FinnDave

Thanks, mine is an SR 506, and also very good value for money, makes me wish I'd investigated Ibanez basses earlier!

Sorry, failed to get out of the door, too busy trying to get used to my new six string in the hope of being able to gig it tonight and lost all sense of time. Hope it went well (including the parking!). Catch you another time.

Thanks, it is a beautiful bass - and not as heavy as i had expected. I've never had a five, and had seriously considered EADGC as well, though in the two days I've played the six so far, I have surprised myself by using the low B more than the high C, not for the low notes, but, as you say, for the ease of simply moving across the board rather than down the neck. I've got a blues/rock gig tonight in Wiltshire and will definitely be taking the six and use it for some of the numbers. The main difficulty I have had with it so far is getting used to the width of the neck, just need to get the left hand muscles exercised bit more.

I was at the Roundhouse for the Hawkwind gig last year, that was later released as a CD and DVD set.

Last time I went to the festival, that's where everyone was trying to park! If you park at Sainsburys, can walk out the back exit and cross the road straight into the Leys (I know you know that, Ped, its' for the benefit of those less familiar with Witney).

I think it's a couple of hours. There's another car park a little further past Sainsburys, straight over the next roundabout, and you get 3 hours free there, might be unlimited in the evenings, mainly for shoppers at Waitrose and the town centre. Best bet is to keep and eye on the time and move from Sainsburys to the Waitrose one.

I'll pop into Sainsburys on the way, in fact might even leave the car there, it's not far to walk!

I would be rude not to, then. Is there a Basschat standard pelting object? Stones or fruit preferred?

If I go, I'll wear a Grateful Dudes shirt, same kind of thing, tie dye with a logo on the front.

I must have driven past the place it's going to be (the Less) on Wednesday bringing my wife home from work. I went to the festival on a Saturday afternoon a few years ago, and didn't see any bands I found interesting, but I might give it another go today. Do we need Basschat badges or something in case we run into each other?

Well, after getting on for 45 years of bass playing, exclusively 4 string basses, I suddenly bought a six string a couple of days ago. Mainly because since joining a band playing Grateful Dead cover exclusively, I've found myself running up and down the neck where Phil Lesh would be going across, and partially because I just fancied a new challenge. Ordered it on-line Wednesday (never played a six before) and it arrived yesterday morning, well packed and in perfect, straight-from-the-factory condition. Played it for a couple of hours yesterday, and I have to say for an instrument that cost £100 less than my last Mexican Jazz bass, it is very impressive, lovely wood, good hardware, useful active electronics, and, of course, an extra string or two! Planning to play it as much as I can today and hopefully use it at tomorrow's gig in Melksham, playing with the Wirebirds, so material I've played for several years. So far just getting used to the feel of the wide neck, and mainly playing it as a four string using the middle strings, have started to use the low B string to save the effort of moving down the neck to get to nots between A and E, and once or twice just found the notes I needed on the high C. My biggest concern is how it will feel to pick up one of my lovely four strings once I've played this for a while!

I am gigging tomorrow, might wander down this evening, unless it looks crowded - I don't do crowds if I can avoid them.

I live 5 miles from Witney and hadn't realised this was happening!

I was in the crowd watching Here & Now play in the solstice at Stonehenge in (I think) 1978, which then became the album 'What You See is What You Are' with ATV on the other side. On the last ATV track you can hear the members of H&N coming on and slowly taking over as ATV faded away. I was close to the stage (Stonehenge was never a big festival) while this was happening, and H&N had travelled to Stonehenge in their bus direct from the house I was living in in Leeds at the time. Such happy daze, hard to believe it was 40 years ago.

I play in three bands, all of them play covers, and two of them include a few originals, but they need to be up to the standard of the songs we cover. Neither of them play top twenty material, nor anything particularly modern, and none of us play the originals as they were first recorded, we use the song as a framework and then do what we want with it. The third band is a Grateful Dead tribute, who were the biggest touring band in America, selling out huge stadiums, and whose material contained a large proportion of covers. They never played the same song in the same way twice, and we try to continue that legacy. Playing songs to an audience of Deadheads who cheer when they recognise a song after the first few notes is a real buzz.

Many years ago, when I was funding my bass playing with my paper round money, I used to make my own cases. I just made rectangular boxes of sufficient depth for the bass plus foam & lining (old curtains!), but I made it as a one piece sealed unit, then marked a line around it where the top and bottom would separate, and before sawing them apart, screwed the catches and hinges in place, then removed them, separated the lid from the case, did the interior, then put the hinges and catches back knowing it would all line up. They were never the best looking cases around, but they kept my precious Framus Jazz bass and others in decent condition.

Too many bum notes otherwise.

Despite all this talk of music shops closing down, a friend of mine has just opened one in Gloucester http://soundhousegloucester.co.uk Well, strictly speaking, bought a run down music shop, moved to new premises and is now open for business. It is going well, apparently.

If I did that, then two of the three bands I play in would be reduced to a solo bass act!