ossyrocks

I'm actively looking for another vintage P bass, but every single one is about £1000 or more than I paid for my '73 only in February this year, and that was from ATB Guitars who I consider to be a "high end" dealer. Take that '71 at Reidy's for instance, £3999 and the fretboard is buggered. Are they actually selling, that's the question? Rob

My GAS might be terminal. There was a chap there last night with a double bass and we had a chat about it. He said I should basically just buy one. Who am I to argue?

I think I would struggle to get him to do a setup for me. He just likes bigger more interesting jobs now. If you're around the Manchester area, you could try Max Cottam? I've known him for a long time, he's done a refret for me 20 years ago which is still going well, and he's got a good reputation. This is all 6 string stuff though, I don't know about his experience with basses. Rob

He has "officially" hung up his tools and retired, but he still does a bit of work for longstanding customers. He still has his workshop and everything in it, and is still building guitars, but they are mostly for himself these days. He's just finishing a refret on a vintage 335 for me and I'm collecting it on Tuesday. I can honestly say that I've not come across anyone better in the last 30 years. His work is impeccable. One option on ^that P bass would be to replace the board. He did one recently for a friend of mine on another vintage 335 and honestly if he hadn't told me I would never have guessed it was a new board.

It might be salvageable. Someone like Ged Green could do it. He’d have to skim quite a lot off the board and then fret again. Could be expensive to do and given the price, probably not worth the money. What a shame. Rob

I did the audition on Wednesday. As I expected, I played at about 50% of my ability under pressure. It was bit hot and my hands were sweaty which made my flats a bit sticky too. But, they want me in, so it was a good result. My little Barefaced One10 with the LM3 sounded fabulous with my P bass, I don't think I'd ever need anything bigger with this band. I learned six tunes for the audition including The Chicken, which they were quite pleased that I'd picked one of the more tricky tunes to audition with. I now have another 5 to get down before rehearsal next Wednesday. I have permanent jazz earworms at the moment! A couple of the band members will be at Jazz Jam tonight in Lancaster. I'm going down and hoping to do a few tunes with some new people. I feel like I've come a long way since buying my first bass almost a year ago. Onwards and upwards! Rob

@kevin_lindsay you’re a very talented chap indeed! Some really nice ones there.

That looks lovely. Did you do the refinish yourself? I almost did a strat body myself last year, but I decided it was not worth it in the end and bought a replacement body already finished in nitro. It’s still a skill I’d like to have. Rob

I saw him play in the summer in Buxton. He’s the new bass player with The Impossible Gentlemen. He is definitely worth watching. Rob

That’s fairly true to an extent, they do all share the same basic circuits. What often differs are HT voltages, the size of the output transformer, and the speaker configurations. I also have a 1966 blackface Bandmaster head, which I currently have for sale. It’s a lovely thing for guitar, but it has a small output transformer and really doesn’t work that well for bass.

@Reggaebassthanks for that. I like that tone, hopefully mine will give me something like it, but I know I won’t have the headroom of a 100. I’ll be using mine with a pair of Mark Bass 2x10’s. What I’m planning to do is an A/B or side by side test with my Mark Bass Little Mark III. The LM3 is really quite loud and it will allow me to see just where it’s at, and if it “could” be useable at a gig. I just need Martin to finish it! Rob

So, my first foray into playing bass with a band has fizzled out. The band leader has decided she has too much on to keep it going and has put the whole thing onto the back burner. However....... Last month I attended the Jazz Jam in Lancaster and was really impressed by the standard of musicians that showed up. I approached the bass player who spent most of the night backing up all the musicians and asked if he'd consider giving me some pointers on jazz standards. He said he would, and on my first lesson, he said "you can play!". On the second lesson he told me he was intending moving to London in January and would I mind if he passed my details onto the bands he plays in with a view to me being his replacement! The upshot of this is that I have an audition on Wednesday for a jazz band, most of whom attend the jam, and it's jam night this Friday too. So', I'm going to nail four or five tunes from their set for the audition and hope they like me, and play at Jazz Jam on Friday too! Buzzin! Yee har! Rob

Thanks. I love the look of old Fenders too, and I’ve had many (for guitar) over the years. I’ll post some more about it when Martin has done his work. Rob

Yes, a lot of guitarists like these, and I bought it from one. But it was so far away from original inside already that it made my decision much easier. If it had been pristine original inside then I may not have proceeded with this plan. Rob

That’s the plan. If it could stretch to quieter gigs that would be a bonus. Martin seems confident he can do it.