NancyJohnson

I had a real horn for one of these. Will be following this one. P

We've gone the Facebook, Reverbnation, Soundcloud etc. route, plus we make all of our music available for free online. It's always useful to have another gig or two booked after the one you're playing and hand out flyers. The thing is that you simply can't rely on building a following through friends; collectively as a band we have around 1,000 FB [i]Fwends[/i], but struggle to get 40-50 anywhere where we play and even then most of the crowd are walkups. It is disappointing and sometimes I genuinely do wonder why we bother. Friends, unfortunately, do want everything for free, but would never consider reciprocating if the occasion arose - I am sick to the back teeth of people/work colleagues asking me for t-shirts, badges, stickers or CDs. Sorry to vent off, but I had one woman at work, a person who rarely spoke to me, saying she'd seen a photo of me gigging through someone else s FB page and I had been wearing a [i]Nancy Johnson[/i] t-shirt. She just said, straight-faced, 'Can I have one of those t-shirts in your photo?' I answered that I'd just had one done for my own use, to which she asked whether I would get one done for her, but it would cost £15-20. Cue some haggling. I eventually just asked her to name one of our songs and I would bring the freshly laundered t-shirt in and that she could use it as a duster if she wanted. Nothing. No interest in the band, just want something for nowt. P

If the originals band doesn't work out, there's plenty of online sites that should assist you in finding like-minded musicians locally - search for Join My Band, Partysounds, Bandmix, Forming Bands, Music Radar, Musofinder. There's dozens of them. P

Just spotted this thread. In the last week I put a pair of Warman HBP90 into my Epiphone Phant-o-matic, following a long and unfruitful wait for some Gibson P94s to arrive on eBay. They cost just £25.00 for the pair - I just figured if they were rubbish, I'd just recycle them here. That said, they sound a-fecking-mazing...genuinely shocked at how good the tone is and my chosen finish (chrome surround, black case) looks suitably bling. Gone is the mushy/squeally output from the stock Epi humbuckers; from a clarity perspective, it's kind of halfway between a traditional Stratocaster pickup and a humbucker. (Which I suppose sums up what a P90 is anyway.) Lovely! P http://warmanguitars.co.uk/store/hybrids-and-hot-rails/14-warman-hbp90.html

One of the replies is: "I play a Fender J-Bass fretless and use flatwound strings and I do not have this issue." I don't know whether there was supposed to be any irony in that comment...I played a fretless Jazz (with flats) a few years ago and the whole issue was trying to find a spot on the neck where it wasn't dead! P

I believe this bridge should do the trick. I've just ordered one for my Badtz-Maru. P http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Musicman-Style-4-String-Bass-Bridge-Chrome-/181355775785?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2a39a58729

FCN. From memory this stood for 'Fletcher Coppock & Newman'...they were importers of instruments like John Hornby Skewes (I'll leave it to you to work out the acronym). Said Satellite review was the name of the bass (a la Jazz or Precision) and not the manufacturer. I think Satellite guitars were sold through Woolworths, along with Avon and Audition branded instruments. It's amazing how as a kid in Egham, Surrey, me and my mate would pop into Woolies and just drool over these hideous instruments. Times change. P

Any updates? P

Nice. More pics! P

[quote name='howdenspur' timestamp='1395320842' post='2401033'] Glad it's not just me suffering from the curse, though not (yet) put it to bed by actually getting one! The problem has been finding the right type - I like the old chrome look and the old school sound, so you either a) splash out on a 60's or 70 bicentennial Gibson (expensive and a lot of neck breaks out there) get a Lull or Cataldo re-interpretation c) get a Greco (hmmmm) or d) get an modern Epi/Tokai to tart up (not cheap and possibly a sow's ear to start??). Those B&ch NRs are tempting tho. This one (in the OP) is a bit odd...I also think he has dropped the price from ~£1950. Rod [/quote] I'm interested to see how Sean's Bach NR turns out. I like the look of the Lull but the prices are a definite put off. I like some of Carlo's stuff. The REV and NRBird are nice takes on the design, but I think the necks are AllParts or something - he just buys them in them reworks the headstocks. Just get a Gibson! P

Personally, I just love them (well, once I've swapped out the stock bridge), they play well, sound (and look) amazingly good. I'm up to six now in different guises (five Gibson, one Hamer) and my only regrets are, i) that I played so many other brands before finally settling on them and, ii) that I didn't pull the trigger on a cardinal red Twiggy Ramirez prototype that was on sale in the US a couple of years ago. I've never had itchy feet with them either; never this clawing in my mind that I need to sell on for a change. I posted elsewhere that I'm a slightly overweight guy in my 40s, I pull on a Thunderbird and I feel like a skinny guy in my 20s. They're like magic. P

I look at a lot of Thunderbirds - it's a curse. This just looks all wrong, despite the 'custom shop' malarkey. Front jack socket, machine heads, finish, the upper bout is wrong, the strap pin on the side of the body, the control knobs don't even seem to look lined up! It just reeks of an Ali-Baba import. P http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gibson-Thunderbird-bass-guitar-/271428347177?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3f3263e529

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1395011897' post='2397826'] warwick used too.... (in 1984) [/quote] Yummy.

I just thought they looked wrong really. My Streamer had three different necks until The Bass Centre got me a wenge one (which came undrilled). The tech there asked whether I wanted the machine heads on straight and I was tempted. Soooo tempted.

I had a Streamer 5-string for a while, gotta say that while I loved the bass 90%, the 10% I disliked was the machine heads set at an off angle. I'm curious, does anyone actually rotate them to a more traditional angle? Google seems to say no. P

Not working in Firefox or IE at the moment. P

...and in the Effects area about ten days ago! Sheesh.

Jassbass: You'll find that collectively you'll get a better response if you don't post the same topic in different areas of the forum! You've posted virtually the same topic two minutes apart both here and in the Bass Guitars area. P

I looked into this a while back. John East used to make a unit that was based on the Lakland curvy bell plate; I think the part was a straight drop-in replacement. You're going to need to do a degree of work to get the unit installed.

[quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1394107035' post='2387952'] Woolworths special from the early 70s. [/quote] Pretty much what I was thinking when I saw the pictures. Satellite.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1393674603' post='2383156'] Karen Lawrence? [/quote] 1994/Headpins? Haven't heard that name in yonks. Now must check spotify.

This is great fun and another hour wasted! It does make you wonder why manufacturers don't offer a degree of configuration/customisation even in a limited way...it's 2014 kids. Fender (for instance) must be producing hundreds of bodies/necks globally on a daily basis; this isn't a case of following through an instrument or keeping it in house from start to finish (a la their Custom Shop), it should simply be a case of 'simply' stockpiling parts and screwing them together to satiate the desires of their customers, rather than force feeding them a limited number of standard models plus artist editions.