Steve Browning

I have a couple of the Precisions and the body is chamfered (like a double bladed axe in section) and I do not find I even touch the body of the bass. The Precision is the same pickup configuration and is wonderfully versatile.

Interesting to meet previous owners of the slab. Strange how these things happen. I mentioned some of the story of my 66. As I said, I bought it in Tiger Musoic and financed the purchase by selling a 78 Stingray to a guy that had, as it turned out, been the previous owner and had put it in the shop to sell. The bass had the initials SD scratched onto various metal parts and I was gigging (in Worthing) when a guy I knew, who followed the band, came up to me and said "that used to be my bass". The guy was Steve Davey and he played it in a band called Steampacket. They had had some success in the 60's and he had played it with the likes of BB King and many other of the Blues greats. The slab, I think, I had put for sale in Vintage and Rare. I sold the slab and the 53 through them. I won;t again. I got the minimum I had said I would accept and the 53 was featured in another book with a photo credit for them (and some money presumably) which never came my way. I have maintained an embargo against them since then. I didn't gig it because I found the body would cut into my forearm after a while but I did record a song with it during my time with the Pretty Things. I know there is much debate over these basses. Having had this one I can certainly say it seemed to have more 'oomph' than my other Precisions but I couldn't really say why. Thanks for the number Baz. I will contact you soon and you can really rub my nose in it!! :-) Steve

I gues I would like to still have the slab bass. It was a great bassto record but th others weren't that great. The 53 was a bit of a pig to play, the E string on the 61 was almost dead and th 62 was an ok bass but nothing compared to the later one. It did teach me that the pre-CBS thing is utter cobblers and I do smirk to myself when the purists drone on about it.

It certainly was. My wonderful 66 Precision cost me £260 in Tiger Music in Brighton (I got the money by selling my 78 Stingray, to the guy who put the bass in Tiger Music as it turned out). It was just the price back then.

I was clearing out some space the other day and came across the bills for the old basses I used to own. Have none of them now (which is not a regret from a playing perspective, the 66 is a far superior instrument as it happens). Still, we all make mistakes eh? The '53 is the one in the Haynes manual and the Steve on the certificate shown with the bass is me!

Maybe Know More Heroes. :-)

I have occasionally gigged with an old Portaflex in the past but concluded that Jamerson gigged at a time when everyone sat down at a gig and listened. Either that or no-one heard him!

I think I would go with No More Zeroes. It's not a bad name and I do reckon there's some mileage in the endorsement by Jet Black. Of course, there is: Nice'n'Southsea Golden Browndown Let Me Down Eastleigh

As am I, I can see it from my window!

Turktown? At least you're not a Joe Jackson tribute! :-)

Upp - late 70's funk, here ably supporting Jeff Beck. Not surprisingly, the bass player was called Stephen Amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzDqqxKnW3o

[quote name='phil.c60' timestamp='1487333699' post='3239036'] I'm fortunate to know the drummer from SNAFU, Terry Popple. A great player and a really lovely guy. I've been fortunate to play with him a couple of times and he's always been very kind about my very average abilities! He also played with Van Morrison. As for bands, how about the Decemberists, and Cake. Both American indie bands, Decemberists a bit more folky. [/quote] I have had the pleasure of playing with Terry. We were Desparate Dan Band men together (on the first LP). As you say, a great guy and I have (almost) fond memories of his broad Middlesborough accent saying 'who cut the cheese, man' when the slide player in the band had let loose one of his 'exp[erimental bubbles'.

Thank you. I'll do that.

I have occasionally considered going wireless but somehow have always shied away from it so cables it is. At the same time, I am also conscious of pulling the cable out of the amp on stage. To that end, I have always run the guitar cable up through the handle of the cab and the amp flightcase. To compensate, I have used 30' cables so I have room to move, as it were. In the days of the big rig (the Bass 400 and a Bass 400+ run together) I bought a Y box (which had a buffer in it). I am now using the (active) A/E and other bases in the same band and invested in a Lehle switcher which enables me to just swap and maintain the same level (I forgot to throw the active/passive switch on the amp in a rehearsal once). As you can imagine, being obviously the tidy sort, I thought I'd get a board for it to sit on. I also added a tuner (to use up space as much as anything) and thought I'd add the Y box to use the buffer part of it. Lawks! What a difference. Greatly increased volume and tone. Why didn't I do that years ago? I was always aware I was losing tone but just used the tone controls to get the sound I wanted and a Bass 400 puts out enough volume so you don't have to worry. I just didn't know how much. It was rather like listening to the Banana Boat song after the guy had 'come through the window'!

Can't disagree. I guess I'm the bass equivalent of someone who would prefer to travel on a steam train!

Having gone 'lightweight' a couple of years or so ago (at least on the cab front) I am forever thinking about hauling the diesel cab back out on gigs. The weight is wonderful but I am convinced that the old stuff just has more sonic presence. While I accept all the arguments about the science, my ears just aren't convinced. By the way, nice to be back. After Bassman Steve was rather more rude to someone that he would like to think he would be, I killed him off and have returned after a lengthy self-imposed exile.