KK Jale

I’ve read all those threads... 😗 Y’know, at that price, and seeing Kents are now (I think) import pickups, I might be tempted to add a few quid and support a more localish maker. Amdusias in Belfast charge £65 for a handmade P-bass pickup , which is bonkers cheap.

Bearstraps is another really good buckled strap maker.

Always loved Withers and this LP is wonderful. In places the bass reminds me of some of the Curtis Mayfield stuff. Sooooo right!

Just to add, I've had them on one P-bass for 10 months or so now and am still happy - interestingly, unplugged they are still very loud and positive-sounding, they haven't gone nearly as hollow, thonky and quiet as a set of Labella FL760L's, which are admittedly a bit older. They are slightly on the firm-tensioned side for me but no worries as in this case 32" takes the edge off. Quality seems fine. UPDATE FOR POSTERITY SEPTEMBER 2021... I fell out of love with the Maruszczyk flats not too long after this ^ post. I lost confidence in the bass they were on and nearly decided to sell it but as a last resort went back to my favoured (and doubly expensive) LaBellas, and they transformed it - better feel, a lovely groovy bounce, a softer touch, far more even tension across the fingerboard and, dare I say it, more richness and "musicality". They're still on and I play it every day. So after a year or so of use I feel moved to downgrade these strings, for me, from "really good" to "reasonable I s'pose if you're strapped for £20".

😋

I saw Slim Chance a couple of weeks ago at the Half Moon. The mix was horribly swamped in sub-bass, common enough nowadays but extra inappropriate on songs of that vintage and quality. Anyway... still worth it to hear personal fave tunes like Roll On Babe and The Poacher, plus Geraint Watkins doing a really lovely Debris.

A decade-spanning thread dredge! Bravo.

Hofner 185 bass, also called Artist bass for the UK market, but with switches more likely a 185, also if no Selmer serial stamped on back of head. Hard to date... 62-67?

If you can get hold of one, a Squier PB331 - the 32” scale Precision from the 1980s - can be rather feathery. Mine’s 7.2lbs with Hipshot Ultralites.

The singer Celeste on the 30-minute show... can someone explain? She was so horrifyingly off-key at points that I couldn’t decide whether a) she had NO monitors or b) she’s been fooling everyone all this time or c) she’s actually a hugely talented vocalist making high-level artistic decisions re. “outside” notes that are accepted in the jazz world but beyond the understanding of a musical numbskull such as I...

I have long wished there was a way to block music-outlet-shop from appearing on ebay searches...

Tell your 'friend' it's a Daisy Rock Stardust Elite. Dammit Maude, now I want some coconut ice too.

This is an obscure band but one I love, so.... I was in pub in Brixton with some mates years ago and got chatting to some guy. We quickly got on to music and I quite likely bleated on quite a lot about whatever project I was in at that time (probably the doomed Stax-type band). He seemed to understand everything very well and so I asked if he was doing any stuff himself. He turned a bit shy and mumbly and said, well, he did a bit of techy work, stage management and whatnot. Who are you with at the moment, I inquired? Well... The High Llamas, he replied. Wow, I replied, that's really cool... Gideon Gaye is one of my favourite underrated albums... I was listening to The Dutchman just the other week... very Beach Boys, but so original... blah blah blah. Some days later I recalled our chat and googled the band to look up some info about their more recent albums. A picture popped up. The bloke was in it. He wasn't a stage manager. It was Sean O'Hagan, lead singer of The High Llamas. Bastard.

I sympathise... I gig a lot but there's been a couple of punter incidents in recent times that have really pi££ed me off. It's partly a UK thing. In France or Spain you get the feeling that it would be shameful for anyone to be seen to be drunk, incoherent or aggressive at a public event. Here... widely accepted, even laughed at. Cheap coke has made it miles worse. There's rarely any meaningful security. Being threatened with a bashing or being screamed at from 12 inches away really, really takes the edge off the joy of music for me.... Hey hey, rock'n'roll. It's all glamour.

I'm using Diall lithiums from Screwfix. They're 90p apiece at the mo.

I've just been through this last week (with 3/8" licensed Hipshot ultralites which fitted rather loosely in a 14mm hole). I ended up using shims of coiled-up aluminium cut from a drinks can to line the holes. Worked fine.

With a nod to Bowie - it's definitely a poorer world without him wandering around in it somewhere - I was most taken aback by Elliott Smith, whose music meant a lot to me, and still does. Also a bit saddened by the passing of guitarist Robert Quine, who I once met and talked with for hours. Unfortunately the circumstances of his passing seem to have been as grim and questionable as those of Elliott's.

^^ My feelings too. They could have made the padded shoulder bits shorter and the adjustable bits longer so you could tighten the straps out of the way - as it is, they tend to dangle if you hand-carry. Pockets aren't great, and the G-clip is dumb. The rotating plastic shoulder clips don't fill me with much confidence, though if they failed you could cut them out and replace with mini rectangular carabiners. Protection seems decent though, and I like the bottom boot. £50 is fair, glad I got it, it'll be a nice bag to have around.

Hmmm. Hover... hover... hover... oh bugger it... * stabs wildly at keyboard * I'd been eyeing up the Transit anyway so this seems like a neat deal. Cheers Pinball...

The Kinks were banned from the US from '65 until '69, possibly for punching out a TV exec. It did rather stuff their career in the Land Of The (cough) Free but it left them at liberty to ponder matters pertaining to village greens, dead end streets, South London sunsets and alcoholic circus performers in quite a satisfactory manner.

Usually happen to have a watch on when gigging... it's pretty light and on a nice comfy nato, doesn't seem to affect me at all. An ex-pro once told me that if you turn it so the watch is on the inside of your wrist, you can easily take a sneaky look at the time without showing the audience that very obvious turn of the hand with its unspoken message of "When's this fecking set going to end?"

They do come up now and then, it just takes time. I found my 32" Precision by hunting for Squier PB-331 online and eventually found one on a local ad site in France. Places like Italy and Germany can be good hunting grounds too. It's a bit of a long shot, but you might want to keep an eye out for a secondhand History SZP-2M (Precision) or History SZJ-2M (Jazz), or the current equivalents the Cool-Z ZPB-M1R and Cool-Z ZJP-M1R, in case someone's already imported one from Japan. They're made by FujiGen and likely just as nice as a mid-'80s Squier.