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Just listen to (and now with the wonder of modern technology, watch on youtube ) plenty of Deep Purple, Deep Purple in Rock Fireball Machine Head Who Do We Think We Are and the awesome live album Made in Japan Then get playing them, once you are in the 'groove' they are not overly difficult. You will need speed and good pick control. Get a Rick 4001 if feeling flush (but not essential) Once we get to Stormbringer with Glenn Hughes, it becomes a different matter for me. I rate his funk rock playing on stormbringer, still can not get near it yet My early teens spent listening and working on these basslines, a formative influence in no small part - they still have that excitement and power 39 years or so later. Very good for turbo training on the bike, improves cornering speed on car as well. No babe pulling power by playing DP riffs / numbers these days! unless it's the "strange kind of woman" type

My local garage tells me that a large petrol engine luxmobiles (BMW/Jag etc) are fetching the same money as Yaris etc a few years down the line. However £5 to go 20 miles there and back to the shops is a bit steep. As they said though, if you do minimal miles it is serious luxmobile motoring for little money (unless it goes wrong). Musical kit - try it in the context you will use it - there is no alternative (TINA)

[quote]A very high number of 70's Fender basses had misaligned bridges, with G strings almost going over the fret ends![/quote] It may be easily fixed - had the same problem with my 77 precision from new. Wrote to Fender UK and got a setup guide. Slacken strings, slacken neck bolts, tap headstock to get correct string alignement on E & G . Retighten neck bolts, tune and way to go. Sorted mine out prefectly. It is surprising how much lateral movement is available in the neck pocket.

Strange things auditions - have been abysmal at music styles I have played for more years than I care to remember (no comments about being c*** and talentless please, I know that, they just haven't caught me yet). Have played well off the cuff in less than ideal circumstances - started work at 7:30, left work at 6:30, no food, no break all day (stupid job at times - teaching), 7 pm auditioned for 1 1/2 hrs. Self and guitarist were on fire and got the seat(s). The big thing is to leave people with self respect, hope and ways to move on. We all started somewhere.

No shortage of highs with my 5+ year old TI flats. Part of the answer is your speaker setup, Barefaced Big one with 6.5" doing the mid/highs. If anything too revealing of finger tapping, string click from damping/stopping etc. The big plus is virtually zero fretwear, unlike roto 66s on my 58 EB2 when I owned it - extreme fretwear was an understatement. TIs on Kramer and G&L just cut through in the bands I play in. The downside is the purchase price, the upside is the cost per year.

3 + 1 inspired by Musicman? My current project is running along those lines with fretless neck, now has a very small 3+1 headstock. Should help reduce neck dive as well.

First Bass Owned: Kay something plywood, cheap, nasty, other than plywood neck that looked cool 1974 'Go To' Bass: G&L sb1 1985 'Your' Bass: Kramer DMZ 4001 aluminium t bar neck 1979

I keep wondering about stringing one of my basses up B E A D. Just like the power off the E and A strings, so it might be interesting to see if my kit will deliver same on B. Some gigs that use walking bass lines / root + 5th etc would lend themselves to this tuning. Any one done this, any thoughts?

Thanks for a starting point - will get my fretless out, the octaver on my Peavey Tour 700 Perhaps I should just play synth or get a synth bass connection. how do i persuade my singer to get the glasses ? She's also younger than Anastacia, so no fears on wearing the kit.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf3jRG414cA"]Anastacia[/url] Great bass tone, what effects are being used, anyone got the tab to make it quicker to sort out? Nice glasses and vocal range from the singer. I want to get my singer up to this

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Not my main bass, but EKO acoustic bass, circa 1980, Original Rotosound Trubass still on it & still sound good. Played it a lot during the early / mid 80s in a Folk band. That was 2 gigs with 3 hours playing time most weeks of the year. The good old days of plentiful well paid gigs. Sigh! TI flats on G&L 5 years?

