Happy Jack

Maybe your uncle's up there ...

Yes, but not really what I meant! Should we challenge the pub? On what grounds? Should we re-split the remaining £150 four ways and just get over it?

But the Denmark Street shop is still there, it's changed owners but is otherwise much the same place as before. The owner (Ron) has been around for ever. Previously he was Brian's right-hand man at Wunjo's.

The Junkyard Dogs played a gig on Friday and received £200 (introductory rate), in the form of 2 x £50 notes and the balance in £20 and £10 notes. One of the £50 notes has now been discovered to be a forgery, the other was fine. There is no particular reason to think that the pub knew about this. As a band, we have joked about this situation several times but I don't think we seriously expected it to happen. We can't be the first to arrive here ... what normally happens next?

No wish to de-rail your thread, Diablo, but you'll probably a find a better selection (and better prices) here on Basschat!

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1393236173' post='2377539'] Paul... Log on to 'Hofner Hounds' here... [url="http://hofnerhounds.myfineforum.org/index.php"]Hofner Hounds...[/url] ...and look up Hollywolf. He'll rewind a p/up for around £25 or so. Fast turnaround, excellent expertise; he's done several for my guitars and basses. You don't need a new p/up. [/quote] Excellent advice. Even if you need to replace the original pickup after all, there's no shortage of 60's 'staple' pickups on eBay if you keep an eye out. I've been using Andy for years so I'm never sure if he charges advantageous rates for me! Let's go and find out ...

Was that when you were in Spandex Belly?

Does anyone know of a transcriptions book for Jet Harris / The Shadows?

Ouch! Bin there, dun that. The neck does need a reset. The previous owner has clearly exhausted all possible options to avoid doing it ... if he even thought it worth while removing the fretwire in the bridge (thus saving what? a quarter of a millimetre!). Even with a functioning bridge, the intonation was always going to be interesting. God alone knows how far out it is with that arrangement. The bridge is fully-floating, held against the top of the bass purely by string pressure. There's nothing particularly wrong with it being hard up against the bridge pickup - if that is where the intonation works. In practice, it would normally be an inch (or less) behind that pickup. I'd suggest taking it to Andy for a neck reset (he's done loads of those, including one for me) and source a new Hofner bridge from eBay, there's plenty out there. Give me a shout if you want to hook up in/near Denmark Street, maybe grab a pint at The Pillars Of Hercules.

Yup - that's how you do it. There's a reason those Hofners were known for their poor intonation. In all fairness, given the thuddy shortscale and the limitations of early-60's bass amplification, it wasn't actually much of a problem at the time.

The tort crops of the late 60s and early 70s were particularly fine, but the pick-weevil infestations of the late 70s did serious damage and many tort growers were forced to switch to a carbon fibre crop. By 1982 the first attempts at genetically-modified strains of tort were appearing but this generated great controversy, especially since these torts had a tendency to react badly with the epoxy resin used in poor-quality Jaco rip-offs, leading to spontaneous jazz. It is only in recent years that cross-breeding with Galapagos Sprinters has managed to exclude 'the Paisley tendency' in modern tort.

[quote name='Absolute Beginner' timestamp='1392973402' post='2374721'] And another thing.....! I normal pluck with my thumb resting on the E string as opposed to resting on the neck pick up. Is this wrong and will hamper my development, or doesn't it really matter ? Thanks again. [/quote] It will certainly make playing the E string much harder. Most bass players spend most of their time playing on the E and A strings, so leaving your thumb on the E is simply not an option. The 'travelling thumb' method is excellent and well worth learning & practising, but it's not a bad idea to also be comfortable with your thumb anchored somewhere. I've seen people use the pickup, the side of the neck up at the 20th fret, even the edge of the pick-guard as a place to anchor. With regard to string spacing, I learned to play on old Hofners with a 14mm/15mm spacing. As my playing style developed, I found that I had a naturally robust approach to bass ... i.e. I play heavily and I like to dig in. I now play Precisions with a 19mm spacing which feels much better. But I can still pick up my Hofners at any time and play them. String spacing isn't a black/white, on/off thing.

If you don't get on with the Markbass Dilemma, try the Powersoft Digam: http://www.thomann.de/gb/powersoft_digam_m50_q.htm Sorted.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1392972708' post='2374716'] The thing that I always think about in these threads is "does anyone actually think we've got [i]worse[/i] at building stuff in the last 50 years?" Thats just an insult to the skills of the modern luthier. [/quote] Interesting way to phrase it. The answer may well be 'Yes'. Firstly, because some components have deteriorated in quality over the last 50 years (wood being the obvious example). Secondly, because an instrument produced in batches of a hundred by skilled workers in the USA or the UK may quite possibly be (on average) better than an instrument produced in batches of 10,000 on a mass-production line made economical only through ultra-low labour costs. Hardly a definite answer, I grant you, but I would remind everyone that there are two types of fool: one says "if it's old then it's good", the other says "if it's new then it's better".

Sometimes they played football to the backing track ...

eBay

I liked those little Messerschmidts ...

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1392894326' post='2373847'] Did 'etc' play all their old hits? [/quote] Yes, but that's before they went all prog and changed their name to Ampersand ...

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1392892555' post='2373824'] How do the new German Hofners stack up against the old ones, as that might be a better comparison than the CT series? [/quote] Troo dat. I had a V62 German Re-Issue of the violin bass (the Beatle bass) and it sounded every bit as good as my 1964 500/1 Violin. I've also had both a CT and an Icon and neither of them really cut the mustard. Quite apart from the electrics (especially the pickups) what really does the damage is the "sustain block" which is of course merely a way of making the instrument in a cheaper and more mechanised way. You can't take a hollowbody or semi-acoustic design, and shove a bloody great lump of 4x2 down the middle of it, and expect it to sound the same. Nor does it feel the same, or hang/balance the same. Perfectly capable of being a good, playable instrument ... just not the same as (or as good as) the original.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1392891361' post='2373801'] I played it last week with an early 60's British rock'n'roll band ... [/quote] I forgot I had this: [attachment=155706:Airplay Studios Rehearsal (15).JPG]

Nope - it was a factory extra.

Oh look! Look! It's NOT a Fender!!! [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Hofner%20vintage%20instruments/Hofner%20500%207%201964%20CURRENT/DSCF3395.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Hofner%20vintage%20instruments/Hofner%20500%207%201964%20CURRENT/DSCF3395.jpg[/IMG][/URL] It's a 1964 Hofner 500/7 Verithin. I played it last week with an early 60's British rock'n'roll band (Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, The Big Three, etc.). It sounded sublime, thuddy and with dodgy intonation, it sounded as if it was the original bass played on those recordings. Because ... erm ... it probably [i][b]was [/b][/i]the original bass played on those recordings. I've played the current Hofner CT re-issued Verithins. They're very new and shiny, and they look real purdy. But vintage basses sound better.

[quote name='4low' timestamp='1392869470' post='2373686'] [sup]Swirly Bubinga ... especially for this rum.[/sup] [/quote] I'd drink Swirly Bubinga rum, probably with Coke.

I feel that it is, essentially, bad form to count one's basses.