Owen

Ban this sick filth!!!!!!!!! He is not wrong though.

The long game. I can respect this.

The guitarist in the band I was playing with was John Parricelli. He was not there because I was there. But he is one of the 2 best musicians I have ever been anywhere near. Just astonishingly complete.

I played in a band at Brecon Jazz many years ago. There was an up and coming singer playing support. I could not be bothered to walk out of the green room to watch. It was Amy Winehouse. Duuuuuuur.

When I went bass shopping many decades ago I was astonished at the price differentials. They made absolutely no sense to me. It is such an incredibly niche market. There seemed to be no parameters which could be measured. I eventually had a new 5 string neck put on a bass I owned. I know that given the historical mishmash it is, it would not be considered "the real thing". And yet, I want for no other. I have not had a hint of DB GAS since I took delivery of it (apart from new machine heads!). And in the intervening years my front door has been spinning with the plank purchasing and selling. I am a bass guitar tart and will go with any of them. If you like it, then that is it. If it is cheaper than 80% of the rest of the shop, well happy days. This is before we even reach the value of a decent setup and a set of strings which complement the instrument - which are not necessarily what the bass will be wearing. And let us not even START about the price of bows. This has been a stream of consciousness posting.

Because you are so worth it.

You cannot buy new ears. Get proper ACS one. I would sell all my basses and buy a cheap one if I could buy new ears. I cannot. So now, realistically, I am not a gigging bassist and I get to listen to my tinnitus all day. Don't skimp. Do it right. It will never happen to you. Until it does. And then it is too late.

This is going to be a long thread.

What are the scale lengths?

This builder is going to be paying the OP commission.

The official word for not being able to hold a beat is Discolexic.

Or even not have some individuals in there at all.

This is not directed at anyone in this thread. But we all get excited about putting the killer fill in (I am guilty as anyone) etc. Would I play like Sharay Reed all the time if I could? Obviously, yes. But the reality is that whatever the genre, we need to play for the song and nothing else. Playing in church, often means playing with players who are a mix of inexperienced and very experienced. Some have been gigging for years and some are just beginning. The keys players are generally pianists who bring with them the full skillset of all the notes all the time. In such a situation if we are playing much more than the big letter on 1 and 3 then we are risking confusion and car crashes. Often there is no drummer and it is up to us to put the pulse down. Sometimes there is a drummer and it is still up to us to put a pulse down. H*** R****** I am looking at you. Sometimes everyone will be on it and you can loosen up a bit. But in general, it is the big letter on 1 and 3 or if you are feeling funky then dotted crotchet, quaver and a minim. Anything more than that means people do not have anything to hang on to. Our job is to lay the structure down in a way that is impossible to miss.

Big letter of the chord on 1 and 3. Not joking.

I am aware that this does not answer the OP question but it is kind of on topic. I recently realised that my concept of having different pedal boards for different things meant I never actually used any of them because none were wired up and ready to go. So I bought one of these https://www.thomann.de/intl/harley_benton_spaceship_power_60.htm. It is the bomb. No faffing with securing the power to the board (I realise that this is lazy, but....<shrugs>) it has extra USB power outputs and takes a kettle plug.

This sounds fabulous I am glad to read it. A long time ago the keyboard player in the band I was in came to a gig and said "I met a percussionist at a party in the mountains, can he sit in with us?". He got a HARD no. He asked again a couple of times. He got the same response. He eventually just invited the guy along anyway with no notice, there was just a 5th member setting up on stage. He came in with a set of Bongos, went back out and bought in several Congas, went back out and carried in two cases full of shakey goodies. Zero rehearsal and mostly originals. He sat in like he had been working with us for 2 years. The drummer said that every possibility he had heard in his head was happening perfectly to his right. I have gigged on numerous occasions with him on kit since then. We have had one rehearsal in all that time, and that was only cos the harpist for a different band was edgy. The rest have been seat-of-the-pants jobs - purely because it is more fun and more creative just to see what happens. It turns out that he is properly, PROPERLY big time but had chosen to live up the valley from where I live. I did mention to the keyboard player that 1. It would have been good to know who this guy was before we stared at him vacantly and 2. Had I been told of his pedigree, he would have been on stage at the first possible opportunity. I will not burden him with naming him - but John, I feel your joy.

I am glad this has a central sound hole and not f holes, otherwise I would be in trouble.

BUT IT WOULD NOT BE A FENDER IF YOU DID THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah. The joy of late night "I am safe to make this offer. They will never accept it. Oh, they did".