Paul S

Westone Thunder 1A just popped up, starting bid £75 and £4.99 postage - listed under 'vintage electric guitars' rather than basses so it may miss a lot of searches and end up a massive bargain. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matsumoku-Made-in-Japan-MIJ-Vintage-Bass-Guitar-Westone-Thunder-1A-Active-/161448463105?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2597140b01"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matsumoku-Made-in-Japan-MIJ-Vintage-Bass-Guitar-Westone-Thunder-1A-Active-/161448463105?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2597140b01[/url]

Yes, he was a good front man - really good at connecting with the crowd and, although not a great singer, had extreme self-confidence that shone through. If there were raffles or announcements he would always step up and take over. [boring band story]Unfortunately a lot of the qualities that made him such a good front man I found difficult to live with on a personal level and I ended up having a finger pointing row with him just before a gig - my last one with them about 18 months ago. The most surprising thing with the whole situation was that it took 4 years with the band to reach that point. That's rock n roll, I suppose. Final part of this story was that after a year the band hadn't found a steady replacement bassist and, with the arrival of his first baby, the singer decided to pack it in. The others got in touch with me and we are now starting over again with a new singer.[/boring band story]

The original finish would have been satin/matt black so maybe someone wanted it to be gloss and varnished it? In which case it would have been a better job just to polish it.

Thunder Jets! I've had 2 - nice basses - lightweight, superb necks, 22frets... look forward to see how this develops!

That should have gone for £200 more! Great buy. The better Westones seem to be going for peanuts just lately - a Pantera X790 went for £255 a couple of weeks back and they were the absolute top of the range.

Re Legacy = Rotosound thing, I ordered a couple of sets and there was a dead string in one. Contacted Strings Direct who are going to send a replacement, of course. But I also asked if they were re-badged Rotosounds and he said 'yes they are' - so not just a rumour!

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1412805159' post='2572363'] SPB-2 is a bit 'middly' and slightly hot... you may have more luck with the SPB-1. Are you using rounds or flats? The neck [i]per se[/i] won't have a huge influence on tone - in this case. (Stands by for backlash). [/quote] ^This^ I'd say. I experimented with lots of pickups and strings to get the old school thump sound I have in my head. Fender '62 re-issue originals do it for me, with either flats to get a real thump or rounds for a slightly rockier edge (or perhaps the Forget me Nots punch).

I don't know why the venue gets bad reviews. I've been to a couple of gigs there and the sound is good. A decent sized, raised stage means you can see just fine wherever you are. Very limited seating, mind you. Good food available either in the in house restaurant (you can actually book a table and beat the queues on busy O2 nights) or from the bar. What's not to like, really.

A couple of our usuals - one of our guitarists is 5'4" tall and weighs approx. 17 stone. He always walks up to his mike and says 'can you see me behind here?' usually gets a laugh. Near the start of a gig, usually when one guitarist is tuning up, as he often does, singer will say something like 'we'll be playing great tunes from the 60s right through to this year. Hopefully you will know some of them. Hopefully we will too' I think the best one he ever came out with was at the start of a gig - we had rehearsed with a keyboard player who then left leaving us to default to our usual format of 2 x guitars and dust off some old tunes at short notice. Singer said 'We've had to change our set at the last minute as our keyboard player has hurt his fingers. Oh, hang on, its next week he gets his fingers hurt, isn't it...'

Very interesting. Thanks.

Gosh that looks nice. Stats, please? How wide and heavy is it compared to the original? if you can think back that far

I have stock pickups in mine with a J. East U Retro preamp. It does a 'sort of' Precision sound, but not a good old fashioned woody thump one. I can't honestly imagine getting that kind of tone from it, to be honest. I have 3 others Precisions, all of which do the old school thump thing. An early 80s '57 re-issue JV Squier, an 80s MIJ medium scale Squier and what started life as a 90s MIJ Fender but now sports a Mighty Mite Jazz neck - the last two have Fender 62 Re-Issue Pickups. Of the 3 I think the medium scale sounds nicest, the JV next then my bitsa. But it is a close run thing. The beauty of the medium scale is that it is under 8lbs, has a relatively thin neck and is uber-comfy - as well as sounding great. I am not sure these come around that often but, when one does, it sounds like the sort of thing you should nab! Or, thinking outside the box a bit, perhaps look out for a USA made Peavey Fury I. Very lightweight, very skinny neck and a hot pickup that can be tamed to give an old school thump if necessary. And can usually be found for very little money.

When I first got this it was a shocking pinky-red colour with matching headstock. Not sure what Fender called the colour but I found it horrible. I managed to get all the pinky-red off the headstock then had a decal made up by [url="http://www.guitardecals.co.uk/"]http://www.guitardecals.co.uk[/url] - I sent them a picture of the original and they kind of matched it, albeit very slightly larger than the original, but with the right sort of writing and also with my original serial number. Still have a spare, as it happens, as even ham-fisted old me got the first one on ok, with a gold Fender and black text for the rest. So the decal bit is easy

Ah.

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1412001746' post='2564726'] I was thinking of changing the pickguard to give the bass a more unique look. [/quote] Have you tried it with no pickguard at all? If the routing is neat and paint finish ok, that might work. Most of the VM fretless seem to end up without one. You'll have the screw holes but they don't notice from more than 3 yards away.

I saw a guitarist recently playing like this - one of Limehouse Lizzy's pair was a leftie playing a right handed guitar flipped over. That kind of rock lead guitar playing looks really odd played upside down and it was difficult not to just sit and watch.

It is my pleasure to open a feedback thread for Gergo. He bought my Aria Pro II Laser bass in the simplest of transactions, arranged his own courier to Hungary - where it arrived safely after just a few days after collection. Nice friendly guy, good comms throughout. A pleasure doing business. Paul

... and driven to tears

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1411900503' post='2563605'] Get some Status Half-Wounds - then you'd only need one bass!! [/quote] Need?

I keep wavering between the two to the point where I think I need both. I tried TI flats a few years ago at a Bass Bash on one of Clarky's Precisions - I really loved the slinky feel of them so I bought some. Living with them for a lengthy period and they blew me away, so i changed all my basses to flats. Then I joined a heavy rock covers band and missed the extra punch from rounds so I strung a couple of basses back with rounds. When the band imploded a couple of years later I went back to flats. But over the last few months I have done a bit of recording and found that, for some tracks, the bass didn't quite sound as I wanted it to strung with flats, so I am going to try using rounds again on a couple of basses.

I really like a lot of their stuff. The bass is always doing something interesting and usually with a really creamy tone. I think this is my absolute favourite, the bass line kind of pulsates along. http://youtu.be/ZKfd3gsPJ9c

One Man's vintage tone is another's dull thud, but for me Fender Original '62 reissue pup nails the tone I have in my head. Next best was a Wizard Trad, then a Seymour Duncan SPB-1.