NancyJohnson

Five days on, no updates 🙃 When I've bought kit from Japan, I seem to remember GB mail services giving a GB tracking number.

I've got a couple of basses that I adore but will never get played in anger ever again. I've no idea why I'm still holing onto them, especially considering I've been offered ridiculous money for one of them. Emotional attachment. The Hamer FBIV hasn't been out of its case in a couple of years and even then it was only for a few minutes to fit a new jack plate.

Nothing wrong with that. Looks like a Warwick without the machine heads being installed on the wonk.

I like the general look of the two shown here, but I'm very much of the mindset that if the body design is asymmetrical then this needs to follow through to the headstock design (a la Gibson EB3) and conversely if the body design is offset, then then a Fenderesque is fine.

Tracking showing it's done a pair of airline flights this weekend. What fun!

I used to play with a guy up in Ealing - we'd pop over to this guitar place locally (Peter Cook? Dunno). One time we were perusing the stock, my mate latched onto a 12 string Stratocaster and one of the staff asked me whether I was man-enough to play a six string TRB. He didn't know I'd depped on the Conklin stand one time. We had this acoustic song called 'Symphony to My Senses', guitarist was playing this up the back of the shop, so naturally I joined in at the front of the shop. It was a beautifully crafted song. There were a few punters in and the place went silent. We played for a couple of minutes and this spontaneous round of applause started up. It was a beautiful moment and the last time I played a six string bass.

Shudder To Think - Pony Express Record. Stuart Hill is a freaking god. In the pocket.

Quick and nasty: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1NuAZjvTulcfGkLBk4bDiO?si=RX92utr6R0OlnDZJHpee9A&pt=67c4a8cd33fb51cc3f8963d165bd0322&pi=EH9du6j9SOuVH

So you want a top 20 songs from me? Ok, wilco. I'll create a Spotify playlist and pop up a link here in a day or two.

Aah, the old tying me up in knots because of what I posted trick, eh? Well played, old man! Well played. Bravo! 😂

Because they're shit, TBH. One-trick ponies.

Five, count 'em in boys, just five Van Halen tracks. Jump (94), Panama (184), Why Can't This Be Love? (293), Hot For Teacher (407), Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (439) - five UFO tracks and just four by Aerosmith (I'd prefer to not include 'I Don't Want to Miss A Thing'). Good f*cking grief. This is populist rock music for people that have insufferable music taste. This is why my preferred station is W-EQX.

I'd concur on the Queen thing. NATO was the last decent Queen album, but I'd say Sheer Heart Attack was their absolute peak. Again though, it's all subjective. My brother taped SHA for me and I listened to it endlessly, along with Sweet's Sweet F*nny Adams and Sparks' Kimono/Propaganda albums. Time, place and circumstances account for a lot. Would they stand up now? If I told my teen nephew to go at listen to them? Probably not.

Aaw come on W, I think you know more than enough where my musical tastes lie. 😏 'Rock' music (along with all it's sub-genres) is simply too all-encompassing to capture within 500 songs, but you have to admit the inevitably of the tracks peppering the top 20/50. I have a mate called Pete (bass player too), lovely bloke, a few years older than me, who would look at that top 20 and all those wretched power ballads and go, 'Yep, yes, absolutely, yeah, Christ yes,' at pretty much everything in there. He wouldn't be considering, or be remotely interested in Alkaline Trio or Fishbone or Jane's Addiction or The Beths or Momma or XTC or Steven Wilson or Pavement, Primus, Living Colour, Veruca Salt, Jellyfish, Smashing Pumpkins (and so on), as these bands simply aren't on his radar and to him they don't represent rock in it's purest - 1970s/1980s - form. The stuff, as a guy nudging 70, he grew up with. The Planet Rock 500 is like those wretched NOW! compilations; it's the songs Neal Kay would spin before the lights went down for the headliners at Hammersmith Odeon. It's awful populist rawk, filtered down to it's lowest common denominator; Queen (and I love early Queen), Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden. The only one that suprised me was Rainbow's 'Stargazer at #3. The only reason Alter Bridge are at #8 is because the station probably play it a lot, because sure as hell, Pete wouldn't have just plucked that one out of the ether.

