Paul S

Jon, you have a PM on its way

TBF when you've had a skin full they are pretty cute

I don't know what you mean by 'noise isolating' - they have silicon cups at the ends of the tubes that fit themselves to the inside of my ear. If I take out my hearing aids I can't hear very much at all. If I put my hearing aids in, and have them set at their usual level, the band is loud. If I turn the level down via the app I can hear but it isn't loud. Works for me, anyway.

What sort of hearing aids do you have? Mine are NHS digital Oticon of some sort. They pair with an app on my phone which does various things, including turn the volume down. This, in effect, gives me ambient sound piped directly into my ears at a comfortable volume. This might be something to explore?

Works out fine for me. Made in 1965, in 1992 it was 27 years old. It is now 2023, so 31 years later which is more than half its life. Maybe the time difference between NZ and UK is the problem.

Plenty of reasons why I wouldn't buy it, the initials are way down the list.

Ah, yes, restraint. Hmm. I've seen the word written down. Once I've stuck the new pickguard on it I'll take a nicer pic or 4.

Having decided that my recently acquired Gibson SG is the perfect bass for my band I stopped looking for anything else. For a fortnight, at least. I was having a cheeky look on eBay and saw a MIJ Mustang for sale at a price that was hard to resist. 😍 I've had several 'similar' basses - a 70s Fender Musicmaster, couple of Squier VM Mustangs, couple of Squier Musicmaster Vista Series - In fact I have one of those currently. But I've never had a MIJ Mustang. Weight was good - under 3.6kg, price was good as the body is rather tatty. Anyway, it now resides here and it is totally fabulous. Def. a different league to the others I have had, even the Vistas, which are damned fine basses. The neck is superb, bit slimmer than the Vista, but it is the tone from the stock pickups that is the stand-out for me - exactly what I would want from a Mustang. That lovely woody, organic thump with just enough edge to make it interesting. It is the best of the Fender flavoured basses I own at the moment, for sure. It has a little bit of neck dive but a grippy strap has cured that. It is vintage white with a black pickguard, can't live with that so a white pickguard is coming. Odd place for a thumb rest! 2 more holes or leave it? Dunno. Here is the eBay pic, which doesn't really show anything much.

I like the look of it as it is, really interesting.

I stuck one in a Harley Benton PB Shorty and it is a little monster now. I mean, it was OK before but that pickup has given it the balls the stock pup was lacking. It's been said before but worth repeating that the Tonerider sounds almost exactly like the Fender CS'62 Pickup but considerably cheaper.

Yup. End of thread.

Steady. Next thing you know you'll stir the 'Just Stop Cliquey In-jokes' brigade into action. Last seen un-glueing themselves from pictures of Helen Willetts after a failed attempt to prevent another page turn.

I ws discussing this with the guy who does my bits and bobs and I believe he has come up with the ideal elegant solution. The bump that passes for saddles on this is a floating, separate bit of metal. He is going to make me a new one that is 'set' in the perfectly intonated and saddle height spot, keeping all the rest of the bridge intact. I'm not likely to change the strings so this would work.

I dipped my toe into the Mesa Boogie water just once - Prodigy Four 88 or whatever combination of words it should be. Damned thing blew a valve the first time I used it in anger, took half the pcb with it. That wasn't cheap. 🤪

I'm still massively evangelistic about the pair of RCF EVOX 8s my band invested in 3 years ago. They don't feed back so can sit behind us - no backline or monitoring needed with appropriate ear protection. Routinely we use it for 2x vox/bass/kick drum but on occasion all the drums. Once in a blue moon we'll mic up the guitar amp and stick it through. Absolutely crystal clear. Massively loud if needed, we've used them outside a couple of times, usually it is coasting. Super easy and fast to set up/ break down. The units I believe weigh 24kg but sit on the floor but, in any case, our drummer is a fit forty year old farmer He just picks up one in each hand and sticks them in his landy.

As with many ailments, things improve with the passge of time. At least, they have with me. As I have got older by lumbar region has become increasingly knackered. So this has filtered out all those marvellous basses that weigh over 8lbs! Then a spot of arthritis in the hands and other joints mean swicthing to short scale is most comfortable - be gone GAS for pesky long scale basses. But most liberating of all - and possibly something sensible - on behalf of my band I invested in a fine brace of RCF EVOX 8 pas, one of those mysterious voodoo jobbies that can sit behind you without feeding back. They are paying me back the depreciation. Now I have ZERO GAS for anything remotely back line, I just plug into the desk. Works a treat.

