NancyJohnson

While I doubt I'm going to be able to retire off the royalties, current band has racked up 1,000 Spotify plays of just one song in the last two weeks. (Old band, hundreds of songs, six plays...which alludes that not even the band are listening.) I keep asking myself how? It seems to have been picked up in Mexico and that spread to Brazil; there's an even spread generally on a global basis. Weird.

I think I'm fortunate that the smallest hole - which used to be for switching the active circuit on - is plumb centre of a piece of the wood grain, so with luck it won't be so visible.

Little update. Body is fully stripped. It's a three-piece, the back gives nothing away but the front is nicely matched. The only worrysome thing is there's a small split in the jointing near the bridge/control cavity, so I'll dribble some superglue over it and rub any excess back. Some other small superficial dings that I'll try and rub back. Electrics? I'd like to put some Delano's in...the ones with the bigger polepieces. There's six holes and a side-jack. I generally play with everything open, so maybe a pickup selector switch > master volume > Darkglass Tone Cap. This will allow me to dowel/lose the smallest hole on the front. Dunlop Straploks. Definitely going with a black stain and clear coat.

Flat TVs are notoriously poor from an audio perspective. Our 'main' TV (although possibly the least used) is a smartish 55" Samsung and it's pretty much just a big monitor; I route the audio into an Onkyo amp via a Toslink cable.

I stripped the hardware off the body last night, stick the bridge in the dishwasher, it's come out super shiny. Started sanding; the finish is very thin, I got most of the front finish off with 60 grit in about five minutes. The top has nice grain and I'm thinking about just going with a few couple of layers of black Feblings leather dye (which should define the grain) and a satin clear coat.

I went to the Focusrite Scarlet after a change of DAW rendered my old interface incompatible. Worked great straight out of the box, I use it for audio in and have a couple of powered monitors plugged into it. All good.

My dear boy, I think it was the chocolate that did him in. I'd have respected him more if his voice had given out after a double bourbon and a piece of pizza.

Not until now, no. I can't afford (or want) to liberate another one!

Not guilty, m'lord. I started Nancy Johnson about ten years ago, perhaps more, we limped along, line-up changes, had a name change and I bailed October 2017. Long story. Not an original member left. Not the first time someone mentioned they'd gigged with me. I think they've had three bassists since I left.

Tell more! What band?

That's an absolute munter.

Garbage. I created a long Garbage playlist yesterday, I really liked the first album and the b-sides from that period, but lost interest after Version 2.0 came out; I've bought the albums, but never really listened to them. I'll admit I hated No Gods, No Masters.

@Wolverinebass Ring any bells, bonny lad? Lol

I wonder, with a bit of fettleing, I could put Spector circuit in there.

How do the knobs function? 2 X Volume/Tone and a pickup selector switch?

I've been looking too. Earlier I was trying to work out whether the differences between the RS824 and RS924 where just purely the active circuit. The knobs on both seem to be in the same places but the 924 has an extra switch on the front for the actives. I've seen these with cream pickup covers and black ones...right now, as I'm thinking about finish colours, a mate of mine has suggest a black/metal flake with matching headstock, it this was the case, I'd go with black covers (or large pole-piece Delanos) and chrome knobs. I'd need to procure a replacement decal and also get a truss rod cover made up.

You know where I live. Just text me a few minutes beforehand to get the kettle on.

No, good lord sir, you get me wrong. This is written in a third party narrative: Look, I do understand the feel-good factor, the smug flaunting of that custom shop logo and the sly knowing that your £750 Jazz bass actually costing you five or six times that (and that you'll reassuringly keep telling yourself it's somehow 'better' than another Jazz bass a guy was playing earlier on the same bill), but if you're desperate for an early '70s Jazz, wait and one will almost definitely show up eventually. Cough, Reverb, cough. I do both angry, irritated and misunderstood extremely well, but smug isn't part of my persona. The point I was trying to convey here is that I've been on bills with plenty of bands where there's this gear snobbery going on and where guys look down on you if you're playing a budget instrument. If you want to play the JAX-T4 card, I had one guy ask me whether I made it myself when he produced a Gibson Thunderbird.

Cheap Trick.

A long time ago, in a town not too far from me... My first proper original bass was an Ibanez Roadster RS-924, from memory it cost me about £180.00 from FD&H Music on Charing Cross Road and we parted ways when I either sold it on or part-exchanged it against a Travis Bean 2000 (£375, somewhere in Lewisham). I'd got fond memories of it, here's me, early 80s: You may have seen Chris @umcoo posting about restoring this baby - my heart did a little flutter and I kind of fell in love again. I don't actually know what I want to do with it yet. I'm never going to be able to find an original pre-amp fot it, so I suspect I'll fill the holes and stick a John East in there and some complimentary pickups. The body is a bit rough, so I'll get it refinished; I prefer a black bass, so probably black. Neck looks fine. I have enough on my plate at the moment, so there's not going to be any updates in the short term. I may start over Christmas.

Much like signature basses, I don't get (ie Fender) custom shop kit at all, especially where you're simply getting a derivated version of instruments that exist in their thousands and thousands elsewhere. Look, I do understand the feel-good factor, the smug flaunting of that custom shop logo and the sly knowing that your £750 Jazz bass actually costing you five or six times that (and that you'll reassuringly keep telling yourself it's somehow 'better' than another Jazz bass a guy was playing earlier on the same bill), but if you're desperate for an early '70s Jazz, wait and one will almost definitely show up eventually. Cough, Reverb, cough.

Amazon is first port of call for me. I detest shopping at the best of times; Amazon is generally way cheaper, I get next day delivery included in my Prime membership, I don't have to pay petrol/parking or spend hours walking around a town chancing my luck trying to find stuff that probably isn't available or in stock locally.

Years ago we got a late gig, 40 minute punky set supporting someone. Free rehearsal. Vocalist had the start of a cold, but said it wouldn't affect things. He spent an hour before our slot drinking Guinness and eating several bars of chocolate. Voice gave out after a couple of songs. He just did the old knife across the throat thing to say he couldn't go on, so I stepped up, apologised to the 40-50 people watching and said we'd be continuing as a three piece (singer was already off stage at that point). He lumbered back on, pushed me and said, 'We need to talk.' We played for about another 25 minutes, instrumental versions peppered with incoherent vocals and jamming. Went down surprisingly well. When we finished, he'd already left the venue. We did indeed speak and he never sang for us again.