NancyJohnson

Basses aside, I recall an interview with Ace Frehley where he mentioned that during the Gibson endorsement period, Gibson would send dozens of production line Les Pauls to him (no Custom Shop back then) and he'd play all of them, keep the best, return the rest. Irrespective of what people think of him, I think it just shows the range of disparity in stock instruments and QC.

Ever been 'Party-Seven'd off? I was in a support band at a rammed punk gig in a college when I was about 17, Party Seven can (partially containing 'liquids', likely p*ss knowing the guy who threw it), came up from the crowd, span past me and hit the drummer full in the chest. He was on a riser. Fell off the back. Hilarity ensued.

One alternative to getting bottled off, I suppose.

I've recorded about 40 original songs in the last six months, have enjoyed the whole RFH process immensely (see the Lizard Sweets stuff in the Recording area); no band members gawking over you, time to get your best efforts.

My mum and dad used to go to Burns Night things when I was a kid. I guess I just saw it as another dinner/dance thing an excuse for a night out/p*ss-up. Dinner/dance. It just seems like something from another time. My late dad used to say it was like going to Wedding reception without the wedding.

Fading from memory? I used to struggle at times when I was doing band stuff full time. When I was (a lot) younger, I'd have this recurrent dream; I'm now a multimillionaire musician, writer, composer, producer and I've somehow been collared by (showing my age here), Eamonn Andrews for This Is Your Life. I've grimaced my way through the show and am now surrounded by brown-nosers, lackeys, second-cousins met at family picnics etc. At the end of the show, Eamonn announces, 'And to close the show, we're going to take you back to where it all started...' The curtain pulls back and I see four old guys I remember jamming with maybe 40 years previously. I hear the intro to a song I vaguely remember and someone hands me a bass. This is when I wake up. Screaming. Well, maybe not.

New stuff from me. Trippy, rocky. I'm unsure what this actually is. #duuurtybass

I've commented elsewhere, but let's see. The reality here is that Gibson had little interest in reissuing the NR until Bach started using/borrowing the design nearly ten years ago, afterwhich it took them another two or three years to reissue the first batch (in Pelham Blue and Sunburst). I owned one of the sunbursts from new, the expectation/excitement of buying brand new (I think it was only about £800/850) was quickly turned to horror and frustration due to Gibson's QC. This is covered elsewhere. Of the 2021, nah, not for me. You'd have thought, that with Gibson constantly pimping out their Les Paul and SG reissues, that someone would have at least looked at the original schematics and put a two part bridge on it, at the very least put the knobs in the right place and given the option of a single pickup Thunderbird II version. I mean, really, how difficult would it be to program the CNC machine to achieve this?

They did a Pelham Blue NR about five years ago, with black hardware/pickups.

Well, Gibson, you had the chance to make 2021 special, but alas no. There really is nothing like not listening to your customer base. So what's bass highlight? Sorry, lowlight? A chromed up, Non-fecking-Reverse reissue in a few dandy colours with a three-point bridge. Sheesh. Man alive, what a treat. No Thunderbird II, no two part bridges. No Grabber or Ripper (these will probably arrive with Gene Simmons' face on them, I suppose). Ack. Basses aside, no sign of a 50s spec double-cut Les Paul Junior, either. Anyhoo, what a treat. At least I have a minty Hamer arriving in a couple of days.

I was having a good dig through my photos and aside from a couple of vanity shots done for insurance purposes, these are the only decent photos I have of my old one and I suspect I only took these when I put it up for sale. These were taken June 2012. You can see how close the string spacing was at the nut and how the lower bout gave really easy access to the dusty end. It was a thing of beauty really.

It's just the shape that seems to irk people; I know my association here is generally Thunderbirds, but that's about as traditional as it gets for me, so the shape didn't deter me and probably made me all the more determined to use it. I actually liked that the design irritated/amused people in equal measure and as an additional plus, nobody on the circuit I was gigging in played one. (All these old punk guys with Precisions covered in stickers would be falling over themselves for a noodle and saying how decent it played/sounded.) Ultimately, it's just a bass. They all sound pretty much the same.

Are you inferring because a basswood Sterling (made on a production line in the far east using cheaper labour/hardware) costs £300, that there needs to be some kind of price correction/correlation against a premium product made in the US by Sterling's parent company costing £2,000+, or that basswood isn't any good?

I'm sure you played my one. I know @Hamster had it for a couple of weeks as well.

To the disdain on fellow band members, I used to lump along a lever arch file to rehearsals with basic arrangements, but all of us referred to it. This was 10-15 years ago. We rarely recorded stuff on the fly. I found this in a flightcase about a year ago, I went through it in awe and wonder as to all the scribblings I'd done on the fly during jams. We were doing originals...there were dozens and dozens of pages, hundreds of ideas with just a line under each one, then another. I have no memory of writing down many of these or even if they developed into full songs...scant descriptions ('Fast - A/F#/D/E rptx2 into bridge/bass E over G'), but they were probably very important at the time.

I was thinking about this a few days ago!

Was this the one that was on the marketplace here last year?

Here goes. I had a five string in desert gold/orange. [EDIT: it was a 5HH.] Adored the design, wonderful tight string spacing for a five-string (I've never played a 5 with such a narrow board), comfortable neck, very nicely set up and able to get the action very low. Tonally very pleasing with everything set flat or slightly tweaked for the room. I tended, as is now, to run the bass through a Sansamp or at that point possibly a Line6 BassPod. The only thing I didn't like so much was the power of the preamp; it was waaaay too hot, not that subtle and I found it was very much a case of all or nothing...even little tweaks could wreck the tone and turn things to mush. At one point I posted here questioning whether I could take it passive. I suppose the million dollar question is would I be interested in getting another one. If (if!) I was on the market for another five-string (I'm not) and I had funds available (I don't) and a stealth black one was available, I'd say yes, without question.

I'd concur with all the points here. It's true, people only seem to want to purchase derivitives of three or four shapes. It's been a long time since I've seen a bass and thought, 'What the hell?' The NS Design CR5 gave me a little wobble, likewise the Deimel Firestar.

To be honest, I own an Aria Primary bass from 1978 that from a playability prespective is a country mile nicer that either of the Precisions I've owned. Again, I'll insert a caveat here in that tone it subjective and the same bass can sound differently from player to player, but it's a bit of a bashed up bit of kit, Delano pickup. It suits me if I need something that is more traditiobal in tone/looks.

The Sweet. A playlist of Sweet F*nny Adams, Desolation Boulevard, a clutch of A & B sides, then Strung Up. Maaaaaaarvelous.

They were different drinks though, Coke were trying to make their product taste more like Pepsi (which was the preferred choice in blind tastings). Big mistake to just drop the original at the time. Fooles.