Doctor J

The distorted wah tone he uses only for the intro?

Your 20 fret neck may have enough overhang to install another fret. If not, you could get a luthier to add a small extension to the end of the fretboard to facilitate the extra fret. Or you could just get a short scale bass with the number of frets you’re looking for?

Mine was also faded and grey. These were the t-shirts I lived my teens in, they were far from museum pieces. Very, very far in some cases 😂

Exactly. It presents you with the results of your cognitive bias, nothing more. I remember a thread on talkbass years ago (before the humour vanished and the Fender shills ruined it) where someone put up samples of a late 50’s Precision and a bottom-rung Squier with a high-quality aftermarket pickup and listeners were tasked with picking which was which from audio alone. When faced with not being able to pick out the mojo, musically charged old-wood molecules, nitro, mellow aged magnets, pre-CBS sorcery and all the other guff we convince ourselves of and apply value to, some people got surprisingly defensive about it all. It’s amazing how much we hear with our eyes at times 🙂

Foxy. White is a great colour for 54 style basses. Bassdirect had something similar a few years ago, white 54 style Custom Shop jobbie but with a mint scratchplate. I couldn't find a buyer for any organs, sadly.

I bought a bass out of the money made from selling my old ('88 to '92ish) heavy metal t-shirts a few years ago. I frequently used to pick up a t-shirt a gigs and others were bought in HMV, Virgin or the likes. Some were in a condition which was, as a mate commented, "not fit to wash my car". All sold. An Iron Maiden Powerslave shirt went for €125, Acid Reign Moshkinstein €60, a manky Slayer Reign in Blood shirt with the sleeves cut off, around €50, it was crazy. Funnily enough, the one really rare one (an Ozzy t-shirt from the Moscow Music Peace Festival given to me by a TV cameraman who lived across the road and happened to work at the event) only went for €25. I made over €700 out of them all. Different times.

Bonus: The drumming either side of that bit is insanely good 🙂 Edit -> Actually, here's a link straight into it, just watch the faces of the other guys in the band 😉

I believe the Godlykes were made by Deviser, the Bass Collections by SGC. The two part bridge is the give-away as it's a Deviser design - I was trying to get one for a butchered Bacchus I'm restoring, I thought it was Gotoh but it's actually exclusive to Deviser and I could only get it directly from them.

It sounds like you know what you have to do.

Very tasty. Pancho is one hell of a player too. Do the necks feel similar?

1 correct, but pure guesswork overall. I went with the idea that the HB would sound the thinnest. What I thought would be the Fender turned out to be the HB. I'm calling shenanigans however as they, of course, should have sounded identical because the same fingers and tonewoods were used. By forum law, it should not be possible for them to sound different.

Strings off, then screws 😂 Use a screwdriver which fits correctly so you don't damage the screw head and don't overtighten when you put it back on. There may be a shim in there, just make sure you put it back. It's easy peasy.

€20 over here, you're definitely on a site which overcharges. Lots of them around, sadly.

Oh no, what dreadful news.

100% agree.

I bought some straplocks from Martyn, with items securely packaged and swiftly despatched. A gent to deal with.

I like them too. The control cavity is big enough to put any electronics package you wanted in there, should you desire it. It’s like a blank template of a bass which you could make as complex or as simple as you wish. Even a push/pull pot to switch between serial and parallel would be sweet but still stealthy.

Amazing playing from all involved. This one does it for me, though... those horns!

I haven't bought anything this year but this waiting business is a killer and driving me towards the classifieds more frequently than is healthy. Surely this doesn't count as a 2020 item?

I like the paintwork but, after that, like gets on the train and leaves this monstrosity behind.

Nice. White Thunderbirds are very cool indeed.

Anyone digging Vulfpeck should give Mr. Wong's solo material a listen. This is incredibly funky in an early-Prince kind of way. Petar Janjic and Kevin MacIntire are one hell of a rhythm section and Cory's a very funny fella as well as nailing that fourth-position funk guitar. He's touring in a few weeks and I have nabbed a ticket for the Cork show. Expectations are high after seeing this.

Once I learned to set up instruments for myself, going to shops became a frustrating and fruitless task as they are never, ever set up to my tastes and usually put me off whatever it was I was looking at. I haven’t tried a bass in a shop in over ten years, I would guess. The last one was the early 50’s P bass reissue with action you fly a pigeon through.