Stairway To Heaven (#2) Freebird (#5) Smoke on the Water (#13) Whole Lotta Rosie (#10) Sweet Child of Mine (#9) Bohemian Rhapsody (#1) Alright Now (#30) Enter Sandman (#14) Ace of Spades (#22) Like shooting fish in a barrel. Amazingly, only two songs from this effing century in the top 50. Says a lot about Planet Rock and the listenership.

Just on the subject of hall fees,when I contacted our local parish council to hire the rooms for the SE Basheroonie, I told them that surplus proceeds would be going to a local charity where I volunteer and they reduced the fee.

It would be interesting to actually know how many people voted for each song, considering there's 'thousands of YOU, our esteemed listeners' voting; also one person, one vote? Even if 10,000 people were remotely bothered enough to vote, potentially some of the tunes here would be getting single digit votes. Also, by observation, there's an awful lot of ballads and questionable song choices there, too. That Tenacious D scores higher than Black Hole Sun, Seven Seas of Rhye, Little Wing etc. is quite telling how absolute pants these lists are.

Sorry to hear the SW Bash is off this year, hopefully someone will be able to take this on elsewhere locally!

Thing is (and I say this from the perspective of our desired signature tone), we all know - more or less - what we want to sound like and in truth, don't we just dial that in via our amp/cab choice and/or processing? Installation of Fender '62 Vintage pickups might make the owner of a bass feel better and oh, they're definitely going to hear that perceived tonal difference, but the irony is the bass will sound pretty much the same as it did beforehand. @Hobbayne - buy a couple of cheap Chinese Strat pickups and pop 'em in. They'll sound just the same as what is in there now and what you're going to replace them with.

Honest to god, people love to waste £££ on modding. With all due respect to @Stub Mandrel, but what constitutes 'vintage sound'? 60+ years ago, when all this was fields, Fender were producing fairly low quantities of basses and as cited in Tom Wheeler's American Guitars, "quality control was out the window", pickup windings were erratic, there was little consistency in manufacturing and Fender was known to use whatever was on hand. Christ, they were putting Stratocaster pickups in some bass models, then wax potting the covers to hide what was in there. 60 years on and we're all sitting here rubbing our collective chibs, going, 'Mmm, 60s Vintage pickups, gimme some of that, I need more ponk in my tone.'

The major problem with these Top <insert number here> things is that they're so subjective. Thing is, you're almost definitely going to get the same turgid 50-year old stuff because that's pretty much the listening demographic is of the station. Add to this that the demographic in question are generally somewhat blinkered and unwilling to step out of their comfort zone, hence the same old song choices. Believe me, I know plenty if people who would prefer to listen to Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple rather than even considering anything from this decade. Mark my words. The top 20 will be peppered with Stairway To Heaven. Freebird. Smoke on the Water, Whole Lotta Rosie, Sweet Child of Mine, Bohemian Rhapsody, Alright Now, Enter Sandman, Ace of Spades.

Just got notification the guitar has shipped. Will find out soon enough if it's terrible. What a hoot.

Early Motley were fantastic. To be honest though, beyond Too Fast For Love they was always going to be going downhill. A slight spike to proceedings being when Corabi replaced Vince Meal.

Over the years been around an awful lot of drugs but never felt the pull of taking anything, so didn't. Never really felt that whatever these people were taking particularly enhanced playing or performance. Considering my exposure, I'm pretty proud of that, too. My parents instilled the "drugs = bad" thing from an early age and I've stuck with that. I've never smoked or even tried smoking. Interestingly, over the last 15 years or so, the musicians in my circle are incredibly clean. No drugs, no smoking, the odd beer. I only know of one guy that enjoys weird beers. That's it.

I'm a huge fan of early Tears For Fears, but only really developed a love of XTC about 20 years ago. Personally I adore the 5.1/Atmos mixes of both bands that Steven Wilson has curated, they're bonkers good. I've read enough comments from the naysayers to the contrary, but it's not as if the release of these versions erases all those that have gone beforehand.