Rich

It's all personal taste innit. I quite like George Ezra, would love to see the Cure, and wouldn't cross the road to listen to the Chemical Bros.

It really doesn't strike me as all that heavy at all. Having said that, I have a few heavy basses anyway -- the Sire V7 is heavy, the Wal is heavier, and the bitsa P is like wearing a sofa -- so I'm used to it I reckon this is lighter than any of those.

Picked this beauty up from @Moos3h last night... thank you so, so much, and I hope you had a safe journey to the Riviera This really is a 37 year itch finally scratched... these were all the rage when I started out playing, I'd always fancied getting my hands on one and now after all these years I have. Yes it has some issues, as James pointed out in his ad: the electrics are not working and one of the switches is knackered... should all be straightforward (oh blimey, that's the kiss of death isn't it ) and if it still doesn't work I've got a Yamaha 2-band eq I can put in there instead; there's a hairline crack in the neck... I'll flood some thinned glue into it if it needs anything, but it doesn't seem to affect stability or playability; it's got a few major league dings in the body as the pic shows... I'm not sure what to do with these really, a refinish would cost a fortune and I don't want to spend a shedload of cash on it. I might just seal the edges of the dings with glue to stop any more flaking off, and call it mojo The serial number places it in December 1982. The neck feels great and it plays well, action is fine and all the hardware works. The missing knob is present, I'd taken it off when I took the pic. I've not yet plugged it in so I don't know how it sounds, but from what I've seen on yootoob the 1A core tone appears to be P-bass-on-steroids. I have a feeling that my bitsa P is going to struggle to keep its place in my working group. Happy day.

In a period of considerable financial hardship some years ago, I considered putting my beloved Wal up for sale. I took it out of its gigbag, looked at it, picked it up, played it, put it back down, looked at it again, and said out loud to myself, "For fck's sake man, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?". Decided that I would probably sell a kidney first.

Holst: The Planets - Montreal Symphony Orchestra/Charles Dutoit, 1987 Scenes From A Memory - Dream Theater Milliontown and Rockfield Files - Frost* Upside Downside - Mike Stern War of the Worlds - Jeff Wayne You've been here 10 years and you've only just worked that out??

Yup, festivals evolve, not always for the best. I'm old enough to remember when Reading was still called the National Jazz, Blues and Rock Festival. It was all in sepia then, mind.

Funny you should say that...

I don't believe you will need any form of licence. But it might be worth making sure you have some sort of public liability insurance just in case.

My jazz supergroup: Mike Stern and John McLaughlin - guitar Alain Caron - electric bass Christian McBride - acoustic bass Herbie Hancock - keys Brecker bros - horns Dave Weckl - drums

My best bargain as it turned out was my Wal, for which I paid £330. One of my few appreciating assets The one that got away was the pre-EB Stingray I saw and didn't buy for £250. *slaps self*

I bet John Hall will love them too.

My prog supergroup: Zaher Zorgati (Myrath) and Geoff Tate - vocals John Mitchell and John Petrucci - guitar Tony Levin - bass & Stick Jordan Rudess - keys Neil Peart - drums

Shocking news, L42's classic line-up were a massive part of my musical formative years. The soundtrack to my 20s. Probably best not to speculate.

I find any discrepancy in my timing is evened out by my dodgy attire and questionable note choice.

I get the same grip problems. I found that Herco heavy thumbpicks are just the job for me. As an unexpected benefit, I've found that I can now switch between fingerstyle and pick on the fly, quite handy for a change of dynamics within a song.

Yup, another vote here for superglue or, as I call it, 'instant fingertips'

Steeltown, by Big Country. It's never struck me before just how dominant the bass is on this album. Taking nothing away from the other bandmembers, or the superb songwriting and powerful (and very angry at times) themes, but Tony Butler's bass drives everything it touches. Listen to the chorus of Rain Dance for example -- the bass is everything. Just... brilliant.

I like playing at the Shoe, but I'm pretty sure they only have live music on Wednesdays and Sundays?

Do you mean the pickguard? Looks fine. Or am I missing something?

They have Squire and Specter basses too, I see. Facepalm.