NancyJohnson

Novelty singles aside, back when all this was fields I remember as a kid hearing two singles that were distinctly Sweet-sounding and it was a delight to rediscover these a year or two ago. If you're a fan of Sweet F4nny Adams/Desolation Boulevard era Sweet, check out 'Good Time F4nny' by Angel (not the Punky Meadows Angel) on Spotify and Interplanetary Twist by Screemer; the latter was on Spotify, but disappeared, then came up on a podcast of some kind. Screemer were fronted by Zaine Griff, who seemed to be somewhere on pretty much every gig I went to in the mid-80s.

If nothing, we British used to be suckers for a novelty single. Clive Dunn, St Winifreds, Blobby. I have a single at home that I bought in Spain when I was about ten, called 'Couac Couac' (or 'Quack-Quack')...I found this photo off eBay. It was everywhere when we were on holiday there, I'm amazed it never charted here. Awful. 1/10.

With the buzzing, I'm always tempted to ask whether it's only there when you play a bee.

That white one was lovely. I only let it go to fund one of the Lulls. I hope whoever has it is making good use of it.

I've owned several signature basses, but they weren't purchased because they had anyone's name on them. The Geddy Jazz was OK, not really my thing, the Lakland DJ5 was just a lovely thing and I'd have been drawn to it irrespective of whether (or not) it had had Darryl Jones' name on it. I've still got a Lull Jeff Ament model; again I was drawn to it visually not because it has his name on it; now that is a lovely bass.

Gene Simmons, live earlier this week, in Chile. Signature model just out of shot. Or not even in the country.

Scott Dasson (inventor of the Badbird bridge) posted this earlier.

People have been swapping out the three-pointer for years. What's odd is why they went with the Hipshot and not the Babicz bridge they went with a few years back. As terrible as the three-pointer is (and what an improvement the Hipshot is over that), the Babicz replacement is a country mile better than the Hipshot (by comfort, design and functionality).

Nope. Just nope. This is just wrong on so many levels; aside from a brief dalliance with a black bi-centennial Thunderbird in the 1970s, nothing in his legacy says he deserves a signature model of this. A Grabber/Ripper would have been more appropriate. Bad Gibson. Bad, bad Gibson.

I'd always say that if you're using a stomp (or anything with bass/mids/treble knobbage), then you need push that through the effects return (or just use a power amp) and allow that to shape your sound. This way, you're not layering the fundamental core (B/M/T) on top of what the pre-stage is already delivering.

I've been doing some heavy lifting work today and I've been spinning this back to back with Curve's Doppelganger. Marvelous.

I am loving Alex Lifeson's new post-Rush project. If nothing it more than proves that old guys know how to make decent pop music, because that's what this is. It's a bit of a departure for all you Rush diehards, reminds me of Curve. A bit of Missing Persons.

I'm listening to a band called Momma. They've been going a few years but their output is quite low (two albums a couple of singles). We listen to a Boston MA indie station called WFNX 101.7, they've had a few things played on there...they're a bit like Veruca Salt/The Breeders. Which isn't a bad thing.

That wouldn't have been a bad thing, mind.

In 1983, when I were just a mere slip of a lad, me and my good lady saw Big Country, The Alarm and Yip Yip Coyote at the Lyceum. So taken with the band, me and a mate decided we should catch them a few months later and decided that (for logistical reasons) we should fly to Jersey and see them in the Fort Regent Centre. My brother (and my mate's dad) both worked for British Airways, so flights were arranged. We'd procured tickets through my mate's channel Island office and found two days board in what could best be described as a house straight out of The Munsters in Pontac. Gig day we pulled on our Big Country shirts, thumbed a lift to St Helier and got picked up by a very drunk man driving a Lord's Taverners Fun Bus. We arrived at the venue around midday, found a bar, had some lunch at which point Big Country just sauntered in. I doubt any of the punters in there knew who they were, but they saw us and just sat down with us. We had a couple of pints, discovered Mark Brzezicki knew my brother, that Tony Butler lived a couple of doors away from a friend of mine in Sandhurst and that Stuart was amazed and appreciative that we'd flown over for the gig from London. They invited us in for the soundcheck. We just hung around with them until 7.00pm. Post gig, we went back to Chez Munsters and were back at the airport about 7.00am for the flight back and in they strolled, saw us and just started cheering and greeting us like old friends. Stuart bought me a roll of film for my camera as I was out of money. We were on standby, so had to wait for seats on the plane, we got called at the last minute, got on the plane and they're cheering us on (again). I met Stuart a couple of times after and he remembered the whole thing. He was a lovely, lovely bloke. I miss him. He shouldn't have gone like that. [Edit] Just wanted to add something for context here. We (me, my best mate and my wife) were all mahoosive Skids fans and remember that The Crossing hadn't even been released when we did the Jersey trip. Obviously, it was an absolute joy to be two young blokes standing in the middle of the venue watching them soundcheck for an hour, it was like a private gig. (Later in the same year, I recall an occasion where me and my mate experienced something akin to absolute joy at hearing 'In A Big Country' on the radio for the first time. We were in my old Datsun 120Y coupe, driving to rehearsal down The Causeway, approaching Staines Bridge. I haven't experienced such delight since. The excitement when it came on - and the silence that descended while we listened - was just fantastic.) I can recall Stuart saying he'd bought a watch for £2.99 and kept showing it to us. 'Two, ninety nine!'. Also Kenny Dalglish (and family) was at the gig and on the same flight home. He saw us in our Country shirts and got a bit animated; I couldn't understand a word he said. Worryingly (I suppose), the drinking thing was evident with Stuart at the airport on the way back. He was knocking back shorts at 7.00am in the morning.

