Happy Jack

Twas. Worth more like £750. I didn't really need it, so I only bid £525 for it.

Fascinating Steve ... but what do you actually use the spirit level for at a gig?

Yup - wouldn't work at all in London. The punters would genuinely not know what the jar was for. If you told them, most would be shocked - that's just not how we do things over here. Worst of all, any Brit facing the prospect of leaving a tip - especially in a highly visible way in front of all the other punters - goes into a state of catatonic shock. Even if you want to tip someone, most find it an embarrassment and a struggle. There's a reason that most American waitresses think the Brits are unbelievably mean.

And the other factor is when you're playing a party of some sort and it's time to stop - sometimes one of the whizzed punters will offer you £100 on the spot if you keep going.

In principle, yes. In practice, this can backfire too! The others have been playing together for years, have a bunch of in-jokes and shared memories that mean nothing to you, and there's usually at least one of them who misses the player you're trying to replace. They're offended when you suggest new material, and interpret any comment as a criticism. It's like tap-dancing through a minefield ... My solution? Erm ... I'll get back to you with that ...

Yup, as I said, they're flakes and fantasists. I've encountered very similar scenarios (and, frankly, far worse than this) several times in recent years.

Could have been worse - you might have flooded the engine.

Yeh, I get that, but - what with being the bass player an' all - I get to bring all the "Leads, batteries, effects, tuner, tools, anything else required in case of breakdown or emergency when gear goes wrong" for the entire band. And the entire PA and lightshow. But a fairer answer to the OP would be a Makita semi-rigid toolbag for my personal foldback & instrument leads + a Stanley toolbag for amp & pedals.

I carry my gig gear in a large MPV. For most gigs it contains at least a dozen bags and boxes of varying sizes. The idea of fitting "my gear" into a backpack is actually quite funny.

I'm trying to imagine fixing that to nitrocellulose with double-sided tape ...

Imploding startups are very common. The vast majority of so-called musicians I've met in the last 10 years (in a band situation anyway) have been either flakes or fantasists, sometimes both at once. How long to reach gigging speed? Depends on so many factors - quality of musician, nature of the music, fussiness about venues & money, etc. Four experienced people wanting to play blues standards for beer, I'd allow a month. Four inexperienced people wanting to form a Yes tribute act and charge £500 a night, well, could be a long time waiting.

Tone foam is tricky stuff. If you can't get pre-CBS foam then modern foam that has employed wax-based products gives the best results. Be sure never to wash it though!

That was Spike Milligan mate ...

Are you back on Astronomy? There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in, But the holes are small - that's why rain is thin.

Incidentally, that rehearsal space became known as "the junkyard". When I migrated to an industrial unit in Acton (during my divorce), the new space became Junkyard II. Now that we are settled into our new place in Harrow, Silvie & I went ahead with The Final Junkyard, developed along very much the same lines as the one I did in 2011, and that's where my band now rehearses. Most unusually, Silvie didn't document the build in great detail (I think ... Silvie?) but the build principle and materials used were much the same. The two big refinements were (i) a proper aircon/heater unit so it's always comfy in there, and (ii) a steel multi-bolt door that wouldn't look out of place at Fort Knox - it would be easier for an intruder to demolish one of the walls than to come through that door.

Yup, but they were blown out of the water by a new thing ... Now That's What I Call Music.

So Schoenberg would not have seen Chopsticks as a sequence of chords?

Are we now on to The Music Of The Spheres?

It's OK ... I'll have my people talk to your people.

You're allowed to bump more often than every 10 months, Si ...

In this scenario, McBass should certainly go with what his accountant has told him, if only because if it all goes horribly wrong then he can claim against the guy's Professional Indemnity insurance. Sad, but true. Meanwhile, and I ask this entirely hypothetical question in a pure spirit of enquiry, were one to claim £5000 against income tax because one had just bought a 1965 Fender Precision, then one would avoid paying at the very least £1000 in income tax. Were one then to sell said 1965 Fender Precision for £6000 (because these things tend to appreciate over time) would one declare that as a capital gain and pay capital gains tax on it? I'm guessing not. Were one then to sell said 1965 Fender Precision for £5000 (because these things tend not to appreciate as much as one might like) would one reverse the previous claim against income tax and pay the at least £1000 income tax on it? I'm guessing not. So that's tax evasion then. Just saying ... I don't work for HMRC, and I have absolutely no 'moral stance' on this. But sometimes it's worth actually thinking through these scenarios.

Just for clarity, next time I play Walk On The Wild Side in the Dog & Duck (sliding double stops all the way through) and a punter congratulates me on my "chords", you'd like me to tell him that they're not "chords", they're "dyads"? And when he says, "WTF is a dyad?", the correct answer is, "It's two notes played simultaneously to create an interval, but not enough notes to warrant being called a chord". And when he says "Are you taking the fosters?", the correct answer is, "No, this how bass players think about their music". Bwahahahahaha!!!

I haven't read Lefty's link so I may be doubling up here, but you can only claim the COST of the bass, not its price. If you buy a £4000 Wal that does not mean you can claim £4000 against tax. If you can show that your Wal is depreciating in value (i.e. it is worth less each year) then you can claim for the amount of depreciation you have suffered. If your £4000 Wal is still worth £4000 a year later then you have incurred no COST and cannot claim anything. Some high-end basses and many vintage basses are not a COST, they are an investment. You can turn them back into cash later ...

Sounds about right to me.