If its going to be a full off road 4x4 then Defender 110 is the business. We enjoyed our 3 Land Rovers, great fun and smile factor. Nowadays we do 25,000 miles a year in Honda CRVs, tow 1 1/2 Tonnes regularly, get 33mpg towing, change them each year with minimal loss - way cheaper than leasing. Ultra reliable, all mod cons but you have to be careful with interior. Faults - well the boot lid on the current one does not close as well as the others, must mention it sometime, do NOT buy red non metallic - warning - soft paint, show it a stone and it chips.

These basses are outrageous, should not be allowed, damage the credibility of qualiity basses etc - but really as I get older I see less and less difference between so called premium mainstream instruments ( I exclude Alembics, custom luthier stuff, Wals etc here) and the SR bass. Alder Body; Fender - check, Body through stringing: Fender - sometimes, Maple neck + skunk stripe: Fender: check (most of the time); High mass bridge; Fender - Sometimes, can be bought as optional cost extra. Wood is wood. The only concern could be long term neck stability, but it is a tried and tested design (Fender Jazz necks?) So apart from a setup (if needed), possible pots (£5), pickup change to taste and strings what is the difference? SR basses right on - I want 4 or 5 when swmbo lets me. WHY - damage, theft, scope for modding - who cares at £60 and its all to a good cause. Where is the SR Jazz, Tele/early P. Owners of Alembic/Warwick/Rickenbacker/Your bass start worrying

Dates define what it, is as manufacturers change models (like cars we are drawn in). The date helps define what we are playing / selling. So if you say G&L SB1 I do not know which variant you are discussing, and they are quite different. Yours may be a completely different bit of kit to mine. If you say 85 G&L SB1 it is probably the same as mine, but I still need more deatail, it might have been a model change year. Bit like cars again Edited for capitals & punctuation - and I'm a teacher, just can't get the staff these days.

Bought mine s/h in 1980 or thereabouts , blue 4001, 1977 build. Used it 3 ~ 4 times a week for 10 years in 3+ hours folk gigs ( and rock & blues jobbies). Indestructible at the time, super neck, real nice shape for my (small) hands, well finished, nicely made, great tone. Over the years it was ultra reliable, stayed in tune and suffered minimal fretwear with RS66 roundwounds. Later big issues: paint sinkage, you could really see the neck / body laminations, sh*te bridge saddles (extortionate to replace at the time so I did not) and eventually body binding coming off, finally split glue joints in body laminations. As I got older and lardier the uber cool sharp body binding and lack of body contouring became irritating - Ric 4000 is the answer. Despite these issues a great player. I (or at least I think I do) remember a Phil Lynott quote about how a Precision plays you and a you play a Ric. At the time I felt his words were so very true having done both in the late 70s and 80s. Later in 1990 ish I swapped this for an 85 G&L SB1, ok I lost a small amount of money on this one, however since then I have a bass that is still 100%, no bits coming apart and I can do all the tones I need. On balance I have had the G&L for 21 years or so - my longest keeper and it stays with me until the day that I die. My summary - Ric, a great bass, BUT, try it, "They are an acquired taste", try it with your kit, try it with your gigs, how will it work with your amp / cab etc etc. Condition is everything, and, why are they the price they are? - once the construction etc was something, nowadays through necks are run of the mill. S/H is obvious, new is insane. Would like to try one wih TI flats

Super guy to deal with, good email contact & fast delivery. Nice bass & just as described .

These were noisy when new. Some suggestions: fit earth wire to bridge asap. Screen your cavities wax pot the pickups - they really were very very tap sensitive, rewire with screened wire as appropriate. Look forward to hearing this through modern kit with modern strings.

In my memory (failing I admit) I remember thinking the Antigua finish looked the dog's bllx at the time - I would have swapped my sunburst precision for an Antigua finish. However it was the late 70's early 80's so taste was optional. These days I quite like sunbursts - how my taste has changed from my youth.