Happy Jack

Some tales are sadder than others. There is a long and depressing back-story with which I shall not burden you, but the outcome is that I have ended up with a brand new, unused circuit board for a fairly well-rated piezo preamp system. Essentially, it's this but without the rest of the kit: https://www.gluedtomusic.com/products/1038/graph-tech-ghost-acousti-phonic-basic-guitar-preamp-kit/?gclid=CjwKCAjwzIH7BRAbEiwAoDxxTlqFaQXqhfm5J6Gs0kjD2tHAkYonkva8HriNKjVlegQ1WshVubK1KxoCUS4QAvD_BwE This unit has NOT been installed, has NOT been tested, and I do NOT guarantee that it is all good, but there's no reason I can see why it shouldn't be just fine and dandy. It was provided to me (free) by the overseas luthier at a point where everybody assumed that it was the preamp that was the problem. Actually it wasn't, so this never got used. I have no desire to profit from this rather miserable transaction, so I'm just passing this along. As a special bonus, and because I hate throwing stuff away even when it's complete doggy-do's, I will include the cheap'n'nasty pots from the bass at the centre of this particularly teacup-storm, along with the bloody useless locking jack socket, a device which bizarrely some luthiers still think is a good idea. Rather more helpfully, and as you can see, there is also a reasonable photocopy of the installation instructions. Bung me £3 for P&P and it's yours.

Now that's what I call Old School.

Good Lord, really? My first decent covers band, the lead guitarist made exactly that suggestion before our first gig. We were a 5-piece, and four of us owned some or all of a PA system. I vetoed the idea flat. The very idea of relying on three other people to bring vital components and all associated leads etc., plus the grim reality of someone having to take responsibility for plugging everything together into a functional system, was more than I could accept. As a direct result, I (and for the last seven years @Silvia Bluejay and I) have brought the entire PA to every gig. We own every single piece, we know exactly how everything works, and NOBODY touches the PA at a gig except the two of us. Not everyone's idea of having a good time, but it works for us. And as a beautiful side-effect, Silvie is now a very competent sound engineer ...

I used ... erm ... lots of gaffa tape. Seriously.

The Rule Of Six thing put paid to a couple of indoor gigs we had just been given, our first post-Lockdown to be played indoors, but they at least had the effect of focusing the mind of one particular band member who had been holding back from agreeing to playing indoors. He has significant health issues that I do not suffer from, so the band's response to whether or not to play had to be entirely (and quite justifiably) built around how he and his wife felt. He had just reached the conclusion that he can't keep his life on hold forever and was willing to gig when it got cancelled. On t'other hand, and by sheer coincidence, we have since picked up three outdoors gigs in seven days (next Sunday and the following Sat/Sun). Which is nice.

That is absolutely the right bass for you, Blue. Looks great.

OK, so that's the same system on my (full sized) Westone 'The Rail'. Totally agree about the bloody spikes. On my previous Rail I never did the second snip and I drew blood several times.

Is it really as simple as that? Just buy long-scale strings and chop off 18" including the silks?

Easy to see why Kala sent her a free uke bass! I've had a number of uke basses over the years, but I've never made one sound as good as that.

Just make sure that the silks line up ...

Love it! And gosh, isn't it red! Or is that a trick of the photography?

Now I need to know which pedals those are!

Whenever this topic comes up, I read it with interest but in a detached sort of way. I invariably find myself thinking, "These guys must play some bloody LOUD gigs". I appreciate that there's much more to gig-life than the pubs and social clubs that I play, but I'm also aware that at the really big gigs all that backline is essentially there for personal monitoring ... the real action is the great stacks of Powersoft S/S amps driving the house PA. I continue to struggle (and I don't doubt that it's a failure of imagination on my part) to understand how any modern Class D head can't deliver what's needed. I have an utterly beautiful Matamp valve amp in perfect working order sitting on a shelving unit in my studio. It's been sitting there for several years because I can't bring myself to sell it, and I keep telling myself that one day I'll find a gig that will really benefit from me carrying an enormous and heavy lump of amplifier rather than a 4lb Class D head. I'll be sure to tell you all if it ever happens.

Hard to make a living as a 10-piece!

Mind you, if they WERE to ban all streaming and posting of videos, then more people would go to gigs.

OK, strictly speaking I have to admit that this isn't really bass-related, but what the hell. For many years this contained my old Hondo II Black Beauty when moving it around. The rest of the time it was in storage. Last year, I sold the Hondo on eBay and completely forgot that I had a hardcase for it. Doh! So here's a perfectly useable hardcase, all catches working, no ghastly smell of 50-year-old Players No.6, rather tasteful orange furry lining, and I have absolutely no practical use for it. Free to a good home for any Basschatter who can swing by Harrow and collect it. I can stretch that as far as meeting in the West End but no, I will not post, and no, I will not sit in all day waiting for your courier. Sorry and all that, but you have to draw the line somewhere. This is likely to be of limited interest to the good, bass-playing folk who make this their home, so I'll give it a week here and then stick it on eBay.

Alternatively, you could remove every other fret and have a combination of fretted and fretless on the same neck.

Thanks mate, that's very helpful. The first bass that I ever bought for myself (as opposed to my offspring) was a Hofner 500/1 Violin, which famously has an equally primitive approach to intonation.

Current pop music - beat driven, usually in 4/4, with simply structured songs often about boy meets girl - was recognised from the start as a passing fad. The Beatles gave a famous interview in 1964 where they admitted that they expected to have been forgotten within five years, and Paul anticipated a new life for him and John as, essentially, Tin Pan Alley songwriters. The astonishing thing is that such a simple form of music with so little underlying philosophy should have lasted as long as it has. It will be sad when it stops, but the body of music already created will remain and can be enjoyed. In truth, I pretty much lost interest in current pop music about 40 years ago, with some exceptions of course. There was so much good stuff produced between 1955 and 1985 that I'm very happy to wallow in it.

More to the point, you've revived a thread last seen nearly 12 years ago!

Anyway, the one he's selling is pre-CBS ...

Bizarrely, my clearest memory of the whole evening is coming back home on the (then still quite new) Victoria Line. One of my very stoned friends, a huge guy 6'6" tall and built like a brick proverbial, was strap-hanging when the bloody strap just broke, leaving him sitting on the floor holding the 'bulb' end and the whole carriage in hysterics.