Shambo

I've had to do a bit of research about these things over the last few years, and obviously a lot of variables come in to play, but I don't think it's necessarily doomed, more rather changing in to something different. People will still want to congregate somewhere, it's in our nature, and that place may well be in the void left on the high street. Food, drink and especially entertainment will always be a big draw, regardless of what some people say about kids these days not wanting to congregate in the pub at a weekend to watch middle aged men rock out. The merits and pitfalls of digital media has been discussed numerous times on this forum. These days you just don't need to browse a physical shelf for a ripe desk lamp or particularly succulent foreign holiday. Showrooms for goods may replace stores, and when you've made a judicious choice for the perfect shade of green for your new pantaloons, you mightn't have to wait for it to be delivered from some foreign sweatshop either. Light industrial processes could be making a comeback on the high street! Butcher, baker and the proverbial candlestick maker. Just in time deliveries (probably by drone) of materials mean large warehouses full of cloth or wood or anything don't need to be bolted on to the back of a workspace. You might arrange an appointment to watch robots lovingly hand craft your new bycycle/washing machine/whatever, right before your very eyes, and it doesn't need to be done on an industrial estate on the edge of town. More and more people will find themselves shopping for a particular design or designer. I've made it all sound a bit rosey I know, and my sympathies are with the retail workers who are caught up in this horrible situation.

I got a ticket in the post today for their gig in Bristol early January. They're doing a short UK tour.

It's been a tough call for me to name my best purchase. I went a bit mad and bought six basses this year. I've done my bit to keep the Basschat marketplace moving. My just about best purchase was a Fender Japan '75 Jazz RI, but it was a close run thing with the American Pro Precision which I also picked up here from the classifieds. Not being a fan of the Mexican 70's version, the rosewood/pearloid block combo is rare (harder to find than the maple version), and to find that married to a black body (as opposed to 3TSB) was very unusual. To find it with a matching black headstock takes it into hens teeth territory. It's almost a ringer for my first decent bass, which I had to sell over twenty years ago, and it feels very familiar in my hands. The icing on the cake was the throaty Hepcat '62 pickups that came with it. I treated it to a nice Ki0gon S/P loom and some TI Jazz flats. Lovely. The worst purchase was a Hercules multi-guitar stand. I correctly assumed that I needed to save on space, and it does that job superbly, but what I didn't realise was that only one edge of my collection would be on display. I mean, I did realise but, I didn't know how much I'd miss looking at my instruments face on! I bought one tripod stand, (to replace the three that I gave away when I bought the Hercules), and rotate the bass it holds as and when I feel like. I mean, you can only play one bass at a time, right? The multi stand now sits redundant, propped up next to my desk and taking up yet more space. Stupid.

I usually make DV247 my first call for flats. Better still if you can buy a couple of things and get to the £99 threshold for free shipping. https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/Thomastik-5-Bass-Strings-JF-345-43-136-Nickel-Flat-Wound/art-BAS0005811-000

Echo and the Bunnymen - Killing Moon Scrub that, I thought you were asking for an 80's song for acoustic guitar. I could imagine Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence being sung by a choir.

There's lots of upfront bass playing to admire in Cake's album Fashion Nugget. A perennial favourite around chez Shambo. It does contain the occasional, tastefully positioned F-bomb.

It was an interesting read and not entirely surprising. When the story broke I thought that this might be a case of there being no such thing as bad publicity. The thought must have crossed Mr Threatin's mind that, whilst planning his triumphant european tour, the non-existence of any actual fans might bring a media spotlight upon his fraudulant behaviour. To dismiss it all as the expensive, vanity induced delusion of a loser seems a little naive. He has now generated the publicity he craved and, if he plays his cards right (either keeping up the pretence or coming completely clean), could use this episode as a springboard to an actual career in media manipulation. A bit like professional gobshight Katie Hopkins or those 'Go Compare' adverts that people hate so much, they talk about them online and down the pub... and that's the job done. I'm reluctant to say he'll have a career in music, because I've never heard any of his, and it doesn't look like the sort of thing I'd be interested in anyway.

Sorry, you've lost me.

How many guitarists does it take to change a lightbulb? Three. One to change the bulb and two to mutter "I can do it better than that".

One of my absolute favourite bass players

Your asking price +£100

A glowing endorsement from me for walplayer Pete. Excellent communication, rapid dispatch and bomb proof packaging. It's exactly what you expect from a Basschat deal. Many thanks Pete!

That first track reminded me of The Darkness circa Permission To Land. That 70's rock pastiche begins to grate very quickly though... almost before the first song ends. I liked the chunky guitar riff though.. very Joe Walsh 'Funk 49'. A bit of fun I feel and good luck to 'em. I won't be buying a patch to sew onto the back of my imaginary denim jacket.

I use 2" Souldier straps which are made from old car seatbelts with patterns stiched on to one side. They're not cheap but I buy them because I think they have the best pattern designs... the upcyling thing is a bonus.

I was lucky enough to be present at this gig. Maybe the best gig of my life. It was absolutely mesmerising.

What have been your favourites? I'm looking for some inspiration regarding new pickups for a CV Jazz. Not that there's anything wrong with the original ones mind, but I've just bought a better quality Ki0gon VVT loom and want to take the original Squire pickups and electrics out as a whole (for originality's sake when I come to sell). I might be after something traditional or maybe something more esoteric, so long as they're passive. I just don't know. When it comes to aftermarket pups, I've tried Fender 'Original', Hepcat '64 and Wizard '84 before... and that's it. From those three my favourite is the Hepcat's, they're French and boutique (Oo La La), and to my ear they have a pronounced midrange. The Fender originals had midrange but were quiet and too polite for my liking whilst the Wizards were thunderous. Which jazz pups do you like?

Used to swear by the heaviest Labella flats. Loved 'em, loved 'em, loved 'em on my S1 Jazz. Smooth, creamy, full bass and not too stiff one you've gotten used to them. Then I sold the Jazz and was Labellaless for a couple of years. Got a jap Jazz this year and bought a Ki0gon series/parallel loom, intent on recreating my old S1 Jazz feel. The music store I got the strings from had the best prices for, well most strings tbh, (musicstore.de), so I bought two packs of Jamersons plus a pack of Thomastiks as well to reach the £100 free shipping threshold. Thought I'd try the Thomastiks on first and, well... loved 'em, loved 'em, loved 'em. Haven't taken them off yet and probably never will. Lovely feel, lovely tone and more articulate than the Labellas. I sold one unopened pack and kept the other Labella for future use... which was this weekend when I fitted them to a CV Precision. Turns out I still love them as well. I'm not a roundwound fan as you might have gathered but I did like the Bacchus roundwounds that came on the Jazz, but they're hard to find. tl;dr? Thomastik Jazz & Labella 'Jamersons' flats and also Bacchus roundwounds.

Received my third and fourth wiring kits from John today. We discussed options and the deal was done in a thee day turnaround. Great service and high quality. Many thanks.

I've regrettted every bass I've sold and every bass I will sell. There was one bass I never regretted moving on, but I gave that away for free with the suggestion it should be used as firewood.

My experience is that, the cheaper ones (even ones with a 'lifetime guarantee'), will always break. I broke one after six months and it had never been coiled, stepped on, rolled over or even left the house. It just sat in the corner of my living room between my amp and my bass and quietly broke itself. The trick for me is to find the best price/quality option and, in the UK, I like many people get OBMM of this forum to make them for me from quality components.