EliasMooseblaster

I know that feeling; I had a similarly strong impulse when I tried a US Std Precision five or six years ago. Sometimes, it's surprising how such an "ordinary"-looking design can sound and feel so right. But of course, that price tag is a consideration, and probably the same one that stopped me buying the aforementioned Precision - much as I liked it, I knew I already had a good quality P/J variation sitting at home. It's definitely worth shopping around to see what else is knocking around for a similar price. Schecter's Model T comes quite highly recommended (not just by me), and there are various second-hand Sandbergs available on here with similar pickup configs. If nothing else, it hopefully gives you a reason to venture out and have some fun trying a few different basses!

The Beach Boys. Well alright, not the original lineup, but if you fast-forward to a lot of the SMiLE-era recordings, several of the songs feature an upright bass and either a Precision or a Bass VI. It's particulalry noticeable on Good Vibrations, where the upright plays root notes during the verse, while Carole Kaye (I think?) plays some nicely palm-muted arpeggios up the dusty end of a Precision.

I know myself well enough to be aware that I'll feel "hangry" if I have to go hungry. It's always good to know in advance whether I'm going to have to feed myself - and as I don't often play functions, I tend to be left to my own devices in that respect. I think the most awkward position I've found myself in was when the food was promised in place of a fee. Not a function, but a gig where all the bands involved were friends of each other, and the band organising it had very proudly announced that the venue would pay the bands for providing an evening's entertainment. Which was just as well, because as the date drew nearer, I had just enough money left to pay the rent for the month and get myself and my gear to the venue. As the last few days ticked away, the offer of money had been revised down to "the musicians can eat for free" - apparently this place had a very good Indian buffet. If they hadn't all been friends, I would have insisted that I couldn't do this without being paid; at least with this new arrangement, there was the promise of a decent meal. Perhaps if I could even line my guitar case with samosas and naan bread to keep me going for a couple of days afterwards. Somehow, in the couple of days between this disappointment and the soundcheck, the other band's spectacularly inept negotiating skills had brought our recompense down yet further. If we wanted anything from the buffet, they told me, we had to pay like everybody else. Or, in other words, we were getting literally nothing for playing this gig. The temptation to walk was palpable - overwhelming, even. It would have left the band I was playing for with no bassist, and the event in question with no bass amp, but I was livid. Not to mention quite hangry. But I didn't. I had enough change in my back pocket to get a sugary drink from a nearby shop and keep myself going, without causing a scene or swearing at anyone. (And even after all that, they somehow talked me into operating the f***ing mixing desk after nobody else could work out how to use it...)

Is it just me, or is Gibson's entire guitar range essentially just the same pickup configuration mounted on a different slab? I've had this conversation over on Guitarchat, where there seems to be some consensus that LPs somehow sound different from SGs with the same pickups, but nobody challenged the idea that nearly all their guitars are basically a neck humbucker and bridge humbucker with a 3-way switch. Very little variation, apart from the occasional triple-humbucker novelty. At least if you're collecting Fenders, the electronics are different between a Strat, Tele, Jag, Jazzmaster, etc. Apart from looks, why would I bother buying a Flying V if it's electronically the same as an SG? It seems a little ironic that there's more obvious variation in their bass pickup configurations (see T-birds, "SG" basses, Rippers - and surely the Grabber's sliding pickup was ahead of its time?). Such a shame that their refusal to build more five-strings just makes them look like dinosaurs who refuse to accept that fives are actually quite commonplace these days. The more recent EB designs seemed like a step in the right direction, and if Mike Lull can stick a low B on a Thunderbird shape, what's stopping Gibson? Monkey Steve (see above) can't be the only potential customer this has cost them!

