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Just thought I should share my great fortune/ honour in becoming the only the second custodian of an unmarked 73 jazz bass. Before I share the story, I know that the bass has the black scratch normally found from 74, but I've seen the original receipt from Carlsbro Sound in Mansfield clearly marked Sept 1973. So the bass is 100% original down to the case, original paperwork, inspection tag, owners manual and spare set of flatwounds ! Having saved his hard earned cash for years, the original owner, John B sadly passed away suddenly and his wife couldn't bring herself to part with the her husband's pride and joy, which has been sat under the bed until now. His wife decided to pass the bass on to someone else and I was recently invited to the family home to hear the story for myself. I have several photos of the John playing the bass in his band. I can't share them on here as they aren't mine to share but I can assure you the bass is visible clear as day, including John's initials on the lower horn, as was the trend in the 70's apparently and which are still on the bass now . . . . I promised I wouldn't remove them. Of course when I 1st saw the bass, apart from being floored by the stunning condition, I assumed JB stood for Jazz Bass! So an incredible, virtually show room condition beautiful jazz bass, preserved in time.

I love the sound of bagpipes (played well), particularly if the sound is floating across a valley/loch or the Edinburgh skyline.....

Hand over day. Mark popped in today to collect his new baby. After quite some time I had to turn the amp off to stop him playing it, I think he would have done a full set given the chance. We both agreed it sounds like a "Wal" in a Zoot Boudica package.

It's ready! It'll be with me on Tuesday in time for practice.

Another one. I could go all day on these but I'm trying to ration myself. Eric Clapton is the most overrated guitarist of all time. Absolutely dull as dishwater.

Just been down the end... Bathroom is done and we have power and lights! Just need a carpet (hopefully Monday) and the second coat of render then we can 'move in'.

You’re not alone, other than My Baby Just Cares For Me (great bass line), she’s not for me either. My personal unpopular opinion concerns certain bands from the ‘60s, again not for me. However, when I express these opinions, folk (of a certain age) really get bent out shape and start telling me how I’m wrong. I’m not, it’s my opinion about an art form, it’s one of the few opinions a person is really allowed to have, as it is neither right nor wrong, it’s about art and it’s personal. To be clear, I’m very aware of how these bands changed popular music and culture and I don’t dispute that at all, in fact, I grew up in the ‘60s, so I was there when it was happening. I just don’t think these band’s output was all solid gold and it hasn’t aged well - in my (unpopular) opinion.

It’s much better to learn the floating thumb technique for muting than relying on a rest.

Well, coffee drunk, thinking thunk... Time to remember to re-insert the truss rod and glue on the neck. A couple of panel-pin holes drilled in one of fret slots either end, fretboard carefully positioned and pins tapped in gives me the location points to get the glued board back in the right place and the ability to stop the board floating out of position under clamping: And absolutely...you can never have too many clamps: That'll be left until the morning when I can unclamp it and see that all of the joints are (hopefully) completely gap-free

Yup, hence my earlier comment re: quite liking (some of) Phil Collins' solo output. Yes, I really do. And for me, Dancing Queen is THE perfect pop song. Superb bassline too.

ELO. Can't stand their pompous over-produced Beatles-influenced music yet I seem to be in a tiny minority on BC, where adulation seems to be order of the day whenever the name comes up. Bah humbug, waves stick etc

I remember the first time I heard a band of pipers approaching in an outdoor setting; just amazing. However, just like poor intonation on a violin, a badly played/tuned set of pipes is a horrible, horrible thing.

