Happy Jack

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1451662866' post='2942203'] And why does the word relic look so wrong when used as a verb? [/quote] Cos it's a noun, innit?

Holy Cow! I don't "do" relics at all Mark, but that paint job is simply amazing. Lovely looking bass, I hope to hear it some day soon.

Some people call him Maurice.

Ours was pretty similar to Truckstop's, the Sussex Arms in Twickenham. Small local with a great reputation as a CAMRA stronghold, plus a hog roast. The pub was rammed from start to finish, our 4-piece band had to set up in the amount of space you'd normally use as a large wardrobe, great excitement to be standing next to the door of the Ladies (the Gents was down the other end), the beer was superb with an unexpected tab for the band, and the money was decent too. At the start of Set #2 a large, elderly gentleman came and sat as near the band as he could, and spent the rest of the gig watching me and my playing. At the end of the gig I went up to him and asked if he was a bass player himself since he'd been watching so closely. He replied in a very refined manner / accent (think Sergeant Wilson crossed with Private Godfrey), "Oh no, I've never played, I was watching you because I thought you were so very good." Result! That guy can come back any time ... easily the nicest compliment I've ever received.

Never yet had a string "go dead" on me. Not once. Sounds to me like you need to make the move to flatwounds. Beware though ... it's a one-way ticket. Once you switch to flats you'll not want to play rounds again.

So you actually play it while standing up Dave? I have to say that I think of this as purely a lap bass. It's so big that even disregarding the weight I thought it would be too much for a standing gig.

I've had a hankering for one of these for ages, I used to play Clarky's occasionally (considered buying it), and I played the one in Wunjos a couple of times before Xmas. Truth is, it's a strange beast and hard to employ sensibly. The curvature of the finger board (to full DB status) may allow bowing in theory, but it's hard to imagine anyone actually playing TB10 as an upright - surely anyone capable of bowing would rather play a DB? - and it certainly makes playing it as an electric Fretless more challenging. The one thing that bass gives you is the classic DB tone in a Fretless electric, but only so long as you can cope with the radius and the high action. I think of the TB10 as an excellent studio bass or home noodler, but I'm really not sure under what circumstances I would gig one live. I still want one, mind, I just don't have any real justification for it!

I'm still trying to imagine The Agony And The Ecstasy done as a panto, with Rex Harrison trying to creep up on Charlton Heston while the audience howls "he's behind you!".

Loving it to bits. Planning to debut it on NYE.

Jon Shuker is great but, in fairness, you specified a black bass. Now had you specified a primary colour, it would have gone tits up.

How are you getting on with P5 Nick?

I just did a straight swop of my bass strung with LaBella FLs for his bass strung with TI flats - interesting. I've not played the TI strings before and I immediately liked them, very comfortable under the fingers, pleasant tone. But my fingers are attuned to playing FLs and I do like to dig in ... my own mother would never describe my technique as "subtle". The result is that I play the TIs too hard. That's hardly the fault of the strings, so I need to work on remembering to back off a little when playing that bass. Swopping out the strings is not on the To Do list.

Buggrit buggrit, millennium hand and shrimp.

[quote name='Schnozzalee' timestamp='1450869350' post='2936533'] I miss my Sue Ryder P [/quote] How about a Paul Ryder instead? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1964-FENDER-JAZZ-BASS-KILLER-SOUNDING-EX-HAPPY-MONDAYS-PAUL-RYDER-/321954470283?hash=item4af5fb598b:g:KGcAAOSwI-BWMcTq Oh damn! It's a Jazz ...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Guiter-/252220057392?hash=item3ab97ca730:g:AscAAOSw1S9WduO~

No, they were gentry.

No love for Sue Ryder then?

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1450866598' post='2936490'] Must admit I'd always thought even the civil war was fought between two different factions of the aristocracy ... [/quote] The two factions were figure-headed by the aristocracy because, well, that's how things were, and the aristocracy continued to provide the "senior management" right up to WW1. But the country was effectively ruled by the House of Commons, not by the House of Lords, and the Lords knew better than to challenge the Commons ... it was the Commons that controlled the money you see. It was all helped by another huge hidden advantage that England had, which was that only the heir to a nobleman was himself a nobleman. All other offspring were gentry, and as such they gave the Middle Class a breeding and status that was denied in countries such as France where every child of a nobleman was also noble.

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1450862780' post='2936438'] The Industrial Revolution is usually cited as the point at which this Middle Class started to grow, and become much more influential. At some point during the 20th Century, it became quite clear that these three strata were inadequate to describe all the different echelons of society, particularly as very wealthy businessmen were emerging from "middle class" backgrounds, but couldn't be described as "upper class" because they had worked for their fortune. [/quote] Sorry Ralph, but I have to pick you up on that. The whole reason for England's obsession with class is that England more-or-less invented the whole concept and did so WAY before anyone else followed on. The Industrial Revolution was something that happened at different times in different places. It happened first in England (mid-18th century) largely because a substantial, wealthy, well-established Middle Class had already existed for well over a century by then, and had pretty much taken over running the country in the mid-17th century by winning a Civil War against the aristocracy. By the mid-19th century, when England's innovation was being actively copied across Europe and others were having their own Industrial Revolutions, the Middle Class in Spain, France and Germany was relatively small and politically weak. The appalling destruction of the wars of the 20th century also destroyed any chance of class becoming an obsession in those countries. Meanwhile in England the class structure which had emerged in the 1640s sailed sublimely on, virtually untouched by three centuries of upheaval and becoming progressively more and more ingrained. [/lecture]

What's a haram?

A good Man of the lasting kind, certainly.

Judging from what I've seen here on Basschat, this would be the bastard lovechild of a Maruszczyk and a Limelight, retro-fitted with an ACG preamp. This year, Jazz basses are apparently much cooler than Precisions, but 4-string basses are clearly still on top. Not too sure about the colour ... diseased trees remain strangely popular. At least that spares us the annual debate as to whether a pickguard should be none-more-black or tort.

A slightly less ridiculous price is an improvement ... but it's still a ridiculous price.

There's a lot there to be modest about.

Never understood this obsession with class. I mentioned this thread to Simkins this morning (as he spread the toothpaste on my brush for me) and he said "I have always been happy to ignore my humble beginnings, M'Lord" so that seems to settle it rather. Whoops! There goes a pheasey!