In the past, a couple of duff straps have been cause for some premature white hairs... The worst occasion - at least psychologically - was my Thunderbird. I hadn't even owned the thing that long; bought it second hand but it was in immaculate condition. The band had been in the studio for about 12 hours (engineer being slightly anally retentive when it came to mic placements, etc), and so I was already pretty exhausted by the time we had the "keeper" from the various drum takes and were ready to record the bassline. Said engineer had tried me through various different amps, and wasn't satisfied until I was plugged into a very powerful H&K valve amp running into a 6x10 fridge, running at a level which made my internal organs vibrate uncomfortably. We were finally ready to go for a take, and as I sleepily took my hands off the bass to adjust my headphones... ...the strap slipped, and the bass bounced across the studio floor. My first coherent thought, in between blind panic and assorted obscenities, was the notorious reputation of Gibson headstocks. This was the most expensive instrument I'd ever owned up to this point, and the thought that it could have been rendered unusable by a duff strap pin was impossible to dispel. I must have stared at the end of the neck for a good few seconds as I reassured myself that actually, the head was still attached and undamaged. There are two big dents on the body, but I'll live with those. (The bass has sported a locking strap ever since.) The other strap was the shoulder strap on a gig bag. I had a Vintage SG copy inside said bag, and as I got off the Tube one morning, the strap gave up the ghost completely, and the guitar belly-flopped onto the concrete platform. One knackered pickup selector, big dents taken out of the volume knobs, and a broken top E...I guess it could have been a lot worse.

I think Bobby's Jazz already has quite enough fins on it...

If memory serves, I've only had an amp fail on me once in a gig setting. Thankfully it started playing up during the soundcheck, which I guess is the best time to discover a fault if there's going to be one! To be fair, the old horse had been schlepped across London on various forms of public transport over the years and so I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did without suffering more serious damage. Eventually it enjoyed a new lease of life when I disconnected the faulty head and connected the speaker to a separate amp. But since I stopped being such a cheapskate and bought myself a nicer cab, this one's been gathering dust. (Any electricians fancy restoring an old Laney SS combo? I think one of the output transistors has gone, but I don't think I trust myself to make the repair!) Ironically, after worrying about the general perception of "SS = sturdy and reliable" and "valve = potentially fragile", I've yet to have any problems with either of my valve heads. But then, there's no chance of me trying to move a CTM-100 and 2x12 cab on the Tube, which has probably helped...

I vote for a tenor uke and a wah-wah pedal. If any punters come up and talk to you, you can have some fun trying to BS your way through an explanation of how you use the wah to shape the uke's tone to sound more bass-heavy.

What a patronising helmet. More power to you on a mature and sensible response; was there a palpable temptation to respond with, "yes, similarly your voice sounds OK, but your social skills need a lot of work..."?

Now that's destiny if ever I heard it!

I am looking forward to seeing more pictures as these bits of wood become gradually more guitar-shaped!

Well, I've learnt something new! I always thought his solo stuff began after and ran alongside theirs, though I wouldn't claim to be an expert on the feller - I stand corrected.

Sorry, it appears I mis-read your original post a little - if people have gone to an event and clicked the "I'll attend this" button, then it's a bit harder to spot. Clearly Mr Threatin had managed to find a service which would generate such fake attendees, and I guess at the point you have to have a look through the list of people and see where they're posting from, which can be harder to judge. That said, enough journalists seemed to be able to spot that the supposed attendees were mostly posting from Brazil, so I have to presume that enough of these people were sharing their location with FB to make an educated guess feasible!

It's usually pretty easy to tell when somebody's bought a heap of dubious FB or Twitter followers - if thousands of people have followed/"liked" their page, but their posts are only getting clicks and supportive comments from their best friends and/or mum, then their "enormous" following probably isn't all it first appears to be. (Though clearly, some sizeable venues would do well do learn this!)

Yep, probably. Power amp outputs are a much bigger current than instrument outputs - hence the need for a proper speaker cable rather than a spare guitar lead. At the very least, I expect you'd knacker preamp 2 pretty quickly. Prior to damage/smoke/fire/screaming & crying, I can't imagine it would sound particularly nice either.

The "Excellent Joe Walsh" thread that began a few days ago got me thinking: I can take or leave the Eagles, and given the choice I'd rather put on some of Walsh's solo stuff. But is he a rare beast in this respect? Usually, I feel like the offshoot solo album is a chance for members of a band to try something different, but it's never quite as good or exciting as the stuff they did with the band that made them famous in the first place. Often, they're 45-minute collections of absolute dross which reek either of self-indulgence or cashing in. But once in a while, you come across one which stands head and shoulders above the music they were making with their original band. So who - for you - should have thumbed their nose at their original band years ago and just carried on making solo albums?

