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Just to follow up on my rambling GAS problem, for anyone vaguely interested….. I resolved it - by buying the Fullerton Deluxe L-2000. 😀 Had it out at a rehearsal tonight. Very happy with it. Sounds and feels fantastic. I’d forgotten how much I love the body shape and the neck is beautiful. So, here it is with its wee brother. Turns out they came out the factory about 3 weeks apart.

BSR4WT 11' I've had since 2014. BT4TNV 09' I got this one last Oct. Searches ended.

We played with Midge Ure a few years back, he went on stage with a single speaker Vox Valvetronix amp and a battered Marshall blues breaker pedal and used an "out of the box" Vintage Midge Ure signature guitar and sounded every bit as awesome as you would expect an ex Thin Lizzy guitarist to sound, all in all he had about £600.00 worth of gear and about a million quids worth of talent...I was hugely impressed!

So is "Damn I wish I'd bought it when I had the chance" remorse 👍

My main takeaway is that he’s really, really rubbish at having a hissy fit. There’s a slightly longer video than the one in the ‘article’ above where at the end of the set he dangerously slams his bass to the floor from the height of about six inches and walks off with his middle fingers raised. Edgy. (Posh English) rock musicians these days are a joke.

Yup, can't imagine anyone doing that!

I find myself unable to resist naming my babies. Five string fretless uke bass is ʻelima (Hawaiian for five). Ibanez GSRM25 is Ibby. Harley Benton 5 string fretless is Quinn S'manth x

So today is delivery day for the hardware for this project, and first to arrive is the speaker grill material. This has always been the downside of my previous builds, the lack of a good quality metal speaker grill at an affordable price. So this time I’ve taken a punt on eBay and ordered this material from eBay seller “baby.m2009”. 1.2mm pre-painted steel 600x521mm at the cost of £18.99 a piece. Obviously one sheet isn’t big enough for the full cab but I have a cunning plan (actually two cunning plans) but more of that later 😎

Def, it was the wrong crowd for them but that doesn`t make it the crowds fault, go on, play your best and win over some of them.

It took forty years but I'm finally playing bass live after four decades of session and live guitar: Bought this and a Mustang SS last year, Upgraded to pickups to these Tone riders and replaced the electrics No flats, no fun. I've got Teles that weigh more than this, And used in anger at the bank holiday blues jam at the Bull in Downton: Hmm its only "The Thrill is Gone" but suddenly that Gma7 arpeggio on the turnaround is a lot further away than on my Tele... Digging in behind my new favourite Tenor player, a righteous blower who came up the hard way and paid his dues... as a Consultant Plastic Surgeon for the NHS... Liking this live bass playing thing and the VM SS Jaguar is definitely the right bass, just need to let my right hand find the sweet spot for my thumb, perhaps a thumb rest is in order. Peace out, A

We were discussing electric cars at home. If I did buy a Mustang it would absolutley require a poncey number plate ending 54LLY. This is a point against the car. The bass is nicknamed "Queen Elizabeth' as it weighs as much as the aircraft carrier and the fretboard is wide enough to land an F35 on.

This was a grimy fretboard on a bass I bought, I used alcohol wipes to clean it which worked very good, and lemon oil to restore and condition it after

Sellers remorse. The Travis Bean. The Bongo 5HH. The white Gibson Thunderbird.

The bass I took to a gig was “the bass”. The other one was “the back-up I left at home”. They were interchangeable.

Neck dive sorted. With a strap button on the neck heel and a wide leather strap (thanks to @Mudpup). Awesome.

Well, the deed is now done. For good or for ill. The deal was an outright sale of my ACG 30.5" bass to then buy a Grabber Green BFR Music Man Bongo 6 that GuitarGuitar just got in. The price for the ACG was very fair indeed, and I doubt I'd have ever sold it if it wasn't for the fact that I have 4 other ACG basses, all of which see significantly more play time that the baby ACG. Plus the BFR Bongo 6 is rare as hens teeth and I'd not likely see another for sale any time soon. So why not shift on something I essentially have in triplicate for something that's rare, cool and that I'll use. Plus it came with 3 new sets of Rotosound SM666 strings, which I could definitely use! Not sure if I'll live to regret it, but it's done now. I still have 4 ACGs, so can't be too sad I suppose... Here's the one out, and the one in:

Why would Alex want to build a big, heavy and expensive amp that very few people would buy? My guess is that any amp from Barefaced will be a top of the line D class amp that will be rubbing shoulders with the very best in that field. I hope he includes an HPF.

Played along with the first set of a Wirebirds gig I had recorded, no problems at all. Hoping to get a band rehearsal organised in a week or so.

