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This is why I should't be left alone during the week. I asked a friend about his Mustang bass, and he said I could borrow it to try out. I told myself it was so my niece could have her own bass when she comes round to 'play guitar' (which mostly consists of her pressing all the buttons and moving all the dials in my office/studio) I expected to want to change a few things on the bass ('Go for it' he said), but when it arrived I was floored with the little thing. I haven't played a Squier since my first bass, which was an Affinity P bass, which was great, but the neck in particular was pretty anaemic looking. This thing has a lovely dark tint; the fretwork is great (amazing for £300!) and I'm able to get a fairly low action without problems. I don't even mind the strings, despite having ordered some La Bella flats for it - I rather like the raspy little pickup and the poky sound. It's like a small happy dog and my regular P is like a calm Labrador. So now I have a pack of La Bella 760-MUS flats doing nothing. And you know what that means. I have gone fully down the rabbit hole, reading all about Mustangs and their history, even going back to Geddy Lee's book where they must have passed me by previously (tbh I was expecting Geddy to have some Stingrays, anyone know why not?) So then I bought this, because that's probably sensible right? A few days later I had a big vets bill which meant selling a lot of things (actually it was quite good to have a clear out) but when you're paying about £500 to boil a pan of water it puts things into perspective, so I decided to honour the agreement and get this thing posted. As you can see, it's a 1966 Mustang, from the first year of production - which would normally go for about £4500, but since this has been modified, allegedly in the 70s, with P/J pickups, it was to my mind great value. I'm not particularly worried about absolute originality, and rather like modified basses, especially if it makes them cheaper. The body, neck, hardware are all original as far as I know, and working perfectly. The neck is straight, the fretwork is lovely and the feel of the thing is spot on. Broken in but looked after, I'd say. The tuners are the lollipop style found for a short time around '66 when Fender made them in house to cut costs, I believe. The pickups are (we think) dimarzio (neck) and Fender (bridge) but I'll confirm at some stage. They sound great together, giving a nice 60s jazz growl together and individually the P sounds fantastic, like a mid heavy slightly more rubbery P sound with lots of articulation. The Jazz soloed is burpy and tight and not lacking in guts. Playing over the back pickup is more comfortable for me than on a regular sized jazz (not that full scale basses are difficult for me, I just wanted a mini P bass really) The slab body, as with my Stingray, to my eyes looks amazing (on the Squier, too) and really suits the narrower body. Super comfortable to rest your arm on, allowing the hand to naturally fall over the back of the P pickup. The controls are vol/vol - I am tempted to have them changed to balance/tone but I'm playing this bass 99% at home through my studio/headphone/bassboard setup where I can roll off the top end, although with flats and a custom foam insert (which slides in and out nicely) I'm really happy with the top end and can adjust it externally. I'll try and get some sounds recorded and post them here. The case is original and you can see the original owner was 'Victoria' which is pretty cool, can you imagine tracking her down now? Cheers ped

I've had a lot going on recently outside of the bass world but finally got a few hours on this today. This was divided into two hours assembling this for the first time and an hour playing it!! Got a little bit of fettling (the bridge needs raising slightly on the treble side) but apart from that it sounded rather pleasing!!

I clearly need a bigger sofa... But this is my updated "collection" ☺

Erm, isn't that the Peoples' Cradle of Judas?

I was at a festival yesterday and decided that's what I want. Genre specific music festivals where crowds are much, much bigger than normal shows and you're earning new fans as well. As a bonus you get to watch the othe bands. Every band I saw seemed blown away by the size and response of their audience and quite obviously had a great time playing.

Well this sounded a bit nice. Heavy tone without all the weight.

I’m down to 2 now but the ‘Squier’ has done about 200 gigs with me now. It’s like a pair of comfy slippers. Don’t try a JMJ.....it’ll make you want to buy one big time.

F*CK OFF!

All I know is I like the green one 👍

They will be owned by banks and hedge funds, to be loaned out to future versions of Joe Bonamassa to play their fake blues on, in high-priced pay-per-view special streaming performances.

