Happy Jack

Should you find yourself anywhere near this bass, you'll be most welcome to have a little play.

True, but you CAN hide a lot of mistakes that way. 🤨

How much are you offering?

It's going to take a while to get the bass up to London from Taunton (with enormous and very generous assistance from those West Country twins @Woodinblack and @stewblack) so in the meantime here are the photos that the vendor sent me. I was very taken with the beautiful Hofner Senator leaning against a complete Vox T60 + matching cab. Turns out he bought them all new in 1963 ... Don't yet understand the two strap buttons, but I'm sure I will. Note that the finish is completely rattan-proof. This is not actually the first bass that I've owned with eight tuners. Unlined board ... mmmmmmmmmmmm. No, I don't know where or how I'm going to hang this thing either. The Case Of Doom. That makes me want to take a nap.

Just think of all the selfies!

So anyway ... I bought it. Now, where's my supertanker?

Are you really staying in The Queen's bedroom, Russ?

What could possibly be more important than winding up guitarists?

Ain't dat da troof. The reality is (IME anyway) that the only solution is to walk away from that band and/or guitarist. Unless he's an 11-year-old, in which case there may still be time to educate/train him. If he's supposedly an adult, then he won't be doing much more learning.

Can't say as I'd noticed.

The long-running series on 30-minute thumbnails of famous Hollywood stars and famous Directors are well worth checking out.

Perhaps something like this sumptuous custom conversion? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wide-neck-student-acoustic-guitar-for-large-fingers/193471606099?hash=item2d0bce6d53:g:1b4AAOSwN-lewqyb

Yes, but the guy seems to have removed the Make Offer option so I can't repeat my previous, accepted bid. I've messaged him through eBay to see what's happening. Thank God this isn't a simple transaction that's going really smoothly.

This is of course illegal in 28 States of the USA.

Would Sir prefer something written in felt-tip pen perhaps?

I think that Shob is just lovely ... 54P influences coupled with a pair of single-coil P pickups in Jazz configuration and all of it active. And it's CAR. What's not to like?

Looks like Yeovil to me.

https://www.tribeguitars.store/shob-signature-active

I like that. I DO hope that you cover Night Boat To Cairo ...

Pitch correction on the Mic Mechanic is done fairly well - there's a wet/dry knob for it so you can choose whether you want the correction to be subtle (and it can be) or go the full Cher. The compression works for people with poor mic technique like me. Because I'm more focused on not screwing up the bassline I adopt the lazy solution of almost always singing with my lips touching the mic. That keeps me on-axis but leaves my signal vulnerable to overload when I get excited, just ask @Silvia Bluejay. It also thickens up my voice a little, though not as effectively as my Mic Mechanic Duplicator., which is basically the same pedal but with ADT built in.

If so, please get in touch. ps: Please everybody, DON'T point me at @taunton-hobbit. Thanks.

Oh we provide our own PA, but I'd still never turn up at a pub/club gig without backline. For larger pubs we have a big Markbass PA that is also a superb bass rig, but for larger pubs that puts me behind the PA and standing next to a loud drummer, so I still want my own backline. For smaller pubs we take our vox-only PA so ... backline. One thing that really works for me is consistency. If I take either the same rig, or at least the same structure, to every single gig, then I don't need to waste time & energy at each gig trying to remember what I'm doing and how it all plugs together. So at every gig I play I know that my basses must be plugged through a head (which varies according to what sort of gig it is) into a cab (which varies according to what sort of gig it is) but always using exactly the same cables and sequence. Perhaps I should mention that at bigger gigs I also take a DI feed from the head and run that through the PA as a matter of course, but that's something that's a bolt-on to the backline, not the other way round.

DAMN those audio fairies!

I play pubs and clubs. The idea of turning up at the Dog & Duck and saying, "I didn't bother to bring any backline, where's the venue's PA and sound guy?" is so preposterous that there's really no need to take the subject any further. Like everything else in music (and most things in life), it's horses for courses. If you only play big, well-organised gigs with excellent PAs, experienced sound guys, and superb monitoring, the why would you bother to haul around a valve head plus a 410? That's not a good description of my musical life.