NancyJohnson

$500 in £? £395.00. Bonkers.

So US/Sweetwiter $500 preorder, Thomann £611 (or $775). Bonkers. If I do pull for one of these it'll be though my brother in law on a US trip.

I know @tonyxtiger bought in some Tech21 stuff. The one thing that narked me with the Rocky Road distribution was that they didn't have a clue about the products they were dealing with; when my Ged rack lost its clank, it went to Rocky Road and their opinion was that, 'It's making a noise, so it's working, innit?' Err, no. For the salary they're likely paying their tech guy, they could just as easy have sent me a new one under the warranty.

They look nice. Eyewatering prices. I think the main problem I see with these is that I've never - from a Spector perspective - seen him playing anything except the honeyburst(?) PJ and JJ models. He's not associated with anything that looks like that.

I just don't get how hard it is to set up as a distribution company. We've discussed this previously. My brother in law spends a lot of time in Houston...

I have a meter - from memory the output jack is the same as the one in John's photo below (it just bolts into a jack plate). I'm getting some noise from one of the jumper points behind the rotary trim pots indicated below, beyond that, nothing. All the loom cables are in and tight. A while back I'd have been desperate to get this fixed, now you just kind of shrug your shoulders and pull out another bass, because fixing it is a job from future Nancy! :)

To be honest, I'd track down a second-hand Fender. Mexico/Japan. If I were you (not that I want to spend anyone's £££s for them), I'd stretch by budget and hit up Dave's Jazz, below. I've no idea what the current price is...it's been yo-yoing up and down.

Well, I love the Bongo. I'd take the Musicman over the Yamaha.

I've just returned from a session at the physiotherapist. While I was waiting, a second receptionist started work and there was a conversational handover, which was pretty much this: 'Oh hi, Sally! Good weekend?' 'Yeah, not bad, took the grandchildren to the park, then we had a Chinese and watched Eurovision.' 'Oh god, it was just awful wasn't it?' 'Yes, terrible. Why we even bother entering is beyond me. Everyone hates us.' 'I know! Jesus Christ on a bike.' So a little snapshot from middle England.

With all due respect, there's probably been past winners who pre-date these tags and pronouns. It's hardly history-making, winning something on the basis of votes. Nobody will even remember him/them/whatever in a few days.

I just watched the UK entry. WTAF? It's honestly no wonder the public vote gave him zero. Some of the posts on X are priceless. One person posted something along the lines of, 'Oh, why can't we just enter a nice song, performed by someone with a decent voice, nice clothes, sparkly shoes, backing singers doo-bopping.' Got a point. I'd rather this than five blokes dressed as boxers dry-humping each other.

Gold star!

I know there's a lot of love for these, but there's one thing that irritates the pants off me regarding these. Once you see it, it can't remain unseen. Even John Myung mentioned it, but Yamaha ignored him!

Used once during a ridiculous pandemic video shoot. Just shoot me something for postage (fiver?).

I didn't watch it at all this year ... preferring Notts Forest v Chelsea, Clarkson's Farm and a bit of Doctor Who. Maybe I'm just a curmudgeonly old man, but how anyone in this country would be right-minded enough to even consider entering it is beyond me. It's a 100% (musical) career killer. Long gone are (what I suppose) the good old days of entente cordiale, Katie Boyle, fair play and voting for whether a song actually has merit.

Well it appears the preamp is at fault. Swapped the battery over, preamp is dead. There appears to be activity on it; I can tap around exposed contacts and this registers on the amp (you can hear a buzzing), beyond that no sound. Groan.

Just a quick question on end of battery life. Most of my kit is now active and I've been fairly diligent in changing the PP3s annually (on my birthday start of December, or thereabouts), but that slipped as I haven't really been doing much musically. Six months late.... I'm just curious about end of battery life experience. I pulled one of my Lulls out yesterday/John East circuit. Circuit was still live, but quite unpleasant tonally, no clarity, farty. I've experienced batteries being dead, never when they're on their last legs. I've got a few Duracells arriving today.

I've got an Epiphone FT-140 Dreadnought acoustic I've owned since I was 12/13, so mid-70s. My gran died, mum treated me off her inheritance. It came from Adam Music, Staines (see thread elsewhere). Needs a refret. Basses, nowhere near. Ten years. [EDIT] I also have a four-way extension cable that's in regular use to this day. I can age it to summer 1977 because it has a sticker on it that says 'The Dags', a punk band we formed at school.

I've got two: Many moons ago, I landed a Hamer FBIV on eBay. It was a Sunday morning, I'd just bought a while Gibson Thunderbird and I was just perusing, like you do. No Case. £375.00, BIN. I did a little panic thing...found some photos of Nikki Sixx for verification purposes and clicked. It arrived intact, wrapped in about six inches of bubblewrap: Next up. Friday night, Gumtree. Spotted a chap locally selling off a job lot of guitars, a bass and a practice amp for £50.00. My heart did a little jump. The bass was a 1978 Aria Primary Bass. I've played a few Precision basses in my time and this one is easily as good, if not better than the Fenders. It's gnarly.

Gibson serial numbers really can't be relied upon, even more so the older they allude to be. From those photos it looks ok. Wouldn't worry about pot-codes; these are easily swapped out.

I'd love to know how it would go down with the flock if you turned up with one of these:

I sourced one for a mate of mine. It's really a very good instrument.

Well, full credit to Thomann, they're just sending me a replacement, but I need to hang onto the old one for six months in case they want it back.