NancyJohnson

My Cruise bass. Yummy. I was thinking about moving this one on, but it's just too nice.

We had a drummer that we needed to let go. Nobody had the guts to do it so we broke the band up and reformed it a few weeks later. Singer and guitarist were behind the plot, but then the singer didn't want anything to do with the sacking. He was a lovely guy, just not good enough. Always late, gear falling apart, couldn't remember the material. A few weeks before the break, we gigged at the Half Moon in Putney and he missed most of the soundcheck; we borrowed the headliners drummer (a young French lady) and we sounded fantastic. He turned up a few minutes before end of our check. Singer wasn't convinced so we rehearsed with a different drummer just to prove a point. Interestingly, guitarist is on a new project and said things weren't going well with him drummer, he sent me a text saying he was so desperate he nearly called the guy we dropped. Sometimes it's just too hard to sit someone down and be brutally honest with them. Sometimes you have to do things differently/covertly.

This is the first year I didn't even bother to record it and fast forward through it on New Year's Day. The tiniest of nods to the 2022 show, Rachael & Vilray. Just beautiful.

I dug out my FBIV yesterday, primarily for a quick service/set up. Man alive. It's been in the case for about a year. Still in tune. Plays as beautifully now as it did when it went away.

It's not hip to criticise. The Hoot' is as outdated and banal as Andy Stewart's Hogmanay TV shows and needs to be consigned to the bin. It's a music show for people who don't really like music.

Lest we forget, the original Thunderbird pickups weren't designed as being bass-specific; they were just leftover from lap-steel production instruments and just paired up.

This in a nutshell. The only reason they reissued the NR Thunderbird about ten years ago was they were likely all over the bass forums and saw that the Bach models were gaining traction and saw there was money to be made. Gibson really don't care about the bass side of their business; it's a great pity that Agnesi and Co don't sit down with [us] and say why they're uninterested. I'm just flicking through Rob's Gibson Bass Book. I'd be happy to see a few period correct reissues; EB-2, Thunderbird II, either of the Grabbers, The Ripper, 20/20 or the EB-650.

I really liked this one. Didn't think there was much wrong with it. Remember you saying it was just a parts built one. If you want to try the latex tube method, happy to pop some over

My Trace rig was ridiculous; GP12 SMX pre, stereo and mono power amps, three cabinets. For bass it was somewhat overblown (and great fun), but for guitar it just didn't have any throw whatsoever. Oddly, bass into a guitar amp (fed into bass-centric cabinets) sounds fine, if not a little in the thin side tonally. Perhaps it's a one way street tonally.

Concerning foam pads, I'd advocate using latex tubing on the screws. It'll compress and bounce back on adjustment.

Is this the same one you used in Heights?

Of the belief that a geetar through a bass rig is ok for low volume practice at home (with some kind of processing in front of the amp), but in a live context it just doesn't work. Believe me, I have tried. Several times. Doesn't really matter if someone goes, 'Well, <insert name here> did it.' Not limited to my current backline (Darkglass AO900, a pair of DG 1x12s, Barefaced Big One, plus a Fender Pugilist dirt pedal), I could put any combination of this up against my old 75w Line 6 Spider IV and the Line 6 will beat it 24/7. I do recall many years ago, plugging my old Gibson 335 into a huge Trace Elilot rig I was running with the expectation that this would leave my fellow band members lying on the floor with blood coming out of their ears, but the sad reality was that it just sounded ponky and didn't even cut through the mix even at quite low volumes. Someone with a more technical nuance will probably be able to answer as to why, but my feeling is bass cabinet design doesn't help in the slightest and the circuitry sweet-spot in bass amps design is for lower frequencies. Remember too that until quite recently there was an expectation for bass amps to run a lot cleaner than their guitar-based brethren.

