Krysbass

Mariah Carey's cover of Without You. Too many notes.😧

On further reflection, that $155 for a seat with no view of the stage would be perfect for the types who pay good money to go to a gig, only to spend the entire performance going to and from the bar, looking at their phone or shouting to their friends while getting ever more plastered. Maybe Beyonce's tour management team have realised that there's even more easy money to be made from this strange niche in the market?🤣

Well said - agreed 100% And no matter how near or far your seat is from the stage or how much you've paid for it, you'll also have your view and enjoyment of the gig frequently interrupted by people asking you to let them squeeze past as they go to and from the bar and toilets.

From my own experience with my Spector ReBop 5, this can be a valid point. I love this bass in all respects other than the narrow string spacing. And I suspect that because I'm left handed but play right handed this tends to magnify the natural weakness in my right hand to effectively adapt and adjust as well as it might. Especially since I only get time to practice at weekends. The only other 5-string basses that offer 19mm string spacing yet possibly tick enough other boxes for me are the Ibanez BTB or MTD Kingston, and I may have to check them out at some point.

Kate Bush in Running up that Hill - "underwear tearing you asunder"

After a couple of years with a Thunder 1A, I bought my Thunder III in 1985. Always loved the look and sound of it but to give it more modern functionality, and after a lot of pondering, I replaced the original pickups and electronics in 2018 with a Bartolini 3 band eq etc and fitted some Gotoh lightweight machineheads of to reduce the neck dive. I did it mainly for an 80s band I had going at the time, but the band folded shortly after. The Thunder III has become my most played bass since then.

Rockschool did a roadshow at one point and after seeing 'Enry at Liverpool's Royal Court, I also later treated myself to a black Thunder 3. Still have it, and still play it regularly since replacing the innards with Bartolini pickups and 3-band eq a few years ago to give it more modern functionality.

Call me an old cynic; but when some pigeon-hole something as a "beginners' bass" it's often simply a combination of it not having the "right" name on the headstock and it not being sufficiently expensive and has little to do with the actual playability, sound or build quality.

Just about high enough to avoid the back of the bass contracting buckle-rash. Wrongly or rightly; that matters to me, but I've been playing long enough to know that this also works for me from an ergonomic perspective.

I was going to say that 50 - 60 years on from when The Beatles were happening; there has been plenty of other music released for radio stations to choose for their playlists. But that can't be right, as there are so many other songs from the last 50-60 years that radio stations still play to death (yawn) even though those songs must be included on most pop/rock compilation albums ever released and therefore widely included in most listeners' music record/CD/download collections.🤐

Eurythmics _ "There must be an angel" With that shrill, insanely overdone, intensely irritating vocal from the get go it is far from being among their best or most representative songs, yet for some unaccountable reason it's the song that seems to get as much radio airplay as all their other songs put together. I can only assume the great British listening public aren't hearing what I hear.😯

Great to see another Westone Thunder III in such good order. Modernised my identical TIII a couple of years ago with Bartolini pickups and pre-amp to give it a new lease of life primarily for my 80s band, only for the band to fold shortly after. Thankfully, well made basses last a lot longer than the flaky, enthusiasm bypass of some band members.😀

I put Bartolini pickups and electronics into my 1984 WestoneThunder III, but only did this because I had no intention of selling the bass having owned it from new plus the fact that even if I did sell it; it was worth disappointingly little, even in mint, original condition. So I decided to give the bass a new lease of life without massively altering the appearance. The Aria bass on the other hand is arguably more sought after and unless the definite intention is to keep it forever; I'd also support the view that it's best not to modify it in any way that can't be reversed.

