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I’ve been insuring my cars for business use (as a musician) for around 40 years. When I first started out doing this it was a lot harder to find cover than it is now, for me anyway. I used the AA for a few years and then they stopped covering me, and later whilst a member I used the MU insurance. More recently I’ve tended to go with the best price from companies I’ve heard of, via comparison websites. They want to know all the details like what type of music you play and where etc, along with the usual stuff like mileage and ratio of business / personal use. I stick with the same company until their renewal price starts taking the p*ss and then look around for a better deal.

It's a very clean sounding bass. Very light. Very fast for slappage, and pretty punchy. There's not much to like. At this money the colours really don't matter. It's a great playing and sounding bass for significantly less money than a Fender Player II.

I believe he was teasing about the typo… “cangle”

Hi Dave, the music shop under Centre Point was Baldwin, the piano company who bought Burns. I played my first bass though an amp in that shop, a Rickenbacker 4003, probably through a Burns combo. They had glass cubicles where you could sit and play the instruments.

Two spring to mind.When I lived in Glasgow McCormicks of Bath St was the go-to place for me.I bought the only RED Marshall stack I've ever seen there back in the 70s. Again in the 70s in N.Ireland,Jack Evans Musical in Bow St Lisburn was the centre of excellence.Bought my Fender P bass there in '70.

I don't think I've seen Duck Son & Pinker in the thread... Used to love getting the bus into Swindon and having a mooch in the music shops. The other two are still there, but I remember DS&P letting me play a lovely faded Gibson Les Paul DC that I wish I'd had the money for. And a Parker P40 come to think of it. Their bass stock was never great, but I spent quite a lot of time there. I think my mum got my Dad's clarinet serviced there when I decided to play that for a spell. Their Bath store was a bit of a landmark in the city too. I miss PMT too. Not so much the latest Bristol store, I think the old site was better. But it's sad that my closest music shop has gone.

I honestly was about to google cangle wax... 🤣

Adverts that say how fantastic a bass is, but are selling it anyway. "It's an incredible sounding and feeling instrument but I just can't bond with the colour!" Hmm.

"Me stupid? Sorry, I don't understand."

It like it. Taste is so personal.

I wouldn't presume to suggest what you should like. I have 19 basses, active and passive, 4 & 5 string, long and short scale, fretted and fretless, modern and traditional, d from every decade from the 60s to the 2020s. So I think I'm very open to different instruments. I've tried basses like the modern players. They look pretty, but I don't bond with them. My friends who have had early 60s fenders since the 60s/70s still gig them and I do prefer them. The two basses I find myself gigging most are the 1960 P reissue and the 1963 J reissue. Having played real ones, I'm pretty sure I would use them if I could.

Yes the most obvious option really! How do you find it? I don't really like the colours!!!!!!

Wait.. have I missed it, or has no-one has mentioned Howard's Bass Place in Newcastle yet? The shame!

I'm willing to bet that the ratio of headed/headless basses in the world makes it a reasonable assumption to make. Anyone who ventures into headless land really ought to be able to solve for X. Also, I've seen a few headless basses have a little sticky out vestigial "head" which might get caught by the mechanism of these stands? I say "might" - I've never tried.

Getting then in line IS tuning, no?

He’s playing a Jamerson style line on a similar bass and the objective of the vid is to promote the bass. I thought it was tasteful but each to their own.

It is yes but I was making a very poor joke

Curly - The Move

Ah - you're assuming it was in tune at the time the photo was taken... 😇

.... unless you have a headless bass or guitar I actually do have this stand, and the portable one and the three headed one. They are great stands but do make rather a fundamental assumption about your bass/guitar (apart from the small portable one). Rob

Just dropped on a brand new Reissued Vintage JV74 in Natural finish, I wasn’t looking to buy another bass but it was on sale at a stupid low price so I thought I’d give it a try. I think I’ve been through all of the internet searching for information and reviews on these basses, surprisingly found very little details about them, usually just repetitive advertising blurge, can any owners give me their honest opinion on them please? Anyway, my thoughts so far on the bass (after 2 days) are as follows; The bass looked very smart fitted with its chrome pickup cover plates, however as most will agree they make any jazz basses very difficult to play as there’s only a limited access to the strings and unfortunately they cover everywhere that I like to play. They had to come off! I couldn’t even leave the neck pickup cover on like Marcus as I play over the pickup a lot. Next were the strap buttons, I use Dunlop Strap Locks on all of my basses and I decided to fit a spare set I had on this bass. I was very surprised to find that the stock strap button screws were very thin and quite short and were very easy to remove which could have been an issue. In contrast the Dunlop screws are noticeably thicker and about half as long again, now fitted they are very secure. While the body of the bass looks very nice, the neck seems very bare, almost unfinished. I had seen a few photos of these having black edge binding but not this one for some reason? I can’t establish whether the neck is bare wood or satin finish?? Anyway the neck itself is quite good, no dead spots and the factory set up was really good, the G string had a very slight fret buzz but I raised the saddle a turn and cured this. Fret ends not sharp and it’s comfortable to play, however it is quite a chunky neck and very unlike the Fender Jazz bass necks I’m used to. I believe this is supposed to be based on a 74 jazz which possibly had a beefier neck, I think the Squier VM bass also has a substantial neck if I remember correctly? I’m used to having basses with rolled fretboard edges these days so the fairly sharp neck edge on the Vintage is not to my liking, if I keep the bass I might use a screwdriver shaft and burnish the fretboard edges a bit, I’ve done this before on a MIM Jazz and it was quite successful. I played the bass at our gig last night, first set was 1 hour and after only about 45 minutes my back/shoulder was starting to ache - this is a heavy bass! I don’t think I’ve ever owned a bass that has given me this level of discomfort (4 and 5 string). I swapped over to my Sire Z7-5 bass for the second set, this is also a natural finish bass (swamp ash with a roasted maple neck), still a reasonably heavy bass but a fiver no less and still lighter than the JV74. It was definitely better for my back but the JV74 had already done its damage so the rest of the night didn’t go entirely without pain. I assume they fit cheap bass strings as my finger tips on both hands were black by the end of the set. Overall though and partly because it came with a fairly good factory set up the bass was quite nice to play, it was just a bit strange playing a Jazz bass with a larger neck than I’m accustomed to. Oh, and I love the large black block inlays on the neck, I’ve always loved the look of these. I am pleased with the Wilkinson hardware (tuners, bridge and pickups), and I think it’s these that do sort of making it a reasonable bass. The overall quality of the bass though I would put it in line with a Squier, certainly not as good as the Sire basses I’ve owned. The Wilkinson pickups however are quite good, they are fairly hot with a nice warm tone. The tuners too seem reasonable quality and stayed in tune fairly well over the time I played it, funnily though I find that the D string tuner to be a bit harder to turn and I’ve found this to be the same with other Asian-made basses, I don’t know the reason behind this? Well, those are my initial thoughts on the Reissued Vintage JV74 bass, if anyone has one of these basses I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with them, any tips on how to treat the hard maple neck and fretboard would be appreciated!

Must try harder

Nice to see a properly tuned bass.