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I've done it. I've listed my LT5 in the for sale section. I picked it up and played it for a bit before I took the photos and thought this is a great bass I should keep bit common sense had prevailed and it's gone up

There are few things worse than being given the willies in your f hole.

A relatively easy read but a beautiful tune for all that. The intro solo and the bass part for the head of Kenny Wheeler's 'Gentle Piece' from the 1990 'Music for Large and Small Ensembles' (ECM). Dave Holland is the bass player. The solo is very freely interpreted and there is no real time feel so bear that in mind. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/gentle-piece-intro-and-head-part-kenny-wheeler/

Well, a quick update - I've sorted the touch buzz on the Warman pickup. My mistake, I bunched together the main pickup ground with the ground of one of the coil ends instead of it going to "chassis" ground. Separated them then soldered the braid to the copper shield and that sorted it. Weirdly enough, there's touch buzz on the bridge pickup, but only when it's out of circuit (well, it's not truly out of circuit because it's still connected to the blend pot), which is pretty odd. No matter, I don't ever rest my thumb there so I'm not super concerned about that.

It will be fun to have a play about with these minor things, but I'm mostly looking forward to road testing it with the bands later this week! Sounding good in the cans, but it's not the same as having a thrash at war volume with a full band. I did fix the little gap in the logo, ultra fine Sharpie and a ruler, then more clearcoat on top. The rotten part is super low priority, but because it'll be nigh on impossible to fix it invisibly, you're right - I might as well make a feature of it instead. Cool ideas, had a few others, will mull it over.

Just watching Radio 2 in the Park and the Anastasia bassist was playing a Ibanez Talman 5 String and also what looked like a Fender Vintera Mustang too … great to seeing a pro playing a £300 bass!

Not as dramatic but I'm happy with the contrast 👍

I'd forgotten the above went for £120 as just grabbed the following today for the same price, which I think is still OK. This GP12 SMX is probably my favourite trace head especially with the dual compressor. It used to be a combo but for presumably weight reasons was separated into a head (with home-made case) and the cab. Very very crackly pots but other than that seems to work. Will give it a good clean and then probably re-mount the head into my 4x10 combo (in my thumbnail) that currently has a GP7 head in it. Then strip everything out of the cab to go into a carpeted but empty TE combo case that I stripped the parts out for fixing something else. Will post pictures of the two amps once they are (re)done.

Thinking black and chrome will tie it all in nicely with the large pole piece pickups and the chrome hardware. Anyway, they're ordered, so we'll see if I was right later in the week!

Sometimes crime does pay.....! Don't ruin the NRT5.....it's not worth it. Put together another project guitar from scratch with a local builder. Keep the NRT as it is.

This! Make sure you enjoy it. So by all means do some exercises if you wish, but finish your practice by playing tunes you like.

Folk that turn up to the local dive with 3k custom fenders and 8x10 cabs. Hate it. I absolutely love seeing top players or top bands sounding great using very much affordable gear. Seeing a bass playing a £300 yamaha bass that they;ve had for 20 years is something i love.