I remember seeing one up in London a few times. Just hanging on the wall in one of the shops in Denmark Street. It was there for yonks. Couldn't even tell you what colour it was, but I do remember it had diagonal stripes on it, which on closer inspection turned out to be wide strips of electrical tape. The bassist in NWOBHM band Rock Goddess played one:

😄 Tickets are already on sale for next year's Christmas sing-along; I know it's a long way off, but it's a hugely entertaining evening. It appears that the seats we were in (2nd row, right in the middle, little kids in front of us, so clear view), now form part of a VIP experience now (VIP lounge, drink, foodstuffs), which is a tad disappointing (and over double the price), but it's the way of the world I suppose. One *VERY* entertaining element from last night, we had a group of people behind us who'd travelled down from Yorkshire for a few days. Every time something was announced, they'd literally be going to each other (and apply an ee'bah'gum accent here), 'Ooh, I bloody love this one, don't you love this one? Do you love this one, mum?' and then they'd all go, 'Ee, yes, I love this one.' One of their number sang along constantly, and while credit to him, he was riffing a bit and not necessarily singing the right words or tune. He just didn't care.

I saw the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Albert last night.

I have an option on a (cheap) Jazz bass body and if I go for it, would consider trying to recreate a reverse-P, Mark Hoppus style thing, so questions. #1. Filling the bridge and (possibly) part of the control cavity rout. Has anyone used an epoxy based filler to good effect rather than routing out a bigger hole and trying to glue in a block of wood? #2. Does anyone know whether a Mark Hoppus scratchplate will fit over the old Jazz routs with little or no fettling?

Had a full clear out about 25 years ago, just because I fell out of love with playing following an overlong wilderness period. Didn't play for ages. If there's one positive outcome, it's that when you do start rebuilding - because we all will at some point under similar circumstances - it really focuses your mind on what you need to build a set up from the bottom up. Good luck to you @bubinga5

Shameless plug:

A noisy Bob Mould/Sugar playlist. On shuffle.

My best tone was when I recorded my white Thunderbird into a BDDI into a little Boss multitrack. Recorded in my kitchen. Perhaps it was just planetary alignment, who knows. Everything else is a close approximation of that ever since. I'm just happy I was able to capture it.

Sitting listening to the BBC's Stereo Underground. 'No Time to be 21' by The Adverts comes on. Wife goes, 'Is this Weezer?'. Inside I'm laughing, but at the same time I'm thinking, feck, Weezer sound just like this.

I remember when Lidl opened in our village, my original feeling was dismay; we'd lost a really nice '50s garage with some nice vintage cars on the forecourt, which was replaced by a featureless supermarket, which I vowed never to use. First Lidl experience was actually in Cyprus, well after our local one opened. Pretty suprised at quality/cleanliness/prices. Visited our one shortly thereafter, much the same. End of the day, milk is milk. Why go to Tesco/Sainsbury? Never been someone swayed by advertising (I don't watch much terrestrial/commercial TV); I'm strong enough in the head to make my own decisions and don't need Mr Bubbles to tell me Asda sausage rolls are the ones to buy.

No such thing as being done. Nope. There's always going to be something. Always. You'll see something that will be a slow burner, maybe it'll be something as simple as the Jazz you have looking better in a solid black and then one will come up for sale, you might have a few hundred £££ in the bank and you start doing the maths. That, my friend, is how it works. That's how I've ended up with a room full of kit. That's how nearly everyone on Basschat has a room full of kit. Nope, you're not done. You're just getting started. 😄

I bought two bits of kit this year, a second Darkglass 1x12 and a black Spector Euro-X. Nothing went out. All credit to my mate Gary, AKA @cetera of this parish, for coordinating the Spector builds; 'tis a thing of beauty. *Wee edit. I completely forgot that I sold on my Spector Euro LT to partially fund the Euro-X. So yes, there was an out.

Are people actually shallow enough nowadays to go to <insert supermarket chain here> because <insert celebrity name here> is fronting their Christmas advertising campaign? Call me Mr Grumpypants, but while I love the element of warm and fuzzy that this time of year brings, I can pick up everything we need from Lidl, which is about 500m from the bed where I'm typing this. Don't worry about how much coin changed hands to acquire the services of Bublé either; Asda are bankrolled by Walmart and a couple of billionaires from Lancashire. They're probably not short of a few quid and metaphorically had Bubbles fee down the back of the sofa. If we have any US members reading, what's the celeb-fronted advertising like for Walmart, Albertsons or Target like at this time of year?