Frank Blank

I saw that but when I went to the site I was getting dodgy ads popping up. I know it’s expensive but I think I’m going Gilboys.

Damn, was just going to order another tin! Going to source an alternative now.

You beat me to it.

This absolutely takes the brisket, any more and I cud take offence.

I’ve herd it all before you offal man.

This is an udder disgrace...

^^^ this is one of the big reasons I became a punk.

Boat, ship? That’s the whole point.

I love your 71 P, in fact that particular bass is exactly what niggles me at times, what I need to do is play it in direct comparison with the P. Also I think playing your singlecut may have been one of the reasons why I decided to go look (rather than just think about) at @TheGreek’s ACG Harlot singlecut which I subsequently bought. It’s like a fvckin’ splinter that P!

Welcome. Yeah, lets...

I like Sardineista even more.

1. Poptones - Public Image Ltd 2. Never a Trust a Man With Egg On His Face - Adam And The Ants 3. Still Life In Mobile Homes - Japan 4. So What - Crass Sorry just noticed you said three...

Welcome!

Ah, now, two things. I have purchased a bass this year and have no intention of stopping buying ‘peripherals’ so to speak (strings, leads, stuff), doesn’t this rule me out?

As are so many of their songs, Steely Dan eh? fvckin’ superb.

Advanced apologies, this contains thoughts that sometimes drift into musings. All wise words here, thanks. Being a gentleman of leisure I have simply set aside some of my vast acreage of leisure time to playing bass every day. I think most of my negativity was coming from potentially being band-less, which would have been a first since the early nineties. However, my partner in the ‘acoustic’ duo has requested that I send her files of new bass lines I’ve been working on so she can put guitar and vocals to them between the demands of very recent twins and the guitarist I’m looking to start a new noisy project with is keen and has also found a drummer. Given these prospects now in the offing I have to look at my gear and think ‘You lucky sod’. When you have actual music to be getting on with suddenly the equipment in the tool box (fnar) is looking mighty fine. I am getting the short scale Recurve set up and restrung next weekend, that bass is already becoming the workhorse, there’s something very plain and utilitarian about it that very much appeals to me, it’s robust and business-like, if I clumped it or put a ding in it I think I’d just shrug, it’s a tool, granted an art tool, but a tool nonetheless. The Harlot remains the most beautiful bass I’ve ever seen, I’m very lucky to own it. I have been playing it a lot over the last few days and it’s access to the higher strings is a real bonus as I do a lot of writing around the 12th fret, I also love the asymmetric neck, it’s just so comfortable. But the biggie with the Harlot is that early preamp, the tonal range is bonkers. I miss that in the more recent Recurve, which has a narrower (and frankly more user friendly, sensible) range but then I’m hardly an expert yet. The Rob Allen Mouse is... well it’s just bliss with strings on. I'm kind of working this stuff out as I write trying to see why I felt the way I did and why I feel how I feel now, all pointless tosh no doubt but nonetheless I think it’s time to stop looking at basses for sale and actually consider the ones I own. I am not buying any more basses for the foreseeable. Now that’s a bold statement but it’s one I have to make in order to get out of the ‘there’s a better bass just around the corner’ limbo that I wallow in for too long. @skelf builds beautiful, unique basses and I very luckily own two, I should get on and play the bloody things. I have to say there are two caveats to the ‘no more bass buying’ statement, a) I think @Jabba_the_gut is still working on a bass for me, there’s a space in the rack for that if it’s still incoming and b) I am beginning to cobble together a few ideas for an ACG built to my spec, if I ever settle on a design I’m 100% happy with I’ll commission it. In the meantime I should just get on and play these three superb basses sitting not two feet away from me rather than the thrill of search and acquisition. No more bass buying.

Should have flown Ibex Air.

Title of my forthcoming autobiography, there.

In fact I don’t know why all men aren’t rounded up and put on an island where we are simply required to produce a gallon or two of sperm a month in exchange for food, let’s face it, were fück all good for anything else.

Don’t we all son... don’t we all.

So the answer is to play them! Who knew? Well I think my initial post was me in what could be loosely termed as 'a period of the bass doldrums' (just left of the actual Intertropical Convergence Zone). The possibility of the duo I play in ending had simply cast a dumb cloud over my head and I am un type psychologique who tends to throw the baby out with the bathwater, demolish the bathroom along with the rest of the house, set fire to the wreckage and dance around the fire. My usual overreaction to such an event would be to sell up all my gear and take up with a passing circus or something but after some wise words from @Al Krow (thanks dude) and a short period of thought I picked up the short scale Recurve and started writing. Well, the reason I love the Rob Allen Mouse is that every time I pick it up to just noodle I end up writing a new bass line, or at least coming up with the kernel of something new, music just seems to fall out of it. I always have a 'cooling off period' with new basses before they either get moved on or stay, in all honesty the only one that has ever really stuck has been the RA. This is almost certainly a contributing factor in my ambivalence towards new basses, subconsciously I'm thinking "It isn't going to be as good as the mouse", not in a quality way but in a do I want to play this all the time? way. On Monday I had a little series of notes running around my head, I went to pick up the Mouse but picked up the new Recurve instead. Now its Wednesday (no Craig David quips please) and I have almost an entire songs worth of lovely bass line and I can't put the Recurve down. I think I might finally have found the perfect fretted bass to compliment the fretless Mouse. ...although don't quote me or it. Now what do I do with the ACG Harlot..?