NancyJohnson

Off topic: During one of our overlong US road trips we rested up for a couple of days in a guest house in North Conway, NH; the house had a big communal lounge where upon one evening we were approached by an engaging elderly American chap (I can see him distinctly; baseball cap with some warship emblazoned on the front, comfy shorts, walking shoes, chequered pastel coloured cotton shirt, socks pulled up mid-shin), who had heard us talking and asked where we were from - not wanting to get down to specifics, we just said we lived about 45 minutes west of central London. He actually said, 'London fog' out loud and asked us how we coped with it. Honestly didn't have a clue what he was on about, I recall my mum talking about the smog of her youth but that was about it. We said that well, atmospheric conditions aside, London isn't really any more foggy than anywhere else, but he was insistent and his line of enquiry went more or less, 'No you have it wrong, it's foggy all the time and you don't know what you're talking about.' At least he didn't ask me whether I knew his grandmother or anything. She probably lived in the other street. Anyhow, back on topic now.

Just a quickie, anyone here got a copy of the A Night At The Opera Blu-ray I could borrow for a couple of days? I only found out about this a couple if days ago, desperate for a listen. If you're local (Reading) I'd be fine picking up/returning personally. Cheers

Lol. You probably think it's foggy all the time here too, eh?

About 30 years ago, west Landaan'sThe Faith Brothers just seemed to be the one band I saw many, many times in support slots, but never headlining. They were always wonderful live, great energy, but I'll admit that despite them not really being my thing, I suppose I liked them because nobody else did. They should have been enormous. For some reason yesterday, their single Country Of The Blind popped into my head (and then exited just as quickly until resurfacing at 5.30pm); after work I was (and getting all John Terry on y'donkey) delighted to see their back catalogue on Spotify. I was sitting with my wife and said to her, 'Do you remember this?' Clearly she did because seconds later she was singing along word perfect. So today it's going to be all about the late Billy Franks and The Faith Brothers.

We had this once at a gig, sound guy wrestled her off. She came over after we'd finished and was shouting at our singer, 'It's me! Sally from the top set!'. He had no idea what she was on about and it was a case of drunken mistaken identity. Needless to say, we used it to our advantage and penned something called 'Top Set Sally'.

I'm sure the residents of Winston Avenue are ecstatic that their neighbourhood is the weenie.

Aussie Cyclist Recreates Nirvana’s Nevermind Album Cover For 30th Anniversary: https://www.ladbible.com/news/latest-aussie-cyclist-recreates-nirvanas-nevermind-album-cover-with-gps-20210927

Nah from me too. Many of my mates seemed to have been bewitched by that album; I couldn't work out why. They were carried along on this faux (well, on their part) wave of Nirvana euphoria; the desperation of really having to like that album when you knew they absolutely detested it. And don't get me started about hidden tracks, it's there in plain site, FFS. I doubt I've actually listened to it all the way through since having to endure a 45+ minute car journey with one of the aforementioned mates 30-odd years ago. The nail in the Nirvana coffin for me was the constant rotation of one or two videos on MTV (when they used to play music videos)...you just reached saturation point

I've got D-tuners fitted to two of my basses, they're not something that I'd be entirely happy flipping on and off during songs, I'd sooner just flip it off to a D for convenience and just leave it there. Alternatively, I'd just tune the E down a tone and get on with things. Just on the topic of these, while they're useful, they never really stay on point; the tuning does waver with every use - the string never pops back to an E, it's always predominantly flat. It's a pity that the little threaded nut/spring mechanism couldn't be stabilised - I'm unsure whether losing the spring and simply installing a threaded nut would solve things or whether the issue is caused by a combination of the string slackening/retightening or it getting stuck on the nut.

Isn't this thread more about your favourite basses that well known players play, isn't it? 😂 I'll admit that I was drawn to Thunderbirds because of Overend Watts and Rickenbackers because of Steve Priest, but I'd cite the one-offs or rarer instruments than stock/off the shelf/you-can-buy-these-at-any-music-shop Precisions/Jazz/whatever basses; so I'd err with Mick Karn's later model Travis Bean (wide horns, so any post-600 serial number) or Gene Simmons doublecut Lobue bass.

