Cato

Will people please stop bumping this thread? I've had this bloody song in my head for a week now.

I seem to remember reading or hearing that he was was using the Gus skinny string they sent him. I think there may be photographs of him with the guitar

You'd have to keep it in an atmospherically controlled vault. You could never play it unless you were truly unconcerned about money,, every chip and ding would knock thousands off the value.

If you google 'custom pickguards' there are a few UK based companies that will make a scratchplate to your specs. Theoretically if you send them the current 'plate as a template they should be able to make you something that fits perfectly. Prices seem to start at around £20+ and escalate rapidly so I suppose it depends whether you want to spend that much on a cheapish guitar.

For some reason I had it in my head that Chicago were a 70s/80s prog band. Nothing wrong with that but it's not really my thing. Thanks to this thread I've now realised my funky error and will be checking out a lot more of their stuff.

And the award for my favourite auto correct/ predictive text sentence sabotage so far this year goes to...

It won't be long until there's a backlash against the current trend for sensitive types with acoustic guitars singing slushy ballads. It's been absolutely done to death over the last few years.

One of the best gigs I've been to in the last couple of years was these guys at the Godiva festival in Coventry. A couple of weeks later a mate asked me about the festival and I found myself saying ' Slaves were amazing' The pub didn't go quiet, nobody else heard. But that's the kind of band name that, when referenced in conversation and overheard in passing, could lead to some serious misunderstandings.

Not a feud so much as a series of toxic relationships, but I watched a documentary on The Who, on BBC4, where Pete Townshend systematically slagged off the musical skills and contribution of every member of the band's classic line up, barring himself. I was left wondering what the band would have sounded like if everyone had played or sung to his personal satisfaction, because I'm guessing they wouldn't have been the same band at all.

I'm not sure I'm psychologically capable of allowing myself to believe that.

The next time a manufacturer asks basschat for a favour I think I'll probably give it a miss.

I leave everything on the amp flat and control the tone through the active EQ on the bass. Not that there's a right or a wrong way to do these things.

I suspect that we'd end up listing bad experiences in every music shop in the country and, eventually, the world. Every shop is going to have a bad day at some point and ,given the amount of gear that basschatters seem to get through, we've got to be statistically more likely to be dealing with that shop when the bad day occurs than most.

Kings of Leon at the old Birmingham Academy on what ever tour it was before 'Sex on Fire' propelled them to arena and stadium status. The old academy was a smallish, partially underground venue, either it didn't have air con or it wasn't able to cope. Every packed gig i went to there was usually a pretty sweaty affair but that Kings of Leon gig, on what turned out to be the hottest day of that year, was ridiculous. The atmosphere was so humid that the walls were wet and the staff were handing out water, not just to those at the front but to everyone they could reach. When I came out of that gig my clothes were so drenched that they were stuck to me.

I've got the fender hi mass on my p bass deluxe special. It's absolutely rock solid, the saddles sit on tracks on the bridge plate, no chance of sideways movement. No protruding screws or sharp edges either. I've also got a Babicz fitted to my squier jazz. Fantastically engineered bit of kit, it's very quick and easy to set up and the cam system for adjusting the action is surprisingly satisfying. Again no sharp edges or protruding screws.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US is a bit different from bankruptcy in the UK. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11,_Title_11,_United_States_Code It basically gives a financially struggling company a period of protection from their creditors while they try to get their house in order. In Gibson's case my guess would be that they will try to sell off the plethora of non musical instrument related companies that they've acquired over the last 20 years. There may also be some commercial value in the intellectual property of some of the music tech companies that they have bought and subsequently let fold. They might also try to sell or remortgage physical assets such as land and manufacturing equipment. Only if this fails to raise enough revenue to appease their creditors will proceedings begin to transfer all Gibson assets, including the brand itself, to their creditors who will then be free to either keep the brand tnemselves or auction it off to the highest bidder. Whatever happens it's extremely unlikely that the Gibson brand will disappear although it may well change hands.

I'm also finding it difficult to answer this. I learnt by playing along to Ramones albums. I used to be able to play every song on every album up to and including Brain Drain and although I haven't tried it for 20 years I suspect I still can. That's close to 100 songs not counting all the other stuff I've learnt. None of which makes me a particularly outstanding player. I haven't cast a vote because I really don't know.

If you took a straw poll of people in the average UK street I'd bet the mortgage that very few will have heard of Rush. Yes would be recognised by a few more but using either band as a yardstick to measure global success is probably pushing it. If you were to ask people about the Beatles or Justin Bieber on the other hand...

I normally go for steel rounds but I was quite impressed with the stock Fender nickel plated rounds that came on a new p bass last year. I got about 6 months out of those and I like my strings zingy. Other than that I generally go for Hi Beams on everything except the fretless. Again I reckon they're good for 6 months or more before they lose their exceptional brightness. Someone who likes a less zingy sound would probably be good with them for a lot longer than that. I suppose an additional question would be 'At what point do you consider that your strings need changing?' There are people on here who play the flats they inherited from their great grandad.

Have you had a look at Dingwall or other multiscale basses?

They've overdone it in on the cheap prices. Just about everything is half the usual retail or far less. That immediately triggers the 'if something seems to good to be true...' alarm bells.

That has been 'reliced' via a couple of minor crashes.

Everyone loves a bit of ABBA.

Brilliant cheers. I never thought I'd end today gassing for two thirds of a Stratocaster.

I actually really like that. Is that photoshopped or is it something that someone has actually made? I'm rubbish at spotting the difference.