NancyJohnson

A few years back I had a big clearout; just kept the one bass and sold everything else. Didn't play for about six-eight months. It was quite cathartic, to be honest, it was akin to offloading a load of surplus baggage. I then got a call from someone and the floodgates opened. Again. It was nice to have a reason to go out and buy something different.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1474015660' post='3134880'] Hey gang! I hope you don't mind being gatecrashed by a Nawvenner :-) I'm currently in custody of a demo model of a [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/282884-handbox-bass-amplification-new-to-the-uk/page__view__findpost__p__3063548"]Handbox Red Fighter[/url] head, and Leszek, the owner, is wondering if any trusted* BC members would like to use it for a while and take it to the bash. If you're interested, drop me a PM. I think someone is already bringing along his other model, the R-400. [size=3]*I know you're all trustworthy really, but for obvious reasons it would need to be someone with a bit of a track record on BC :-)[/size] [size=3][/size] [/quote] I wouldn't mind. I have two gigs for Musicians Against Homelessness/Crisis on the 25th and 1st October. Does it have a 2U rack for protection?

I'd concur with Dropzone on the talent front, BUT, given what was supposed to be going down in the guy's personal life (and hey, let's just skim over the general weirdness here), it still amazes me that he continues to get airplay and no one says anything.

Interesting conversation yesterday concerning provenance. (That's a lot of letters for just five words.) Assume you are buying a bass and had the choice option on two similar basses, let's say Fender Jazz basses, same year, same finish, similar condition. One is selling for £750, the other is previously owned by a big name bass player, was purportedly used on the #1 album he played on ten years ago and the seller has a nice letter from the big name dude to support this, however this bass is £1,500. A simple internet search also throws up photos of the guy playing it as well. Would this sway you to pay more for the more expensive one?

Any updates? It's gone a bit quiet!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1473784257' post='3133106'] I've never understood the need to add the "in my opinion" to posts you make, the fact you are making the post and the members name on the left tells us it's their opinion? [/quote] The sadness is that we seem to be unable to be able to post any detrimental poop without putting some sort of disclaimer in for fear of upsetting anyone or being on the receiving end of a collective backlash. Why do you think the vast majority of posts are of the positive? If people don't like something, just post it! IMO.

At one stage I was running several Thunderbirds; mortgage paid, the doors of purchase opened and after a long period of using a late 70s Precision (and an even longer period of wanting a Thunderbird), I just went on a spending spree and bought six in as many months. (Over the last year or two I've dropped this number to the best two of the lot.) For me (three point bridge aside), they're the best out of the box bass I've ever played. Build quality was very consistent. I really don't care for the neck dive arguments - especially from the flat-earthers who've never even played one - the neck is a dream, the design is still head-turning 50 years later and tonally it ticks all the boxes for me. The other thing is the Epiphone models -while decent enough - aren't Gibsons; they're far-east manufacturered facsimiles. Look, I'll reiterate this (as I've done previously). I'm a chubby guy in my late 40s and when I use the Thunderbird, I'm lean, agile and 20 again. They're like magic.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1473580477' post='3131269'] Our guitarist often tries to persuade me that I must change the capacitors in my basses 'to let the tone out'. I always play with tone and volume control on the bass fully open, so surely I am by-passing the cap anyway? He also believes that guitars and basses sound 'better' with the on board volume turned down to about half way, so I take these ides with a pinch of salt. Don't get me wrong, great guy, just got one or two odd ideas! [/quote] I'm 100% with you on the first point. My old Precision went through various wiring configurations, one time the pickup was just wired into the volume pot, on another straight into the jack socket. On point #2, concur. What is all this turning down malarkey about? Are we not men? Heh.

I'm gonna bump this...there's gigs all over the country now. If you're in Basingstoke or Guildford, it'll be great to see you. If not, find a MAH event near you and support it. If there's notjing near you, donate a fiver to Crisis. #besomethinggreat

I've tended to clean my basses with Pledge in the past, never used oil on anything. Noticing the board on my Lull was looking a bit dry (I can't put it any better than that), so I bought some Rotosound lemon oil (Amazon/£6.00). Amazing results really. I applied it with some Bounty paper and the board colour has taken on a beautiful deep brown lustre from the original shade best described as ginger biscuit. It was a joy watching the colour change. Brilliant. It's just a shame I'll have to wait another six months until the next application.

I've owned/played quite a few. Thunderbirds are my main basses. A long time ago I owned a 70s Grabber G3, which was okay. I'd really like a 20/20 or a Ripper. That said, pretty much everything else leaves me a bit cold. The 2017 EB is horrific and yhat seems to be it at the moment.

When I was driving back from rehearsals last night, BBC Radio London were doing a good drummer/bad drummer phone in, which considering my current dilemma (see 'Drummer Woes' thread), was a decent listen. There was a new (to me) drummer joke, which lead to a spontaneous laugh; How do you know there's a drummer at your door? Because he doesn't know when to come in. Or something. It was late.

[quote name='HengistPod' timestamp='1473343668' post='3129343'] I made our one, thinking the printed ones were all too expensive for a bit of cloth with a bit of printing on. [/quote] This is the way we were thinking, but ultimately you're paying them for their time expertise in doing the job. It's really well made and actually came out better than expected. I think the main thing is that you need to ensure you put the work in at the front end and the submitted image is decent.

[quote name='cetera' timestamp='1473342586' post='3129328'] How much was that mate? [/quote] Hey Gary It was £120, plus £10 shipping (UPS). Week turnaround. It folds up to the size of a think hardback book. I'm very pleased. P

Ta daa!

The process is in motion. I know it all seems to be a round the houses process, but the guy knows that he's generally sub-par. It's a case now of just letting him down easily. We jammed last night and he had definitely upped his game a little, but while I'd say within fifteen minutes he was back to normal, as in terrible. We have a band WhatsApp group and it's kind of going off as I type this. Pictures at eleven, as they say in news speak.

I've never seen one I didn't like the look of, but I couldn't actually see myself buying one.

Just an update. We finally decided on a 3x2m and put our swag with Printlit. It arrived today. While I'd say you definitely need to put in the time to design and submit the design in the correct format, I have to say that the end result is tiptop. Just need to find s new drummer, eh?

The closure is a pity, but when you're up against the big mover stores like GAK, Andertons, Thomann etc it's got to be difficult. It was a gallant effort to support a relatively small marketplace on the retail front. I suppose the closure supports the theory that a high end bsss store has a somewhat limited apoeal, like a Leftporium. Shame.

Don't particularly want to rain on anyone's parade, but I'd actually be interested to know the names of some of the bands you guys were playing in rather than, 'Oh, I played here, here and here.' The biggest I played was a lunch set at Richmond College, Twickenham about 25 years ago with a band called Mai Mai. It was during a week long music festival thing and none of the band were students there. There was over 500 crammed into a room that had a capcity half that. It was raining heavily. Amazingly, we were the only band that hired in a PA for their gig. I remember one unsavoury female member of the academia shouting, 'Laser show! Laser show!' when we were doing the load-in and after the gig pretty much trying to push her tongue down our guitarists throat. People are strange. Happy days.

I think our regular audience is 20-40 people. Happy enough with that. I like playing mid-bill; the meat in the sandwich...hangers on from the openers, people in for the headliners. Usually get a few Facebook likes off the back of it. I'm done with the headline -wannabee malarky. I really don't want to play to 2 people anymore.