NancyJohnson

I knew it was all over and I'd lost the band I formed years before. That last chorus was just shouting, sometimes I'd play through it, sometimes not. Terrible venue, twenty or thirty in, prospect of a two hour ride home. Spur of the moment thing. The bass was already off and it just seemed apt at the time. I have this slow motion vision of it flying through the air and it clattering into the bottom of the drums.

It's a great shame that (in my case) I'd need to buy the book again and that it wouldn't necessarily be a first edition either. Nah. I'll pass.

How do you quantify genuine mojo? A few years back I acquired the bass below. I've jammed with it, recorded, gigged it and on my last gig with the Johnsons I threw it about 20' across a stage. It wasn't pretty when I got it, so I pledged to ding it every time it left the house. It's beautiful now in my eyes.

6.51am. They're playing Cool For Cats again. Hmm.

Any suggestions for any decent alternative/rock US/Canadian based internet radio stations? Appears my Sonos app can access global radio (who knew, eh?).

I did a radio show with Rick Buckler about two years ago. Top bloke.

I was just reading (on Facebook) the cheery story of one of our bass playing brothers, John VanZanten of Seattle, who about 14 years ago had his dream bass built by Mike Lull Guitar Works. Two weeks ago the bass was stolen, then the thief contacted Lulls in an attempt to sell it to them; Paul Schuster at Lull got photos, verification of the serial numbers etc and convinced the person who had it to bring it in as they had an interest in buying guitars for cash. The guy took it in and Mike Lull seized the instrument advising the thief that the bass was stolen and the guy fled empty handed. Bass has been reunited with the original owner. Brilliant, eh? I doubt you're going to get that sort or after service from Fender.

I bought my Lulls off two A4 spec sheets, despite their apparent rarity (one of two, one of a few), I had no qualms about forking out nearly £10K for the pair!

This came up on something I was reading last week. While I couldn't quote you SBS or EBU, those acronyms do sound familiar. It came through on my newsfeed from somewhere. As I'm not really a devout follower of Eurovision, I just read it and filed it away in my head.

I'd second this here.

Two reasons the Aussies are in it. There's a massive audience for it in the antipodes (so a ready audience/advertising revenues) and it also has something to do the broadcaster who carries the show in Australia owning a sizeable percentile of the main European Broadcasting union that owns the broadcasts rights. Israel? Not a clue.

You know, I've lost count of the number of basses that have passed through my hands; obviously having done my due diligence pre-purchase, I know what I'm buying so I'm more than familiar with the specs, but never once have I really bothered about the weight, nut width, neck radius/profile, type of wood, pickups, bridge (except where Gibson 3-pointers are concerned). It's all a nonsense. Sure there's a need if you can't actually lift 10lbs or you have the hands of a five year old girl, but in general, nah. I know the shapes I like and I have a visual preference for solid finishes and dark wood on my fingerboards, but that's pretty much it.

EGC (Electric Guitar Company) necks do come up on eBay periodically, although these things are turned from solid billets, there's no natural board on these. Aside from the aesthetics and as a past owner of a Travis Bean, I don't really see the point of a metal neck over wood; sure they're very stable and when new they look great, but I don't remember any advantage tonally over a 100% natural neck. Travis Bean bass necks (the originals) weren't solid either, they were routed with a paid of channels to keep the weight down (I had the fingerboard done on mine, off with the old, on with an ebony board, there's photos somewhere in my loft). Any tonal shaping described in previous posts could easily be achieved in the signal chain and in a blind test I doubt you'd be able to tell the difference.

I'm unsure how to phrase this question without upsetting someone, so just take it as it comes, please. When exactly did Eurovision make the jump from it just being a reasonably good-natured, albeit awful, entertainment event to the current, umm, anything goes format? I've got a couple of gay friends and they see this thing as the televisual event of the year. Party time at theirs. Was this always the case?

In my defence, while I've watched the whole thing previously, last night I only turned on and watched the last two or three songs and turned off during Madonna's performance. I went up to bed (long day) and put Radio 2 on, but was asleep before I heard a single vote. I woke this morning to hear the UK had come last and did let out a chuckle.

Why does the UK even bother entering/bankrolling this and who in their right mind would take up the potentially career ending chalice of representing this country?

After he went, he formed a band called Medicine Stick but he played rhythm guitar in that. I'd concur Living Colour were better when he was in the band.

When I was on holiday once I actually heard someone ask a waiter what flavour the chocolate gateaux was.

I just lost the will to live, to be honest.

Jedson!

It's funny remembering back...three of us formed a band at school and it felt like the WEM kept us together. It was always, 'Can you get the amp?'

While we all love to say what gear we use right now, but where did you start off from? Sadly, no original pictures from that period, but I borrowed £35 off my dad and bought a CBS/Arbiter bass from a small place in Staines, called Adam Music. It was exactly like the one below. I do remember that the EAD were flats and the G was roundwound. I chose Gibson plectrums because Kiss used Gibson. Haha. I'd borrow a WEM Dominator III from a guy who lived a street away from me - there seemed to be a lot of WEM and Watkins gear around; Charlie Watkins had an establishment in Chertsey, a kid from school had assembled a Watkins Rapier from damaged parts and the owner of the Dominator had a white Les Paul styled bass. Ampwise, I'm not 100% certain what my first owned amp was - I bought an unbranded 1x15 locally that I distinctly remember getting it home using a wheelbarrow. Aah, the '70s. It's a toss up between a really nasty H:H head or a Carlsboro StingRay combo; I have a photo somewhere of the StingRay sitting on top of the 1X15, so definitely owned both at the same time. It's all a far cry from the stuff now, but I guess when all we had was Bell Musical Instrument catalogues and monthly Beat Instrumental magazines, we probably didn't really know any better.

I just had a read-through of that thread; I dunno, you try and propose something that might be fun and it just saddens me re-reading it how pointless an idea it was. We could collectively have done something fun with the concept, but reading back at some of the replies just gets my heckles up and I wonder why I bothered. Eastwood were well on board too.