Nina Simone. In particular that "I got my arms, got my legs, got my spleen, got my kidneys, got my Islets of Langerhans, got my glomerulus..." song

After the glowing review and recommendation by @such of his Buzz Hornet, I took the plunge and recently also sampled the work of the Polish bass builder (Mateusz Piotrowski) behind these creations. I was never really a fan of relic'd instruments, but somehow I seem to have now obtained a few in my stable (including Bravewood and Limelight), and so feel able to comment and compare. The Buzz has a Jazz-sized neck on an Alder P body, which is light and resonant. Damn........this bass is first and foremost a great "players bass"!! I appreciate that the aesthetics might not suit everybody [the relicing is stage 7 on a scale of 1 (none) to 10 (totally trashed)], but I really do not like some of the Fender Custom shop cookie-cutter examples. The build process was stress-free and took around 4 months overall. I have yet to use the Buzz in a band situation, but I am confident that it will do a great job, and I won't give a rip if it gets dinged up in the process. Here are some pics:

I’ve been a bit tardy in posting this but finally it’s time to join the ACG Build Club 😀. I’ve been looking to commission a custom build for years but the timing wasn’t right. However moving just down the road from Alan and approaching a significant birthday brought it all together and I spent a fabulous few hours with Alan in February, picking his brains and picking out the materials from his awesome stock of woods to design what is a unique work of art and certainly, what to my eyes, will be the best looking bass I’ve seen. Its a Krell 4 string 34 scale. Hopefully be ready for November which is pretty quick for one of Alan’s creations. I’ll update in the next post. Cant wait. This is the hardest wait. 😀

Pump it up. Elvis Costello and the attractions

Yes it was, but unfortunately Mark wasn't listening as he was too involved in testing the bass... But I think he knew what I was saying and has agreed at some point to change the gold to black. Not sure if this will actually happen.

Was the ‘grown up’ conversation had? 😂

Have a photo from 1972 MrSpace, while you check them out No prizes for spotting Lemmy though

Never had a full working board till today and I've been collecting these things for years, so got a couple new ones and threw them all together.

I may be wrong but I reckon your bass must have come from the factory in natural. There is absolutely no trace of any paint at all on the body which suggests it was never a solid colour that was stripped. You can see in the neck pocket where the stick it was mounted on was positioned as it doesn't have any of the poly coating on. I'd say your friend is wrong. Also, it's quite a nice looking piece of ash. I think they kept those for the natural finishes as used the 3/4 piece bodies with obvious join lines for the solid colours.

I find this mark fascinating...you can't unsee it now. I just spent the last 15 minutes looking at 70s Jazz Basses on Reverb; it's even visible on some of the more lighter-coloured sunbursts.

I won't do a seperate post, but my replacement for the LM800 has arrived today; a lovely Little Mark Tube! I've only given it a quick try, but it sounds great so far. Inherently brighter than the LM2 possibly? We will see. No gig this weekend though sadly!i will report back after next Friday's gig. 😊👍

Jazz-funk and Bass players obsession with this genre. It's usually Bass playing for Bass playing sake - I'm more interested in music and the song as a whole, and the message it has, than someone's ability to 16th note their fingers to a pink paste. Vulfpeck and Snarky Puppy can also get in the bin. Smug, gurning , jazz-funk, that's been already been done, 40-50 years ago. I can't abide these bands. Ahhhh - that's better!

I haven't read through every post so apologies if they have been mentioned but I hate the negativity towards Nickelback. I think they are a really good rock band and when we went to see them they were excellent and the sound was out of this world. I have seen many more "credible" bands who have been poor live.

I think we all need to come to consensus on IP. IP is there to protect an individual's creativity and endeavours to ensure a quality product gets into the market place of which, we as bass players, reap the benefits of and we need to recognise this as necessary. However, Music Tribe, have found away round this by seemingly buying up discontinued product IP that has enabled them to shamelessly copy deleted products and related equipment now benefitting the bass player enormously and again, we need to recognise that this is good thing. So in essence, no crime has been committed, it is of great benefit to our community and perhaps, we could view the IP copy as tribute to the original manufacturer? It's all good folks.

I hate Bulgarian music. Which is unfortunate because I live in Bulgaria. It seems to me to be like traditional Greek music on speed. Usually with a clarinet shoehorning about 40 notes into every beat. Or even worse, a keyboard on clarinet setting. It's just a horrible cacophony of disjointed noise. Usually accompanied by a woman wailing as if she's just lost her nearest and dearest. It's almost as bad as jazz. Almost!

