JapanAxe

In the early hours of this morning, in the confusion of a semi-feverish state brought on by a bout of man-flu (i.e. a cold), it seemed vitally important to me that I should acquire, without delay, a well-worn Precision in cream with torty pickguard. Now I'm not sure I've even seen this finish on an actual Fender P (although the likes of Sandberg will rustle one up to order), so do they exist, or was it all just a dream? And do/did they come in fretless, preferably lined? [Btw, when I woke up, the bed was dry, and Patrick Duffy did [i]not[/i] emerge from the shower.]

None. Main factors are GAS-induced stock rotation, and the fact that I have mainly played skinny-string for the last 5 years!

I had this issue with one of the Schaller strap-lock buttons on a Godin. I had to grind it down on an improvised lathe to get it to mate with the other part.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1392398168' post='2368268'] By the way £100 will only buy you a dog of an acoustic that will rip your hands to shreds. You'd have to spend another £100 to get it set up and make playable. [/quote] ... and an even worse electro. Up your budget and go pure acoustic. You can always add a Fishman Neo-D soundhole pickup (much nicer than piezo imo) later, and save that for your next (better) acoustic in due course.

This reminds me - must borrow a scale from work and weigh all my basses. I think the heaviest are my Yamaha and G&L, both P-derived instruments.

Out of the 2, No.1 - but there is the risk that he won't improve, so I'd go with ambient's suggestions ^^^

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1392162779' post='2365626'] I would suspect that it had more to do going from a mahoosive ashdown rig to the Genz Benz/TC with barefaced cabs than with the power supply! [/quote] I suspect it was mainly to do with the cabs actually.

Ooh I can see one of these in my future, particularly as it relates to my yet-to-be-restored Selmer.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1392320817' post='2367429'] Geezer with one of his Martin Birch basses: [/quote] Look out! Geezer's trousers are on fire!

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1392319608' post='2367402'] When this kind of thing happens, I tend to use Google. For example, Googling: [i]site:basschat.co.uk "flying monkeys"[/i] ...will return every instance of Flying Monkeys. This method has the added bonus of ignoring all the nonsense in Off Topic, too. [/quote] Clearly flying monkeys are not nonsense then

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1392232421' post='2366302'] Are you putting your fingers somewhere else? [/quote] And have you got the pictures to prove it?

I use Lavas on my guitar pedalboard and saved a few £££ by buying some of the plugs used on eBay.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1392059601' post='2364233'] Mine is 0mm x 0mm x 0mm [/quote] That would make it a singularity. Whatever you do, don't assign any mass to it - if you do, it will rapidly turn into a black hole and consume the entire planet

Regarding that much-vaunted OOMPH: I had an Ashdown rig with mahoosive toroidal mains transformer and traditional solid-state power section. Every note came with a free OOMPH, but it wasn't until I got my first Class D / Neodymium setup that I realised that OOMPH had been denying me the subtlety, growl, and sweetness that I should have been getting.

Probably mentioned this before but when my first TC Classic died, they had it picked up from my work and a new one at my house within 7 days.

Although I don't recall buying anything in Andertons myself, I have accompanied friends on their GAS-induced sorties, and the staff have always been very helpful, with no sales pressure or bull.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1392154665' post='2365495'] That raises a thought . . . . if you're a gigging musician but never make any money, so effective are running at a loss if you consider gear costs etc, can you claim that loss against the tax you pay on your other job? After all, if you were, say, a builder and did one job at a profit and another one at a loss, you'd only pay tax on the net profit of both jobs wouldn't you? I bet HMRC have already thought of that one though. [/quote] Indeed they have. As I understand it, if you are truly attempting to make a profit from your music, then yes you are entitled to offset a loss against the income from your other job. If you are running your music business as a hobby and making a loss year on year, but with no real expectation of making a profit, then no you can't. This is my position, and I explicitly state it on my tax return each year. There is a note about this in the guidance that HMRC provide, but I can't be arsed to look it up right now as I've been drinking Veterano and coke...

Blimey! As if the L2000 doesn't have enough options already

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1391958334' post='2362966'] Why has my post quoted you three times when I only pressed the button once ? What witchcraft is this ? That means that you[i] ARE[/i] the devil! [/quote] See - told you so!

Yes you are the devil incarnate. Seek out a pointy metal bass that looks like a pitchfork.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1391888107' post='2362373'] Keep the round wounds, or at least try them. I've been going between rounds, flats and half wounds this week, and settled on rounds, much more mwahh . [/quote] Sorry I meant [u]could[/u] be easily fixed. Didn't buy it but confirmed my hankering towards a quality/vintage fretless P.

To me the big problem with buying from outside the EC is the handling charge that the UK delivery agent stings you with for the privilege of collecting the import tax(es). Paying the duty upfront should avoid this, but until someone comes up with a foolproof method of doing this, my non-EC purchases will be strictly curtailed.