Cato

I reckon a bass has to be at least 25-30 years old before you can get away with describing wear and tear as 'mojo'. Even then it depends on the bass. i've got a 26 year old headless Washburn Status that I've had since my 18th birthday. It's been well looked after but it's got the chips and dings you'd expect from an instrument of that age that's seen a lot of use. i can't imagine anyone ever describing it as having 'mojo' or a situation where more serious cosmetic damage wouldn't devalue it. It's just not the kind of bass that would look good knackered. Anyway it's all moot now. I reckon the 'road worn' thing is on it's last legs. Fancy wood tops and extreme 'natural' finishes on non boutique basses are the new marmite.

The thing that gives DPD the edge over their competitors for me is that they give you a one hour delivery window and ,in my case, so far, they've never missed it. That and the fact they've never left anything for me in a neighbour's recycling bin (helpfully described on the 'sorry we missed you' card as an 'out building') on bin day. I can't say the same for Hermes. Although I've probably just jinxed myself...

I ordered some new walking boots today. I was offered either free untracked Hermes delivery for a random day some time next week or tracked DPD for an extra £7. £7 well spent I reckon.

Funnily enough I was thinking of this guitar the other day when I got de ja vu reading about Fender's new Acoustasonic. Although this is clearly on a different level.

They were the first ones I tried from the list. I've now added their back catalogue to my playlist.

I'm currently working my through this. https://funkatopia.com/funk-music-reviews/20-best-funk-albums-of-2018/ As recommended by @PJ-Bassist. A lot of truly excellent stuff, much of it from bands and artists I was completely unaware of. Tonight it's Big Sam's Funky Nation (me neither) with Songs in the Key of Funk. Great stuff.

Bobby Vega gets damned close. It's all about the ghost notes.

Apparently it's not quite as straightforward as as that. https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/plastic-bag-for-life-waste-5p-charge-michael-gove-iceland-tesco-pollution-a8699441.html In brief, whilst the sale of 'official' 5p 'single use' bags has indeed fallen significantly, the sale of 10p 'bags for life ' which contain twice as much plastic has risen exponentially, presumably because people are only reusing each bag a couple of times at most. So the 86% reduction in the number of 5p bags being bought doesn't reflect anything close to an 86% reduction in the amount of plastic from shopping bags being thrown away each year.

Finally getting around to learning how to play slap properly a few years back got me out of a playing rut that had gone on so long that I was almost at the point where I didn't want to pick up a bass anymore. These days it's far from the majority of what I play but it definitely reignited my interest in the instrument. It opened up a couple of new ways of thinking about my standard finger style playing as well, as an example, before slap I barely knew what a ghost note was let alone how to use them effectively. Suffice to say I'm a fan.

If you haven't already done so, it might be an idea to leave it in a warm (but not hot) place like an airing cupboard for a few days. Just to make sure you get all the moisture out of the bits that might be prone to corrosion. Apart from that, congratulations on an unusually durable microphone.

It might not be the strings, the tension on standard steel or nickel roundwounds isn't going to be massively higher than it is on the phosphor bronze it presumably came with. Flats might be pushing it though. It could just be that the pins/anchoring hole thingies are knackered. I've got an acoustic guitar which has a tendency to pop a couple of pins when I tune the strings up to tension after restringing. Believe it or not I solved the problem with a bit of blue tack around the heads of the pins in question. The blue tack thing really shouldn't work on a guitar and I reckon there's no chance of it working on a bass with the much greater forces involved. I think you might have to get a tech/luthier to take a look. Edit. But definitely try @hubrad's technique first.

I'm in. I had no idea that Parliament had released a new album. Likewise Janelle Monae.

Youtube tutorials can be confusing too.as tutorials on the same song often outright contradict each other, are simplified versions or are flat out wrong. The other day I was trying to find an accurate version for the guitar part of 'I Want You Back' by the Jacksons. I watched four videos, each with their own unique (and often wildly inaccurate) take on it.

Now I have lute gas...

Once you learn your way around the fretboard on any guitar type instrument ,in standard guitar tuning, everything else is just a matter of adjusting your technique to suit the wider/narrower/longer neck and string spacing.

At least it wasn't Gibson The music tech world is littered with the corpses of companies that were acquired by Gibson. Fender's track record in that department isn't exactly sterling either.

That Bona bass looks like it should be headless. Other than that neither of them illicits strong emotions of either like or dislike from me.

That's exactly what I thought I remembered seeing when I took the lid off mine. Glad to know I didn't imagine it.

Every bass design I've ever hated for aesthetic reasons I've ended up wanting to own a few years later. At this point I've given up having strong opinions about these things because I know I'll probably change my mind at some point.

I did it when I installed new pickups and a new wiring harness. I was sure it had the control cavity/neck pick up rout, but some of the other answers have got me doubting my memory. I reckon you're just going to have to bite the bullet and spend the 10 minutes or so it will take to take off the plate, have a peek, then decide if you want to take it further. Fnarr fnarr.

If it's like my 2016 VM70s then there's a bloody great channel carved out between the neck pickup and the control plate. (Edited for clarity).

Worth remembering that Fender is an absolute behemoth in the guitar world. Apart from Fender branded instruments they also own Gretsch, Jackson and Charvel and countless others. FMIC accounts for a huge chunk of all of the guitar/bass advertising market. The bottom line is that magazines like BGM simply cannot afford to p!ss them off.

It's all subjective but.... 1970s soul,funk and disco was a golden age for bass. Some might find some of it a bit cheesy but the general standard of musicianship (not just bass) on a lot of those tracks was just sky high.

This is mine. Apologies for the dodgy pictures (I was standing on the bed trying to get as much of the bass into the frame as possible - not the most stable platform) I actually think, visually at least, that swapping the stock metal knobs for classic black plastic ones may be the favourite mod that I made.

I've got same bass, but in a natural finish. I've modded mine a bit with new pickups , wiring loom and bridge, but even as stock it was a damn fine playing and sounding Jazz Bass.