NancyJohnson

That's the Spirit. Oh teehee back at you.

Not a fan of her in the slightest (a voice like nails on a blackboard), but a shock nonetheless. A mate told me she'd died...46. It's no age. Certainly makes you question your own pending mortality.

Have you played a 12-string bass? It's really not a walk in the park and I think I'd agree with most of the comments made. It will, in general, be easier to play an eight than a twelve; less tension for your fretting hand, easier to bend. A chorus pedal will phatten things up and yes, your audience probably neither know or give a rats donkey if you're playing a four, eight or a twelve string bass.

Have Andertons actually taken on board some of the stuff that was thrown at Lee? I don't think I need a spoiler here but: I know that Andertons videos are hitting thousands of views, but I'd like to see less finger-pluckn and more pick work. Also, if you're showing off a brand new copy reissue clone of a vintage bass, then have an actual vintage one there for comparison sake. Having a 60s vibe is meaningless unless you have something to put it up against.

I wouldn't mind a B12A (so long as it was in the satin black Jeff Ament livery) or one of the EGC aluminium jobbies.

I had one of Waterstone's TP12 basses. Despite all my efforts, I couldn't get anywhere near Tom Petersson's tone. One head, two heads, crossovers, clean, dirty. Nada. Anything above an A on the D strings just sounded unbass...the G string was almost out of bounds, period. I just couldn't integrate it into either of the bands I was playing in at the time. There's a Cheap Trick rig rundown on Premier Guitar where TP is using his Waterstones. The tone there is epic.

Aah, I remember those. Elton John is apparently playing on most of them.

Rules of thumbs: Venue equipment is generally tired, knackered and will not deliver the sound/tone you desire. In a ton of places I've played, it's only there to allow for quick changeover and sound-guy convenience. Always take your own gear.

Wasn't there some kind of union rule in the '70s that required each band to rerecord the song they were going to mime to for the show?

Whitney would be good...we travel up to my brother-in-laws (Cheltenham) every so often. I will give you a shout to coordinate!

We've gotta find this guy. Get him to the Bash next September.

I've seen stills of him using the Thunderbird (#4), a sunburst Thunderbirdm a Rick, a NR Epiphone.

I still listen to 3CR quite a bit. I knew he was with Alan Hansen's daughter for a while. No idea who he's with now. He was a rare old talent. I loved what he did.

I've gone through a load of Ashdown gear in my time...a MAG combo, ABM heads, various cabinetry (10s, 15s and combinations thereof). The main reason was simply that they were pitched at a price point that was step up from where I was previously, so an upgrade of sorts. They were reliable, heavy as feck, but the heads were so so bland tonally. No grit, little character. Sure, they did loud very well, but they ran so clean that in all cases my signal chain ended up having a dirtbox of some sort plugged into the effects return to get what I wanted/needed. Eventually I sold the lot and went with a dual pre/power stage set up. While I'd never buy an Ashdown again, from a reliability perspective you can't fault them; my old MAG cabinets were sold onto a local rehearsal studio and more than five years on, they are still going strong and they get a huge amount of use.

Little request. Anyone local to Reading got an NS WAV4 or WAV5 I can have a noodle on? My wife has green-lit a purchase if I'd like one, kind of therapy for my wrecked thumbs. I'd just like a little play to satisfy my curiosity more than anything else. Thanks muchly.

I actually think the headstock design is nicer on this than that of the original it's drawn from.

Both of these. The PacMan LEDs on the right one were fantastic...it could only have been bettered if they were actually moving up the neck.

Maybe I'm being stoopid, but is there a running order or anything? Who's appearing on which day?

Hubba bubba.

I've had a good noodle since...though not a sweaty one. The dye didn't lift off the wood with the meths, so I reckon it'll be OK.

I think a build has to be an end-to-end build and, with all due respect to HB14, not something that's been flipped. The primary criteria should be that you started with planks of wood (or tubes of steel) in your garage and did a scratch-build.

I reckon a NS Design WAV4 (or WAV5) will arrive this year at some point. I just don't have the space for a DB and our house is pretty big.

This is what a 3x2m looks like on a smallish club stage. We could easily have gone wider and lost a bit of the space between my logo and the website/facebook links. Also, when I had it made, I had eyelets put into the corners, bought a good length of boating/braided paracord which was easy to loop round something at every venue I played and then pulled it tight with a slipknot.

My old band went with a 3x2m banner from PrintLit. It was about £120.00. I think we should have gone wider to be honest, 4x2m...something else I was shouted down about. C*nts.

I think once I'd decided to do it, there was no turning back...when the first bit of dye went on, I did think to myself, 'Oh feck, what am I doing?', but after this it was more like 'Well, I've started, I might as well finish.'