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I’ve used UPS a lot, know the driver like an old friend. Then a couple of weeks ago the Mrs wanted to ship some stuff and I recommended UPS. No one came.Went via ParcelForcetwo days later. UPS tantric sex: you stay in all day, no one comes.

The trick about writing good lyrics Is to just use your sense of empirics When you come to use 'Orange' You'll just have to write 'Sporange' You'll have everyone in hysterics.

'Just pick phrases you like from other peoples songs and stick them together without a thought for logic, grammar or copyright.' (Noel Gallagher, 1994 - Probably)

fixed.

Now that's worth repairing

I know, i was lucky to get a piece that nice! although hopefully enough of that lovely figure will show through the inlays. the thinking is that the dark "cloud" pieces are supposed to look like the breaks in the clouds during a thunderstorm, so the ziricote is as much a part of the overall scene as the pearly bits. sort of like how lightning illuminates the clouds as it passes through: whether or not it works out that way remains to be seen... okay so exciting times are coming... THE INLAYS ARE CARVED OUT!..... but not in yet. most of the rest went fairly smoothly... again apart from those bits of lightning. next time i do an inlay... no lightning. annoyingly, by the time id finished doing all the waves, i'd got fairly good at it. no doubt by the time i come to do the next bass i will have forgotten all of this. for any of you interested what a fretboard looks like before the inlays actually get glued in, and what inalys look like not in the fretboard: you can probably see to the far left of the first picture a little black square in the first wave, turns out i went a tiny bit too deep there, so thats a little square of ebony veneer that covers up my mistake. in the end, i separated the large cloud pieces either side of the lightning and did them separately, it was just easier that way to get it to all line up nicely. you can probably also see on that picture the two bottles of CA glue poised and ready... well that picture was taken pretty late, and the missus told me to tidy the kitchen and go to bed. so you'll have to wait for the big reveal once theyre all glued in. you can also see on the second picture the headstock with the tuner holes plugged and the sides cut off. im going to glue some new maple wings on tomorrow to accomodate the new headstock design. for now... heres the fretboard with the inalys just laid in place: they all lie within a couple of tenths from flush, so they should all look very nice glued in and sanded back. the only real concern is the black MOP clouds... black mother of pearl isn't the most consistent, and so sanding back even a few tenths of a mm can really change the shades that show through. im hoping this won't be a big issue, but i really like the clouds nice and dark so hopefully they don't lighten up too much once sanded and polished.

I would imagine there is no empirical answer to this as everyone is going to have a different left hand. For me, finding my optimum neck was simply as case of play as many basses as you can, usually bought and sold on at a huge loss, until you discover what it is about the bass neck you like. It could be the cross section as you have illustrated. It could be the width of the neck at the nut. It could be how close together the strings are. All in conjunction with how far apart the strings are at the bridge. But I found I had to live with a bass for some time before making a firm decision on it - just trying one in a shop didn't help. For years I was convinced I preferred narrow necked basses and anything more than 40mm at the nut was a struggle. Then necessity forced me to play 5 string basses - much wider than 40mm - and discovered that the width of the neck had nothing to do with it, string spacing was the key factor. It just so happened that narrow necks had tight string spacing. So I can happily play my 5er with a 45mm wide neck but still struggle with a 43mm wide 4 string P bass. Actually struggle is the wrong word - just feels less comfortable.

I will continue uploading this kind of videos, so keep in tune. Please SHARE the video, it helps a lot. SUBSCRIBE to help to widen the love for bass guitar, and also to encourage me to make more content.

Jack wins on avatar alone.

Oh dear, look how the simple things in lyric writing have changed. Once upon a time, you just needed to wake up in the morning.

Doesn't matter whether you're a novelist or a songwriter, you always start with vaguely autobiographical stuff. This is a bit like singing and playing bass at the same time. Get the bassline sorted first, then worry about singing. Write about what you know until you're comfortable with writing. Once you're happy with the writing bit, engage your imagination and make things up.

DPD deliver Shalla's food - they email me to tell me when it's due and who the driver is. Last week there was a problem with their system so delivery was "cancelled" - rescheduled for the following say - only to arrive two hours later. They went the extra mile despite tech problems...thinking about it now, I should have added something to the "Daily awesomeness" thread but was busy photographing an amp which I'd sold...old age...I forgot.

