Happy Jack

That's not even CLOSE to being the ultimate.

Yup, I figured there'd be at least one. Reading through that does tend to emphasise just how difficult it is to date a case, what with many UK basses being sold without a Fender case to start with, most genuinely old Fender cases having bits drop off them, and some designs remaining in production for over 15 years.

A story which neatly encapsulates much of what is 'wrong' with slap.

Actually, the whole issue of provenance does come into this. Hardcases don't carry serial numbers, and there are very few websites devoted to recording and analysing the tiny changes over time between various versions of any given case. In other words, if you pay £945 for a "57 - 59 Precision case", how do you know that it wasn't made in 1984? I'm not casting any aspersions here, and I'm certainly not suggesting that there's anything misleading or fraudulent about those eBay listings ... but how do you prove the date of an empty hardcase?

By '76 I had been working for a living for two years, I had other things on my mind (e.g. punk!), and my formative years were pretty much behind me. I doubt that I could have articulated it then, but at 19 I had a pretty clear idea in my head of what a bass sounded like. The first time I saw Mark King on TOTP I just sat there thinking "what a Godawful racket". The first time I heard Lovely Day by Bill Withers I was in heaven.

The next topic will be entitled: "What have you got against bass players wearing shorts."

And not just power tools, guys. I rather suspect that a soldering iron has been used at some point ...

And CUE

What? I mean, WHAT? As in, W T actual F? bwahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

All My Loving? Nope. Brown Sugar? Don't think so. Get It On? No chance. Addicted To Love? You're 'avin' a giraffe. Paradise City? Nah. Wonderwall? Forget it.

As soon as you mention A BASS PLAYER FROM THE FACES you can add a zero to the price. Shame he doesn't mention which of the many bass players in The Faces it was ... there are so many to choose from.

The 'sound in my head' is the sound of bass as played while I was growing up, which encompasses everything from Elvis to Yes and incorporates LOTS of Beatles and Stones, Motown and glam. So that's double bass, Hofner Violin and Rickenbacker, and loads of Fender. Keyboard bass doesn't work for me, synth bass is an abomination, and slap bass is pretty much a joke, a party trick that got out of hand. To my ears, slap isn't bass playing and never will be. It's part of the rhythm section, yes, but it's a part that I try to avoid. It's in the same category as too much cowbell or obsessive use of claves. Hey ... you asked me, OK? If I'd been borm in 1966 rather than 1956 then who knows, maybe I'd see (and hear) things differently.

20mm spacing? Srsly?

Who is Buck Bass, and what sort of music does he play?

For a moment, I thought this was going to be a Level 42 topic ...

Minty freshness ...

You have to be careful not to stand on one leg, because that would give a misleading result.

Those thighs could crack walnuts.

Yes, but Carlsboro before they were 5h1t.

Gotcha.

5-string? Erm ...

The unit was designed for permanent installation, including hard-to-get-to shelves and the back of cupboards. Solution? All inputs/outputs on the front, nothing whatever on the sides, back, top or bottom. Very sensible piece of design, if you ask me. Which you didn't, of course ...

Far canal, guys, could you maybe take this to email or something?

Those timings seem about right to me, regardless of whether or not everything is going through the PA. For a 9pm start I would want to be playing one song as a soundcheck at 8:30, no later than 8:45. To be ready to soundcheck at 8:30 I would start loading in to the venue at 7:30. Do bear in mind that allowing an hour for a set-up is NOT the same as needing an hour. I always want some 'spare' in case of accident or breakdown. If that means that I'm ready half an hour early, well that's fine ... time to have a quiet chat with the band / punters / landlord / pub cat / whatever. As to finishing packing down 45 minutes after you've finished playing, I'm really not sure how you could shave any significant amount of time off that, or in fact why it would bother you. Say you managed to slash a third off that time through utterly frantic work; you now get to load out at 11:30 instead of 11:45. Wow. What a result. Is that how long it actually took, or the elapsed time between the load-in and the gig starting?