FinnDave

I like that, it's a much more accurate description. I'll have to use that for my remaining Precision - rosewood, tort & cheesecake!

Just remember not to ride with your lights on - it must have been the headlight that made me invisible. Didn't stop the passenger in the car that hit me from telling the police that I had no lights on (it was broad daylight) but when I was interviewed I pointed out that the lights on Harleys are wired to come on with the ignition...

No, that's my nightmare, you don't need to worry at all. Unless you're a burly 6ft bloke on a Harley Davidson in broad daylight, of course….

You can't really lose - you don't have to give up finger style to try picking (unless you wreck your left hand in a bike crash - but that's just ne, taking everything to extremes again!)

I use a thick (3mm) pick and don't get much of a click - although the pick is rigid, the sound is quite un-pick like. I would probably hear the difference if I recorded the bass on its own - but then I couldn't compare it with my finger style as I can't play that way any more. In a band setting, though, there is very little, if any, audible difference. I would say that I am able to access a greater range of tones with the pick, as I can get more attack when needed. I wouldn't have started using a pick by choice, as I was like so many bassists and believed that finger style was the one true path. In some ways, I am fortunate to have had the discovery that I was wrong forced upon me!

Quite honestly, I can't tell the difference on live recordings between my pick and finger playing. The only way I know which is which is by the date - pre December 2015 - fingers, post December 15 - pick.

I'm another one who prefers to practice standing up - I have found that things I learn when seated are hard to play when standing, everything changes between sitting and standing. I played a few gigs when I was still on crutches after my bike accident, and used bar stools (easily available at pub gigs!) as I could support myself without bending myself into a conventional seated position. If I do have to sit, I usually sit on my derrière. (How cute, I can't even spell derrière!)

I have used my Super Twin with my RM 800 quite often, they work well together, though not quite as well as the ABM 600 does with that cab.

I lived in Finland for 16 years and never came across Charlies Buttocks! (Never thought I'd be typing yet!!)

Abingdon's just down the road - if your new job's on the Witney side of Abingdon, then you're even closer…. Thank you, I am sure it will go once someone has a chance to try it - the bass has a wonderful 'singing' tone to the higher notes - never played anything with quite that sound.

I bought my Panther from Oxford PMT one year ago - and I think I've played it only 3 or 4 times some then! It sounds and feels beautiful - but I am nervous about damaging it, so only play my cheaper basses. As above, it's up for sale, simply too good a bass for my simple needs.

Pick for the last five years after an accident damaged my right hand. Only pick I use is a Dunlop 3mm, I can't grip anything thinner.

That shop is not too far from me, on the other side of Oxford. I went there a few years ago with a friend who wanted to buy a guitar combo and had the cash with him. We were both in our 40s or 50s, but were treated like a couple of cheeky schoolboys. We asked if we could try a valve combo (AC 30, I think) and were refused, so we took my friend's wallet back to Oxford PMT and he bought a Black Star combo instead. The next time I went to the Thame store was a couple of years later and I was greeted by the same chap like a long lost friend! He does have some interesting guitars there, but not much for the bass player when I have been there.

I lost the use of the middle finger on my right (plucking) hand after a motorcycle accident five years ago. Prior to that, I had been a finger style only player for about 40 years. Since then I have had to use a pick, and after the first the year or two got quite used to it. I know find it difficult to hear the difference between gigs recorded before the accident and in more recent times. I did have extensive physiotherapy to help the use of the finger, but unfortunately it made no difference. I would definitely recommend that you you persist with the physio - it can work surprisingly well (as it did with the other injuries I suffered), but if it doesn't work for you, it needn't be the end of your bass playing either.

I won't mention the Grateful Dead in case people think I'm a little obsessed, but if I was to mention them, I'd find it difficult to single out any individual examples - but the extended jams and transitions from one song to another (it is often possible to hear one of them suggest the next one some time in advance with a little hint) are a perfect example of a band thinking and moving as one entity. I'l especially avoid mentioning the years 1973 and 1977 and songs such as Playing in the Band which often enclosed several other songs between its start and finish.

I think it's the flexibility of the top, one of my band mates has a semi-acoustic guitar (d'Angelico, I think) and the socket disappeared inside the guitar - took him a while to get it out and fixed. Just off upstairs to check the socket on my JCB gold top!

I am reading this thread with my eyes closed….get thee behind me, Casady! Don't forget to check that the output jack socket nut is done up properly, they are a bit of a sod to get back in place when the nut falls off.

I'd find it difficult to resist the panda blood red. My Fenders and even my Sandberg have sat unplayed since I bought my gold top JCB early this year.

The performance that had the greatest effect on me was Here & Now at Stonehenge 1977 or 78 (those years are all a bit blurry now) - atmosphere, setting & music were all perfect. I saw them again at Deeply Vale either later one of those years and they were even better, but that was because of the incredible laser show which I (much) later found out only I was able to see I also saw H&N again at the Summer of Love party last year - they were on the main stage immediately before the Grateful Dudes, and as soon as they started playing, it took me straight back to that night at Stonehenge - felt very strange to go on and play after that.

I've been using my Epiphone JCB for most of this year in preference to my Fender Precision or Jazzes and my Sandberg Panther - the JCB just feels 'right' - but it cost me about 25% of what I paid for the Panther. The Panther feels too good for me - a 500 quid bass is more my level.