NancyJohnson

I was giving this a bit of thought earlier and was primarily thinking about JMB. On the couple of occasions I've put an advert up on there, I've just wanted to post from an accuracy perspective and honestly think that works detrimentally. In no way am I bigging myself up here, but I did have a couple of experiences where I was a way more than country mile more adept than the guys I went along to play with; these guys were advertising themselves as gigging musicians with a ton of experience, but they were in the event played like beginners, were directionless, had no material and were struggling to hold together three/four minute ideas. After one session (with three guys I was never going to go back and play with), I was told by a guitarist that he was desperate for me to come on board 100% to shake some sense into the other blokes and prove they could achieve someting. I started using the key terminology for the older player; 'mature' and putting links up to stuff on Spotify/Bandcamp/Soundcloud, but reckon that when people listen to what's up online this alone works against me (same bloke said he'd listened and was kind of in awe of that content and wondered whether his group of guys could emulate that somehow). Just don't know whether it's better to phrase things a bit looser, rather than saying stuff about transport/gear/links. Just keep it a bit vague.

Just looking for a quick answer - is it possible to install and (more importantly) operate a John East Uni-Pre 3 (or 4/5) without the active/passive switch (so it's active all the time?). Or would I just install the pre-amp and leave it in the 'on' position in the cavity? Thinking of installing one on a bass I'd prefer not to make a hole in.

I'd concur with the honourable member for Glorious Sexy Harrow, @Happy Jack, that Join My Band seems to be the easiest to use and navigate, although the big issue is actually getting responses from people who seem desperate to be part of something!

I guess there's two derivatives; but the MIM models don't employ the suspended units (like the Justin Meldal model below), it'll be a regular P-unit. @shoulderpet, care to elaborate?

At least the machines look like they're on straight.

Oh, it's always a good trick to scrape stiff screws on a dry bar of soap before driving them in; it just lubricates things.

Could be a number of things: Wrong sized hole drilled at factory or not deep enough (possible, so you'd be screwing into solid wood or possibly a knot), pickup rout not deep enough so pickup is bottoming out (also unlikely), if the pickups have springs to aid adjustment it's possible the springs might be fully compressed (I don't think Fender use conical shaped springs that compress to a flat spiral), too much foam (if at all) under the pickups. It's unlikely you'll strip the screw or the wood content; people have been pulling pickups out of Fender basses for decades - the chances of damaging anything is minimal/zero. Easiest thing would take the strings off and just pull the pickups out and investigate. You can't really do damage, it's just four screws.

A bit, umm, vague. The only things that allude to being Fender are the pickups, which would probably be difficult to verify unless you could identify them from the photo or get them out. All said and done, it's about as genuine as all those Limelight, Bravewood and Squire basses carrying Fender decals.

Yeah, but think of the positives, you'll all be in one general area. Best to you. P

ABY box. You know that an ABY works two ways, right? Two in, one out or one in, two out? If you suffer from ground loop hum, see whether there's a ground switch on either of the heads, but only use it on one of the heads, not both. All this does is effectively drop the earth on one of the amps; you will still have an active earth on the whole circuit back through the ABY; just make sure that when you're using either of the amps in insolation that that amp is grounded (ie, switch the grond loop on).

Top tip! If you need a quick fix, buy a loaf of bread with one of these. Punch out a tight hole, pop it down the machine head shaft and nip off the rest. It works just as well. Those damn washers seem nightmarishly difficult to locate.

We seem to have travelled the same road, but would say you should never look back. We are creatures of habit and one bass aside (which has a test Markbass LongEvo set on it), the rest of mine are wearing Elixir Nanowebs; we change things for a reason, be it cost, feel, tone (*subjective) or longevity. If the LongEvo strings were a bit easier to obtain (and at a more competitive price) I would probably move over them. Personally I'd never go back to Rotosounds unless I was getting them for free and changing them after every session, which is I suppose what ol' Ged does have the luxury of doing.

You can buy them direct - but they're €40 a set (plus you'll get stung for duty, too).

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)