NancyJohnson

I think this sums things up succinctly enough.

Rich, health issues aside, have you never had a moment where you just make a decision in an instant? I recall being in WH Smith in Reading a few years back, I picked up a copy of the US Bass Player magazine and saw an article about Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament. He was pictured with his Lull Signature model. At that point I was up to about nine or ten Thunderbirds and it was like someone just threw a switch, I knew instantly that my foray into Gibson basses was pretty much over there and then. In an instant it was like, 'I really need to sell my Gibsons and get one of those.' Thing is, nothing is forever. I've had to sell stuff to cover building work, years ago a really nice Warwick that I'd desired for a really long time facilitated part of my kitchen...now that hurt a lot at the time, but I know now that ultimately I would never have kept that bass, otherwise I'd have tried to buy it back. Onwards and upwards. Never go back. I do understand the importance of possession on the human psyche; if you did needed the swag, I'd happily let you pawn the Wal to me and I'd just store it unplayed until you could settle the funds back.

<tongue in cheek> Colour reminds me of a Fender Precision bass I owned that was finished in Mocha. </tongue in cheek> It's really that easy!

Just an observation and thought for the day. I find it quite amusing how, irrespective of the intial subject-matter, so many of the threads here just descend into the opportunity for people to post photos of their gear. My wife asks me frequently whether I like looking at gear on here and my response is generally that I honestly do, but feel that you could be reading a thread with a title like, 'I lost my arm in a freak sawmill accident' and within a few posts people would be posting beautifully lit photos of their Shukers reclining on a sofa. Right. That's the today's message. You can start posting bass photos now. Go! Go! Go!

Buwaahahaaaaar!

Oh, listen to you lot! 'I'd never sell this, my trusty Archangel Splattenberger seven string, my late grandmother (15 times removed), bequeathed it to me on her deathbed in 1902, which says something as I wasn't even born then. I played it at the Queen's coronation. Well, I was thinking about it while I was watching a documentary about the Queen.' Every one of your basses has a price, much as I love my kit, they're all expendable. I said I'd never get rid of my white Thunderbird but as soon as I got GAS elsewhere, boom, up for sale. We are a fickle bunch, so attached to some wood and wires.

My producer wanted to see how low I could go and still have a usable tone. I got down to low G/G# on my five string; things got a bit rattly, but interestingly the notes had pretty much zero clarity, it just sounded like background hum, could have been playing anything.

Pictures or it didn't happen!

I have two. Scroll down folks! While 'decent musically' isn't actually isn't strictly quantifyable here (as both cases they can play well) but first up, the lovely Pippa Evans has a musical alter-ego Loretta Maine. It was odd, she did a slot at the Comedy Cellar in Bracknell as Loretta Maine (five star/brilliant) and then she came back a year later as Pippa Evans. Her opening line as Pippa Evans? 'Hello Bracknell! This is my second time playing here, but last time I was somebody else.' Next up, Ben Norris...fellow bass player. If his voice sounds familiar, he's Martin Freeman's cousin.

This is my point. Because of the units shortcomings, an octave pedal will force you into playing stuff in (an unnatural?) higher register and/or having you switch it off when you hit a lower register.

Not a fan of octave pedals, I owned an EBS unit a while back and while it was OK with higher notes, but once you dug into the E string it was quite underwhelming; problematic tracking and you'd get this odd double note thing. If you can live with this then fine, otherwise you'll be spending more time concentrating on when it needs to be on and off. So you have other options. D-tuner. I've got these fitted to my Spector and Aria Primary. They work fine, but the E-String does go a bit sloppy. Use sparingly. Buy a five string. I'd say it's always useful to have one; while I'm predominantly a four-string guy, nearly all my recording work is on a five-string. Better than a D-Tuner. Going BEAD. Decent option if you're not busy slapping/pulling the G-string, otherwise you're going to have to be very busy up the dusty end. Remember you'll possibly need to adjust the nut slots to accommodate the wider strings and you may need to tweak the truss rod to keep the neck straight. Buy a Kubicki Ex-Factor bass (which resolves all the issues beautifully; All these cost ££. Weigh up how much you need those extra notes and decide what suits. It's all a personal choice; you could even try a heavier string gauge and tune down to DGCF and capo across the second fret to play off a standard EADG tuning. Too many options.

I remember that 12-string. Magnificent.

If not done already, get a syringe, full it with Gorilla Glue and squirt in down into the split/join, then clamp it up, wiping away the excess that might have come out. Onece it's set up, fill the surface with Gorilla and some sanding dust, allow to dry and rub back. To be honest, I think the stripping you've done looks brilliant as is and I'd just leave it at that. Each to their own, I suppose. Maybe just fill the scratchplate holes with the aforementioned Gorilla/dust.and put some faux-aged/rusted hardware on it. Nice/manky rosewood Tele-bass neck, sorted.

