NancyJohnson

A while back, when I was gigging an awful lot and had an endorsement elsewhere, I shot a speculative email to Ken Haas to see if I could get a Thundergun made with a reverse headstock, explaining I was doing a couple of smallish festivals, while to be honest I didn't fancy taking out any of my expensive basses for these. Ken was pretty accommodating considering I was just a zero, I do remember him saying, 'my basses love stages' and that really stuck with me. I think it was more about exposure for Reverend at that juncture than anything else and I still have a soft spot for the marque. In then end, despite being offered a deal of sorts, the primary caveat was that I'd have to pay in dollars, cover shipping and duties from the USA. It would have been a great deal if I'd lived in Enid, Oklahoma, but once you factored in import costs, there wasn't much of a difference in UK retail of a similar model. I appreciated the offer though.

I'd concur. The headstock is much nicer than the one the dog chewed.

Here you go.

I'm being serious. This is a bit of a departure. It's not Thunderbird shaped.

Yep, NBD.

I don't mind hosting a blindfold test if Gary wants to sit behind the curtain again. It's been 50 weeks since I've heard any Kansas bass lines.

@Floyd Pepper Jim There's usually a table in the the front hall where you can just pile your stuff up. Just put prices on each piece and an indication of who you are. Easy! P

If you go over to the contact page, there's a link to the guys Facebook page, but I mean, why wouldn't you put this link up on the front page? There's a huge quantity of photos on the Facebook page, but in the main, they're just hugely annoying as well. Of the 40-odd I flipped through (before I lost interest), I think I saw maybe three of the full instruments; there were lots of shots of sawdust artfully sprinkled over apparent works-in-progress, taped bindings and some gappy-teethed kids. It looked more like a photography project than a site to show off guitars.

I found that website VERY annoying. Just show some stills of the full instruments.

On the reggae front (not that I play it), I'd always thought the de rigueur bass was that of a short scale...Fender Mustangs. Conversely, Paul Samwell Smith favoured Rivoli basses, that were also 30-32" scale.

Darkglass A/O head, Tech21dUg, Barefaced Big One, two custom build Mike Lulls, a Hamer FBIV, old Aria Primary. I think that's it. This isn't to say I still have a want list, but it's all about the getting, eh?

All depends what you consider expensive...I've always been up for a bit of experimentation, but collectively it's £££. Tons. Gretsch Baritone...is it a baritone or a just weird bass thing? Rickenbacker 4003. Gibson NR Thunderbird reissue (Issues, grrr). A pair of Aguilar SL112s (they were nice, but not aggressive enough). Tech21 GED 2112 (just grrr). TC Electronic BH head (gimmicky Toneprint, fun, questionable output wattage, not very good). Sansamp VT Bass rack (bought blind, didn't do anywhere near what I thought it was going to do; one rehearsal - 'Uh-oh', one gig and sold.) Trace Eliot rack gear...lots of it, GP12 SMX/Mono power stage, stereo power stages, just horribly bland, most of it bought in one purchase, immediacy of, 'What the fork have I done?' There was an Ibanez Roadster thing I loathed from the moment I bought it. It cost me under £200 decades ago, but WAS a lot of money at the time. It was forking shirt. I lost my temper with it when I was gigging and (unplanned) broke it up towards the end of the set, much to the gasps of the people watching.

There's a much older thread here somewhere too.

I'd concur with Brains here. I'd always go with a twinned pickup bass over a single pickup one; it's just my preferred start point. While my preference is for Thunderbird reverse/non-reverse shaped basses (well, OK I'd also swing for a Kubicki if I could find one), I just think the new breed of Stingrays with the sparkly bodies and the toasted necks look sublime. Tonally, I don't give a rats to be honest, I can tweak my gear so that everything sounds more or less the same.

I ran a dual channel set up for a while (different prestages, Matrix stereo power amp, multiple enclosures). On a very basic level, as the bass wasn't dual channel (or stereo), after a tuner I'd split the signal via a Morley ABY box and then shoot these outputs into a pair of @Tech21NYC units, on one side I'd run the signal through a Rolls SX21 crossover then into a Sansamp GT2; the Rolls allowed me to strip out the lower frequencies before they hit the GT2 and gave me a fairly sweet dirty top end. The other side went through a Sansamp BDDI, providing a fairly controllable lowend rumble. You know though, for all the fussing and outboard, the Tech21 dUg does all this. I just wish the unit had been around years ago to be honest.

Never quite got the whole this-used-to-belong-to thing.

There are many, many, many songs. Way more than three. Thing is, this country is/was a sucker for a gimmick 7", alwys has been, be it The St Winifred's School Choir or Clive Dunn or Terry Wogan (or any other singing DJs or actors who release music. be it David Soul or the bloke from Minder, or Windsor Davies and Don Estelle) or Mr Blobby or Benny Hill or The Tweets or the forking Simon Park Orchestra. I listen to a lot of BBC Berkshire and their limited playlist; I'm dreading the time when they play Stop The Cavalry again and again and again and again and zzzzzz.

Almost certain I have a set off a Bronco that would do the trick. Give me ten minutes. [Ack, no. I must have passed them on. Sorry.]

Man alive, don't you sleep old friend? It's 4.09am.

This: And this: And this: Oh this: This too:

Wouldn't that have been a thing.

I actually recall the BBC getting all angsty about Statue of Liberty by XTC, what with it's lyrical content containing the words nearly naked and in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt. When you think back to BBC radio in the mid-late '70s, many of the execs/producers/programmers who were controlling the nations listening habits were geriatric suit-wearing, pipe-smoking old farts so it's no wonder they were banning stuff and trying to uphold common sense and decency. What what. The were completely out of their depth; it would be like someone coming to me and asking me to throw together content for a show on New Zealand grime. This was also the era of Mary Whitehouse and we all know what a piece of work she was.

Listen to Heaven's Gate by Lutz on #SoundCloud It'll be replacing this. Something similar...