NancyJohnson

If anyone gives a damn, Steven Wilson has sprinkled his magic pixie dust on XTC's psychedelia alter-egos The Dukes Of Stratosphear material. Psurroundabout Ride sees it's release on CD&BluRay in less than a month. A smattering of bonus materials and All The Dukes' material in 5.1 psurround as well.

I did the gig last Friday and if nothing it just reaffirmed that the effort just isn't worth the result. Collectively we assembled in leafy High Wycombe from mid-London, Littlehampton, deepest Kent and my commute from Denham. Venue had undergone a bit of a facelift since I last played there, but really not in a good way, it was as if everything that made the venue what it was had been stripped away. It stank of disinfectant too. PA half the size of the old one, no monitors working, nasty house kit, sound guy was useless. They were also charging on the door ("£3.00 or whatever you can afford"). Whereas in the past the place would always have 40-50 people milling around, this time I doubt the place achieved double figures. To be honest, we played fine despite everything and just left by about 9.15pm, tucked up in bed by 11.00pm.

Oops. Well this went in the wrong section. That'll teach me for trying to do stuff on my phone.

I peruse the basses for sale section two or three time a day just seeing what's up there...while I have no real wants or desires; I've got four cracking basses I love, but I do admit to the harbouring of nugget or two of ache for a handful of basses that I've only played for a few seconds (Rickenbackers, heh) or ever seen photographs of. While there's some beautiful stuff on sale, for me a lot of it is just eye candy. I think where I'm going with this thread is the observation that some gear just never seems to come up. When I was offloading my Thunderbirds to fund my Lulls, I seemed to have sparked off a landslide of Thunderbirds for sale, now though things seemed to have settled and there's none for sale (much the same as it was before I started hoovering them up...I think I was up to 12 at one point). Granted some of these manufacturers don't trade anymore or are highly desired, viz. Hamer/Kubicki (I'd pull the trigger on either a decent Cruisebass or Ex-Factor today if one came up), or companies only building a handful of my desired models (Spector Forte 4X), or that some basses are just keepers (the PJ version of the Fender Jaguar). I bitterly regret not buying the Jeff Ament Hamer 12-string that was on here a couple of years ago. Ho-hum. Lunch over. Back to the grind.

I've gone through so much backline kit in the last four decades, I've lost track of what I've owned, but one thing I am prepared to impart is that with so many advances in amplification-tech, size really isn't everything. Live gigs aren't about masses of backline (anymore?) and I'm currently running - size for size - the smallest rig in decades.

I'd imagine if you set it onto wet varnish, the backing paper will stick like sh*t to a blanket and it'll be a nightmare to get off, plus the moisture will possibly react with the wet varnish and make it bubbly. If it's a waterslide, apply it to a dry, sealed surface, then seal it with a clearcoat layer or two, lightly rub down when dry with some fine grit (2000/3000) wet and dry, then clearcoat again and repeat until you're happy.

It was moreover the whole day...my commute is backroads from Reading, M4/M25/M40 - these numbers alone should be enough for any normal person to shake with terror. Its about an hour. At the end of the day M40/M25/M23/A23...it just sucked the life out of me a bit. Add to this roadworks on the M25 homebound just added to the ack factor. Anyhow, at least the Friday gig is only about 20 minutes from work.

I've got a Delano PMVC 4 FE/M2 in my P (it's the one designed as a standalone P-pickup; it's different from the one in their PJ set). Like it a lot.

As some of my closer friends will know, the last 18 months have seen me leave the band I formed eight or nine years ago then moving onto a more experimental studio based project (Lutz). A couple of months back I was offered an off/on/off live position with a band called Rocket66. I learnt everything only for the band to pull out of commitments, so things parked again. Anyhow, it's back on again...yesterday, up with the lark, I went to work at 7.30am, worked 8.15am to 5.30pm, then drove two hours from Denham, Bucks to Brighton Electric (great place, by the way) for a single rehearsal ahead of a gig on Friday. I got home this morning about 1.00am. I mean, I'm no spring chicken, but while I feel quite happy to have pulled a 20 hour day and added 200-odd miles to the clock, I'm thinking that I really can't be assed with the whole band malarky again, especially with my current workload.

Wowzer! I love you, Bertie. You're very kind.

I used to borrow a Jedson Telecaster shaped bass and a WEM Dominator from a guy who lived round the corner from me, but the first purchased bass was this white CBS/Arbiter SG shaped thing...they come up on eBay periodically. First amp/rig? Well, I'm struggling now. I owned a 1x15 cabinet of unknown lineage (I recall after money changed hands, I actually got it home using my dad's wheelbarrow) and at the same time I owned a secondhand H/H head that was really nasty (it smelt very electrical when it had been on for a bit, like a Scalextric) and a Carlsboro Stingray combo.

