NancyJohnson

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.

Thing is, people are just too gullible and easily suckered in. They're not buying a piece of history.

This is probably why I'm drawn to smaller luthiers, builders who are trying to innovate rather than making production line Morris Minors. Fender, Gibson (and a plethora of others) are all guilty of this ridiculous reliance on decades-old design. It extends beyond Ps and Js. Stingrays, Thunderbirds, Spector NS models. Slap a different paint job on (and call it something funky), insert a pair of rebranded soaps along with some kind of preamp with a fancy name that slips off the tongue and sounds edgy (*must include the letter X or Z in the name) and boom, it's the 2021 model. I knew I shouldn't have had a second coffee this morning.

With Fender 'new' models are pretty much a case of 'let's see what we can squeeze into a Precision or Jazz body shape'. I'll profess that I'm really not a Fender fanboy, but for the love of god, the schematics for these models are now 60+ years old; the guys in their design department really need come up with something new.

Just from a curiousity perspective, what's the decision-making force at work here? I'd side with @wateroftyne here, there's good ones and bad ones, so choose wisely and play a few before you pull the trigger.

I did a Wolfie about ten years ago. I loved the process and the ultimate reveal. The body was a nasty plywood Jazz thing that someone was selling for about £20, it had these nasty big rough chiselled out routs. I put an MM unit in the neck position and a J in the bridge. I forget the neck, Allparts second/third hand. I remember the E string ferrel for the machinehead had clearly been forced into the hole and was vaguely ovalish and didn't turn properly. It was all just wired together with one volume control on a chrome bell plate. Worked to a fashion, sounded OK when pushed through a dirtbox. Gigged once (see below) and then broken apart for parts.

I've been using M-Audio BX5s for a few years. They go loud enough for the small room I record in (barely 7'x10'). The only thing that narks me design-wise is that the volume controls are on the back and the controls aren't notched, so they can get knocked when powering up.

Van Halen. Roth stuff. Can't bear Hagar.

I don't really like the Sandberg headstock, that said, these VMs dropped into my timeline a few days ago. The reverse headstock works for me...

Out of boredom, just started plugging a few names of ex-bandmates into Google and imagine my surprise to see one guy I co-wrote about 40 songs with up on Spotify. About a third of these are peppered over his whole output. He actually threatened legal action against me (and the drummer I was playing with at the time) against playing any of the material when things ended acrimoniously. Tosser. I don't know what's more alarming, the lack of writing credit, the frankly terrible arrangements or the fact that he's still clinging on to material that was written over 20 years ago. As you were.

While waiting on Lull to quote me on a bass, I felt a little queasy when I saw recently that (Neon Trees) Branden Campbell's oversized non-reverse Lull Thunderbird sold on Reverb about a year ago for a spit over £2k. Maybe purple sparkle isn't my colour, but at least it would bring me a bit of happiness.

Nope...Jake Williams. He does some really interesting videos, but man alive, 'Wasssup guys!' Grrr.

Scott?

I subscribe to a You Tube channel elsewhere, where the narrator just goes, 'Wassup, guys?' at the start and it just makes me want to put my fingers in my ears and go, 'La la la la la.'

As soon as any You Tube video starts with the host saying, 'What's going on, guys?' it just makes me cringe.

Old school US rock today. A bit of Starz and then (if my ears can get past the screeching) a bit of Angel.

The Spin Doctors. I honestly don't know why.

Just before Christmas we were sorting through some unfinished tracks and decided to see whether musicians outside of the band circle would be interested in contributing. In previous lives, I'd gigged with London band Dronningen maybe ten times (and a couple of people here tried out on bass for them)...they jumped at the opportunity, we gifted them three songs, they chose one, did the vocals and guitars over christmas, files exchanged, mixed and up.

I had one of the NRs. Sunburst...had issues, fell out of love with it. Saw the ones that Macari's had; we were up in London New Year Eve two or three years ago and just asked them what their best price was, but they wouldn't even consider budging. Ho hum.

A chap over on the LBO bought one of the reissued Thunderbird NRs a while back - it was right-handed, he's a leftie, and he had it flipped to play left handed. I took the liberty of flipping his photo to convert it back to right-handed. I've been giving some thought to getting Spencer at Mike Lull to build me something new and (as we have building work upcoming), I suppose this came along at the right wrong time. It has got my creative juices flowing; the design is very subtle, it's a 'bird, but it's not quite a 'bird. Imagine this in a flat black finish (like my other two), with a two part bridge, chrome 60s pickups, nice clover leaf Hipshots. Jeepers.

I have a Big One (oo-err, Missus) - the first one. Stupidly good cabinet.

Ten minutes from me, but nope.

Haven't we done the Studio thing quite recently? Less than s month ago.

It's a Waterstone. I did a little bit of work for them about ten years ago, Bob Singer (the Waterstone CEO) and I exchanged a few emails at the time, he was trying to set up UK distribution for Waterstone, specifically pushing the Tom Petersson 12 String models. He was obsessed with 60s British Invasion stuff and adored The Jam, I recall him saying he was trying to get a Waterstone to Bruce Foxton.