FinnDave

Thank you - any news of Paul yet? When I spoke with Rob at SoL he said he hadn't seen him since the last I played at his (Rob's) house, rehearsing Cartoon Heroes stuff before his (Paul's) accident.

The reply before yours was the one which exhumed the thread, so you can relax, I don't think the forum police will be breaking down your door over this! Regards to Rob B. & Dave K. when you see them.

A kit of parts which, when assembled with skill by an experienced practitioner may or may not eventually resemble a useable set of drums?

So shims don't have feelings? Shims don't have rights? If we cut a shim, does it not bleed? As you were, bit early for this sort of thinking, I'll go and play some bass instead.

Until this sudden resurrection, the last post on this thread was just after I moved back to the UK six years ago! Just to add, people were complaining about the lack of opportunities to join bands in the town they live in - well, look further afield then. My main band is based 90 miles from where I live, and everyone (bar one) in the band has a long journey to rehearse. It certainly means the rehearsals are very focussed. We play wherever we can, no restriction on travelling, so long as it pays OK. We rehearse approx once every two months, with set lists circulated well in advance and everyone knows their parts when we get together. The one member who lives where we are based has a very good rehearsal studio there, so it is a good hub for us to work from.

One band I play with has given up gigging in the centre of Reading due to the obscene number of cameras monitoring very poorly marked and confusing bus lanes (I got caught twice at one gig!), and difficulties parking. Three members of the band got parking tickets the last time we played there, fortunately I had another engagement, so a dep copped the fine that night. The fines are usually more than each of us earns for the gig! And that's just Reading, which is a lot further down the scale than London for driving nightmares.

I managed 16 years, absolutely loathed the place by the end of that.

This may come as a shock to some people, but not everyone lives in a large city. Some of us live in small villages with next to no public transport. My obese chelsea tractor might be out of place in a London street, but is quite handy when the rivers round here flood, which they do with some regularity - I live where the Windrush meets the Thames, and when we get heavy rain there is often a foot or two of water to drive through just to get to the end of the road. I have played gigs in marquees on fields thick with mud - 4 wheel drive can come in handy sometimes!

Depends where you're coming from - my two London gigs next year involve the band travelling from Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Oxfordshire and parts of London. I agree we could meet up and car share, but it wouldn't be easy, and we're all bringing guitars/amps, keyboards/drumkits. Probably PA, not sure if the venues have that in house or not. So I expect we'll all be attempting to drive into London, unload, and park near the venue. Our drive to Germany for gigs in May will probably be easier than that!

I have one guitar upstairs. I belongs to one of my daughters, who begged for it as a birthday present some years ago, and then lost interest when she realised you had to learn how to play it. I've only got it so i can sell it for her. Looks kind of small in amongst my basses.

Must have been one of Lemmy's old Rickies.

There's no need to bring politics into what had been a civilised discussion up til now!

Should you use a red or a black suite playing card to shim a bass with a through neck? Enquiring on a behalf of an acquaintance.

Just realised that ULEZ could be seen as defamatory by some minority groups...

My youngest is 28, why should I worry about children?

I drive a Mitsubishi Outlander, 2.2 litre diesel.

I consider my car fairly new, it is a 2014 model, but it still gets hammered under this new charge.

That's another £12.50 I'll have to find to be able to play each of the two London gigs we have in the spring next year.

Far too technical for me, I just think wallet, ears, back - one of them's going to suffer! These days the wallet takes the hit, my back's already knackered!

He's at the back of the queue, plenty of people got here before he did (and I still have no idea who is or was).

I always think of buying gear as 'choose two from three' - you can only have two of the following - light, cheap & good sound. So, if you want it to sound good and be light, it's going to cost you. If you want light weight and cheap. it ain't going to sound so good, and if you want good sound and cheap, it's going to be heavy. The only exception would be if you were lucky enough to find someone selling on a modern lightweight high quality cab for less than it's worth. Otherwise either your back, your ears, or your wallet is going to suffer!

Plenty of second hand bargains around if you look - I got my 1006 from Bass Direct. A lot of the far eastern basses don't seem to hold their value like an American instrument does, but can be superior instruments if you just want to play them.