In covers bands, any song featuring Morrissey was the only thing I ever wanted to veto. My only reason was that his voice and singing style irritate me too much (think dentist’s drill or nails on a blackboard) to allow me to listen to any of his songs long enough to learn it. So it’s with a wry smile to myself that now, at long last, there’s another good reason not to cover Morrissey. Only problem is; I can’t see my band activities resuming post-COVID-19, so I’m unlikely to ever put that argument to the test.😏

I briefly played saxophone then switched to clarinet at school and even played in the school junior orchestra when I was 12 or 13. But neither instrument really gelled with me, mostly due to having to endure the discipline of learning to read music for pieces that I was uninspired by and then play them. A lot of my home practice time was illicitly spent working out songs or lines that I liked - but playing them by ear - rather than the stuff I was supposed to be doing. This was infinitely more enjoyable and satisfying to me. But inevitably my tutor and I had to agree that I was not making the expected level of progress, so I dropped the clarinet lessons and took up competitive swimming instead!😂 I was 19 by the time I realised that bass guitar was my instrument - but again no reading of anything written down and only using my ears to learn songs for the past few decades. But I also bought myself a saxophone a couple of years ago - unfinished business and a chance to learn it the way I wasn’t allowed to all those years ago.

Great value - and curious to see new ReBop DLXs still for sale; given that the DLX version was discontinued around 5 years ago - when I picked up my DLX 5-string for a similarly low price from Thomann.

The nylon washer broke on one of the original machine heads on my Ibanez SR600. Other than the battery clip needing replacing, this is the only thing that has broken in nearly 10 years of heavy use. My solution was to invest in a set of Gotoh GB707s. These seem to be solidly engineered and are a direct upgrade requiring no modification to the headstock - given that these are original hardware on the SR premium models. I’ve fitted Gotoh machine heads to 4 of my basses and use Glued To Music, (UK based) as they usually have a good selection of Gotoh products in stock.

A great and versatile bass IMHO - I’ve owned mine for nearly 10 years now and despite playing since 1982, the SR600 manages to be my most gigged bass.

I’ve used the same amps and two 2x10 cabs since around 2008. It packs a punch when needed yet takes up very little floor space and as it’s modular its very portable. So I tend to think it’s better to have it but not need it than to need it but not have it.😋

I learned in my youth that there are other, non-musical equivalents of this. Back when I left school, I did some work experience helping a surveyor at Lime Street station in Liverpool. Armed with a theodolite and taking various readings over a couple of days; I lost count of the number of people compelled to pose for the “camera” in what, to them at least, was a display of epic and inventive comic genius. So in my gigging exploits over the decades since then not much surprises me. And I’m also aware that in any case; it’s mostly the singer and/or guitarist who are the main focus of weird, unwarranted or plain unwanted attention from punters at gigs. I think many non-musical types still struggle to understand what bassists do.

My most recently acquired bass is a Spector ReBop DLX 5-string (EMGpickups). It’s the only Spector I’ve ever played in approaching 40 years as a bassist, but my most gigged bass is an Ibanez SR600. The best recommendation I can give is that I love the core sound of the Spector so much that I keep trying to emulate it on my other basses - with only limited success.😯

It’s the sort of bass that someone might buy to naively help make some sort of statement that they (and/or their band) “push the bounds“. But that will either simply fail abysmally and just look silly, or (much less likely); these basses will become so popular among a certain demographic that they become part of the establishment and don’t push any bounds at all.

I’ve had my SR600 since 2010 and it’s easily my most gigged bass despite playing bass since 1982! A real workhorse and the natural finish hides the inevitable bumps and scratches well. Only repair has been swapping the original tuners for a set of Gotoh GB707s. The acoustic is a more recent addition - as is the rosewood thumb-rest and black tuners to replace the original silver items...

This is a tough one because I’m a fussy sod so there must be a good half-dozen things that would put me off a bass. Best I can do is narrow that down to the two biggest deal-breakers for me which are any sort of pick-guard and maple or other light coloured fretboards. Just those two probably rule out a good 50% of the basses out there.🙄

Here’s hoping🤞 I use UPS regularly in my work and they do seem to have been suffering regular problems since the rise of COVID-19. We’ve had numerous packages to customers arrive several days late and one package going from Liverpool to Blackburn (Lancashire) was routed via Stanford le Hope in Essex for some unexplained reason.🙄