Paul S

Still, on the plus side the scratchplate is a nice cheery shade of orange

Go on then. 30 secs in is the reason the adolescent me watched this religiously every week

Early Black Sabbath for me. First time I heard Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath it was like suddenly entering a different time zone or dimension. All very dark and sinister.

To be fair, chaps, it would have been a rather lengthy poll had I split it down to 4 string 10% 5 string 90% 4 string 20% 5 string 80% 4 string 30% 5 string 70% etc. And then someone would have complained that it didn't have an option for using a 4 string 25% of the time so couldn't possibly vote

Her other claim to fame...

I feel much the same way. 99.9% of punters don't give a rat's arse about the sound of the bass, but I do so I go to some length to get the best sound 'for me'. Which is generally speaking a Precision bass with a slight mid-scoop eq.

I would say, with complete lack of sympathy, that your main concern is missing out. If you had been that bothered, you would have remembered and the bass would have been yours. Lesson learnt, move on.

I am curious as to what kind of percentage of us use various stringed basses. These days I use 5 string only - how about you?

That's where it works for me, Marc - at some gigs I switched from one to the other and this makes it much simpler. That plus an A/B box. I think a cymbal stand would probably be more secure - the downside of this is that it feels a little bit lightweight. Then again, it has never been a problem. I also moved the end piece up a touch so I could use normal size strings - now sporting a set of Innovation black rockerbillies, which look and sound vastly better. And pretty much as soon as I had done that we changed the format of the set and I don't play it any more!

Re. stand, I bodged a stand for my Stag that actually works pretty well. The donor was a tattoo leg/arm rest - took off the pad and it gave me this quick release jobbie. Once it is folded up it (nearly) fits into the bow pocket on the carry bag, too.

I had my Line 6 wireless transmitter do an HJ on me once, I managed to do the same thing in roughly the same amount of time. Battery indicators on those seem to work in a different time continuum. Start of gig, 6hrs battery life left. 1hr 30 mins into gig, oops... Lesson learnt - use new batteries each gig. More recently a newly acquired Mesa Boogie Prodigy Four:88 suddenly made a loud distorted noise accompanied by the very expensive smell of burning electrics. Luckily at the sound check, if you can say any aspect of an expensive amp blowing up is lucky. Went to the boot, got my back up amp, not a problem. Well, except my nose was spot on - cost me £250 to have some innards replaced. My main thought at receiving that news was 'I could have got a new Trace Elliot head for less than that'.

Likewise. I saw them on the 'Burn' tour with Coverdale and Hughes - missed MkII by a year or so. It was at the Kursaal in Southend and I have an enduring memory from that night of a girl without a stitch on getting on stage and jumping onto Ritchie Blackmore. He had the presence of mind to unsling his guitar and strum it on her backside. It remains one of the best gigs I have seen. Saw them again with Morse some years later and found them a little disappointing - it seemed rather churlish that they didn't play anything from the period Gillan wasn't in the band. Plus by that time his voice was shot to bits.

I think it is a bit like volcanoes. They sit there doing not much then periodically erupt. You'll have your Pompeii moment soon enough.

the opening bars of an LP that started a musical revolution...

I was in this situation, too, with a classic rock covers band. Despite everyone being clear to start with regarding availability a year down the line, just as we were getting some good gigs locally, the singer/ rhythm guitarist started getting in everyones' faces about 'lack of commitment' and effectively split the band apart. I migrated with the guitarist to another band a few months later which has now morphed into a Bon Jovi tribute band. Although we are struggling to gain any momentum.

Tuesday had a night of country rock at O2 Forum Kentish Town. Brothers Osborne and Cadillac Three. I had heard and liked a couple of tracks from each but wasn't overly familiar with either band. Brothers Osborne were fantastic - quality band with great singer and guitarist (the eponymous brothers) who had some good and interesting chops. Good, well crafted country rock tunes. Cadillac Three were the headliners and, although good, I thought they were rather one dimensional. Think 'Country Beastie Boys' and after a few tracks everything sounded the same to me. I thought the strutting front man was cool to start with but he just irritated me by the end. Journey there was not so good due to a points failure on the overground so we had to back track and recalculate. Balanced by a superb wood-fired sour dough pizza at Franco Manca produced in double quick time 3 mins from the venue.

I would recommend keeping a look out for the Squier VM Mustang. They are very good indeed. One on eBay somewhere at the moment in sunburst.

Trouble I had with a curly lead was it was just so damned heavy. Plugged one into the class D amp I had at the time and it nigh on dragged it straight onto the floor.

If you wanted to test the water rather than jump in I would pitch in the idea of a Westone Thunder 1A fretless. Fabulous tone and a cool unlined board. IMO they are a class above most others at the price point and if you don't like it or want to move on you'll get your money back.

I had a Squier Silver Series Precision that was fabulous. Lightweight and THE most incredible organic tone. Moved it on when I went through a phase of active basses. Now I've got a brace of JVs that have a better fit and finish but the tone on that Silver Series was something special. Hey ho. And, to be fair, it would only be sitting in the case like my other 4 strings.

OBBM for me too. There was a brief period when I laboured under the mistaken belief that I could successfully solder my own but thankfully that soon passed. As did the mysterious buzzing noises

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1509904574' post='3402505'] You've all missed the point. Those aren't control knobs, each represents one note in a scale and you play them by tapping the knobs with your right hand while tapping (in a slightly different way) the strings with your left hand. What appears to be a pickup selector is actually a rotary knob which allows you to choose which key the 'knobs' play in. [/quote] Ah, I see - so a bass accordion? Surprised no-one has thought of it before.

Danelectro Longhorn could be considered for your short list, too. Certainly lightweight! The quirky look isn't for everyone, I know, but they play nicely and sound fantastic. I've had a few shortscale Fendery things and the Squier VM Mustang was my pick - to my ears it sounded 'exactly' like the proper vintage Mustang. Although the neck is Jazz width - 38mm at the nut - so maybe too skinny?

[url="https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Unique-one-off-Bass-Guitar/132387219889?hash=item1ed2e4a9b1:g:1tIAAOSwCcZZ~iiG"]https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Unique-one-off-Bass-Guitar/132387219889?hash=item1ed2e4a9b1:g:1tIAAOSwCcZZ~iiG[/url] As a one off, I assume there wouldn't be a cereal number?....

4+1 No mention of more exotic tone tubers like yam, yakon, eddoe and the like. I'm disappointed.