I bought a GB Rumour and loved it. I had a Status Kingbass at the same time but was so enamored by the Rumour that when a Spitfire came up I felt I had to jump on it. I traded the Kingbass for the Spitfire. Big mistake. The Spitfire, though a nice bass in it's own right, wasn't even half the bass the Rumour was, and didn't live up to my expectations. Needless to say, it didn't stay long and I wasn't able to get the Kingbass back. I eventually moved the Rumour on (for a lot less than the market price)...again another mistake. Sellers remorse is a real biitch.

I have no sympathy with them whatsoever. You get on stage and perform to the best of your ability and be thankful for it every time.

I've dug out the chat I had with Leszek about the light years ago, not long after I got my first R-400: Lamp isn't clip, it is an incredibly complicated analogical optical limiter, which perfectly keeps balance in the power amplifier. You are free to play as loud as you want. It's not possible to overload!

It happens. As long as it doesn't get to you.

The non-export ones have a pick guard, and look a lot better IMO.

When I had a Dean Pace, my bandmates at the time referred to it as 'The Banister'

And if you forget the B in your Basschat search, you get a call from your IT department

I hope to find my sound one day. I just have to remember where I left it. It's great getting old.

Two fantastic shows this weekend. One was a private function for a super-wealthy individual. We played in front of his lake on a mezzanine over a swimming pool and koi pond (and gymnasium with boxing ring). It was quite the eye opener into a very different world. Last night we closed a local festival to a brilliant crowd, many of whom had turned out just for us. We had a pro crew in filming too. No proper pics yet, but I’ve swiped a few from people’s facebook pages.

We were lucky enough to headline the John Bonham 75th birthday memorial event in his hometown of Redditch last night. There was a great crowd and a really good set of bands playing, not to mention that I got to play through the usual hire-in rig of a SVT4 & fridge, which I don't get to do too often these days. All great fun...

I sometimes think about calling my Mustang "Sally" and then I decide that's a silly idea...

I tried being clever and failed. It's green onions, not tomatoes. Ignore my incompetence

Well, I increased the budget and have acquired this magnificent beast. Having now been playing it for a few hours it’s right up there with the best. Now I still need a 6 short scale fretless…. 🤔

Various exercises, arpeggios and broken scales. I have a problem (which is almost resolved) in that I tend to leave my thumb still and stretch for notes. No problem for my little finger, but when I go back towards the headstock I mis-fret with the index. So I am practicing a lot of arpeggios etc and trying to move my hand more while being fluid. And I am not consistent on quick fills either, the timing is out. It is repetitive, but not boring as I can see the (slow) improvement. The goal is to be able to smoothly play and improvise whatever comes into my head given a chord chart, and for me at this stage- that is all down to having good enough technique.

Think I may have solved my problem, Premium series made in Japan, the l2k has a jazz type neck, reading around the quality seems to be very good and shipping doesn't seem to be problematic either. Now to see what I can find!

I wonder of Phil Lynott did that? 'I am just a cowgoy, lonesong on the trail...'

Agreed, Glynn John sorted that years ago.

Take the covers off, pop a bit of cut up business card or similar at either end of the pickup, pop the covers back on. The business card will raise the pickup cover so the poles are no longer exposed, so no strings hitting the poles themselves. Simple.

Not quite a NBD rather a New Bass 3 weeks ago day... but in that time I have been playing this wonderful bass non stop, it's got that wonderful sound I want and it feels just incredible, it's such a joy. I got it from BassDirect recently as part of their shipment of 5 basses from Sleek Elite in Japan, this model has Hajime Hirose's sig in it and was completed 1 day before my birthday in feb this year! So... meant to be as they say. Here's my cheesy mugshot in BassDirect picking it up; The top on the bass is book matched Rosewood and while it looks quite dark in the photo above there is so much grain pattern to admire; The fngerboard is Macassar Ebony and It has a matching book matched rosewood headstock The body is two pieces of swamp ash and the neck is 3 piece maple I took some photos of the top in today's gorgeous sunshine too, so as well as showing dust and some lacquer swirling it shows how holographic the grain on this bass is I'm really happy with the bass, it sounds killer, had it at 1 band practice and the bass lifted everything in the room it's so clear with huge lows and so much mix cut.

Mussel Bound - Spandau Ballet

It's still no excuse for a newspaper article to consist of twitter posts. That's not news.

Just been sent a link to a video of one of our songs from Friday’s Buckle and Boots set

A few pics from a few weeks back at the NABD rally in Cheshire. Was nice to be rocking the Fallout Bass.

I wish you luck with it, it’s a wicked little festival!