NancyJohnson

Probably late to this party, but I've been using a 2U Matrix GT1000 poweramp for the last three years or so. It looks good, is lightweight, goes loud, has been uber reliable. I've fed it with a variety of Tech21 pre-stage, so don't ask me about whether it sounds transparent! Great value too.

The Metallica/Stevie Wonder one is a belter.

While I do have some pleasant memories of early Def Leppard, when the material (finally) dropped onto digital platforms, I gave it a bit of a listen and it really surprised me how awful the whole package actually was. Everything was bad.

TB didn't make a stock fretless. Mine was fretless for a while (ebony board) as the fingerboard was lifting off the aluminium, I then had it refretted by Richard Knight.

I have it on good account (a guitarist who toured with Gary Numan) that apparently MK owned two Travis Bean TB2000s. One stolen very early on (this was a very low production number), and the main one he's more familiar with was left at Gary Numan's studio during the Dance sessions. Allegedly, MK didn't have the nuance/balls to go and collect it so he migrated to the Wal. This was after Gentlemen Take Polaroids, so 1981-ish.

He 'ripped the frets out' by all accounts.

I remember a run of TB2000s were done early 2000s, went up on eBay and sold for ridiculously low prices. I've upped the images I pulled from eBay at the time (amazingly sixteen years ago today): The EGC2000 is a close approximation/reinterpretation of the later model/redesign TB2000 (wide wings; the early TB2000s had narrower body shapes), albeit with a slotted EGC headstock. First Run/Second Run:

As far as I can ascertain, EGC operate as an independent builder, but also produce Travis Bean guitars (and an interpretation of the TB2000) now as well. I'm not sure how the Travis Bean licensing works. The EGC, Travis Bean and Kramer headstocks are all different.

A lot of that 80s hair metal stuff I was pretty much forced to listen to by association. I'll always have a soft spot for DLR-period Van Halen and Motley Crue's Too Fast For Love and the John Corabi fronted Motley Crue album, but beyond that, meh. [Edit] There's a ton of stuff been released with a limited shelf life. I guess all you need to do is fire up Wikipedia and look at the long lists of bands that have played Glastonbury (etc.) over the years and juxtaposition these with the ones that the BBC actually feature on their woeful round up shows.

I had to spend some time in the car over the weekend and thought I'd try and give Jeff Buckley's Grace album another punt. I've actually owned this album twice...I lent out both and never got them back, so this time it was a Spotify affair. I don't think I've ever listened to the album all the way through. I got to three tracks of his cat-wailing and had to turn it off; even my wife asked, 'What the hell is this rubbish?' and she likes Beck, so her calling something rubbish is high praise indeed. I'd imagine the five star reviews and 'critically acclaimed' tag may have been altered following his drowning, but man alive, it's a terrible, disjointed album.

I'm looking for a drummer who's based in Reading. Damn, my heart did a little flutter there.

Dowel the holes, drill out the screw holes on the reverse of the headstock and dowel these too, then start over. Find someone with a drillpress to accurately make the holes. The shape of the headstock lends itself to being able to take twelve strings (in that it looks as if it narrows), but maybe consider using some kind of string retainer to put less strain on the nut.

Today has been all about Band On The Run and Wings Over America. I suspect that seeing McCartney on that Karaoke thing with James Corden might have seeded this.

Open all the way here. Why would I want to muffle it? I'd sooner put cotton wool in my ears. I've wired a couple of basses straight to the jack socket before now.

It was that one.

Just going back to the OP, how does one quantify 'aren't well known'? The motorbike remark was pretty succinct as the marques have disappeared apart from an enthusiast perspective. A few of the names mentioned (Vintage, Tanglewood) are produced in huge numbers aren't they? I love when I gig when I pull a Hamer or a Lull out of it's case. Hardly anyone I've knows these names...I played a place in Kent once and took my £3k Hamer FBIV, I delighted in overhearing this exchange: 'What bass is that bloke playing?' 'It's a Thunderbird thing. It says Hammer on the head.' 'No, look. Hamer. H-A-M-E-R. Sounds like a Chinese guitar. My friend has an Epiphone. It's like that.' Much chortling.

Brother Toboggan

Kind of weird juxtaposition here. Radio doing a report about angry bees at the moment.

The Firestar basses are beautiful things and Frank makes some great stuff. While you're likely to just settle on one of the switching options, the actual combinations you can get off the three pickups and the piezo are extensive. Frank has just done an updated version with different pickups. I did get a price off him for a Firestar about three years ago (sub £2k) and it was a toss up between that or the bass I eventually went with (Mike Lull). While I love my Lulls, I still have this soft spot for the Firestar, even though the prices are now over £3k and there's a 18-24 month waiting list.

I've had numerous conversations with other bass players (and geetarists) about what draws them to particular instruments in the first place. It is surprising how many times you read/hear the comment, 'Ooh, that looks nice,' and the lust, the need, the craving for ownership starts from there, a wanting that kicks in without any perception as to what the instrument will play or sound like. I've been there (from the first time I saw Overend Watts with his white Thunderbird and Johnny Thunders with his Junior) and I've worn several t-shirts, but my desire to own my first Thunderbird was driven simply from the association and way it looked; I had no idea how it (or the dozen or so that followed) would sound or play. I got lucky.

It's really nothing different in the true sense - it's still just a pink Jazz (50+ years old), with a different/Stingray-cloned pickup option. I do wonder whether people are in love with the shape or that it might sound like a Stingray (that pickup could just be a P-bass one under the cover), because there's nothing radically new about it - Sandberg have been doing similar stuff for yonks. The guitar business is all so incestuous; limited designs and everyone copying everyone else. In reality, no one is producing anything that's really unique and for that reason it's disappointing. When was the last time anyone really saw a production instrument, that bucked Fender or Gibson designs, that was new and truly head turning? Kubicki Ex-Factor? Maybe a Spector NS2. Something by Status? Steinberg?

Blimey...are you sure you didn't gig with us? LOL His wife said he was borderline autistic as well. If anyone had to use his gear all he would do was complain they'd changed all his settings (even though the settings were done ad hoc every time) and it was murder if he had to use someone else's amp. I could never understand why he didn't put any stickers/marks around the knobs on his gear to put him in his desired ballpark or at the very least remember his settings; I mean, it's not like he wasn't familiar with his amp. But no, twiddle twiddle moan twiddle.

Not this so much, but the guitarist in my old band ran a 20 year old Les Paul into a 30 year old Peavey; soundwise he'd be on the money, but not before spending an age knob-tweaking to actually get there. I could never understand how he would sound brilliant on a Friday gig and so utterly shite 24 hours later. And yes, tweaking happened between songs.

So it's essentially a Stingray masquerading as a Jazz Bass. Oh, and two too many knobs.