Stub Mandrel

Doesn't take that much pull to deflect a string like that, try it. It's mostly showmanship, he isn't hitting the other strings ridiculously hard.

And the great thing is that it's actually playable by mortals!

What would you do with this Maya P-Bass (other than put it on eBay as an overpriced 'lawsuit era Japanese bass')? I've added ashtray and a new scratchplate since this picture and they look great, but the lacquer has cracked and flaked really badly in several places, not just te two spots in the picture. In a few places I glued great chunks of lacquer back on with PVA! It's tempting to crack off the broken lacquer and sand the holes smooth to get a relicked look... the alternative would be a complete respray which might be beyond my skills or more than the bass is worth. To relic or not to relic.

Thanks for so many positive comments folks. I'd been looking at the emails and website for months, when I went into the shop without making the connection! The proprietor seemed to have the gift of the gab and talked me into it and I got home and signed up. Now it's suddenly very real and I feel it's time to put my money where my mouth is. Ridiculous thing is I reckon I'm a vastly better bass player now than when I was in early '96 when I changed jobs, met the SO and stopped gigging. I'm pretty sure I can be in tune and tin time, even if I don't quite nail the details; so i'm just going to play this for the hell of it, and who know in 2029 we might be doing stadiums for Saga Holidays 😉

I think the 'Abbey Road Army' is the direct descendant of 'Weekend Warriors'. Our gig is at the Boat Club too - now I know the history I'm really fillin' my boots 😲

I've been learning this from tab after re-hearing it on Planet Rock a couple of times. Check out the intro 🙂

Quite a few forum members seem to be actively plugging bands - some of them are even members of these bands!

Apparently one of my brothers is about to combine a ukelele neck with a metal santa claus selection box 🙂

I've been lucky. All the bands I've been in have had good drummers. The first (definitely the best musician in the band - started off playing side snare in a competition winning marching 'jazz band') and last were particularly good and gave me lots of good advice. Between the drummer and keyboardist of my first band I got syncopation beaten into me 🙂 But where would we be without drummer jokes eh?

Oh I did say some, but my beautifully finished 'made in Japan' (genuine) Fender Performer probably came out of the Tokai factory in 1987 along with many other 'real' Fenders...

More than I paid for this Kay, which is probably even more basic... (apols for reposting this pic!) Also see https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kay-K2-T-Vintage-Guitar/264225371338?hash=item3d850f34ca:g:58sAAOSwAEFcWWCi:rk:10:pf:0 " I have seen that these guitars sell for £250-£300. No silly offers please " Another one is listed at £57 which is probably greatly over-valued! And everyone thinks they are 60s when they were late 70s (and barely more than entry-level toy guitars).

Thanks. It seems each 'band' will have a leader who does all the coms, but I think the choice of songs will be 'democratic' rather than imposed, which is good. Funnily enough that reminds me one of my brothers (guitarist) did a 'mixed bag' charity gig last year - wasn't keen on the songs he got but he enjoyed it. I think one was Black Night and his attitude was "I just noodled around in a harmonic minor scale". I honestly hadn't considered the similarity in the situation, although its a long while since I played with anyone other than family.

Check for broken wires. Try switch cleaner... otherwise get new pots.

Crikey, they were known as crap even at the time!

Thing is if you sue someone for the lawsuit bass not being a lawsuit bass would that make it a lawsuit bass? To be fair, some of the MIJ guitars/basses from that era varied from very good to better than the originals (especially Tokai).

Something I want to avoid if at all possible... I can just about sing in tune but not much call for Paul Robeson covers...

I always wanted a TE rig. That's why I got the Laney - lots of controls and overload LEDs, a sort of poor man's Trace Elliot 🙂

My first electric K-2T - body is undisguised plywood! I had to loose the terrible 'sub-bigsby' and fit a tune-o-matic bridge. You Tube is full of videos of people raving about the pickups!

Apparently most people who sign up want to be lead guitarists... they tend to run short of bassists and vocalists.

I hope so, or I'm in for some very long drives...

Not like (some) bass players then 🙂

I'm really keen to start playing again, so I recently signed up for this: https://abbey-road-music.com/abbey-road-army-registration/ The details have just come though and it looks like enough people have signed up to form five 'bands', including a good number of returners from the previous one (which has to be a good sign!) There will be a first meeting this month to divvy us up (a bit like the Sorting Hat?) There will be seven rehearsals starting in April and a seven-hour several bands gig on 19 May. I'm pretty much the target demographic (50's , haven't played in a band for decades, vaguely competent rather than talented...) and it's a lot cheaper than buying a Lamborghini. Now I know the timetable all the questions start coming... Who will I be playing with? What if the music they want is crap or needs a Billy Sheehan/Pino Palladino? What if I suggest a song then find out I can't play it &^£^%$*^!!!!! Big worry is I know it takes me an hour to settle down my nerves when playing with new folks so at first I will come across as complete crap! I know the aim (and what I want) is just to enjoy the crack and make some music but what if they all go off note-perfect first time like the Commmitments playing Mustang Sally.... Has anyone on BC done something similar? All the backline is supplied for practice and performance; for some reason taht's making me worry even more about choosing which bass to play. I suppose I should take the one I find easist first time,but it's tempting to think 'which one will sound best' or worse 'which one will give me the most cred'. Crikey this is worse than worrying about my first band audition over 30 years ago (which was a miserable disaster - I spent weeks trying to learn all the songs on a tape, then they didn't want to play any of them).

I had a very crappy nylon string acoustic and put steels trings on it which gradually destroyed it. It rattled so much I painted a rattlesnake on the front. My mate and I got cheap Kay electrics (mine was the 'SG' copy (K-T2, I still have it), his the 'strat' and we managed to figure out 'Running Free' between us (it had just come out and he had the single). That guitar took part in many very drunken and scrappy sing-alongs (mostly helped by the Beatles Compleat) when I went to college. My first composition was called 'Mindless Violence' and it went something like '||: what we want is mindless violence:||' Much later a mate of mine leant me his precision (!) which was the start of the road to bassiness. I would guess my first bassline that wasn't a guitary thing was probably pounding along to Hawkwind.

Perhaps for Yes, Genesis and King Crimson the challenge should be 'name a track in 4/4'?

Delta Lady reminds me - Joe Cocker's take on With a Little Help from My Friends is utterly charged with emotion 🙂