Frank Blank

The Southend branch closed in late Nov. last year... ...apparently it was to do with the lease or something? Maybe they are concentrating more on their online business?

Handbags at dawn, it's what the Internet was made for.

Maybe it's a thing? I was routinely confined to a chair to watch TSOM with my mum *pulls own hair out* as a child and I became a career vandal and foul mouthed lout.

A speciality of mine. Small fee, mates rates etc.

I played in a thrash metal band for 6-7 years, played a Jazz, played finger-style exclusively. My first bass with that band was a Jaydee!

Mum *spits into fire* - Sinatra, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, John Denver, Julian Bream, Prokofiev, Mahler. Dad *eats broken glass* - Neil Diamond, Bread, Eagles, Dr Hook, Glen Campbell, Linda Ronstadt. Brother - (huge amount of influences so I'll only put the ones that remain on my playlists) David Bowie, Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Tubular Bells, Roxy Music, Sparks, Steely Dan. Then Punk came along and I decided it was my time, my music and as Punk was, actually, quite narrow minded and intolerant of anything outside of itself, I stopped listening to anything outside of the genre. Also, in that self-obsessed, belligerent, way of the first wave of Punk, I also dismissed anything before punk as boring irrelevant hippy nonsense, it wasn't until New Wave came along and freed me up again that I started broadening (albeit only slightly) my musical horizons. It wasn't really until my forties I started turning some of those bands green again and realised how much great stuff I'd missed out on. As much as the revolution of Punk was absolutely necessary and, eventually, in the shape of New Wave led to some utterly amazing music, it was initially a severely applied tourniquet from which only a few truly interesting bands emerged. It took me decades to recover from the total reboot of Punk, I'd not have wanted to be a teenager at any other time but I also wish I'd gone through it with a tad more wisdom. It's difficult to appreciate music played by your parents when they were abusive and, essentially, a pair of horrible bastards, because that music always remains kind of tainted but I'm learning to appreciate some of it more and more in spite of them. I am, as ever, rambling.

That's a killer.

Paging @scrumpymike

...spare him his life from this monstrosity.

👆👆👆 very much this. My first fretless, acquired in my early twenties, was awful and put me off fretless for decades. If you can, try a few. Don't be swayed by lined/unlined zealots either, sure, listen to advice, but in the end use whichever you feel comfortable with

That rig has swagger.

I bought an ACG that absolutely reeked of cig smoke, it took over a year to deodorize, sunlight helped, bit I think time is the only way. Funnily enough as soon as it no longer honked I sold it.

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I am currently changing my basses to this configuration, whoever did that is a pioneer, a revolutionary pioneer.* * Yes, I am off my mash on ecstasy pipes btw as will be detailed in my forthcoming book of rock n roll ephemera, All Aboard The 86b: The Story of The Chigwell to Hackney Bus Route 1945-1973.

Just purchased a Nordstrand Acinonyx from @castlemaine22. He was kind enough to put the bass hold for me for two weeks until I could get up to meet him. Great comms and easy payment for a lovely bass in superb condition. The perfect transaction. Not only do I deem him a gentleman and a scholar but I also have no hesitation whatsoever in awarding him the Frank Blank Seal of Approval...

Understandable as Ronnie Pou was a made up name of a bass player in a made up band, purely for the purposes of pointing out that saying bassist a. is better or worse than bassist b. is subjective. You may think Gary Willis is a better bassist than Ronnie Pou, I may think Ronnie Pou is a better bassist than Gary Willis, what we are saying is neither of us is right per se. It is only, at best, a subjective expressed opinion and therefore, in analysis, as utterly pointless as any other unmeasurable unquantifiable opinion.

Ronny Pou was a better bassist than Gary Willis even after he exploded on stage.

The manner of his death was enough to earn him a million accolades.

Watch it, you'll be a convert! Since trying out my QSC K12.2 in PMT with a Fishman preamp I haven't used a traditional amp/cab setup since. Bass > preamp > QSC > desk If there's PA support then I use the QSC as a monitor, if not then I use it as backline. Never going back to amp/cabs. Thinking about the EBS SC as the two channels would be good between fretted and fretless acoustic basses.

Just purchased a QSC powered speaker from @Bridgehouse, perfectly smooth deal, a delight to deal with, still haven't had a go on his ride-on mower and no, that is not a euphonium. Deal with confidence, an absolute gent, therefore I happily award the Frank Blank Seal of Approval...