For old skool metal, you can't go wrong with mediaeval torture devices. You can't have Iron Maiden, but these may be available! THE SAW THE CAGE THE CRADLE OF JUDAS THE SPREADING THE KNEE BREAKER THE SPANISH DONKEY ANGEL PEAR THE FORK OF HERETIC THE SUPPLICE OF THE RAT THE SPANISH SPIDER

You'd be surprised how many times the bwggers have knocked on my door waving their so-called million pound contract expecting me to prostitute myself to them and write songs for Steps! I've had to call Rentokil in more than once...

I didn't think I'd be able to get anything done this month either. Buuuuuuuut.......... I've finally had some inspiration and I reckon I'll be able to get it ready before deadline. 👍👍👍

I've been after one of these for a while and had recently contacted the manufacturer to enquire regarding availability. Tokyo responded just last week saying that the model had been discontinued and I had all but given up trying to find one. @AndyTravis came to the rescue after spotting this on eBay - I still don't know why my saved search for it didn't alert me. I think Andy may have beaten eBay's algorithms 😂. Anyhoo, it arrived late last night and was exactly as described i.e absolutely mint. Seller said he had played it twice from new. I can see no visible signs that it has been played at all from looking at the frets. Weighs in at bang on 9lbs and has a custom made tort pick guard on it, which I view as an upgrade on the white one they shipped with. Seller also included the original. It has a ridiculously low action on it and sounds the business. Convincing P and J sounds plus lots more in between. Pics to follow - I have to delete some apparently.

All I know is they'd better get their skates on before Joe Bonamassa buys them all up and stores them in his cave where he does (apparently) unspeakable things to them in turn, while the other guitars watch on horrified.

In one way or another the world has been in a perpetual state of crisis for millennia. The eschatological crescendo never happens, though. Things just get even worse ie Boris buggers off to make way for Liz Truss instead. Life is rubbish and then you get an even bigger big gas bill. Human beings have an almost infinite capacity for suffering. I know this to be true because I once went on a school trip where the teacher driving the minibus played his Smurfs tape over and over again without remission for five days. Then after the tape broke he played Can't Slow Down by Lionel Richie for the remaining two days. However bad things get we will still be here and there will still be a burgeoning market for vintage gear. Half of which won't work properly.

I suppose these things might go in cycles. The whole vintage electric guitar market sprang out of rock about fifty years ago and while rock continued to pertain, so did the interest in vintage gear. Indeed, Rock had a good run from 1956-2000(-ish) and the relative longevity and wealth of its fans has kept the vintage market alive. However much we'd like to believe otherwise, Rock is now no longer mainstream. In the next 20 years Rock will become (if it hasn't already) a minority interest sub-genre of popular music like Jazz and Folk. If hardly anyone's playing Rock, where's the value in a '73 Strat? Hopefully Rock will not become as obscure a sub-genre as rag-time*. It might even come back one day but then I'm still waiting for the music hall revival. Where have you gone, Harry Lauder, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you. So, yeah, collapse in market values inbound except for the choicest of pieces with some sort of interesting provenance. Different for acoustic guitars, perhaps, less genre-tainted. On the other hand, there's still interest in making music. Strong market in vintage studio gear; interesting examples of, say, old optical compressors, much rarer than mass-produced guitars. * Nothing wrong with rag-time. It just doesn't sell much these days.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheap Cheap - Middle of the Road

Here's my custom made foam mute (available for £39.95, PM me) It gets slightly thinner towards the treble side and has a special tab for removal. The dog hair is an essential part of the sound.

I think I might squeeze one in after all! Its not ready yet and probably won't be ready at the deadline , but I think we have sussed out, that by then, I will have fallen in love with it and convinced myself that it is an absolute masterpiece, that will have the worlds music illuminati knocking at my door desperate to sign me up with a multi million pound contract*. *I shall of course decline and keep to my roots at the lower end of the Basschat forums

Shiny things. Tom Waits

https://fb.me/e/59nPO8mPl

Tomorrow night, Liquid Rooms Edinburgh as part of the Festival......just been giving the basses the spa treatment to get ready....

Mustangs can be addictive Chris 😂😂😂😂

Classic cars I understand, there will never be a new car even remotely similar to an E Type or a Lancia Fulvia or even a mk1 Escort but you can still buy a P bass or J bass or Thunderbird which looks and sounds pretty similar to an original. Add it in to a band and no one could hear the difference between a 60's instrument and the modern equivalent.

