NancyJohnson

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.

I get a bit of a wobble on if I see any (yes, any) bass in black with a dark board and matching headstock. It will always make me do a double check. Point of fact those Stealth/Darkglass Stingrays; I have no need or desire for one, but they do look beautiful and I recognise that.

My two Lulls are pretty much the one/two shop stop. I've been through so much kit over the years, I figure these will be with me until I cark it, even if they're just on stands reminding me of glories that could have been.

My Vitriol.

I'll always remember a mate of mine, quite straight-faced, telling anyone in earshot that he'd been in his car listening to Simon Bates doing Our Tune on Radio 1. He recounted the tragic tale of a young couple (let's call them Jane and Mike) who had met young, fallen in love and married, only for Mike to lose both legs in a tragic accident at a sawmill where he worked. We were all listening with our mouths open, at which point he said, "So old Batesy goes, 'So for Jane and Mike, here's their special song, Elvis Costello and The Attractions with I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down.'" Oh the hilarity.

I have a bass player mate who fell offstage while ducking to avoid being hit by a bottle. Sprained ankle and bruised ego. Does this count?

Gadzooks.

Despite achieving double-figure Thunderbird purchases over the years and while I never pulled the trigger on one of these, I did actually play one for a few minutes in New York when they came out. I have to say that the first mod I would do on a three-point bridge was replace it with a Hipshot Supertone; this was the first time I'd seen the Babicz bridge, so I eventually went the expensive route of swapping out the Hipshot Supertones for the Babicz units. I honestly couldn't work out what the microswitches were actually doing, if anything. Any change to the tone must have been so subtle my ears weren't registering it.

Living Colour today.

I had a Precision from that period and the finish was bombproof; I'd take (with a big pinch of salt) the claim a previous owner lived in Orkney...what did he do, leave it outside or use it as an oar? That looks like it's been in a flood. It's odd there's little evidence of finish damage on the neck.

I know NS Design are in business to make money, but the cost of the extraneous hardware is quite prohibitive when you consider what it costs for the two strap systems and the end pin. Concerning the end-pin, surely there should be a simple way of cobbling something together with quick-release clamps (rather than something you need to screw in like on a cymbal stand) for a tenth of the NS Design price. We all probably have the parts knocking around to facilitate this.

So, this'll be the last picture for a bit. Got the bridge pickup back from Josi a couple of days ago. Concerning the wiring, at present* it's just wired it through a three-way switch into the output jack; no volume control (yet). There's no grounding issues, it's silent. For the record, the knobs are just dummies on old pots; I have some of the same knobs on order, but in chrome which will set things off nicely. I need a truss rod cover. Dunlop Straploks fitted. To be honest, it sounds quite lovely as it is; I'd argue I always play with everything open, so the wiring apes this. I needed to do a bit of up and down adjustment to balance the pickups, action is borderline rattly. I suspect that if I left the holes open in the body, I'd be aching to put an East in, but right now as it's all closed up I'm happy with it visually, I'm okay with it. Of the Warman pickups, honestly if you need a decent affordable P/J set, check him out. [Edit v. 2.0] I woke up quite early and figured that as the pots I used for the dummy knobs were EMG push/fit connector types, it should be easy to put a volume control into the circuit at least. Took about ten minutes at lunchtime. So this is parked for now...