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And it's done Slimmed Lull fretted neck: Same width and profile AJR fretless neck: Fully tuned and playable: to fully tuned and playable: in: (Of which at least 6 minutes was removing and fitting the strings) Private AJR1515 reporting back to Colonel@Happy Jack : Mission complete, sah!

Da da-da da da daaaaa, da da da da da daaaaa, da da da da da da da-da da etc IIRC.

Hmmm. I visited Bass Direct this afternoon to have a look at some really lightweight basses Mark had in stock. Back in October I had a major operation on my back/flank due to ongoing issues (mostly caused by rugby). To make matters worse, I developed an abscess, so had to have a bloody drain fitted for three weeks. It was taken out yesterday and the only thing I can imagine feels remotely close to how I feel is being let out of prison! As a result, my maximum bearable weight for a bass is just over 8 1/2-9lbs. Anything even slightly heavier causes me real issues. Anyway, this Stingray Special weighs in a just under 8 1/2lbs and is virtually mint, having been used sparingly by its previous owner. After a quick play it was a done deal. These are retailing at something like £2,800 now (if you can find one) which is (to me) insane. I did p/x some bits, so it wasn't all one way traffic I hasten to add. It's not an excuse, promise. I guess you can say I'm well and truly out though!

From Mr.Shuker…. “Your bass is pretty much ready for you, should be all wrapped up by the end of next week! I'll send a few snaps as soon as we're there!”

Wonderful. The fretless version looks so gorgeous that even the tort pickguard is all right on it... 😉 💗

Oh FFS really?... One with Flats... one with rounds... I'm hooked!

I always saw that album cover as a metaphor. Innocence being targeted and corrupted by money and greed. Which is exactly what happens and is happening in this legal case.

So here's a local band from somewhere in the US doing an incredible cover of 'Elephant Talk' - bass player on a fretless fiver has to put himself into contortions to reproduce Tony Levin's Chapman Stick lines, but it's all good. Anyone else like to suggest other amazing covers they've found of nigh on impossible to play numbers ?

It could go roundabout.....

Some of you guys clearly haven't had a non paying gig after performing. Another difference - function band - invoice raised before hand and paid before the band plays a note = creating proper audit trail of contract and payment. Pub band - all sorts of jokery to be expected.

Chris Square Was the bassist with Yeah Their guitarist Steve Ho Was a Chinese maestro.

didn't Gerry Lee from Thrush basically want to be Chris Square?

Rickenbacker basses were an itch I increasingly wanted to scratch but an expensive commodity to just take a punt on. However a couple of years ago I chanced upon an early 70s MIJ Faker that was 'really' good and made me realise that I do, in fact, like them quite a lot. Trouble was, the Faker weighed just south of 11lbs - far to much for me to ever stand a chance of wearing for a whole gig so with heavy heart I moved it on to Nik @silverfoxnik who is now enjoying it's clankiness. So I tried a Ric-style bass and liked it. But even the lightest of proper Rics are still just too heavy for me. And, tbh, a bit on the dear side of what I want to pay. I did some research and it seems the Retrovibe Renegade bass is extremely lightweight and a decent enough modding platform to create a half-decent Faker. So I put out a plea on the Wanted ads to see if anyone had a spare. And Davie @kodiakblair came to the rescue! Plus he beat his parts draw and what fell out was a brace of decent Ric style pickups - a Retrovibe toaster and a Guyker RKH-IV N - and a chrome bezel for the bridge pickup. All of which are now residing here. The bass is currently sporting a single Musicman type pickup in the bridge position. There is routing in the body under the pickguard for the neck pickup and, unbelievably, the bezel for the bridge pickup is a straight drop in where the MM pup is. Need to decide which pickup is going where - looks at the moment like the toaster wil be at the neck as it has a threaded hole suitable for height adjustment but both will need some fettling. Think I'll opt for 4 Ric style control knobs plus the toggle switch and blank the existing pickguard holes. If it looks too much like a bodge I may splash out on a new one, but let's see how it turns out first. The bridge is great, I actually prefer it to the enormous clunky Ric one so it won't ever be a completely accurate copy. it has a maple neck with dot markers. Another decision is whether to cover these with the Ricky triangles - if so I will need to make my own out of vinyl so that they are big enough to cover the existing dots. I may get a sheet and see - possibly black, just to keep the striking colour scheme going, possibly some sort of mother of toilet seat if I can find such a thing. If not, no matter, a lot of Rics just had dots. I'll do some of it myself, hand over to my tech mate for the electrics and fettling that requires steadier hands than mine It's been a little while since I undertook a bit of a mod and I am really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Special run for Chicago Music Exchange (also comes in aptly named "Drab" olive green). Nice colour scheme. Link https://www.chicagomusicexchange.com/products/gibson-usa-sg-standard-bass-pelham-blue-wtortoise-1351959

Going in the right direction - I sold a bass this week. OR Creating a void that is dangerously vacant? With a trip to Glasgow a week on Monday? Dangerous...

