NancyJohnson

I remember seeing an auction on the Gardner Holgate site a few years ago where someone paid £400 for some wood shavings from a guitar. People are stupid. People with deep pockets will buy anything. If baked beans were £500 a can, people would be eating them with toothpicks and saying how delightful they are and how they pop. https://www.guitar-auctions.co.uk/sale/166/551/Jimi-Hendrix--wood-shavings-from-the-Zemaitis-twelve-string-acoustic-guitar-played-by-Jimi-Hendrix-in-1967-framed-with-presentation-plaque-21-x-17--From-the-collection-of-Keith-Smart-chair-of-the-Zemaitis-Owners-Club-When-a-club-member-restored-the-guitar-he-sent-Keith-some-shavings-Keith-donated-some-to-the-Boat-Project-charity-some-to-the-Zemaitis-museum-and-framed-a-number-up-for-himself-This-is-the-last-frame-that-was-in-his-study-at-his-home-and-comes-complete-with-various-copies-of-newspaper-cuttings-and-a-reference-DVD-containing-news-reports

Crikey, his Hamer Cruisebass went for $26k. I have little respect for provenance and even in times like these, there's too many people with very deep pockets that can afford to buy these things ne'er to see the light of day again.

I'm old enough to remember the old OLP Stingrays. A mate had one; QC on delivery was horrific, but after a bit of jiggery-pokery it played really nicely.

All me own work, guv! I should be working in design. I have another one on my PC.

Wonderful Christmastime by Macca/Wings makes me feel very warm and fuzzy any time I hear it. My dad loved Christmas. Little kid joy. I just remember him, 7.00am Christmas morning, opening my bedroom door, cup of tea for me in one hand, a little Hitachi radio-cassette player in the other, Wonderful Christmastime blaring, and him shouting, 'Come on boy! Time for the up! It's Christmaaaaaaas!'.

I just did a little bit of sick.

I'm not really a Beatles/McCartney fan as such, but I do have a soft spot for Wings, so that's it for today. Red Rose Speedway, Band On the Run, Venus & Mars, At The Speed Of Sound, Wings Across America.

I worked for a watch company a few years back; the whole black Friday thing is a bit odd and somewhat of a con. Tons of our dead stock/undersales would go out to the bigger stores, overpriced for a while and then miraculously slashed by £££ to clear. It was all horribly manipulative; there were no real bargains. I'm assuming the same applies in every sector.

I'd just take Obscure Alternatives by Japan, the book John Dies At the End by David Wong and some decent nail clippers.

Always felt a bit underwhelmed with Fenders. Owned three or four in the hope that they'd simply fit in, but nah. Just on the subject of Jaguars, the ones with all the switching options, reckon we're all of the belief that we'll be flipping the switches with authoritative command mid-song and dialling up these fantastic new sounds; truth is we'll find the sweet-spot and rarely move away from that setting, thus rendering the options redundant. Personally, if you have a desire for a Fender, buy used or better still buy a Lakland or a Sandberg. These are way better instruments.

Shudder To Think. What a band they were.

I do find gear with provenance to be a bit of a weird thing. The sadness is that many fans will not have deep enough pockets for (most of) this stuff and inevitably they'll end up in the hands of the Hard Rock Cafe or as vanity purchases by people who have little or no intention of ever playing them. I'd put my hat on most of this stuff never seeing a live stage again. Shame.

I suspect he's not particularly concerned what the woods are, so long as it's stable and straight. I can set up/level etc. without too much issue.

I'm curious, has anyone bought one of those Chinese sub-£100 Fender-styled necks off eBay? I have a project incoming from a mate and have been asked to source an inexpensive neck ("not a maple board").

I saw this posted on Anderson's YT channel and honestly couldn't be ar$3d with it. The bass videos aren't anywhere near as good since Nathan King left/stopped. (Mersey Rod/Drain Unblockers had just posted and that's way more entertaining than these two.) I know a lot of it is in the edit, but there's absolutely zero chemistry between these two and a distinct lack of worldliness from Cici. Christ, even my wife watches the Captain and Pete stuff.

I played one of the Tributes at a Dawsons store when they came out. Action was about 15mm at the 12th fret. Makes you wonder whether guy doing QC that day was allowed to bring his guide dog in or not.

Cort ... I'd like your basses a whole lot more if you stopped cutting this bit out of the headstock.

If you're making a true copy, the LS9 headstock of below. It's the same as all these Epiphone Les Pauls, the headstock is wrong. They seem to be able to do it properlyish with Flying Vs/Explorers/Thunderbirds, but can't resist putting an adapted headstock on anything 2 or 4 aside.

The main problem with Epiphone is the headstock. I'm sure they're reasonably adept at creating fairly adept body-copies, but in the past they just knob around with the design. Do you really want P/J pickups (again) and this munter of a headstockon the Ripper/LS9?

Anyone ... Make a reliable, small (DG M200 sized), affordable, loud poweramp. Something that's small enough to sit on a board. Just a power switch, a line in, a Speakon speaker output and a big feck-off volume/gain knob. If you want to get all fancy, a 9v/18v output as well.

How did I settle on my string choice? The destination following a long journey; I use Elixir Nanowebs on most of my basses, I have a set of Markbass Long Evos on one. For me, it got to a ridiculous point where I could be spending £60-80 a month changing strings once they became too ponky. I'd be using D'Addario or Dunlop (or whatever was in my box of stuff) at £20 a pop and these lasted about as long as the shelf life of a Boots prawn sandwich. Yes, Elixirs are expensive, maybe double+ that of budget brands, but they last for ages and retain their zing. (Likewise goes Long Evos.) I don't think I've changed any strings this year.

When these bridges came out (about ten years ago), I swapped out three or four on my Thunderbirds. The Hipshot was a country mile ahead of the stock three-pointer. Moving slightly forward, give some consideration to the Babicz replacement, which in my opinion is a country mile better than the Hipshot. Interestingly, the design kind of apes the old three-pointer as well, so it looks a bit more in keeping with what it's there to replace.

You're not John Berry, are you?