Only your hands can do this. No body else can. All you can do is play as many as you can and see what feels comfy and doesn't get in the way of how you play. I play 5 strings mostly. I know that a 48mm nut is too wide for me, and that rules out a lot of instruments. 44.5mm is a narrow 5 like on a Stingray 5 and I like that a lot. The feel of my 45mm nut bass is hugely different to my Ray even though there is only 0.5m difference. The neck profile is very different and the bridge spacing is larger meaning the strings splay out more as I play up the neck. The Ray is quite chunky in the hand and the Marleaux is much thinner, front to back. If the Marleaux was as chunky as the Ray I don't think I would like it - but it's slim and easy to play, just in a different way to the Stingray. Get to a good shop and try as much as you can!

The EVO IV head is fantastic. Just take time to work out what each slider does and itll be fantastic. People seem to love them with Barefaced cabs. However, having owned a SC g3 - and i loved it, if i was to buy again I would be a super twin - especially if you are after the sounds you previously had from a 4x10 & 1x15 cab set up. Replacing it with a single 12 falls short when loud. Choice of cab for me now is a markbass 610 for big gigs, and i picked up an ashdown RM212 (2x12) for ridiculously cheap money for smaller gigs. The 212 is pretty heavy for what it is though - seems heavier than an Ashdown compact 210.

I prefer the original recordings. The remixes and remasters make the songs sound like they were recorded now, so for me they lose a bit of character.

Big Beatles fan and I have no interest in re mixes. The original recording of almost any music is a snapshot of a moment in time, an era. I have no problem with the original recordings of any of the Beatles albums. The ones recorded in Mono still sound better in Mono than the faux stereo versions.

In my experience the science has little to do with what feels right. I have relatively small hands but I find the wide flat neck on my 83 P the most naturally comfortable to play. I do usually end up playing a thin jazz neck though just because it’s hard to play fast stuff on the P, but I never feel ‘at home’ on a J neck as much as on the P. I don’t actually think there’s much science behind it, it’s just about feel. Gut feeling will probably be your best guide, just go back and play them a few times if you’re unsure.

How bizarre - I just listened to them both and reached exactly the opposite conclusion! On the Woolley version, that guitar sound and the signature lick he plays at the end of each phrase are totally late 70s ... that sound and that lick were everywhere in the music of the time, and to me that version sounds really dated. On t'other hand, the Buggles version was uber-modern in 1979 partly because there was no guitar at all, and it still sounds strong today.

I’m personally of the opinion that we're too reliant on cars. What London is doing is ultimately good, Birmingham are introducing charging in the near future too. I’d rather not breath air that’s polluted by car and lorry exhaust fumes. If you play in a band and absolutely need to drive to a gig to carry your equipment then car share, organise amongst yourselves so you’re travelling in the minimum number of vehicles. I’m no doubt going to get a lot of dislikes for this, but we simply can’t carry on as we are, gridlocked roads and pollution, it’s unsustainable.

In a recent post on another topic recounting how generally pleased I was with the RM 500 EVO I'd bought from a fellow BCer, I included the following negative comment: "Only thing I can fault is the relatively noisy fan - not really a problem in the gigs I do but is that normal?" This was picked up by Ashdown, who promptly posted an offer to replace my fan foc, acknowledging that a few amps did go out with noisy fans before the problem was sorted. To cut a short story even shorter, I gratefully accepted the offer, sent the amp back to Ashdown, they received it yesterday - and it was delivered back to me THIS MORNING complete with a new fan!!! The fact that Ashdown took the trouble to monitor this forum and volunteered a free fix to an owner who didn't even buy the amp new is just astonishingly, astoundingly, unbelievably awesome: respect! (Btw the fan is now as quiet as on any amp I've ever owned.)

Just like yours, my Ibanez SR Premiums with their immensely playable necks, 3 band EQ and fantastic Nord big single pups have eclipsed both a German Warwick $$ and a Sandberg TM4 (both of which were very good basses!)

I’m thinking I have enough now, maybe even one too many for now. I’ll never be shot of the JV. It’s perfect! The black bitsa needs some tweaks but I feel will be a great player once the nut is done. My new headless is so comfortable to play, and is conveniently small and light! Th lovely blue HB originally done by @yorks5stringer is possibly going to be on the bench a bit more these days. Hmm. Could put a Stingray pickup in and make it a bit uniquerer?

It's an area in which I'm weak, so I was interested to watch it. Unfortunately, especially on your second example, I really struggled to hear the undelying bar structure as you played. Can I suggest that after you have demonstrated the note sequence, you play with a metronome or backing track to make it more obvious? David

if the cat can sit on the mat on the floor by the door then the hinge can be orange

Fender AVRI '75 stock single coils. I cannot say for definite how much of what I like is due to the specs of these pickups and how much is due to the bridge/Treble pickup being in the CBS "wrong" position? The Bartolini 9JS/L pair is nice - assuming that you like the Bartolini approach to bass guitar sounds.

