martthebass

I was looking for something understated and unassuming for the 70s Glam band. Something that would allow me to dissolve into the background and not stand out too much. Think I’ve got it about right with this one….

Pic of the Allen key that comes with the bass, as you can see it’s quite a lot longer than a standard key so you can locate it easily

Yep it’s 4mm. As above you have to stick it all the way in to make it latch.

Gary Numan performing Replicas and The Pleasure Principle in Newcastle May 23rd…love these type of gigs

I’ll check when I get in, I do have the key, but didn’t notice it was in the gig bag but did find one in my standard imp/metric sets that fitted ok.

With my JMJ on hold and the Mikey Way in the classifieds I thought I’d take a quick group shot of my shorties before they are reduced from 4 to 2.

I think if you factor in a £70 set up/fret level into this you can't lose!

I used to think I had a quick and easy answer to this and would have said - Jazz. However I think I now need to qualify it by saying, long or shortscale? light or heavy playing? i.e. it's conditional. For lighter playing I prefer a shortscale with a 40mm nut; I also like the 38mm but find my hand gets a bit 'congested' on these at the nut end. When I want to dig in I prefer longscale and Jazz profile. If I had to pick one for all seasons it would be the EBMM Sterling neck.....so I guess still mainly a Jazz.

I’ll check the FB group out. We’re on FB as Glam Fever Live. Also on the webby thing as glamfever.co.uk

I use long scale EB Slinkies on both my string through Mustangs without a problem.

When I joined my Glam Band I was initially wary of the glitter/wigs/flares but 8 years on I've kinda got used to it. Buying 'womens' tops on ebay took some explaining to the missus at first though....

The struggles we have to endure for our 'art'.

When my Meniere's hits I could lose balance standing on a sheet of paper in slippers mate.

You're a braver man than me mate. After a few 'platform related wobbles' early on with our Glam band (Meniere's can be a bitch) I decided to go with Silver and Sequin adorned Converse.....

Mine was a 2010 in midnight blue. I was one of the lucky ones where the finish didn't fall off in strips. Ric would never admit to those affected that they screwed up on occasion on the UV cat finish.

My MW Mustang is basswood and hasn't picked up a ding in 8 years of gigging; I think some of it is down to the poly coat though which is like a tank. Aren't Ric 4003's soft maple - with the thin lacquer mine used to ding if you breathed on it?

I've found string choice is also a big factor. I go thicker on shorties over my long scales to get a higher tension and more definition. On longscale I'm usually 40-100 and on shorty 50 - 105.

I get your drift on ticketed gigs. We also avoid; unfortunately last year we ended up doing one in a large venue, we didn’t know it was going to be a ticket job so accepted the gig at a set price. Night of the gig it was clear tickets hadn’t been flying as the venue was half empty. Organisers complaining at us as if it was our responsibility……took us 3 weeks to get paid. Won’t be repeating, that’s for sure.

Almost like the fingers vs pick debate this. There's a place for all, use what suits you and the situation. As others have said those that cast a negative view probably haven't played one or at least haven't played a good one. I pretty much use shorties exclusively on gigs; out of the last 50 gigs I've only played one on a long scale.

Good luck in your 'retirement' Pete....I'm sure it will be a busy one.

Can’t comment on the Cort/Sire but I’d put the quality of my late gen1 up with Mex Fender player. However I don’t have the stock pre in mine so I don’t know how good/bad this is. But, build wise at <£400 it’s a bargain.