Well, I emailed Barnes & Mullins earlier and got a reply. Disappointing, but at least they responded. Obviously no way of checking the validity, but hey-ho. Hi Paul, Thank you for your enquiry and interest in Spector Basses. Spector had actually planned to release a Euro 4X this year but unfortunately due to production complications and material shortages they have had to postpone this for the foreseeable future. Sadly there is no date for them at the moment and to be truthful it seems unlikely that we would see them next year either. I am sorry we were not able to give you better news. Many thanks and best regards, Pete Peter Hoggett Barnes and Mullins Ltd

I think you'll find that Gary has dozens and dozens and dozens of some of the most stunning looking Spectors; I'm sure that if they bought out five different derivatives he's end up with all of them at some point (possibly making alternative delivery arrangements, to boot! lol)

I only own the one Spector (Euro LT), I couldn't ever see me expanding on that model and I'm feeling (sorry, Gary) that pretty much everything new from Spector is still being based off the same NS body shape. Surely this will ultimately lead to a degree of apathy from the customer-base; they look great, but we're getting mighty to close to Fender approach whereby they're just sticking to the core models and dressing them with new guts as if they were something new. Spector could, as I understand it, make a 4X/Thunderbird model out of the Czech Republic without any crap from Gibson as the body design patent has expired in Europe, so feasibly they could make them by the busload. There's does seem to be a queue of people here who have shown interest. I do wonder whether there's a minimum order quantity required, you'd think that if they had to make 500 they would easily be able to sell these in the European market alone so long as they didn't get stupid with the pricing; there's no reason why they couldn't bring this in at c.£2K a pop.

While I love a black bass, Spector do seem to be knocking it out if the park with the finishes. That Sundown Glow. Mother.Of.God. Now, yes. If they did a 'bird, with that finish? What is wrong with Korg? They can do these in Europe without any interference from Gibson, why won't they? Bad Korg. Bad, bad Korg.

Potato/Pataaaaarto. Bongos are stunning instruments on so many levels, I wish I still hand my 5-string one. There's absolutely no way these should be included in a fugly bass thread.

The fundamentals for a set up should be a given really; you wouldn't service a car with old oil, flat tyres and dead brakes. Despite the advice here, if you're not confident to adjust the neck, action, intonation etc. then find someone who can. Do not, and I'll say this again, do not start trying to file the nut as if you screw this up, you'll be mired deeper in sh*t Questions: Does the bass play OK? (Tuning aside, the notes all ring clear, the string height is OK.) Is the neck flat/straight along its length or does it bow back or forward? How high is the action at the 12th fret? Post some photos of the actual bridge.

Ian Hunter said Mott The Hoople would go to the US on tour, never take anything, buy all their guitars cheap from pawn shops in Los Angeles, ship the lot back as personal effects and sell them all for profit in Denmark Street on their return. In a few cases, they were buying to order. Going back to @Musicman666 comment, sadly, it's 2021 and it's all about tax revenue now. It makes sense to have some kind of evidence to prove it's yours and has been so for some time (not three days). Remember that HMRC are legally entitled to check your credit card/bank card to support claims that you've only just bought something. Thing is, everyone on Basschat who has imported kit has a different story; my two from Japan were both different. Interestingly, I have a mate who travels on dual passports (British mother, American father) and about 25 years ago he just strolled through Heathrow on his US passport with two new Jackson USA guitars in cases. I do wonder what would happen if you actually went through the red channel dumb and and said, 'I don't really know the circumstances, but look, I've owned this for ages (at this point provide some evidence, photos, receipts etc.) and do I need to pay duty?' Would they let you through or would they sting you?

I got it from the Bass Centre in Bagshot, about ten minutes from me (they're UK NS Design distributors). Spent about an hour catching up with Barry and Chris; Barry understands the circumstances and said if there's any issues (unlikely), they'll swap it.

Same applies to the Tribute series double-cut guitars. How difficult would it have been for Gibson to program the routers and flip the body I've to accommodate rear routs rather than ploughing out the front. Lazy, lazy. Back on topic. The Katana? For the love of god, nooooooo.

When you posed the original question, you wrote: and if you just get on a plane buy it and bring it back as personal luggage ..is it zero tax?? The key thing here is the word 'buy', you didn't say anything about bringing in personal effects. As @Downunderwonderposted, check the C&E website or take advice. Sadly, just because an instrument is old, well travelled or battered doesn't automatically exclude it from being seen duty-exempt. Border officials couldn't be any less interested in provenance. Do your diligence.

I deplore this holier than thou attitude towards MP3. Original LP, snap, crackle, pop, get up every 20 minutes to turn it over. What about albums that never actually got a vinyl release? It's all about convenience and delivery; despite ripping all my audio to FLAC, a decently encoded 320kbps MP3 is anywhere near the quality of the 64/128kbps derivative it was 20 years ago and is indistinguishable from the FLAC.

Anything to declare, sir? Red channel/green channel. Doesn't matter if you ship it by DHL or carry it in.

It used to be brilliant a few years back when the exchange rates were more favourable. You may get lucky on the fees; one bass from Ishibashi slipped through without me having to fork over the duties. To this day I don't know how.

Yup. NS NXTa 5-string. Black. My wife had been pestering me into playing an upright at some point, then suggested my birthday. My mother-in-law is chipping in too. I've only ever played one on two occasions, 30 years apart. How hard can it be, eh? 😂

I picked it up from the Bass Centre in Bagshot (they're the UK NS distributor), I've known Barry for decades and he's given me his assurance that if there is any problems, he'll resolve them. They're only ten minutes from me. I'm cool leaving it in the box!