Muzz

Interesting, that shorter scale length difference...I'll be interested too, to see how it works out...even less adjustment than a Dingwall, and as you say, that's second nature after a few seconds: I switch between mine and a standard layout mid-gig, and it never even registers.

Ooooooo, me back... 😕😉

One of the big advantages of playing in a function/covers band that doesn't rehearse (we gave that up a long time ago, once we'd been playing together long enough) is that when a version of a new cover does the rounds, everyone knows it's exactly that version which must be learnt; anything else and the miscreant will look a piece of onstage cheese, and an old and yellow piece of onstage cheese at that... It helps that we're a trio, too - there's nowhere to hide... 😉 I should add that within these boundaries, we'll change stuff on the fly: nothing super-technical, but if the BL judges a song's gone on long enough, he'll call an early end, especially with the funkier/dance numbers - Le Freak is a good example; it can go on and on and on, long after it's made its point; sometimes the dancefloor is loving it, and we'll persevere, sometimes he spots them flagging, and calls it for something else. Ditto the reverse, if people are dancing, we'll keep something going.

I'd be straight to Jon Shuker...I've got my next build spec all ready and waiting 🙂 I'd also agree with Ped, though - you need to be sure of exactly what you want a luthier to build for you, or be equally confident that you'll keep it anyway: I'll keep the Shuker I had made for my 50th forever, because it was paid for (in part) by all my friends and family. Happily, it's also a great bass for me, and gets used nearly every gig 🙂

We play Don't Look Back In Anger, and for the third chorus everyone drops out but me, just playing single root notes while the punters sing it to us. Satdy night was me and sixty or so people raising the roof. Brilliant to be a part of.

For Beatles fans, an essential read (listen) is David Hepworth's new book (I have it on audiobook), the somewhat clumsily entitled Nothing is Real: The Beatles Were Underrated And Other Sweeping Statements About Pop. I guarantee it will delight with a ton of minutiae from a borderline-Beatles-obsessive music journalist. If I'm completely honest, it's a bit too much for me, but his other two books (Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994 and 1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year*) are the best music-related reads/listens I've come across in a very long time... * He really does like a lumpen title, does our Dave...

I really don't have any qualms about Jon's work, despite one failure - I've got three Shukers right now, and I've owned several more, and I've never encountered an issue like that, unfortunate as it has been. Any work I've asked Jon to do on existing basses (all preference changes, rather than actual problems) has been perfect. I'm sure it'll be sorted out.

Shukers are indeed very very nice. And a bit moreish, too... 😕😃

The Radial Bassbone is made for that sort of thing - not particularly cheap, but IIRC there may be one in the FS on here...

St Michael's Youth Club in North Manchester, Nov 1980...with a 4001. Six months later we were playing clubs like the Cypress Tavern in Manchester, and Manchester Poly. I recently received a copy of a recording done that night in the CT...we weren't half bad, but more importantly, I remember being "Yeah, OK, what next?" The confidence of youth (we were all 16) 😁

As has been previously stated, thru-necks look nice. 😉

Ummmm... 😀

I had a similar thing with a BB2 - it was so small onstage I had problems hearing it (yeah, I should have pointed it at me head), but out front it was huuuge...

What cab were you using Chris? I run a WA with a Super Twin in a rawk band with two very loud (Marshalls & 412) guitarists and a shedbuilder of a drummer, and it goes very, very loud with no lack of anything. I mean ear-hurting loud...

I haven't missed many - at my school from the mid-70s we had a geography teacher who ran a music library from his own stock of albums - for 5p on a Friday you could check an album out for a week. That way you could at least give a fair run to things you'd hesitate to stump up your precious spending money on on a Saturday in Piccadilly Records in Manchester. As well as being able to sample most of the 'Classics', I got to listen to things like Can, Bong, Tangerine Dream, Blue Oyster Cult, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Einstürzende Neubauten, Tomita, ELP, and an awful lot more. Some I liked, some I didn't (including the 'Classics'), but at least I got to hear them. In later years, when spending money for an album was less precious, I'd buy albums much more freely, but still in the spirit of 'A Belgian electric sousaphone quartet, you say? Let's give this a go' which that teacher had developed in us. It was only years later that I really appreciated what this chap had done for me and a lot of my fellow pupils. I never did get to thank him. So thank you, Mr.Murphy; you started something.

Unbelievably po-faced and displaying jaw-droppingly tiny levels of self-awareness, even by showbiz standards. I'm still not sure it wasn't scripted tho - how can anyone, anyone look at a camera with a straight face and say "I made a conscious decision, thanks to Stevie Wonder, not to believe in superstition..."? Actually, the more I think about it, the less credible it actually is as presented: "We were called Caviar. We didn't know what it was, just that it was expensive. Then we found out it was fish eggs...that's not a great, erm, look for a band..."

Ummmmm...James Jamerson was a rock bassist? Okaaayyyyyyy.... 😕 Surprising how completely arrse most of them sound in isolation, though, and how valve-cludgey most of the older ones are...

Not much hate, but lots of disappointment: 1. Brand new Rick 4003W - bought for my birthday on a wave of 'I had a 4001 as a kid'. Went back to GAK the next day. Awful ergonomics, but worse, just a badly built bass; a £300 bass with a £1600 price tag. 2. 78 Jazz - brown-sounding, 12lb boat anchor. Sold for a big profit (all original, spotless, case, etc, etc) to someone who'll (hopefully) never play it. 3. Alembic Epic. Again, I completely failed to see what the fuss was all about. Reasonably well built (but not in the £5k-plus bracket), sounded piano-y, but terribly heavy for a small-bodied bass. 4. A couple of Overwaters - lovely woods, well made, but very anodyne and polite. I even emailed Chris about the issue. He didn't reply... 5. Stingrays. 5 of them so far. I love them until I own one, then I just don't get on with them, so I sell them. Then I buy another one...etc, etc...

No problemo fella - only issue is we're in the middle of a house move here, how's about I drop it off with you on my way to/from work (in a hardcase, natch ) and then pick it up off you later? That way you can try it with your rig...it's an active John East one, mind..

Karl, my pie-mithering chum; I have a Dingwall ABZ4 (if a 4 is what you're considering) you can borrow for a few days if you'd like...

Me neither...I believe it can happen, tho...😕😀

Yep, I have one on all four of my main gigging basses. Essential kit. Just remember to flick the thing back up into tune for the next song, tho...I still forget... 😕🙂

“We were somewhere around Winchcombe on the edge of the Cotswolds when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded, June; maybe you should drive.…” And suddenly there was a terrible humming all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the Rover, which was going about 40 miles an hour with all the windows open to Chipping Norton. And a voice was screaming: “Trevor! What was in those biscuits?””

Quite. The clue's in the name...or an anagram of it, at least: Fender Precision = Reinforced Penis