Roger2611

It.s a difficult one, I guess some of the really small open air festivals may be doable sooner rather than later but for indoor gigs and going to see bigger bands we will be driven by the figures of new infections I guess, hopefully Mrs2611 and I will both agree when that time feels right.

One that didn't quite come off! Many years ago, I had not been playing long but had just brought my first new guitar a lovely looking Marlin Sidewinder guitar and was busy learning to play Sex Pistols stuff, a young lad I vaguely knew from school came around and asked if I would teach him to play the Pistols stuff, he had this battered tatty old Gibson thing, I taught him everything I knew in about 10 minutes! He wanted a go on my guitar so we swapped over, he loved my guitar and suggested we do a swap, I have to admit I wasn't sure as his was so beaten up and tatty but it played really nicely so we did the swap and away he went.....a couple of hours later he turned up with his dad who said unfortunately we would have to reverse the swap as the 1962 SG he had just traded with me was not actually his to trade it was his dad's guitar which he had lent to him to learn to play on! I lost touch with him after that but bumped into a mate of his quite a few years later, apparently the lad had ended up as a guitar tutor at the London School of Music, I said to his mate, "next time you see him tell him he owes me some guitar lessons!"

Two in two weeks for me, many years ago I was at a car boot sale and a chap was selling what looked like a good condition 4x12 Hiwatt guitar cab and an unnamed 1x15 bass cab, I only wanted the bass cab but the guy said you can have both for £20.00! I sold the Hiwatt cab for £800.00 a couple of weeks later, it turned out it was a mint and totally original late 60s cab! Two weeks later at another car boot sale I spotted an interesting looking record deck, it was an elderly gentleman selling it, he apologised for asking £15.00 for it but that was what he had just spent getting it serviced, I brought it because it looked cool, it wasn't until the advent of eBay many years later that I found out it was a Rega turntable but mine was nothing like the ones on sale on eBay, I contacted Rega and quoted the serial number and what I had brought for £15.00 was a prototype Rega Planet record deck, still not sure, or really bothered what it is worth to this day as it will never be for sale whilst I am still breathing but I would expect it would fetch a wee bit more than the £15.00 I gave for it!

Looking at the sellers name, I am guessing they brought a couple of dirt cheap basses, smoked a large amount of the stuff the sellers name suggests, bolted a cheap neck to the equally cheap body and decided they had created a completely new idea for the world of bass and priced it accordingly....personally I am looking forward to the next custom jobby, which I am guessing might be a "genuine" Fender Jazz body, mated to a "genuine" MM neck!

Welcome back. I am glad it worked out OK in the end after what sounds like a pretty scary time, belated happy 45th birthday

"Flaunt it baby, flaunt it"

I have a UI24, it is a really impressive bit of kit, there is an owners forum on Face Book where I did a load of research before deciding on the Soundcraft over the XR18,. From memory a couple of features that swayed me in favour of the UI24 were the number of monitor (aux outputs) and the fact that you could switch the them linked stereo outs for a stereo in ear monitor mix and having tried it, it makes a big difference! I believe the Pre -amps in the UI24 are viewed as being of higher quality than that of the XR18 There was also something about the way you connect to the Soundcraft with your phone / other devices which was seen as more stable than having to connect to an app, whichever ever way is actually best, once you are connected to the UI24 the connection has been very stable. Now a couple of things to be aware of and this comes from personal experience of the unit: Believe everything you read about not relying on the internal WiFi router, even at rehearsals with the band in my mates front room the unit kept losing the signal and kicking us out, in a packed pub situation (those were the days!!) it would have been unusable, you will need a decent external router, once that is hooked up connection issues will go away......I understand the XR18 is also criticised for the same issues! I actually run mine with a small touch screen monitor connected directly via the HDMI port and a USB input so irrespective of the WiFi connection you can always get to the mixing desk. The unit wants a stable power source and decent ventilation, an unstable power source will cause the unit to crash as will over heating due to poor ventilation.....I would assume the XR range would also be susceptible to the same issues? The UI24 is a massively capable bit of kit (far more so than I have been able to get out of it) it is a big change from a physical mixer but it does seem to be the way forward and it is amazing that so much technology can be squeezed into such a small box!

