closely at the natural wood you can see some quilting coming through. This is only sanded with 120 so a any grain will only get better with subsequent finer sandings and a finish, if it stays as some sort of trans finish. Who knows, I need to contemplate. 😁

This is now make it up as you go along. 😁 Or if I want to look clever then the wood is talking to me and letting know what it wants.😄 I'd never have been happy with the original cleaned up. Sure there's ways to disquise a lot of the damage but that's exactly the problem, I'd still see it. The turquoise is the blue basecoat that has stained into the flame laminate. To fully remove the blue staining, including in the dents, I have rubbed through the laminate. It was always a risk, it just depended on the how thick a laminate they used. The answer is very, very thin. So I'm now sanding the laminate off and see what we're left with. If it hasn't got a good natural grain then I reckon a sparkle finish might be on the cards. Or something equally crazy. 😉

In for a penny! Turquoise BEX4 anyone? 😁

News of the World - The Jam

Come together - Beatles 🤢

Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies - Machine Head

Shades of Grey - Biohazard

It's as @neepheidsays above. Zoom in in this picture, the disc is in the tray with the bridge. And this one shows the choke mounted to one of the pots.

In reality it's fine because of the price. I'd be annoyed if I'd payed proper money for it. On the plus side it's in the original Yamaha case, well I guess original as it the same as the one my other one came in (second hand as well) unless it's a huge coincidence. I've just found a couple of pictures of a natural one. Although not done too well as there's still orange paint all round the bridge. It looks amazing. https://images.app.goo.gl/mePixrMTGwy84wc87

They are wonderful, wonderful basses. Fanboi? Moi? 😉 They're surprisingly versatile with the soapbar and an under saddle piezo, blend and volume on the front and the three band EQ. The soapbar is big and punchy and not quite what you'd expect based on its gentile looks. It's got a Precision like tone but with more oomph and a touch of hollow airyness. The only very slight stumbling block is that simple bridge, no intonation adjustment, but I haven't found it a problem. The tobacco burst one above has D'addario half rounds and sounds fantastic. With a slight mid boost of the three band EQ it absolutely slices through a mix.

My stupid head is beginning whir. I bet it would look amazing in transparent black. 🙈

Your totally right, but you've no idea how much of a perfectionist I am when it comes to finishes, it's a curse. 😁

That's just it, it looks like it's just been a player, albeit slightly uncared for. A good clean and it'll just be a cosmetic issue, which can left or addressed.

Luckily I'm in a position to either fully restore it properly myself, ie completely remove the finish and do it sunburst blue again with tinted lacquer. Or wet sand and compound the worst of the scratches out and live with its history. Or take everything back to bare wood and do something completely different.

Well, I've got my comeuppance! Lately I've been lucky enough to buy some very nice basses at some very nice prices, but my luck ran out with this BEX4. It's not so bad though as it was cheap enough and it can all be sorted. Last Friday @andy67 posted that he'd seen a blue BEX4 in Cash Converters in Edinburgh. I'd kind of low level been after a blue one for a while so jumped on it. With the bass being in Edinburgh and me in Cornwall, giving it the once over was out of the question. No biggy, Andy said it looked OK, no minter, a few scratches and needed new strings but OK, and the guy I spoke to at CC said roughly the same. In fact he said he'd just been playing and it played and sounded great. Well it would, it's a BEX4 😉. It arrived today and up close it's a bit of a dog, it's had a hard life and needs a damn good clean. Poor old thing. I'm undecided at the mo whether to just give it a good clean and polish and live with its roadworn state, or to go to town and fully restore/refinish it. It looks like someone's tried to polish the body with a brillo pad and there's plenty of dents and chips. The neck wear is quite odd with some excessive wear near the nut and loads of crescent dents up the dusty end, as if a thumb with a ring on had been curled over the top edge all the time. The rest is just green and grimey. Oh yeah, nearly forgot the strings, nicely fitted 😄. Nevermind, it was cheap enough and it will still play and sound great once cleaned and set up. Cosmetic plan to be decided. With her sister.

Hmm, nearly, but not quite. But being Phyllis Offacle (who?), if you buy enough basses you'll have to encounter a pooper from time to time. I took a chance early in the day but Lady Luck was having a lie in. NBD thread imminent.

There's a large parcel waiting at home for me apparently. 😁

What could be better than a beatboxing, doublebass playing, deep southern American? I really like this bluegrass cover of No Diggity and Thrift Shop.

Bare legs don't soak up puddles in the rain.

There's a fantastic local band down here in Cornwall called Company B. They play lively jump jive music and wear American GI uniforms. Always a great night out. I'd imagine those gigs your dad played were a hoot.

A great night after a terrible start. There was no support act, PH&TL did a set of New Order songs as an opener. First song (Dreams Never End) the bass drum was absolutely horrific, stupendously loud and every chest rupturing thud completely swamped out all the other instruments. I was so disappointed and couldn't have taken a whole evening of it. To be fair I was off centre under a gallery but even so. Slowly throughout the New Order set it got better and then was bang on when they ended with Blue Monday, as it was a drum machine. The sound crew obviously realised as the rest of the gig, all of Unknown Pleasures and Closer, then finishing with a handful of non album classics was absolutely spot on sound wise. Each instrument was clear in the mix. Congrats to the sound crew.

For a punk band I think I'd favour the 424 over a 1024. I have both and was going to compare the two and sell the 'loser', but at the mo I still have both. The 424 tone is slightly more abnoxious than the politeness of the 1024. The 424 is a snotty teenager, all shouty and needing to be heard, compared to a grown up suave gent that is the 1024, who'd rather let his smooth charm speak for itself.

Peter Hook and The Light in the about an hour and a half. First proper gig in a long time and I'm like a little kid on Christmas eve.