Look like TI Flats to me, too. Here's the other end.

I have a '76 EROS EB-3 shorty which is my current back-up bass to a Gibson SG Standard. Not much in it, soundwise, but the SG is a decent bit lighter. The EROS is OK as it is but there are a couple of things about that could be improved. One thing are the tuners - another story for another day. The worst thing - it has one of those old 2 point bar bridges that is impossible to intonate properly - it is OK but not perfect. Also the mounting lugs aren't quite in a 'standard' size, the bolts having 82mm centres and screwing into the base plate, not anchor points. This means removing it completely, getting the holes filled and completely new anchor point set in. Now the bass isn't worth much so there is a school of thought that it is pointless spending anything on it, after all, I have lived with the bridge (and tuners) for some while already. I almost certainly won't choose to play it over the SG unless the SG is on the bench for some reason so it isn't going to get a huge amount of use. Nevertheless, ya'll know how it is I see a few choices. a/ Hipshot Supertone 2 point. With a little fettling this might fit as is but is probably the most expensive option. b/ Schaller 460, assuming I can find one c/ Tune-o-matic style as per the new Epiphone Embassy bass - could be a cheap option using a generic version. d/ any old bridge, after all it is a worthless bit of kit. e/ leave it the flip alone and stop being silly. I just can't decide. What would YOU do? A similar question will appear regarding the tuners.....

This thread reminds me of the old joke: What's made of brass and sounds like Tom Jones? Trombones.

James Taylor and the James Taylor Quartet. They sound exactly the same. Apart from the extra word 'quartet', of course.

Final gig of the year for my blues/rock trio Toredown with our monthly residency at The Shamrock in Ipswich. I wasn't feeling great yesterday, at the onset of a major head cold. Went to bed after lunch for a nap and slept for 3 hrs. Left late, got there 30 mins before kick off. That was actually quite nice as everything was set up and the traffic was lighter. Started off playing to a handful of punters, most of whom decided that our brand of music wasn't their thing and cleared off, leaving maybe a dozen souls. Things steadily improved until the place was packed and buzzing for our second set. Adenaline, caffeine and decongestants must have kicked in as I felt OK and, for the first time in a while, didn't play a single note out of place. The other guys were on the money, too - as a band we were pretty much mistake-free all night. We usually stick a slow tune in half way through the second set. Sometimes it works, sometimes it kills the mood. Last night we decided on 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and Alan played his socks off to the massive appreciation of the crowd which was hugely gratifying. Ended up playing 2 encores, punters wanted more but 2.5hrs was enough - certainly I was flagging by then. Got packed down really quickly, virtually empty road on the way home with no closures, home by 1am. We continue our residency there into 2024, with 10 gigs booked, plus one or two gigs elsewhere in diary, but it will be interesting to see what else pops up. My head cold has certainly 'blossomed' today so I'm probably going back to bed soon.

I have several prejudices. The biggest one is against red basses. I am not keen on other primary colours but red is a def. no-no. I did buy a red bass once, the only time I have attempted a refin, because it was cheap. Never again on both counts. Black basses with white pickguards. Someone already said it but they always look to me like the budget range. I've bought several and the first thing I do is change it for BWB. Tort pickguards. I really don't like tort pickguards, they look equally appalling on any colour bass IMO. Single cutaway basses that look like comic book whales. Plenty more but, really, mainly red basses. Red, single cutaway bass with a tort pickguard would give me nightmares.

I haven't bought much gear this year but this is the best buy: a Gibson SG Standard, 2021 in mint condition from BassBros. For some inexplicable reason I had always avoided buying a Gibson SG bass but, now I have, I find it is a perfect fit for me in terms of playing comfort, weight (7lbs), how it sits in the mix with my blues/rock trio. I have an old '76 Eros EB-3 shorty that comes a very close second but this just takes the tape. The dymanics are massive: it can sing, it can growl, it can thud. Love it.😍

I think it is some remote offshoot of an Evangelical organisation, the Church of the 7th Transverse Abdominist Pilates Reformers.