Happy Jack

For God's sake, don't tell Discreet!

That's a relief. I no longer feel obliged to point out that Close To The Edge was not played by the original Yes but by a later incarnation. On no ... wait a minute ...

I believe that the word you are groping for (and I choose my words with care) is 'compliant'.

Can't agree about the Thomastiks if you have a heavy playing style (like me). Thomastiks respond well to a more delicate touch ... they're wasted on me. LaBella FLs are the best but they're bloody expensive. GHS Baby Boomers or the Lakland branded strings offer a cheaper alternative that's almost as good.

Ta ... good tip.

That's going straight on my Watch list. I may well be bidding for that ...

Sorry mate, as far as I'm concerned a "combo with a removable head" is called a bass cabinet.

WTF? How did I get name-checked here?

Leather. Just lots of leather.

I'm going to go right out on a limb and guess that's actually a Brook acoustic bass. It's far too nice to be a broom.

Does that tin have a 'Best Before' date?

I'm guessing that this is Kevin Lang were talking about: http://forgottenbands.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/neil-landon-burnettes.html

I use the K&M 14045 with optional backrest: https://www.thomann.de/gb/km_stehhilfe_14045.htm?ref=search_rslt_stool_246467_1 Thomann do a similar, but much cheaper, stool by Millennium too.

When I'm playing a bass, I struggle to see the headstock and don't waste much time trying. I try not to get stressed about these things.

It takes a lot of pluck to play a 5-string DB ...

The other way to stop a glass slipper is to ask Prince Charming to search all over town for it. Just saying ...

Ohm my God, Watt's the matter with you all, is there no resistance to this sort of nonsense?

I played this bass at NAMM last week - you'll just have to trust me when I say that the pickups are absolutely glorious, and this is the best Ric bass I've ever played (and I've owned a few, and not liked them at all). As to the "cheap Chinese knock off" comment, bizarrely I spent part of my time at NAMM (an entire day, as it happens) with someone who used to design & import exactly those basses. I won't name names since I have no idea if he'd be happy for me to do so. We both agreed that the new genuine Ric looked more like a 'fake' than his did! Regardless of that, I found that the look of the new pickups grew on me really fast, and I loved the sound of the things.

Me, I'm a great believe in Cockup Theory over Conspiracy Theory. I think a trained monkey somewhere turned out to be slightly less trained than anticipated.

In all fairness, that headstock is from a Warwick Triumph, which is a rather odd EUB.

Bonus points if they're actually an expert on whatever subject has led to their pontification.