When we were discussing this it was quite a decent discussion, pretty much 'Would Karen Carpenter have stuck with her brother or turned into someone of legendary status (like Dolly Parton, Stevie Nicks or Kylie) and making guest appearances on Dave Grohl projects?' But hey, it's Basschat, so of course Hendrix would be making cheese in Monterrey and Karen Carpenter would be on the board of directors at DHL. 😁

We're just sitting down listening to The Carpenter's Gold and we're discussing the old 'what if...' subject. The subject matter briefly moved to John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and so on. I'd be interested in what members here think may have happened had Karen Carpenter, Hendrix etc. not passed away at such a young age. Would Hendrix have played Live Aid? Would The Carpenters be Glastonbury Legends regulars? And so on.

What's with the 40mm nut thing? I didn't realise there were so many wussies here. You never eaten an apple? Have difficulty picking it up? Sheesh.

xiv) Pointy basses (Explorers, Vs, BC Rich) xv) Basses (in general) derived from longstanding guitar designs that don't quite work in translation (Explorers, Vs, Les Pauls) xvi) Fan fretted basses. xvii) Six string basses (or more, ie Conklin) xviii) Maybe this is more a mental thing, but the more someone tells me a bass 'is really great,' and 'you'd love it!' the more off-putting it becomes. Musicman Stingrays for example. Why the hell do you think I had a brief love affair with a Bongo 5HH. It was because nobody liked them. xix) Basses with fake truss rod covers and decals. Not fooling anyone. xx) Factory distressing. I suppose if you went the Fender custom shop route, the prices could have parity against an actual vintage instrument that the new build apes to be. Just shop old. I think that's it.😁

viii) Gold hardware. ix) Short scale basses. x) Not a fan of body shapes where the top matches the bottom (ie Gibson EB3). It worked with my old Travis Bean, but generally no). xi) Natural/oiled finishes. xii) Mudbuckers. xiii) Oh, headless basses. I'm sure I could hit 20 by lunchtime.

OK, here goes: i) I'm really not a fan of the Jazz/Precision shape. Or Fenders generally. ii) Sunburst finishes generally (especially sunbursts where the colour goes from black to yellow). iii) Maple fingerboards. iv) Hi-gloss finishes that look like furniture. v) Terrible headstock design (ie Cort, Sandberg, Chowny, G&L). vi) Anything with a single pickup (I'm just of the opinion that a twin pickup set up is way more versatile tonally). vii) 'Does it come with a hardshell case?' If the answer is 'no', then well, no. There's probably more.

Bit of a guilty pleasure considering the stuff I usually listen to. Marina and the Diamonds. I find this difficult to pigeonhole; I really like the vocal delivery. I watched a bit of her set at Lollapalooza in Chile over the weekend and it was quite brilliant in a look-at-me-I'm-bonkers kind of way.

Realising the flippancy of my initial comment, I guess my current favourite is this. It's great for recording, it's very easy to play and just makes me want to play better, if that makes sense.

They're all great. If they weren't, I wouldn't own them.

I think the thing that threw me initially was that it wasn't posted on the 1st. Oh, well. It's a great pity it wasn't genuine.