Very true! I kind of understand what the guy was saying about being true to his word when he agrees to do something...but on the other hand, if the other party starts to welch on the original arrangement like that, then surely you're in a perfectly good position to walk out with your morals intact?

I'm sure a lot of us have been in situations where the "agreed fee" goes from being Some Money, to A Bit Less Money, and then a week before the event, Well, The Venue Will Lay On Dinner And We'll Cover Your Expenses, to Erm...OK I Guess We'd Better Cover Your Expenses. I should probably be grateful that the last time that happened to me, it was just for one gig and I only had to cross London rather than the chuffing Atlantic Ocean...

By the sound of it, the venue in Bristol nearly did lose out - the local article in the OP mentions that they had it out with Mr Threatin and his tour manager until he shuffled off in a huff and came back with the hire fee. I'd be very surprised if this was their normal modus operandi, and must assume that they had the wool pulled over their eyes by this shady "promotions company" assuring them that 180 Bristolians (not Brazilians...) had purchased tickets - of course, I can only speculate without knowing the finer details. In any case, I take your point re the support bands - how the hell did they get on the bill if they couldn't even draw a dozen people to one of their bigger local venues? Again, pure speculation, but perhaps more experienced bands had seen through Mr Threatin's facade when he was looking for support acts...

I didn't realise Mr Fricker did music news as well these days! I do quite enjoy Canadian Shout Man's oeuvre, and he makes a very good point: even if this stunt has got the guy's name onto papers and blogs around the world, who in their right mind is now going to book their venue out to a well-known con-man?

I just went to peruse the front page, and noticed he's now made it onto the front page of the Graun. I'm beginning to suspect this is what he was hoping for all along...

My initial thought would have been to pop a DiMarzio Model One into the place of the original mudbucker. I made this change to my Epi EB3 and it tightened up the low-end woof nicely - more recently I extended the wiring to coil-tap it, which has made it even more versatile. But then you mentioned that you already have an EB3 for those sounds. Perhaps, if the '51 Precisions aren't a workable option, a couple of those Danelectro style 'lipstick' pickups might do the trick? I think I'm right in saying they won't be affected by the string spacing...

There are still aspects of this story that I'm struggling to get my head round. So this chap evidently has some material online - all the articles I've read have mentioned music videos in which you can't properly see the "crowd" he's playing to, while simultaneously playing all the instruments on each track. It sounds like he thought he could buy a following through various dubious Facebook schemes, and doubtless got a lot of clicks from some people in Brazil. But at what point did this stop being delusion and become a deliberate attempt to deceive? Surely he wasn't stupid enough to know that 180 tickets had not actually been sold, despite the number of earnest Brazilians telling FB they would attend a gig in Bristol? The article mentions a tour manager who was with him, so were they both in on the scam? Did they know that the interest was all fake, and is this simply part of an elaborate ruse to get outraged articles into local news and get us talking about his awful music? Or...has he actually been blinded by the dopamine hit of so many "likes" on his FB page that he's started to believe his own hype, (even though only 26 people tuned in to his music last month on Spotify) and a promotion company (conveniently left behind in Hollywood) decided to pocket a few quid by cynically taking advantage of his delusion? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's having a chuckle at our expense as we read these articles, aghast, but then life has also taught me not to underestimate just how stupid and deluded some people are capable of being...

The master? Do you have the prototype, then? (Hard to say for sure, as I don't have it with me in the office, but I'm pretty sure the layout and choice of chicken-heads is the same as on mine - from memory, the front panel looks the same)

Thank you all very much, gentlemen, I remain delighted with my purchase. I've finally given it its ultimate test by using it in a band setting - not one of my usual outfits, admittedly, but it was nice to hear it in some context. Pleased to report that it sits in the mix just nicely. I have, however, fallen into exactly the trap I feared: the temptation to keep tweaking my sound. I'm sure, as the novelty wears off, I'll regain the discipline to choose one or two settings and just stick to those for the duration of a rehearsal/set, but with so many options I can't help experimenting at the moment! On the one hand, it's reminded me why I stuck to Precisions for so many years...on the other, it's hard to settle on one sound when so many of them are good and potentially usable.