See, there you go, everyone see the light eventually* . *You’ll be heartened to hear, however, that I’m currently changing my 2 tort p/gs over to black, just to be contrary.

I do! Although I use it with Berg 212NXT. Without doubt the best rig I've ever had or played through. Only used it at rehearsals so far but it's a great piece of kit.

I've got the Forte HP. I was interested in the features; compression, HPF and 1200 watts, and after a positive experience using Bergantino's cabs, I wanted to check out their amps. First impressions, I think this amp sounds great. There's an authority in the tone that I like. A full, solid and warm feel to each note. I've never used compression before and after several sessions playing with the controls and a couple of gigs, I'm finding I can take it or leave it. The HPF just works quietly in the corner. With my Barefaced cabs I'm not sure I have a problem that requires an HPF to fix. I have it set at about 9 o'clock, just before I start to hear it thinning out the sound. 1200 watts. . . . that's lots of punch and there is headroom to spare, but this year I've taken a step back from doing many of my very loud gigs, and really my 500 watt amps are fine for what I now need. There is an overdrive, but I have no interest in that. The firmware can be updated from the Bergantino site which gives different base sounds. It's something that I'm not sure I really need. Whatever download was on the amp when I bought it suits me just fine. I'd probably never change it. My conclusion is the Forte HP is like buying a Ferrari to run the kids to school and then do the weekly shop at the supermarket. I have nothing but praise for yet another world class Bergantino product. That company is just in a league by themselves. This is the most amazing amp I've used so far, but the truth is, I'm an old skool player and it's way over spec'ed for my needs.

Looking at that image brought to mind a dartboard, which in turn brought to mind my process of note choice.

Yes, you can use any 90 on the input, here's a photo of our Tsunami cable plugged into the jack. And yes, we've been looking at a couple of other options for connectivity at the BackBeat and the bass.

The whole 'hours worked' thing has always left me somewhat bemused. I love playing bass. In fact, the only thing I love better than playing bass is playing bass for a genuine reason. I love learning new material. In fact, the only thing I love better than learning new material is learning new material for a gig. The idea of totting up how many hours I've 'invested' in playing bass, and then calculating the return on my investment, seems to miss the point rather. YMMV

not as good as Hayley Benton...

My two Specials

In my last band we had to do it legit, mainly due to the amount of merch we sold. We never took anything out, preferring to reinvest it all in the company, which in turn enabled us to take up opportunities that had we taken £50 or so at the end of the night wouldn’t have been available to us, such as a 4 night stopover when we played in Athens. Which was nice.

You're all weak. I have managed 2 weeks not only not buying anything, but not even finding anything I want. To add extra self congratulations, I'm also selling 2 tomorrow. Hah.

This photo is from a big gig at a racecourse, as you can see I was leaping around like I was in The Dillinger Escape Plan. That all came a cropper when a poorly planned jump lead to a badly sprained ankle and I couldn't drive for a couple of days. My heavily pregnant fiancé was thrilled

Hermes are having problems at the moment, lost two of my parcels end of last year, and a few more took a long time to delivery, 5 weeks being the longest. If your friend used a Hermes service (which may have been the cheapest P2GO offered) buckle up, you could be waiting a while, and they will do absolutely nothing to help you.

I get all that. I had racks and racks of gear for many years (and the back pain to prove it) - so anything that gets me some compression and a touch of drive into 1 unit really makes me want that Ferrari!

It is actually a requirement to declare hobby incomes if they exceed £1000 in a year to HMRC.

I thought they were called Airport Convection?

Well. It was a rush on supply. There were plenty of drivers. Some bloke who should have known better said that there was 90% of fuel availability. What he neglected to say was that's the normal availability, but no one normally notices. Once the whole country had filled up their tanks with fuel they're never going to use, the 'crises' suddenly was over.

What a sack. Over engineered, with a custom cable, that is prone to failure. And before anybody says, cables do - and will - fail. Especially if they aren't in a fixed installation. Looking at the connection, that could render it useless on a tour. You can't just knock up another cable from the spares box.

No, which, BTW, is the ultimate Yes tribute band name. Ok, I better leave before you start throwing things at me 😁

Are you saying the circle has been squared ?

For me, the perfect bass is the one that means I have no need to keep looking for anything better. Mine started life as a Fender Rascal and what made it perfect was having it re-bodied by our Andyjr1515. Apologies to those of you that I've already bored with this on other topics. My only excuse is that it REALLY IS my perfect bass and I just can't shut up about it 😐

It's all about perspective isn't it? Chris Square is a legend if you look at bass from the right angle.

Chris Square stole all of Tony Goggle's best licks.

Indeed, the lesser known Chris Square. He was a bit too out of the box for most. He planned to record an album with his pet parrot, unfortunately he arose on the day of the recording to find the cage open and polygon.

Jaco managed ok with an old Fender.