Slash is most definitely not a guitar great. He's a capable rock guitar player no more, no less. He hasn't revolutionised guitar playing but has merely continued what many others were doing before him. And he doesn't even have a signature sound. Anyone who thinks he is a great is 100% wrong

Soundtrack for The Greatest Science Fiction Movie Ever: Blade Runner.

This x 1000 Here’s a true story: A guy comes into my record shop and pre-orders a CD. Not a new one – a cheap re-issue. He’s super-excited. On the day of it's release, he’s outside the store when I arrive, almost hyperventilating with excitement. I open up and dutifully trudge to the back of the store (slightly peeved that this guy has delayed my morning coffee by 10 minutes) to retrieve his disc. He rips off the cellophane. His hands are trembling. And then he bursts into tears. Unselfconsciously, a grown man is so happy to purchase this music that he is weeping in front of a sales assistant. Being an Englishman, I have NO CLUE what to do in this situation, so I go to the other end of the counter and avoid eye contact while he gets it out of his system. Eventually (10-15 minutes later) he is composed enough to pay me and leave. The music that reduced him to tears was... ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I have sold thousands of releases by ‘Good’ artists - everyone from Nick Drake to Radiohead, from Bach to Coltrane, but the only person who ever wept for joy on purchasing a recording was the guy who bought ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I dare you to tell him he's wrong.

I don't like the Beatles. Maudlin sentimentality from Paul meets self-important, preening ego from John and plodding journeyman stuff from the other two. And grey, claggy, syrupy production. Yuck.

Just had listen to this after about 35 years. Nonsense, stupid noises, Dr Who alien sounds LOVED IT!!

Love in an Elevator - Aerosmith

Little Feat may be one of the best bands ever... If Slash impressed BB King, that's good enough for me... Linda Ronstadt was a musical force of nature... I can listen to Lyle Lovett and his Large Band for a very long time... If he had lived longer, Buddy Holly would have been the King of Rock 'n Roll...

Devin Townsend's commercial success is in negative correlation to the quality of his music. The White Album is perfect as it is. David Tennant was not a good Doctor... oops, wrong subject 😄

I think you're right. He's very good, his tabs are usually spot on, unlike every other person who shares tabs on the Internet! Really good playing plus it's well filmed so you can see exactly what his hands are doing.

Next job on the neck is thicknessing the back which will form the spine that the profile will be carved up to. After double-checking that there would be enough wood left under the truss rod slot, I temporarily stuck on a 2mm spacer at the nut to give me the 2mm taper of thickness from the nut to the heel: Then set up my home-made router thicknesser jig: And there we have the tapered thickness: And so time for a cup of coffee while I think through the sequence to make sure there's nothing else I need to do before I glue on the fretboard. And while that is gluing this afternoon, it's probably time I got my a**e brain into gear to give @Happy Jack 's new challenge some serious thought, scribbling and sketching

If you don’t already know the song, XTCs ‘the mayor of simpleton’ is a fantastic example of a melodic bass line. colin moulding was/is a master at coming up with quirky,very unusual and unique ideas I’d say. 😎

First album I ever bought, “Heaven & Hell”. That wasn’t yesterday….

Yepp, I consider this good news. Spector and Vox have done well under Korg. Korg also acquired Aguilar which isn’t struggling. Yamaha bought Ampeg as well and this is generally thought of as a positive development. If nothing else, I would actually enjoy it if Korg dialled back on the patented Darkglass marketing strategy of releasing a pedal, waiting 6 months, and then releasing a slightly different version of the same pedal in the Ultra or V2 format.

Am I the only one who really has absolutley no feelings for Queen? 97% of their output just passes by me. Also.. Fleetwood Mac. Why are they constanly touted as some great rock band. It's all MOR AOR to me.

I don't really like any of of the 'big bass names' that get rolled out on BC. Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pasty-Riots, Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, you know the ones. All very talented but tedious to listen to. I do love a good pop tune though. Maybe I shouldn't be here? 😁

I don't like him that much