NancyJohnson

I am reminded of this Garfield comic strip that carries the punchline 'It's not the having, it's the getting.' Better still, Wayne Corinne from Chasing Classic Cars ('It's the thrill of the chase.') We could all draw up a shortlist of the usual workhorse suspects (Precision, Jazz, Stingray, Thunderbird), plus a few vanity projects (Spector NS, Kubicki Ex-Factor and so on), but trust me, once you own all these, your eye will ALWAYS wander. There will always be other fish.

Guitars. I think I would have been obsessed with korina stuff, Gibson or Hamer. The pointy ones (Explorer, Vee, Moderna, Futura) and Firebirds.

My best mate is a drummer, but we haven't done anything together in years...our musical paths are quite different. I think he's at five kits at the moment, although he only actually 'drums' when he's in a band environment. From the drummers I know, most have at least two kits, plus several snares/pedals/cymbal sets. The best kit is exclusively home use only, always set up but rarely used, dust/dirt free and more of a vanity thing. The next kit (the one they use for gigs/rehearsals), is a beater...akin to the Rickenbacker owner gigging with a Rockingbetter.

I honestly dread to think what life would be like if I'd played drums; it was an option in my early teens. I'm currently up to seven basses, cabinets, small class-d head, peripherals, so god knows where things would be if I'd been a drummer. Given my propensity for just buying stuff, I suspect my drums would have looked something like this:

There should be an Arbiter waterslide decal on that. My first bass was an ivory coloured one of those. £35.00. I've put a link to one for sale on Reverb...always find it odd when sellers describe instruments like this as rare in an effort to up the ante (and the price). They're rare for a reason; they didn't make or sell that many. 'Rare' isn't a qualifier for being any good. https://reverb.com/uk/item/387282-arbiter-sg-bass-sixties-red-black

This, in a nutshell.

Suppose I've moved from clean, through very dirty, to dirty to a more hi-fi dirty. When all this was fields, I didn't really favour effects at all; I'd had maybe 15 years of just plugging into the front of an amp and that was it. Dejected with music/bands, I stopped playing for a while in the late 90s and had 'The Great Fire Sale'; I kept one bass and got rid of everything else. I was hankered into a local studio project (so no amps required) and the studio owner was obsessed with Line6 PODs, so it was inevitable I'd go the POD route, which was a revelation. I was finally able to dial in a mix of my desired Geddy/JJB dirt and it felt like I'd actually arrived. The Pod gave way to a Sansamp BDDI, then various @Tech21NYC rack and floor kit (RBI/VTBass/Geddy/GT2). All the Tech21 kit gave me the grit I wanted, but they were more controllable/responsive to how I was attacking the bass. So where are we now? I've got a Darkglass A/O head (still for sale, folks - I'd still like a Demeter Minnie), but I'm only using the poweramp side of that and I just switch between a Tech21 Geddy DI2112 or a dUg DP-3X. The Geddy is the one really, though. It sounds great with anything, active, passive, my EUB.

Maybe pin something to the top that just says 'Rickenbackers - Please read.' and put the key points there - no copies, adverts for copies will be pulled etc.

Fountains of Wayne today.

I'm listening to Judie Tzuke's Road Noise; in the mid-80s I played with a guitarist who was obsessed with it. I've lost count of the amount of times I've listened to the first few tracks. Despite this being absolute opposite of what I'd generally listen to, those first few tracks make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Let's see. Three, I think. #1 Travis Bean 2000. #222. Part exchanged for an Ibanez bass about 35 years ago. I know where it is (Oxford). Regret, yes (albeit selfishly from the perspective of how much it's worth now), but would I want it back? Probably not. #2 MusicMan Bongo 5HH. Kind of metallic orange. Sold here, no idea where that is. #3 White Gibson Thunderbird. My first Thunderbird (imported from Japan).; Babicz bridge. I (stupidly) sold it to @police squad to fund one of the Lulls, he sold it soon after to someone here. I can't remember who. That's about the only one I'd like back.

I do remember someone winning it and putting it up for sale shortly after. It would be a crying shame if it ended up in a HRC franchise somewhere.

In early 1986, Alexei Sayle interviewed Motley Crue's Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx, who were in the UK supporting the Theater Of Pain tour. (Days later after a date at Hammersmith Odeon, Sixx would overdose and come to in a dumpster the morning after. He would go on and play the second night without incident.) At the end of the clip below, Sixx surrenders a Hamer Standard Bass as a competition prize (he used this at Castle Donington 18 months previously). I've wondered many times what happened to it. Anyone know?

Chrome knobs. Generic chrome truss rod cover.

My wife doesn't sleep well at all; we have taken to putting this on at about 10.30pm...the opening passages seem to slow your heart rate. She's said that even if she does wake at 4.30am it's just there, lulling her back to sleep.

Watched the documentary behind Max Richter's 'Sleep', last night. If you don't know what Sleep is, it's an eight-hour piece composed by Max Richter and the film covers the writing process through to the handful of performances he's done of it in a load of diverse venues globally. During the performance, he's at the piano for seven and a half hours. It's a brilliant film; compelling and engaging.

(Me)

I had a very dear departed friend (old guy, father of a good friend of mine) who narrated passages for a prog band from Florida; he sent me a CD years ago and I profess to never having listened to it. I've just fired it up. It's on Spotify. Will be nice to hear his voice again.* [Edit. *Blimey, I just heard the first bit where he talks and - despite it being a load of proggy tosh/nonsense - it was quite moving just hearing his voice after so long.]

Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Some years ago, I edited out all the chaff/speaking/nonsense from WTTPD; so much better.

I've never played a fan-fret instrument, bass or guitar and don't believe the question is able to warrant a simple yes or no answer. Newer builders/manufacturers are more inclined to experiment whereas Gibson/Fender rest to their laurels too much; I see the current crop of fanfret Spectors displaying an element of bandwagoning and profiteering. It doesn't matter what makers bring out, for all the naysayers, there'll always be someone who believes that this new innovation is somehow the greatest invention since sliced bread. Given the choice for multiscale instrumentation, I find the Novax Charlie Hunter to be a far more interesting/intriguing proposition to fan-fret basses being the answer to string tension/whatever. These things look truly wonderous and remember, Novax were making these years ago: The Hybrid Guitars Model 8 is a newer version of the above:

I was chatting to Barry at the Bass Centre a few months ago about this. He said he's busy enough working for the business without spending time scrutinising posts here. It doesn't matter whether you love or hate how the Bass Centre has evolved to where it is now; it's really just a business shifting its own branded product along with NS Design and Brian May kit, but they do it well, Chris (the tech) ensures everything goes out set up, communication is great and I don't know that I've read anything detrimental about them.

It's 2021, we are a suspicious species by nature and sometimes (mostly), and especially where there's money changing hands, a phone call may not cut it. It's probably better to have an email trail of some sort. I've worked in environments where you drop the phone and it rings immediately.

PUSA.

Most of us have probably got a story or two about poor communication that results in bad customer service. While I've no particular axe to grind insofar as BD are concerned, I've used them 5-10 times I suppose - last time about two and a half years ago - the three major purchases (two Lull basses and a used Spector) were all less than straightforward considering I spent c.£12K. These caused some overnight frustration/anxiety, but all came out OK in the end. To Mark's detriment (and I've mentioned this previously) I get the feeling he is totally hands on across the business and tries to micromanage everything (which is fair enough), but when he does delegate, it's like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. To his credit, BD is a great resource for bass players...he does have some fantastic kit in there and long may he continues, blips or otherwise.