Obviously the cab's voicing will have an effect on the overall sound, but I don't think it will prevent you from getting a warm, valvey tone. Most of the colouring of your tone will come from the amp itself; the cab will just emphasise certain aspects of that. I've been running my Ashdown into a similarly well-voiced, modern cab (a Berg 2x12), and it's certainly done no harm to the tone - if anything it's helped it to carry further!

I would have loved that Fretless 5er!! Should really keep a closer eye on eBay....

The greatest lyrics ever are still "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah". So don't overthink it.

Although i really like your idea of wiring one of the pickups straight to an output jack and let it dangle off the bass! A very easy thing to attempt and try out feasibility.

I bought an American Vintage 74 Fender Jazz bass from Sean last week - the whole transaction was very easy, communication was great and the instrument was in super condition. I have no hesitance in recommending Sean as a seller

If you want to look at something else with a pickup/ piezo combination, consider the Spector Spectorcore 5 string. Mine has an EMG and the Fishman piezo bridge, but I believe newer ones now have a Bartolini. Ebony board, great finish and reasonable price.

I've owned both the Ibby and LTD. Don't bother with the LTD. It looks pretty, but felt cheap and the electronics were hugely underwhelming. As someone on here said before it was like they took a bass and stuck a guitar pre-amp in it. Having to turn the bass EQ knob all the way up to make it actually sound like a bass should be a deal breaker for anyone. Also the "rawwwk" headstock is cringe, and I say this as an avid extreme metal fan of going on two decades. The Portamento? Beautiful instrument. I sold it as I fell out of love with the tone (tend to prefer the simplicity of passive these days and the Barts are great but I did go off them), but it played like an absolutely dream. Very good B string and the piezo is very convincing and organic sounding. I used it (just piezo) on a track on my old band's album and they were all wowed by the sound. I then re-recorded every other fretless part on the record originally done with a Hohner Jazz because I loved the Ibanez so much. I quite miss it actually!

And a few Rush covers of course.

^ I am very much enjoying your posts ^ Nice work, Sir

Can’t Mark Zuckerberg afford paper?

Having looked at the details, the way they cheated was to have the computer sense a certain set of conditions which corresponded with the test cycle, and configure the engine to produce low emissions for that short time - at other times it emitted far higher emissions. Since that is disallowed in the regulations, its definitely a cheat. I think there's enough factual evidence out there to prove this alone. To cement the situation, VW themselves admitted to it (eventually) and the USA regulator, amongst many others, took action against them. Those two things on their own are not insignificant events in themselves.

but this doesn't mean that we shouldn't do anything, just because somebody else is worse than us. Things would change if we cut our emissions to zero, just not as much as if everybody else was doing their bit too. If we don't do anything then it makes it far easier for the much worse polluters to reject any proposals to clean up their act as they can just point at us and repeat your "well you're not doing anything so why should we?" argument. Change has to start somewhere, and if it means that people in London can breathe easier, I don't see a down side

Lefty on gumtree... Wishful thinking on price! https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/left-handed-fender-bass/1318793773 "Open to offers over £1,000" I bet you are!!

Interesting - I was a massive music fan back in the 70s and had also never heard of Terry Reid either - great singer and like seemingly a few other people, seems to have been a potential Led Zeppelin member before their line up was finalised. Reid was managed by Micky Most back in the 70s (about as frightful in the 70s as Simon Cowell is today) who seemingly steered him down a ballad style rather than rock. Somehow can't see him in the same vein as Peters and Lee, Davids Soul or Cassidy, or Julio Iglesias (with apologies for any duff spelling)

Thats okay, I'm happy to have TheGreeks' loaner instrument Fabulous instruments, by the way!

Sad, but true. (geddit??!?!??!???)

Lucky for me it's a bit of a minger 😆

Belle du Jour Allparts second swamp ash body, Fneder CIJ P neck, DiMarzios, BadAss. Iced Blonde wash, satin nitro top coat.

I asked Mark to do a side mounted jack for my PJ as it is in your blue PJ, but somehow he forgot this and my PJ came with the jack and the three knobs on the pickguard - we found a good agreement to solve this issue. Right now I have a BassXX 2 band preamp in the bass, so it has two stacked knobs. I really like "activating" old-style basses, so I asked Mark for an addiational routing for the 9V battery.