Happy Jack

Interesting, I thought it was just me. My first Snark had a structural failure on the plastic clip which rendered it useless, and I'd also noticed the battery life issue. OK, time for something new then ...

I love it when I see a post from someone I've never heard of, and then discover that they've been on the site for years and years!

Drat ... I thought it was Asschat.

Well Hell! If they're individually signed by Ped, then how can I resist?

Never been to Maracas ... they tell me it's nice.

It's a dangerous place, the Internet. 10 years ago I was experimenting with 'clever' straps intended to reduce the number of back problems I was getting. At the time I was mainly playing 9lb basses and above - but not too much above. I tried a variety of double-shoulder straps by people like Dare and the Slider system used by US postmen (stop sniggering) but eventually decided that the only real solution was to buy lighter basses and combine them with a Comfort Strapp on every bass. This led directly to my obsession with instruments from Mike Lull, and my enormous collection of Comfort Strapps. I've used them exclusively for years now. I still have three Lull basses, and they're still very light, but I have also ended up playing a 9.5lb Rickenbacker as my frontline bass in my main band. Thanks to Pilates I am now in way better shape than I was 10 years ago, but it can still be hard work playing a 3-setter with the Rick so I thought I'd have another look at double-shoulder straps. And I found this. The leather is thick, padded, soft & sumptuous ... it's just a really lovely thing and it feels great on the shoulders. The double-shoulder system works exactly as I'd hoped, and there's no 'scissor' effect with the two sides trying to dig into my neck - this was a problem with some of the nylon straps I tried previously. And of course, much as I love my Comfort Strapps, there's no denying that this is far better looking. The strap is the Spider by EVO in Brazil and it cost US$160 plus $45 for shipping with DHL. That ain't cheap, but the guy behind Evo (Eric Silva) offered me a second strap (a Riviera) at half price, down from $130 to $65. I wasn't sure what I would use it for, but I bought it anyway. On arrival, serendipity cut in big time, and it turned out to be a perfect match for my Safran Iris Custom. It's another beautiful strap, the leather is soft and supple and very comfortable on the shoulder, and the C&W styling works perfectly with the bass. Not to mention the colour! Well now of course I'm on a roll, and I've been looking through Eric's designs, and I realise that a classic disco strap would be a perfect match for the Gus G3 that I bought recently from @BigRedX. The bass is so completely over the top that it cries out for a look-at-me strap, and I have fond memories of @MacDaddy's rather battered disco strap. This one is a Comfort (not to be confused with Comfort Strapp) and cost $120 plus $45 shipping. Once again it made sense to do the 50% for the second strap thing and save on shipping, and my 1965 Precision deserved some pampering, so I bought another one, this time in gold. On the subject of shipping, and having suffered many times with getting stuff shipped from the USA, I was genuinely startled at the transit times from Brazil. The first pair of straps took just six days to get here following payment; the second pair of straps took an unbelievable FOUR days. Eric is a pleasure to deal with, and there's no 5-hour time difference to negotiate so communication is 'real time'. Highly recommended.

Stop quibbling! It's lush ...

That 330 is lush ...

I actually did a quick Google to see if I could find an Image of that particular bass, figuring that something that distinctive might well be online somewhere. No joy, I'm afraid, but I suppose that @molan might remember it?

Ritter basses cover such a wide spectrum that Ritters I have actually played include one of the ugliest things I've ever seen (it looked a lot like the ejected placenta just after a cow has given birth) and also one of the most beautiful basses I've ever touched, so I think I get where you're coming from. What is beyond doubt IMHO is that they play sublimely, all of them. They're not just works of art, they are actually very practical and playable instruments too. Even the placenta ... I took it off the wall at Bass Gear in Twyford simply because it looked so appalling, then I plugged it in and played it for a while. I damned near ended up buying the thing.

I've owned three Wals. Two of them I sold for £2k each which - at the time - seemed pretty ballpark. They were a Custom Fretless and the original Pro II used by Nick Beggs on Too Shy, and that was maybe 8/9 years ago. The third one, a Wal Mk.III 5-string, I sold for over £3k five years ago and at the time I felt that was an outrageous amount. I reckoned I'd paid too much for it in the first place, and I was genuinely astonished that someone else would pay the same to take it off me. In hindsight he got a bargain ...

So, out of sheer monkey curiosity, where did you find Sugar Pie Honeybunch? Was it under F for Four, or T for Tops, or numeric 4?

So it's the band leader's 60th birthday, he's been on full-on shielding for over three months, the best we can manage for a birthday gig is to play his back garden in a civically-responsible, socially-distanced sort of way, and Paul The Drums turns up without his cajon. Solution? Raid the shed, of course ...

Mine was a bit more than that, but still ballpark. And that pink Status very nearly convinced me to have the Ovation done in the same colour. Working seperately, Chris Bowling and @Silvia Bluejay persuaded me not to.

Quickest way into peak Yes for a newbie ... get Yessongs, the triple live album. Seriously.

He was probably miming. Badly. 🤣

I'm rather fond of Ovation Magnum basses. I particularly like the outrageous styling of the Mk.II but there's nowt wrong with the Mk.IV either ... they share pretty much everything except body shape so they sound and play the same. I have one of each, but while my Mk.II is in a varnished natural finish my Mk.IV came to me in a rather unattractive translucent lilac 'wash', for want of a better word. It was neither transparent nor a solid colour, and the tint was unappealing. Apparently this was a popular finish at the time, although Ronnie Lane had the good taste to prefer a black one on Maggie May and Stay With Me. Apart from being unappealing, the finish had also developed a 'bloom' over the last 40 years. That stronger lilac tint that you can see on the upper horn and the upper bout is not a trick of the light or a reflection ... it was actually there. Not visible under stage lights, of course, but very obvious in daylight. It wasn't a surface problem either, that could be polished out, and I found it really, really irritating. I actually listed it for sale here on Basschat for a knockdown £800 because I was so irritated. Then @Beedster recommended Chris Bowling of Bow Finishing (near Godstone, Surrey) so I took the bass down to him. He agreed that the finish was way past its sell-by and also pointed out that the piece of wood being spoiled was an absolute cracker. So I bit the bullet and asked him to do a refin to match my Mk.II. This was NOT cheap, but By God what a job he did! Isn't she lovely? Isn't she beautiful? Ooh ... I've come over all Stevie Wonder ...

And I'd be there before you! Once you get past the "yer avin a giraffe" moment, it's actually a very sensible build, especially if you like to sit in on acoustic Americana sessions and the like. It's at US$59 with two hours to go. If I was anywhere near New York I'd have a punt.

So, this £22,000 bass? WTF?

Silver is the new Second.

Is there another sort?

Or just buy a Squier and get on with playing.

People are panic-buying them in advance of the second peak ...