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Wow that thing looks monstrous, I love it! I'd be interested to see the build process on that. My idea was to have the red/gold/green colour scheme on the pickup covers themselves, with the rest of the bass being that kind of military/camo green you see on reggae sound systems and things. Hopefully it looks half as good as yours! I did conider this kind of thing! But I think it's above my skill level just yet - next time? I knew I had to have it when I saw those little slanty guys. Not sure how I keep finding these weird basses in disrepair haha! Project update coming soon, night shifts for the next few day, stay tuned

Thanks, HB. The problem would be less of a problem if I had commitment from the singer… but then if we decided to revert (to a bloke) then no problem since she has her own band and is strictly speaking a dep. Stick, twist… lord knows! Is blokiness part of our USP? Thanks @casapete too!

Change of personnel is always a strange one. In the Live Tribute Show we changed our Jerry Lee Lewis / pianist a couple of years ago. The original guy was blind and obviously relying on older parents (with medical issues) to drive him all over the country for gigs. He'd lost a lot of confidence over the years apparently, so he bowed out a couple of Christmases ago. As a result, our new 'Jerry Lee' kicked the whole show into touch with not only his skill, but his enthusiasm and on stage persona. We've also gone through quite a few drummers. A large part of my job has been training new drummers on the fly during shows! But even they totally changed the feel of the overall show. Luckily, the current drummer is a top session player from Milton Keynes, so we've again landed in a good place. Mick, your situation is indeed an odd one. What sort of level/audiences do you play to? I'd say the promoter is working on their own personal taste and your wife has the right idea. Surely going more mainstream with a female vocalist (I assume she's very good?) will lead to more work and a bigger audience over time? Anyhow, I hope it all goes well in the long run for you guys

A few times Mick. My old function band went through a few personnel changes over the many years I was in it, and it was always the singers changing that people commented on. When they complained, I’d ask them how many people came and went in their office for example. For some reason people always seemed to prefer the previous singer every time though! In the main though it didn’t seem to affect bookings at all - so long as the quality of the band wasn’t compromised then agents and clients were happy. My previous band now has a new singer and despite some initial concerns, is doing a great job fronting them, with some people saying he’s as good or even better than the original guy. With your band the change is more obvious, with some preferring the ‘blokey’ line up. I’d say embrace having a female vocalist - why does that have to be seen as a sell out / commercial decision? And if it means more gigs / success then what’s not to like?

Spoke to my brother earlier. His band closed out the local free festival, Cadstock... daily attendance is about 4,000.

As the title says, whatever happened to the Music Man Stingray Through Neck models? I remember all the promotional stuff with Joe Dart etc, but never saw one for sale or can find a used one now. I guess they probably did the usual American maker tactics of pricing them crazily expensively above the standard range of Specials and no one bought them!

I use lemon oil for fretboards and polish the frets with Nail Buffer Pads. I picked up a few at a shopping centre when out with my young beauty mad daughter. They use them to polish and buff finger nails very gently! On frets they are amazing, do not damage the fretboard and make the fret wire highly polished and smooth !!

Maybe <gasp> he didn't switch in the pre-shape!

Mostly 45-105, so nothing outrageous. Somewhere, a long time ago I thought I read something about Ric recommending low tension strings (maybe even TI Jazz flats?) to avoid the tail lift. I could well be wrong, but that's probably what put the strings causing the tail lift I to my head

Me and my monkey - Robbie Williams

What gauge strings? HW will typically have used real Ric bridges, unless told otherwise; now that they are discontinued, it'll probably be Allparts. Some like the Hipshot bridges, but I've found an apt location for one of mine (and that's an Allparts on the Hondo, which now has strings and screws in the Treble pickup). ...

Mid-cut on the amp. If you want to sound like Geddy Lee, push the Treble Tone knob in (Modern). If you want to sound like Chris Squire, pull the Treble Tone knob out (Vintage). A touch of distortion is good. If you want to lose the pickup Vol controls interaction, go for Rick-O-Sound and run them competely separate. A low enough action to get a touch of fret buzz helps too.

Epiphone and Squier until I die! I've never felt a need to put a bass's big brother's clothes on and steal his ID to try and go to the pub or something. I was going somewhere with that metaphor, then I got lost. My basses are what they are, what they were, and what they'll always be. The only time I've replaced a decal it's either been like for like (when I restored an old Hagstrom), or gone down the comedy route (put "Fecker Imprecision Bass" on a bitsa). Apart from that, it is what it is.

My fretless (Licensed Mighty Mite neck).

there was some talk 24 months ago of Gibson relaunching graphite Steinberger with Ned involved the reason always given for why no more graphite Steinberger's was cost cost cost the second hand , or used, market reflects this - everything I see for L2 or XL-2 is serious coin. It might not be possible for Steve to "price" into this market