I've got an APC UPS if anyone wants it. We had some power issues here a while back, I was just sick of losing my work, so bought one of these. It was plugged in for about three weeks while the electricity guys were digging up the road, it worked faultlessly but has been gathering dust for about a year. It's one power in, four outs (or run an extension with the appropriate socketry. Despite its size, it is heavy...I can box it up and ship it at your expense or it might be cheaper to just drive over and pick it up if you're local (RG45, east of Reading). I'll throw in a four way extension too. Stock photos and web-link below. P https://www.schneider-electric.co.uk/en/product/BX700UI_APC/apc-back-ups-700va%2C-230v%2C-avr%2C-iec-sockets/

While I doubt I'll ever wholly convert to flats, it's nice to have the option now. I think the last time I used flats was about 30 years ago when they came on my first bass.

I just put some Fender flats on my old Aria Primary...50-100 set. The bass is a 1978 Precision clone, albeit customised...Delanos, one of those Badass II clones bridges. Pleasantly suprised tonally. I thought it would be a total wool-fest, but there's a bit of shizzle. They feel wonderful.

I think because it's marketed as leather dye, it's largely overlooked, but when I started investigating the product was mentioned on several forums. It really does work; do your pre-prep...use metholated spirit as a final degreaser and apply.

Years ago I had a Fender Precision which, in one of my moments, I wired the pickup straight into the output jack; it worked fine really, perhaps a bit brighter than going through the volume and tone pots. I'm wondering whether anyone has a wiring schematic that would allow me to put a small toggle switch on the scratchplate that would allow me to switch from a fully open circuit configuration to one that passes through the volume and tone pots.

Our local Indian (Kabirs, Crowthorne) is without doubt the best Indian restaurant I've eaten at, bar none. If it was nasty, we'd go elsewhere. It's funny, years ago after we moved the village, they were newish and open to suggestion; we'd go in and ask whether certain things would work, they'd cook us non-menu stuff, then they had the menus re-done and these odd mash ups would be on it*. They do a chickpea/paneer combo that is to die for and they'll also produce naan breads with any manner of content combination therein; garlic/chilli, spinach/paneer. *Incidentally, as an aside, we also have an Italian restaurant in the village and alongside all the Italianesque pizza names like Romana and Quattro Stagioni there's a pizza called Ken; a fantastic combination of mozzarella, Gorgonzola, salami and optional chilli and anchovies. I asked once why they had a pizza called Ken and they said they used to have a customer decades ago who would come in and always ask for this combo on a pizza. When he passed away, they thought it was a decent tribute to add this to the menu and name it after him. Nice touch! https://www.don-beni-restaurant.co.uk/menus/main-menu/

I stained the fingerboard on my Lull black using Fiebings Leather Dye. Not sure whether this would suit your purpose, but the board went from a mid-brown/tan to jet black in one application and has stayed black. Caveats should anyone want to try this; mask areas you don't want stained, do not over-apply, wipe off the excess after a minute or two and wear gloves!

Cough. £15.95. Cough.

When I worked for the company that did the wristbands, we (as a company) were offered a limited number of access passes for the weekend; there was generally a draw to see who got the passes and in the main it was a case that old Gladys in the post room had her name pulled first and she would give the passes to her grandchildren (grrr). In ten years, I bagged the passes just once...it was 1999. The irony being the misfortune that followed me that weekend. Friday, oh, I remember it well, around the time Reef were on, I was having a surgery on my left eyelid to remove a big infected lump of goop, so I didn't go. (Ironically, twenty years on, I still get the odd eye-infection and it always seems to emanate from the same part of the lid.) On the Saturday, I broke my glasses in the morning and my eye was too sore and weepy to get a contact lens in, so I didn't go. By the time Sunday came around, I was determined to go. We stood on the side of the stage and watched Lit (who replaced Orgy), Offspring and about half of the RHCP set. I spent a very happy hour in the Big Top watching Fountains Of Wayne. No memory whatsoever of Pitchshifter, or Sick Of It All (I suspect we may have been drinking in the guest area). In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't make the effort to catch Blink182 or Less Than Jake. Ho hum.

And your crack.

Vince Power...I used to have to deal with him about festival business years ago. Company I worked for did the wristtickets. He's actually a really nice bloke.

Well, this ^^^ Mods, you can close the thread now.