Happy Jack

I am sure that there is no aspect of this video that any of us will recognise.

Go looking for a 1970s WEM Dominator Bass 25. The model number is hopelessly misleading. It's a 17W (usually misdescribed as 15W) all-valve open-backed amp fitted with a 15" Celestion rather than the more common 12" Celestion. There is no "25" anywhere. In good nick, these sound every bit as good as a B15 and normally go (on eBay) for less than £400. Don't buy a Dommie with the 12" Celestion, it just won't work for bass. Especially don't buy any of the smaller WEM combos, Westminster etc. If you really want just the head, then go looking for a Selmer 50W PA head. These turn up all the time on eBay, all-valve 4-channel PA heads from the 70s. You can just use whichever channel sounds best, or you can bi-amp with them.

Where in the country are you, Liam?

That was donated to a prison charity? Barking mad! That is indeed a 1960-ish Hofner 500/5, the model which (in modified form) eventually became the best-selling Hofner President in the UK. The close-spaced 'toaster' pickups narrow the date range down quite nicely. Your bass looks pretty much all original, although I'm not entirely convinced by the tort pickguard. It also appears to be in really lovely condition and should be worth somewhere into three figures. The neck repair is absolutely typical of the 90s / noughties. Those basses were built using traditional techniques. The set neck was glued in using animal glues rather than modern epoxy and similar. Over the years/decades those animal glues will gradually dry out and turn to dust, at which point the neck will gracefully fold against the body like a well-oiled pen-knife. Any number of well-intentioned but ignorant owners/luthiers tried to fix this by putting a bloody great woodscrew through the neck joint. Cheap as chips and very long-lasting, as long as you got the neck angle at the heel exactly right. The correct solution is, of course, to re-glue the neck using animal glues. After this amount of time (58 years) the original pickups may need re-winding and the original electrics may need re-soldering, though neither of those are inevitable. Given the short scale of that bass (30.5") I have no idea what has been done to have the strings look so weird, unless there's an issue with the tailpiece (not that I can see anything). In terms of what's best for your charity, my recommendation would be to eBay the Hofner and use the funds raised either to buy five decent Squiers or to fund one complete rockband's worth of kit.

Download the Best Practice app for Windows. https://sourceforge.net/projects/bestpractice/ You can slow down a song to make it easier to follow what's being played, or change the pitch in tiny increments to allow for the varispeeding you've just bumped up against, or do both at the same time. Highly recommended.

Drums beatin' cold, English blood runs hot ...

The bit with the samba rhythm and the timbales had completely passed me by, and that's after 45 years of listening to that track ...

Quickly.

I think the OP probably plays too many As. Try to concentrate on the other notes for a while and it should even itself out.

Do you get to wear Black Shirts? And little silver double lightning bolts? Cos that's really, like, cool. All the birds go for that look. And high black leather boots. All shiny and stuff. But you need loads and loads of, like, deodorant and stuff, cos people don't half niff a bit when you keep sticking your right hand up in the air all the time. But just as long as there's something brainless to shout all the time, right? 'Ere, I 'ad that Max Mosley in the back of my cab once ...

I do enjoy this YouTube series. Here's ep.36 on Roundabout.

Get a waterslide made up saying Pre-Jazz ...

If I buy one, can I pay for it with fake money?

Reading.

I hope you flipped round the nut on the white one.

Unless one of them is Glastonbury.

I've had a few Precisions with Jazz necks (and loved them, especially my Duck Dunn) and I've seen plenty more over the years. Has anyone ever - even once - come across a Jazz fitted with a Precision neck? In truth I can't imagine why anyone would do such a thing, but that may just be a failure of my imagination!

But really, it's you. Shame about the friend - did you ask if he was a bass player?

That a Status Streamline 5, going through a Valeton Dapper boost pedal to get that cheap synth-bass sound. In truth, it sounds OK on the YouTube but was absolutely righteous on the night.

Just got permission to publish this ...

Yes I know. Not really the thrust of my question though ...

That Heil shure is pretty, but can it walk the walk as well as the original 55? For £185 I'd want a lot more than a pleasant blue glow making my face look like an alien down the Dog & Duck.

All American Alien Boy by Ian Hunter, maybe 60 seconds in. That's the young and unknown Jaco Pastorius more-or-less announcing his arrival. I bloody hate everything about Jaco and his music, except that solo.

Yes, but realistically, after investing 20 years, surely it's worth giving it another five? Y'know ... just in case ...

Nessun dorma ... nessun dorma ...