I think it depends on what you are buying, I have just brought a Status S2 bass direct from the factory because I know exactly what I am going to get, a beautifully built bass that is going to be 100% right straight out of the box.....would I do the same with a late 70's Fender (and many other basses of that kind of age) not a chance, it needs to be played, weighed, fully stripped and confirmed it is as described before I would consider parting with a large sum of money for it

I have to admit I was unsure whether to keep looking at the thread as the job was progressing as I am looking forward to be blown away by the end result but, it is dead exciting to see it progressing and the processes being so well explained as they happen! Andy, that maple top looks fantastic!

I will hopefully do better on an 80's one!

70 Let it be, The Beatles 71 Don't know 72 Don't know 73 Money, Pink Floyd 74 Do know it but can't remember 75 Don't know 76 Blitzkrieg Bop, The Ramones 77 Lust For Life, The Igsta! 78 Physco Killer Talking Heads? 79 Guns of Brixton The Clash

The one on the right looks like an angry pirate!

Well looking at the amount of people there, we would be lucky to have half that many at most of the gigs we play so I guess we were social distancing well ahead of the curve!

I would suggest trying one first, I have a 50's Classic and a Roadworn Precision both are Mexican basses and they are the best two Precision's I own! Prices do seem to have risen sharply in recent years....look at the current prices of the Sterling SB range they seem to be up at the same price as a US built Musicman was a few years ago!

We need to get that on ITV4 daytime in between the other save the snails, Sloths are lonely, sponsor central heating for Snow Leopards....give us your money adverts!

Try this one for size, I do like the look myself so I brought a white pearl guard for my black Precision, I tend to like it for a while, then suddenly decide it looks too flash and swap back to the black one again!

A few of my Precision's: A Roadworn, a 62 Custom shop, an 81 US Precision and a 50's Classic Both of the Mexican Precision's are outstanding basses

I guess the reason these don't get recognised for the great basslines they are is simply because they are largely impossible to cover (not just bass wise but Billy's vocals as well) So they don't get heard so often now, personally the two basslines fall squarely into the category of "I wouldn't even know where to begin" basslines so are not ones I have even thought about trying to decipher!

I still have my 7" Stiff Little Fingers "Alternative Ulster" I remember rushing back from the record shop ready to blast the neighbours only to find it had the B side label on both sides of the disk, my heart sank! I was glad to discover that although the labels were wrong the record was indeed correct so the neighbours got a blast of both sides of the record....they didn't appreciate it....philistines!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ARIA-SB1000-BASS-NAKED-PROJECT-WITH-PHALLIC-BRASS-APPENDAGE-AND-FUNNY-STORY/124182849405?hash=item1ce9dfe77d:g:0GQAAOSwlNpeuHIH I am really not sure what else there is to say about this one. I would think our favourite eBay seller from Germany of overpriced tat is going to be so disappointed he didn't manage to land this little beauty!

Be prepared to consider the cheaper pickups, in my Precision basses I have lots of different pickups ranging from boutique end Lindy Fralin's and Custom Shop 62's down to more budget end Kent Armstrong and Ironstone pickups and all sound great, to my ears, when compared to the cheapest ceramic pickups, however, there will likely be a few posts coming along who love those cheap ceramic pickups! I think a lot of us end up swapping stuff out purely because of clever marketing and the fact that we have disposable income, my Lindy Fralin pickups might sound fantastic (to my ears) in my bass but they won't give you exactly the same sound that I have in your bass! Sorry the above really doesn't answer your question very well! In my case case my choice of pickup I buy when building a bass is driven by how much disposable income I have at that point in time, whether I think I am going to like the completed bass I am building and whether I am likely to keep it afterwards...if I build a bass and it turns out to be a keeper then I can always swap a better pickup into it if it doesn't quite give me the sound I think I want!