Mediocre Polymath

I've always had a fairly uneasy relationship with social media. I am of the right age to have joined facebook when it still felt like something fun and somehow private – around 2006, I think – but it jumped the shark some time in the late 2000s or early 2010s and never came back. I've not deleted my account, not really sure why, but I've also not looked at it in about seven years. I dabbled with a few of the other platforms, but always found they got both boring and addictive after a while. My dislike of the Skinner-Box psychological manipulation that's ubiquitous on the modern internet is actually what attracted me to this place. It's a forum. There are posts. You open the site and look at what's been posted. If there's something interesting, you read or respond. If there isn't, you close it again. Basschat isn't painstakingly engineered to monopolise my attention, it doesn't use the latest scientific research to try to serve me targeted content, to entice me into scrolling or paging through or whatever. It's a website. With stuff on it that I can look at, or ignore. It does have the unfortunate side effect of leading me to buy more gear, but that's a trade-off I'm willing to make.

I recently rediscovered the Ben Folds Five Live at West 54th set, which is a great snapshot of them as a super-effective power trio. With Cake, apparently that style of "whole band" arrangement was something they always insisted on, much to the annoyance of various producers. John McCrea likes for each instrument to be playing something distinct, and for it to be possible for a listener to hear each part in isolation. As an aside, I was fascinated to discover (when I first got into them about a decade ago) just how completely the contemporary music press hated Cake.

I don't think you'd call it virtuoso playing, but I've always really liked Gabe Nelson's stuff on Cake's 1998 album Fashion Nugget. The band's arrangements are deliberately sparse and clean, and Nelson's bass always sits alongside the interlocking guitar and horn parts, rather than just being a rumbling noise underneath them. "Let Me Go" is a particularly good example, with a wonderfully bouncy, gappy bass line and the two very distinct guitar parts.

My best bass purchase – also my only major one – was the battered Hohner "The Jack" that I bought off here in June. It gave me a fun project to while away the summer afternoons and has turned out to be a really lovely bass. Here's the "before" pic. And here's the after: I've been pleasantly surprised by how good it sounds. My expectation was that it would be light, practical and a bit bland. And, well, it sort of is, but in a good way. I've never played a bass with p-bass pickups much before (these pickups are reverse Ps in humbucker cases), but I'm starting to get the appeal. My other fretted bass has a MM pickup and a really aggressive sound. It sounds amazing when everything's just so, but can be very finicky. The Hohner just sounds, er, solid, I guess. A nice smooth sound, almost like it's been compressed and tweaked already. I can just run it straight into my interface and be perfectly satisfied. The worst purchase would be Montana Color "Fire Red" paint. This turned out to be a shade of red no-one's ever seen in a fire or indeed anywhere outside of the Barbie dream house.

Yeah, I once fell foul of this at a band rehearsal. Accidentally pressed the little button that makes everything go wrong when down tuning to drop-d. Got about 8 bars into a song before I had to wave it off in a panic.

If you already have the tuner and DI, you could probably do worse than the combo of an LMB3 and an EHX Bass Soul Food, which is the pairing I use. I'd say @Homatron's estimate of £60 is probably a bit on the high side for the LMB3. I got mine in mint boxed condition for £40 a few years ago, and there always seem to be a few kicking around. The Soul Food is a little more rare, but they show up on here from time to time.

Speaking as someone who finishes instruments in a plastic greenhouse in my garden, using spray cans I buy from the local DIY shop – that's not an acceptable standard of fit and finish for a pro-level instrument. The discoloration on the binding isn't great, but forgivable, likewise even the light chipping around the neck pocket, but those tool marks in the finish? No. Even making an instrument for myself, I think would have probably been a do-over.

Weird coincidence. On the day that it was announced G&L were no more, a scrote in France stole all The Beths's touring gear, including the G&L Fallout that Liz Stokes has been playing since the band started. They're all playing Fenders for the rest of the tour, borrowed off their support act.

Interesting little postscript to the general sentiments about G&L being a bit crap at marketing/artist relations. I saw awesome kiwi pop-punk band The Beths at the Roundhouse last night (they were amazing). For the last seven or eight years, their singer/songwriter Liz Stokes has exclusively played a black G&L Tribute-series Fallout (I'm pretty sure it was the only electric guitar she owned). As far as I know, G&L have never mentioned her or done anything with her. On this tour though, Liz was playing something new – a coral pink quirky looking sorta fenderish thing that I don't recognise. The Fallout was relegated to a stand at the back of the stage and only used for one song (presumably in an odd tuning). Feels like an opportunity that was missed.

Thick from front to back. At least, compared to my own custom basses. I think those have a pretty normal profile, but it's been years since I made them, and they might be thinner than normal. The nut width is 38 mm, like a jazz bass. At least, it is on the one I have.

Neck thickness is one of those things that I don't actually have a strong opinion about. I'm as happy playing a thick neck as a thin one, it just took me by surprise.