Rich

Oh god, that's my nemesis in the ska set too. I bet I made a bigger mess of it than you did...

I didn't know it had a bass breakdown either. Perhaps I should force myself to actually listen to it. Nah.

Properly old skool, that: I like everything about it, except for that number. My days of lugging around 100lb cabs are long gone.

OK, so I'm thinking of using this thing with the ska band on occasion. The question is: The pickguard. To checkerboard, or not to checkerboard?

That's a cool idea and the balance looks good in that pic. Love the chrome & maple. I wear my bass a little higher than you -- not too high, mind -- and I've found that it's very comfortable if I wear it like Entwistle's doing in this pic and rest my right forearm on the top edge of the body. It gets rid of all the dive but it still looks ok. If only I could play like him. Tweaks are done for now... black tuners, string tree & neck plate, the jack socket's been moved to body edge (I prefer them there) and everything's rewired with an added pickup toggle to go with the original V/V/T. It's still a cheap POC and still owes me next to nothing, but I rather like it.

OK, I've definitely got to watch now.

Massive Attack's Paradise Circus, the theme from Luther. https://youtu.be/jEgX64n3T7g Not a theme as such, but I love this (and the film). Life Is A Highway, from Cars. https://youtu.be/jURRsAMGuZk

Depends on the rating of your power supply. It's important to make sure that your pedals won't draw more mA in total than your PSU can cough up.

Mack the Knife - Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht

Strikes me as an anti-extremism direction rather than anti-Islam in general. I guess it depends on interpretation. I can see this as exactly the sort of thing that would make the fundamentalists utterly furious, in the same way that a sitcom about, for example, a gay vicar would drive the Westboro Baptist Church loons batsht with rage. Anything that annoys these sort of extremist people is a good thing in my books. I have yet to watch this, but I'm definitely going to.

Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Peggy Wood in The Sound Of Music

Vodka, Doughnuts & Dole - Orange Deluxe

Schizophrenia - Sonic Youth

Flying In A Blue Dream - Joe Satriani

Tux On - Marillion

I watched a couple of episodes of Police Squad! earlier, and was reminded just what a great piece of music the theme is -- the full length version over the closing credits of Naked Gun 2.5 is particularly good. It swings its áss off.

Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs

F*ck/Forget You - CeeLo Green

My dream house would look an awful lot like my drummer mate's place... lovely old farmhouse, with the barn fully set up as a really lovely rehearsal and recording facility**. So, probably a smattering of acoustic instruments in the house, but everything else in the barn. ** the control room has changed beyond all recognition since the photos were taken... it looks like the bridge of the Enterprise now. Utterly baffling but marvellous to hear.

Ne Ne Na Na Na Na Nu Nu - Bad Manners

I had a cheap one of these, it died fairly quickly... I splashed a few quid more and got a Wickes one and it's far better. However, as these reviews suggest: "it’s more better (sic) if you just want an electric screw driver but wouldn’t advise if you want it for a drill. ...the drill moved around as it’s not strong enough to stay in one place" and "Very lightweight but suitable for small jobs around the house. The chuck is a bit wobbly so it is better suited to screwing and not drilling", I would not recommend this (or anything like it) at all as a drill. I second BRX's recommendation, Dremels are great.

I've mentioned this before too... during a gig with my instrumental jazz fusion trio, on a jazz night at a venue famed for its jazz gigs (a pretty strong jazz theme emerging there), I was asked if we could do Iron Man by Black Sabbath. Bloke went on and bloody on about it at every break between tunes until I was eventually forced to tell him to sex-&-travel.

Margate - Chas & Dave

We've had our first rehearsal back... oh it was wonderful ... A few more in the pipeline, and then our first gig is my son's wedding. No pressure there then.