Happy Jack

Don't they still make these?

[quote name='linear' timestamp='1459875714' post='3020508'] 'pretentious music for 30-somethings who like expensive coffee and vegetable boxes, played by people who don't practice enough' [/quote] It's trending on Twitter as I write ...

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1459867950' post='3020395'] I can imagine "an alternative/pop/folk/punk band" quite easily ... [/quote] I'm thinking James playing [i]Hot Love[/i] on a fiddle while shouting "Oi!!!" occasionally.

Two current 'bassist wanted' adverts on Gumtree: [size=5][b]#1[/b][/size] - https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-player-wanted/london-band-looking-for-a-bassist/1163165775 Yes, that's "[color=#b22222][i][b]an original alternative/pop/folk/punk band[/b][/i][/color][color=#3C3241]".[/color] Nice combination. Sequentially, do you think, or all at the same time? [size=5][b]#2[/b][/size] - https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-musicians-wanted/bassist-wanted-for-covers-band/1163139062 Just gets better, doesn't it? You need to be up to performance speed in "[color=#b22222][i][b]alternative / indie rock , grunge, post punk, maybe some folk, funk, jazz etc.[/b][/i][/color][color=#3C3241]".[/color] [color=#3C3241]I find myself wondering what's left to fall into the category of "[/color][color=#b22222][i][b]etc.[/b][/i][/color][color=#3C3241]".[/color]

Not much change in the last seven years then, eh? http://basschat.co.uk/topic/52982-my-favorite-bass-of-all-timehamer-impact/

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1459778199' post='3019486'] Looks like a nice copy..no p/ups or controls. At £150 it could be a bargain [url="https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/gb-rumour-goodfellow-style-custom-5-string-bass-project-35-scale-with-badass-bridge/1162841077"]https://www.gumtree....idge/1162841077[/url] [/quote] But at £195 ... What I don't get Mick is why would he bother to string it?

No Bernard Matthews products at all ... poor show.

[URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Performance/Sundry/Bass%20Faces%20%20Hanwell%20Hootie%206_zpsejmnvzwz.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Performance/Sundry/Bass%20Faces%20%20Hanwell%20Hootie%206_zpsejmnvzwz.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

http://www.hanwellhootie.co.uk/

[URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Just%20Stuff/Music%20and%20Musicians/JuniorBrown4_zps419fc188.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Just%20Stuff/Music%20and%20Musicians/JuniorBrown4_zps419fc188.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1459503620' post='3017128'] The ROH as the employer has a duty of care. Simple really. [/quote] [i][color=#404040][font=Helmet, Freesans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]"At the time of his injury, Goldscheider was provided with hearing protection capable of reducing the noise by up to 28 decibels, but his lawyers claim this was insufficient. They say he was not given enough training in how to use it and protect himself, and that the noise levels should not have been so dangerously high."[/size][/font][/color][/i]

I notice that the ad didn't state "No one from Liverpool please".

They made 45 of them? Why? I mean, Devo, yes, I get that. I imagine that looked quite good against a white boilersuit in a video shot on location in Akron Ohio. But who were the other 44 who thought this was a good idea?

Unless your amp has a 'metronome' setting, of course ...

Might be ... might be ...

And then I saw an advert here on Basschat. And eventually, I ended up with this: [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Basses%20CURRENT/Westone%20The%20Rail%201985%20CURRENT/Westone%20The%20Rail%20-%20take%202_body%202_zpsvswnsdag.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Basses%20CURRENT/Westone%20The%20Rail%201985%20CURRENT/Westone%20The%20Rail%20-%20take%202_body%202_zpsvswnsdag.jpg[/IMG][/URL] That's a Dark Star re-issue pickup (neck position) with new wiring to the new jack socket and to the volume pot too. I couldn't replace the volume pot because the size is unusual. So this is now probably the best-sounding Westone "The Rail" in captivity. It certainly sounds WAY better than it did before.

Roll the clock (calendar?) forward a few years, and I bought this: [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Basses%20CURRENT/Westone%20The%20Rail%201985%20CURRENT/The%20Rail%20-%20body%201_zpsxs96b9au.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Basses%20CURRENT/Westone%20The%20Rail%201985%20CURRENT/The%20Rail%20-%20body%201_zpsxs96b9au.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Because it's is still as cool as f*** and I already knew that the slidey-pickup thang actually works. Only now I knew what I'd learned in the meantime. This one had the original pickup still in place, and sounded good enough that I actually gigged it, but there was plenty of room for improvement. When The Rail was being designed, the Japanese guys responsible have long since admitted that they did it as a gimmick, never expected it to amount to much, so they skimped on the electrics. What this bass needed was new and better electronics.

Back in the dim and distant past, in the days when I foolishly owned far too many basses (as if I would still do such a thing ... ahem), I bought this: [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Basses%20SOLD/Westone%20The%20Rail%201986%20SOLD/DSCF4244.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Basses%20SOLD/Westone%20The%20Rail%201986%20SOLD/DSCF4244.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Because it was cool as f*** and I was interested to know if the slidey-pickup thang actually worked. Well the answer was yes, it did work very effectively, but that wasn't enough to salvage a truly crap-sounding bass. There was nothing [i][b]wrong [/b][/i]with the bass, as such, it was just really dull and dreary and gave me no reason to ever pick it up and play it, let alone gig it. So I sold it. Stupid of me really, because some fairly simple research would have revealed that my Rail had been retrofitted with an after-market Schaller pickup, and what's more a pickup designed to be fitted near the bridge where the string spacing is at its widest. Played in my preferred neck position, the E and G strings were not centred over the pole pieces, and the Schaller seems anyway to have been pretty low sensitivity.

Good Lord! Anyone would think that £955 was a lot of money. Oh very well then ... buy this instead: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/What-Duck-Done-Study-of-bassist-Donald-Duck-Dunn-/201550914584?hash=item2eed5ee418:m:mH75R9A8SAznefibKcPXkBA

I've now been reading threads like this for longer than I care to mention, and I still don't get the whole "sustain" thang. I routinely play in a bunch of different bands, and I tend to play different basses in each ... electric 5-string fretted, double bass, EUB, fretless 4-string, etc. As you might guess, each band plays a different style of music. How many times in the last year has it been important to me that a bass note rings out and sustains, i.e. lasts a bit longer than all the other bass notes I play? Well the number is definitely greater than zero. But not much greater. Certainly nowhere near enough to warrant spending more than 50p.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1459331027' post='3015434'] Serious mix 'n' match bodgefest, that looks to me. I don't know a huge amount about these, but this (mostly) looks MIJ to me, am I right in thinking these are not particularly sought-after by Voxanistas? Neck & body definitely don't look related so the hardware (which I'm 99% sure is MIJ) may be donated. Might be an interesting project for £125 or so but this price is a joke. Jon. [/quote] As far as I can see, except where the ad states otherwise, all the hardware is original. Have a look at http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/guitar/vg4.html I've dealt with priscillasnake many times in the past - completely straight.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1459284704' post='3015196'] Made to resemble Jim Rodford's Strat IIRC. [/quote] Shurely shome mishtake? Russ Ballard, maybe?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-musicians-wanted/bass-player-to-play-trevor-bolder/1161513201

Nice bass but surprised at how little info Priscilla gives. That's a short scale hollowbody with fairly narrow string spacing. It would originally have had a small white pickguard. Judging by the pickups and their positioning, I'd expect that bass to sound really quite Hofner-ish. A wrecked example needing restoration sold here on BC a few years back. This might even be the same bass.