Sorry, this thread has come up a few times and I've been meaning to post the cans I got. Eventually went with a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M40X. £78.00. Obligatory stock photo below. Happy Christmas to me. Flat repsonse, comfy (especially over glasses, once in a while). While I wouldn't describe myself as having a Tefal-Man sized head, fully extended they are on the cusp of fitting, so unless you're John Merrick's long lost sibling, you should be fine. I love the fact that these are highlighting (otherwise unheard elements of) clipping on some of our recordings (much to the irritation of our producer who isn't picking this up on his studio monitors).

Steven Wilson today. Can't really say that I'm a fan generally and I look on his output as being akin to early TVRs; just because you have great gear/production/musicians etc. this does not necessarily make for great music. It's a bit like Weezer, they're everything I should like in a band, but I find them really hard to listen to. I read someone saying Steven Wilson is akin to the UK's Trent Reznor. Err, no. That said, I love what he achieved with the Tears For Fears and XTC 5.1/surround releases. Maybe I'm just getting a bit too long in the teeth to be able to listen, absorb, rememember all the notes. Anyhow, blame my wife. She watched the £10,000 album unboxing, then I caught her listening to the Albert Hall gig off Spotify. I got a 5.1 copy of The Future Bites and it's kind of splendid event listening, but nothing really sank in. Anyhow, here we go...

I'd like to hear what these sound like through a Sansamp BDDI or a dUg.

I'd concur with this. God I remember what it was like in the area in the last 70s/early 80s. Rhodes Music, Andy's, Rose Morris, FD&H plus a dozen or so other places I can't even recall the names of. We hardly ever stepped foot in Macari's.

Right now, and erring on the side of caution, I'd say it's a no from me. Even eight or nine months down the line, I'm still going to be harbouring a worry that one of my bass bretheren has it. Just an idea here, what about doing the odd Zoom thing? One person hosts, shows off and demonstrates their gear to whomever has an interest, virtual tea and cake?

As a kid, I used to go up to London a two or three times a month, gigs/music/books; it was always the same thing, train to Waterloo, tube to Tottenham Court Road, visit Virgin, then Denmark Street (when Forbidden Planet was still there), walk up the Leicester Square to Tower, then get a cab down to the Hard Rock, then find a tube station and home. Later we'd just drive up, stick the car on a meter in Bruton Street until midday (it was free parking after that) and then do the same thing. It used to be bliss. There's no point in going now at all.

Anyone remember the BBC footage of Macari's getting looted by thieves during the Poll Tax demonstrations? To this day I can remember seeing footage of looters pulling up the shutters and a young kid running off with a saxophone. Roll on to about the six minute mark here for Macari's.

So. I've ordered another Spector case (I had one but sold it along with the eight-string I just moved), so I know it fits. While I love ownership, it's really a case (no pun intended) here that I don't play all the time and I just don't like having all these basses out all over the house (there's acoustic and electric guitars all over the place too). In truth, I'm only really using one of the Lulls for recording and I'm still tweaking the Hamer (only had it a couple of weeks), so for now the new case is away with the Precision in it (cause I don't want to get that dinged, eh? lol) and I'll pop the Spector away next week for a while.

The Tourtech case arrived...first impressions are that it'll do the job. Looks nice, handle comfortable, it's light, locks look ok. The inside is fluffy and the foam under this is reasonably firm. Tried it with the stuff I don't have cases for...see below. Main observation is this is clearly a one size fits all case; it's fine for the Precision and the neck is supported its entire length. The Hamer headstock is angled back a bit and the neck sits lower in the body, so as a consequence the neck isn't fully supported (it rides from the nut to about the 10th fret. That said, the headstock is free of any obstruction, so it's fine. It's a good fit. Onto the Spector. A big no, I'm afraid. As the bass is so small and curved, it moves back and forth around quite a bit, and just rides on the extremities. I'll hold out for another case...the Spector ABS case can't be had for love nor money, so I may just pull the trigger on a Spector hard case. Hope this helps.

Bass aside (which looks stunning), I'm a huge fan of a handful of You Tube channels featuring woodworkers using resin/wood combinations.

I have a fairly big Spotify playlist of cherrypicked tracks that I take immense pleasure from playing on shuffle. In the last twenty minutes it's swung from Ace Frehley, All Saints, Fighting With Wire, The Buble, Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox.