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I have a gig! Praise be. The eternal question arises; what gear shall I take? The answer is simple. The best of everything. Best amp, best cabs, best bass.

When a chance came to get hold of one of my old basses back in a trade I of course had to say yes. This arrived today: a 2014 Fender AV 64 Reissue Jazz in a FSR Daphne Blue with matching headstock. It's bloody lovely so goodness knows why I got rid of it in the first place. I have a love/hate thing with Jazzes but hopefully it will hang around for a while. We'll see...

Caveat: this is not legal advice. I think this comes down to whether there is a contract on the basis that you have already paid for it. If there is, and given that at the price you paid you reasonably assumed that was the correct price (and not an error), the company is bound to honour it. That does not mean they would. If the contract would depend upon delivery, then there is no contract and they must refund the money you paid upon cancellation by either party. It is unacceptable for them to pull this stroke, in my view. Were I in your position, I would give them a choice on the spot: supply the piano at the price you paid, or else refund the money immediately. But I doubt they have a valid basis for taking the money and then trying to shake you down for more. They might have a valid basis for cancelling the order, in which case you must receive an immediate refund. Personally, I would insist that they honour what you regard as an agreement (do not concede ground on the price-matching point), and point out their weak position in law should they prove reluctant. If they won't budge, get an immediate refund and call the other place quickly. There is no way I would pay extra money to these people.

The T2A fuses arrived today and the amp is now working just as it should, without blowing fuses. It draws around 0.35A (88W) from the mains when it has settled down, which is not unusual given how delightfully inefficient valve amps are - my Princeton Reverb draws 0.24A (61W). The steel bird cage gets quite hot above the valves, but my PF-50T did the same. I'm calling that a win. I just need a name now - any suggestions?

At last I have a matching pair.

Hardly adequate (dark, flash from phone), but I snapped this just after wiping down the body after 2nd coat. A little darker and deeper red, with the grain still nicely visible. It will not get much darker than this from the 4 additional coats I will add, so pretty close to end colour I think.

Did someone leave it on a radiator? It seems to have melted... One fugly bass.

Just pulled the trigger on a TMB30 on Ebay. Have been circling a shorty for quite a while now a have a few gigs lined up so really looking forward to this little stubby turning up.

Free Nissan Main Dealer - The Special AKA

Go to the CAB website and check your statutory rights but IIRC they sold you the item at the price you paid - they can't add money after the fact.

It begins... and very well might end badly!

Long time no hear, Yabby You

Before I bought my first bass, my band which was a writing and recording only project would borrow one of the two bass guitars owned by people we knew at school. One of these was a home-made thing put together by someone who'd seen a photo of a P-Bass once and then had tried to make their own from memory using only what was available from the parts box at our local musical instrument store. The other was Mosrite-influenced "Woolies Special". Neither were really worthy of the description "musical instrument". We'd got by with these for about 4 years until I actually went out and bought one myself in 1981 - a very battered and heavily modified Burns Sonic Bass which had appeared in the afore-mentioned musical instrument store. It cost me £60 including the OHC and the shop chucked me in a Fender-branded strap. For a while I wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't also home-made as there were no logos on it other than on the Tri-Sonic pickups. However I was able to get hold of "The Burns Book" by Paul Day which confirmed it was actually a proper Burns Bass guitar made in either 1961 or 1962. And that's what I used in my first two bands and on the demos my second band recorded that got CBS records interested in signing us (they decided to go with Wham! in the end), and them for writing bass lines in my synth band, until I bought my Overwater Original 5-string in the early 90s. I still had the Burns Sonic bass until 2 years ago when I had a ruthless pruning of my musical instrument "collection" and got rid of everything I wasn't using. Here's photo of me playing it live in 1982...

Many thanks to all for your words of encouragement, advice and welcome.

Interesting tidbit of information there - so Mr. Glover had got past his (deep) purple phase by then was more into the yellow/red end of the spectrum?

There's the GR Pure 800 if that's any use?

(B)Raking the law(n) - Judas Priest

That’s the one! 1983 (my YOB coincidentally) and one of the few white stingrays with non yellowing lacquer.

Genuine question: if you can't tell the difference between a cheaper P bass and a more expensive one, why buy the expensive one in the first place?

To bring some perspective my auntie used to live next door to Roger Glover in Richings Park, Iver, Buckinghamshire and my (then) teenage cousin Pete used to wash Roger's car to make a few bob. One time Roger was in his garden planting out some marigolds and my uncle leaned over the fence and said 'Rog, is Smoke On The Water heavy metal?' and Roger put down his trowel and thought a bit and said 'No, Norman, it's hard rock but played with a hint of heaviness'.

The Abyssinians 'Declaration of rights'

I’m actually waiting to do a review of the @Bergantino Audio Forté HP as well as the NXT and NXV cabinets when they ship to our distributor. I’ll also ask to do B|Amp MK 2 as well. I adore my B|Amp MK1 and can help answer questions about Forté. Anything I can’t answer, I’ll call Jim himself

Good man! You got what you were originally looking for and for a good price. Now, something you need to know about BC, there’s a rule, which is so strict that it has its own emoji… We expect these and a full report on your new bass’s arrival.

Such a great voice, I must listen to more of Pat Kelly, I’m liking this too

I’m guessing the TH is the pedal and not the amp? GLXD-> compressor-> TH

I've only had a brief go on the C4, but it's looking good. It's replaced Octave up and down pedals, so that'll be my 1st focus. (The right-hand three pedals were all previously @SumOne's 🙂 )

Andertons have a mint pre owned one for £645

Thanks man, I've gone ahead and bought the huntington via this forum. Got it for 450 in mint condition. If I like it then I'll probably look at something more high end next year 👍 if I love it though then it's job done 😁

It’s happening

Could we have the bride and the groom on the floor please? Then into Smoke On The Water. Reminds me of a friend of ours who used to sing in a band that did many functions over the years. He once asked for the bride and groom etc then asked for the brides parents. Everyone Was stage whispering frantically, Al,...... they're dead!

I'm going to the post office in an hour, so any final orders for this batch, do it now!!

I had an Aria Pro II XRB series. I learned how to do setups on it, then fret levels, then defretting, then refretting, then chiselling out a hole and adding a big MB pickup between the neck and the P pickup and running it as V-V-V-T, then frankensteining another neck onto it, then sold it. Great bass 😁

Can open, worms everywhere.

My first was a Presto-Lang much like the one pictured (photo off the internet, I don't have any of mine), but sparkly red. It was a collab between a post-communist national factory and a proper local luthier. Good bass, if ugly. Bright, resonant and lively. Heavy ash body, 3-piece maple neck. I bought it from a studio that this metal band called Vader resided in, for 200pln (£40). Had decent hardware and passive "designed by EMG" pickups. It had aluminium monorail bridges which had rusted screws and couldn't be adjusted. I swapped it for a brass equivalent (which curiously was easily available and cheap in my local guitar shop) and the tonal difference was so massive, I became instantly interested in guitar building and modding. I later sold the bass for profit and bought the same model, but with Ibanez SR style headstock, beech body, ash (yes) neck and two reverse P pickups. It was an inferior instrument, dull and unresponsive. After that, custom Mensfeld (the manufacture that makes Maruszczyks now), some Peaveys, many Yamahas, a few Warwick, many Fenders and a couple of FSOs.

Alvarez

GAK selling a red 424x, same price on website and Reverb, £280 delivered RED (I really need to stop picturing that with a white pearloid pg)

Thanks for posting this - what a positive documentary. Jaco suffered from what we would now call bipolar disorder which, for anyone who is a relative or close friend of someone with this, will know that, as for all forms of mental illness it can be supremely hard work with that sort of relationship. I’m afraid that people complaining about this is really discriminatory in the same way as complaining about other disabilities or people’s sex, age and other illnesses. I’m sure if it were now there would be far greater support for someone like Jaco. That he was a genius on bass should not be in dispute - I learned so much from him (and Alan Spenner, Leo Lyons, Jack Bruce, Louis Johnson, Bernard Edwards - more recently Jamerson, Dunn, Babbitt - in fact an absolute mammoth of a list right up to the current day - but Jaco’s work (also as a writer) really moves me - when Two Views of a Secret was played on the video attached it almost moved me to tears - fabulous! I also am a great fan of Henning (and was from first seeing him at the beginning of the 70s on DB with Oscar P - usually on the tele) - there have been many jazz players I’ve admired - but Jaco taught me to groove on electric bass (as did most of my other influences), followed by the note selection and patterns, voicings to make things interesting (even the most mundane) - there’s a mass of truth in Zawinul’s input to the documentary about his view of Weatyer Report - I have heard other stories of Jaco idolising him and finding it hard to gain praise from him - especially with his solo stuff - so good to hear Zawinul say in such positive terms what he thought of Jaco and his music. Jaco’s tone was pretty well unique at the time and his accuracy staggering on fretless (Pino - another influence - took this approach as well but added his own flavour). I can say in 1980 I was really after copping some of Jaco’s tone and groove (and Pino’s)!! Though I didn’t own a fretless (yes a Stingray) till 2010!!!

I really wish I didn’t agree but sadly I do. I’m also double jabbed but with underlying medical issues, an elderly family member we’re supporting through cancer treatment, the almost certain need to head back onto a commuter train in September/October and a kid with special needs… this autumn still somehow feels too soon. Doubly so with the transmissibility of the current variants. I would also have voted for next year. And @silverfoxnik, @Hamster, @cetera happy to help out when it does come around to pulling it together (as part of the North Surrey massive).

Scratch perry 1976

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