mowf

I've used Schaller straplocks for years and years on all my basses and they've been absolutely bombproof. Then I bought a set not so long ago for my daughter's first bass and found they'd changed the design. The older ones are just the strap buttons, and you screw them onto the bass with your original screws (which meant sometimes you might need to sand down the screw heads for them to fit in the buttons, but that's not a big problem). The new ones I bought have the screw as part of the button, it's all one piece and there's a hex socket in the end of the button you use to screw it onto the bass. So I put a set on my daughter's bass, and after a few months, one snapped off. To be fair it had worked slightly loose, but I think the problem there was that the Straplock screw was slightly thinner than the one it replaced and so it did not screw in as tightly. Anyhoo, it's not really a game changer on a cheap Ibanez but if this had happened on a really nice bass (i.e. one of mine) I would have found it disappointing. I've bought a couple of nice basses recently and now I don't really want to risk using the new Schallers, so I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this problem?

I'm trying to get the hang of playing with a pick and am struggling along to "Uncle Walter" and "Theme from Dr.Pyser" by Ben Folds Five. Lots of fun, and very efficient as they allow me to make a mess not only of pick playing but also backing vocals and turning a fuzz box on and off at the same time.

Can't remember what album it's on but there's the live version of "Underground" by Ben Folds Five, where in the pause after the intro line "I was never cool in school, I'm sure you don't remember me..." someone in the audience, with impeccable timing, shouts "Who the f**k are you?".

I gig very, very infrequently, the last one i did was a while ago for a mate’s 40th. He put together a 14 piece samba band and hired a decent venue in Southampton. I got my Ampeg SVT serviced, hooked up the 8 x 10 cab and used my ‘75 P bass with flat wounds. Sounded absolutely bloody gorgeous, even the sound guy was smiling in the sound check and the brass players were enjoying it too. I kept expecting someone to tell me to turn it down but it never happened. Went to bed on a high that night after a mate of mine, whose opinion I value, said afterwards the bass sounded superb. Woke up the next morning in a cold sweat thinking, “he never actually complimented my playing though…”

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ampeg-bass-cabs-and-amps-/164758533438?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286 This looks like a good amount of Ampeggary for not mega bucks. Not that I need another two bass rigs particularly but hey.

The worst thing is that price isn't even for the whole bass. At the bottom of the ad it clearly says "pick up only". Sorry.

Currently working with a client who is, at times, a royal PITA. The only thing that makes him bearable is the fact that he thinks it's "subwoofter", not subwoofer.

"Very unique" Either it is unique or it isn't. There aren't degrees of uniqueness.

I haven't got the energy to pursue him any further! Not really getting the reassuring vibes I'd need to persuade me to part with decent used car money for an old bass.

I messaged the seller asking for more details on originality etc., and was overwhelmed by the deluge of information he responded with: "Original covers but no original case " That's cleared everything up then. Now where did I put my chequebook?

Just checked and it is a legit 1962 number. Don’t know much more than that though. Ran it through DVLA out of curiosity and it’s not had an MoT recently.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/184621401586617/permalink/4029904807058238/?sale_post_id=4029904807058238 This caught my attention. Good price for a '62, even a refin. But not many pics and zilch description...

Completely silly question this but I’m enjoying not having to think about anything important for a couple of days: You finally move into your dream house. Do you have a bass in every room, or just one room with all of them in?

Not sure if it's true or not but I once heard of an AWB tribute called Average Height Band.

“Steven’s last night in town” by Ben Folds Five. As Ben’s singing the last long note before the band comes back in, you can hear a mobile phone ring in the background followed by a burst of laughter.

I think Guy Pratt said he used to get told off by Pink Floyd fans for playing “Money” wrong.

That honestly hadn't occurred to me, but there's a load of listings on there by the same shop for slightly different variants of this and it seems a lot of trouble to go to. I think it's a real ad.

Just seen this on Reverb: https://reverb.com/uk/item/36610186-4-strings-bass-6-strings-acoustic-electric-drums-reverb-effects-busuyi-super-guitar-with-tuner And cannot for the life of me think why anyone would want one. Is it the answer to a question nobody has ever asked? Apologies if I'm not the first!

Or, in a similar vein, ‘90s nerd rock trio Ben Folds Five.

‘80s pop trio The ThompsonTwins?

Yep, I think it’s a Schaller. I should know for certain as I had it fitted soon after I bought it, but that was 25-odd years ago...

Not bad. My very first response was actually "I don't know, which of our children is your favourite?"

This morning I had a very narrow escape, and even though the tale does not paint me in the best light I feel it's my duty to share with my fellow bass brethren in the hope that others may learn from my ignorance. I had just changed the strings on my 1974 Jazz and was idly noodling and comparing it to my 1978 Jazz, which is to a casual observer identical in pretty much every respect. My wife, who rarely takes an interest in my basses, innocently asked: "If you could only keep one of your basses, which one woud it be?" I am ashamed to say, dear reader, that for whatever reason, (late night? Mind elsewhere?), I merely took this question at face value and failed to spot that it was OBVIOUSLY A TRAP!! Had I answered straight away then of course her immediate response would have been, "Then why the f**k don't you sell the others?", and rightly so. Fortunately, and this is really only down to my being blessed with a supernatural inability to decide (or is it? Not sure), I spent so long dithering over the answer and then changing it four times, that I somehow proved the point that perhaps I do need more than one bass (I probably don't) and earned a reprieve to noodle another day. With whichever bass takes my fancy. I hope that you may learn, from this cautionary tale, to always be on your guard. Even now, hours afterward, I get cold shivers just thinking how close I came to the edge of the mineshaft. I invite my fellow Chatters to offer suggestions as to the perfect (polite) response.