Underhill chap here! Nice to get a look at the circuit, thanks for the work Kinkh. What jumps out at me is the deliberate phase reversal of the pick attack. It makes sense since the phase above cutoff is also reversed? The Q switching scheme is also not what I expected!

Substituting different preamp tubes in order to change the characteristics of the amp; 12AU7 for 12AX7, Tungsol for JJ, that sort of thing.

I've just noticed that the scratch plates go over the control knobs which are fixed on the bass. What a great idea that is. I don't think I've ever had a bass with that before. I also noticed that it has Luminlay front and side dots. Brough it in from the garden after taking the above photos and it was lit up like a Christmas tree. Given the amount of basses that have passed through Hackenbacker Towers over the years, I'm stunned I've never had these before.

Manet rivers to cross. Jimmy Cliff

Yes, I'm pretty sure that Basschat is one of the places they visit to scour for talent 😀!

Digging through my dusty and neglected vinyl collection and playing Bob Marley and the Wailers, Exodus. I haven’t heard it in years. Seriously how can one man write so many good songs in a lifetime, let alone on one record.

I Can See Clearly Now - Jimmy Cliff

Define "quality". One man's dream gig is another man's nightmare. For example, I can't imagine anything worse than playing at a wedding. For many this would be considered a quality gig. Drunken afternoon barbeque in someone's back garden, I'm all over it.

My Favourite Things ～ 'Trane

The Wit and The Wisdom ～ Hüsker Dü

They are great, but that's not a rig, it's a trip hazard! 🙂

😊

I've got a red flamed Euro LT4 too, Barts and Darkglass circuit. I think one of the selling points is that it's got a chambered body so it's a bit lighter. I like it, but I don't use it at all. If you're interested check the for sale ads. Hard case! Drop-D tuner! Dunlop Straploks! Minty fresh! What what!

30 loud watts

The locking jack socket on my ACG Krell 5 string fretless custom build is a bit stiff, hurts my fingers to get the jack out... Pity my horrible life.

I asked Will if I could try out the 2018 Classic Stingray they had in stock and after playing it I decided to make a purchase. It's absolutely spotless and weighs 9lbs 8oz (top of my weight range really) but is light for one of these. I've strung it with TI flats and it's brilliant. Foolishly, while I was waiting for Will to dig out the Classic I picked up a 1996 2EQ Ray that was sat on a stand and basically couldn't put it down again. It's got a few dings and minor chips (who hasn't?) but weighs in at just under 8 1/2lbs and just sounds amazing. Fortunately Will was agreeable to a p/x and I walked away with two Rays to join my Special that I've been gigging with recently. There's such a difference between the single and double H basses and the 2 vs. 3 eq that I felt I could justify it. Having recently moved a few basses on I didn't feel too guilty either. It's strange; I've been a passive bass fan for so long but now ffive of my seven basses are active and it works really well for me gigging-wise.

The rest of you.

I'm still in touch with the drummer from the band I was in, in the early 80s and he reminded me that he had this broken BB neck. I thought you guys might be interested in the story behind it. This neck is from JJ Burnell's bass which he was using in 1982/83. JJ used the bass during the Strangler's Feline Tour at that time, plus many TV appearances including The Tube 1983, TOTP's - European Female etc. It's possible that it was also used on the recording of the Feline album although I don't know that for sure. It was damaged during the US leg of that tour when his strap failed and the bass dropped to the ground. The Kinkade Brothers in Bristol had made a few guitars for the Stranglers so the bass was sent to them for repair. I don't know the details of the repair but I know they made a new neck and, given that the BB2000 is a neck-through design, presumably they spliced the new neck into the existing body? I'm also guessing that the original fretboard was likely reused. My mate acquired this neck because his brother, the guitarist in our band, was having an acoustic guitar made by the Kinkades and they visited the workshop to check progress of the build shortly after JJ's bass had been repaired. The old neck was lying around in the workshop about to be chucked out so, being a fan of the Stranglers my mate asked if he could have it. Many years later my mate met with JJ in Liverpool and he took the neck along and got him to sign it. Here's a picture of JJ using the bass in question and also the signed neck.

2 coming up for CHOKED : 27th August - Hereford River Festival, The Koffee Pot, Hereford 11th September - Going Feral for Mental Health Festival, Gwatkin Cider Co, HR2 0AL