Big_Stu

Cool, that's the same pickups that Dave Hill of Slade had in all of his John Birch guitars, including the Superyob. I've got a matched pair of John Birch Magnums in my bass.

Is that a Magnum or Hyperflux that's been added to yours? If you don't mind me asking. I met John a few times when he built my custom EB3, mad as a box of frogs, but a bit of a rogue too by all accounts.

I was "down the pub" with my other half to meet up with one Jim Lea, ex of Slade; just before the lockdowns started. At one point she took great pleasure in telling him that I thought The Beatles are over-rated. The withering look I got off him is imprinted in my memory forever.

Is that a recent purchase? I saw a very similar on eBay in the not too distant past.

Often covered but did anyone do it better than this?

I thought that too, but have to give due credit to the Grand Funk Railroad cover of it.

John had a bit of a rep for modifying Gibsons, and other brands but especially Gibsons. he told me himself that his inspiration for his J1 guitar style was to mirror the cutaway on a Les Paul to make the body symmetrical. He was quite scathing of Gibsons in general. His SG copy made the horns more pronounced. Some of his mods have had a "Customised by John Birch" metal plaque added below the bridge or the back of the headstock. Interesting to see the EB0/3 description. Could it be a bass that was originally an EB0 but adding a pickup has made it EB3 spec. I had just such a bass, it had been badly refinished cherry after being inn a shop window too long and the front of it was bleached to "walnut". The mod on mine wasn't a John Birch job though.

There's, or was, a Scottish tribute to RATM called Radge Against The Machine. Incredibly clever, "radge" is a term of abuse up there, as many words are come to think of it.

It would have been a good one to ask Lemmy, but he'd have just replied with his death stare. Easy to rack up BPM if you're one of those grunge kids that hammers the E string and keep the other three* for spares. * other basses with more than four strings are available.

In October '78 Slade were in the doldrums after being usurped by punk, and were playing any dive that would have them. They were booked to do a week's residency of the Cavendish Club in Blackburn, Lancs. It started on the Monday night, with almost zero publicity. A few fans travelled but were turned away due to a strict dress code, so in the end the crowd in this 1000 seat night club numbered 19, a bouncer told me. When they came on Nod said "Jeeeesus, did you all come on the same bus? Because there's so few of you we'll just do a quick golden oldies set, OK?" Which is what they did. I knew a small number of the fans there already, and have since met four others. So it's the only gig by a name band I've been to where I could actually name half of the crowd. I was chatting with Jim Lea last year and reminded him of the gig, which he remembered. When I told him the low turnout was partly due to dress code rejections he was surprised and said "I thought it was cos we were crap!"

There were a couple, but the best one was taken over by SevenOaks and doesn't do repairs now, or help with them; the other closed down. I'll try Manchester when it's a bit safer to go.

What happened was at first the right channel kept cutting out, it would come back the next day but happened more and more often. Then it went totally silent. It still powers up etc and looks fully functional, apart from no sound.

The place in Blackpool referred me to them, and they said the same about getting hold of parts. But thanks for the reminder, I'll give them another go if I don't get anywhere with Matt's ides.

Fantastic Matt, very much appreciated!!! I'll let you know how it goes. The reviews of the KI are very accurate - it's a great machine.