Happy Jack

Arsene knows ...

Well, it failed to sell so now he's re-listed it ... more or less exactly the same! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nordstrand-Bass-Pick-Up-unit-NP4-/181387792989? Despite me sending him a link to Bass Direct's website so that he can see that the unit he's selling goes for £110 new, he still claims that [i][b]each half[/b][/i] sells for £110 new, making this a bargain at £165. No longer "clueless" I'm afraid. He's now a conman as far as I'm concerned.

Nice idea, but it won't work I suspect. One thing I've learned the hard way is that it really is all connected. Transferring some of the weight from your shoulder to your hips (because your shoulder hurts) may make sense in the short term, but you're now carrying an unnatural weight on your hips plus adopting an unusual posture to support the bass. What you'll probably end up with is hips that hurt too. When you stand up with a bass slung around your neck and play a set, you're actually using your whole body. Thinking in terms of fingers / forearms / shoulders / back / etc. is very misleading ... using your whole body requires a holistic approach. 10 years ago I might have read that last sentence and muttered "bloody New Age nonsense" and filed it under The Healing Powers Of Crystals. No longer. I've spent the last two years doing Pilates and trying to re-integrate my body. It hasn't turned me into Superman (yet) but I feel way better, especially when playing. Reverting to jezyorkshire's OP, the only person I've seen using a stand like that is Junior Brown: [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]

Buy this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Treat-Your-Shoulder-Robin-McKenzie/dp/0958269254/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398072874&sr=1-1&keywords=treat+your+own+shoulder You won't regret it. Sell the Trace Elliot 1x15 combo (assuming that, or similar, is what you use) and get a lightweight head and cab. The choice available these days is staggering. Then buy a neoprene Comfort Strapp (spelling intentional). The Bass Gallery usually has them in stock and you can buy over t'Interweb thingy. I've tried loads of wide, comfortable leather straps and the Comfort beats the lot IMHO. Finally, buy a [u][b]proper [/b][/u]lightweight bass, not a P-bass that "only" weighs 9.5lbs but something genuinely light. There's a headless, fretless Miller in carbon fibre for sale right now on Basschat. It weighs just over 5lbs. That's not a typo. If you like shortscales, buy a vintage Hofner - they mainly come in below 6lbs. There's probably a Status Streamline available if you ask around. They weigh 7lbs. If you need a more 'traditional' bass, each of my two Mike Lulls weighs 7.5lbs and sounds every bit as majestic as an 11lb boat anchor from the 70s. The whole weight / dodgy back / dodgy shoulder thing can be sorted, or at least managed, as long as you have a plan. Good luck.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1397988464' post='2429173'] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf33KekKBL8[/media] [/quote] I really, really want that horn section. Can someone buy it for me, maybe for Xmas or something?

I'll take that as a "no" then ...

I'm in Guernsey for the weekend and free tomorrow night and Saturday night. Any decent music pubs? Anything happening?

Nah - they didn't have TV back then ...

I've told him.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1397653065' post='2426068'] I play a R/H bass in a R/H fashion because that's what I was presented with when I first picked up a bass - or, more accurately, when the 12-year-old me picked up a guitar for the first time. [/quote] Actually, I want to re-visit this. I've been thinking about it, and of course it didn't start with the 12-year-old me picking up a guitar, it actually started with the 6-year-old me picking up an air guitar or, as we gigging musicians prefer to describe it, a tennis racquet. So? Well, every six year old knows that a guitarists flaps one hand up and down. A tennis racquet doesn't have a strap, so that means that it must be held in place by the non-flapping hand. So ... that's one flapping hand and one immobile hand. I'm right-handed. So, hold the neck of the tennis racquet with my left hand and flap with my right. I seriously think that's how I (and maybe everyone else) went the R/H route. Incidentally, this has nothing to do with playing the tennis racquet by copying the pop groups on TV. The band I first played the tennis racquet to were The Beatles ([i]She Loves You[/i], 1963), my favourite Beatle was Paul Mccartney, and he was of course one of the incredibly rare performers who actually used a L/H instrument.

Can you tell what it is yet?

And pedals. Lots of pedals. Don't forget the pedals.

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1397642158' post='2425892'] One of them actually believes it makes more sense to be left-handed and play a "right-handed" instrument as the dexterity required for playing the notes on the neck comes from your left hand, exploiting his natural left hand dexterity. [/quote] I am so glad that you posted this ... I didn't want to have to be the one to do it! Although I think you'll find that "left hand dexterity" is an oxymoron. [quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1397644876' post='2425926'] Being absolutely useless at doing most things with my right hand I may not be the best person to comment on this, but it looks like a spurious argument to me. I mean, if it was true, then there would be a lot of demand for lefty instruments by right-handed players who would want to use their more "dextrous" hand on the fingerboard as opposed to using it for plucking. [/quote] I can see where you're coming from, but I don't play a R/H bass in a R/H fashion because I am right-handed (which I am, by the way) and it feels more natural or better that way. I play a R/H bass in a R/H fashion because that's what I was presented with when I first picked up a bass - or, more accurately, when the 12-year-old me picked up a guitar for the first time. If that 1970's guitar had been L/H and I had been shown how to play it L/H it would never have occurred to me that maybe my right hand would be better at plucking, while my left hand would be better at fingering. Even as I write that, I still can't think why being right handed OR left handed should make one hand better at either plucking or fingering. Our primate ancestors by and large did very little of either ...

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1396304276' post='2412208'] Err, isn't this request for a Vegetarian Bass Player going a little Off-Topic? [/quote] No, it went all pear-shaped.

I refuse to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1397472352' post='2424143'] Read the description. [/quote] So? We all knew that Yoda played bass, didn't we?

[quote name='simon1964' timestamp='1397486753' post='2424371'] To be perfectly honest, I don't understand how a telephone works, let alone the internet.... [/quote] Excellent! I love it when I find common ground with other BC-ers. Personally, I put plugs into all the empty sockets in my house so as to avoid having the electricity dripping out and ruining the carpets.

I love the fact that The Bass Centre still claims to be in London. This will come as something of a surprise to the good people of Bagshot in Surrey, 10 miles outside the M25.