KK Jale

Thank you for your opening bid sir!

This is the guy in a rock'n'roll band called Los Apaches from LA. Any ideas?

Manton Customs is right: you'd be surprised what a really experienced tech can do with a fret dress, even if the frets already seem quite low. Personally I think a re-fret - a GOOD refret - is perfectly acceptable on any pre-CBS Fender unless it's ridiculously, stupidly mint and/or a rare colour. Yours might be all-original but you didn't say it's mint, and it's "only" a sunburst (nothing against sunburst, just being realistic). If in any doubt, I'd make double-sure it's a keeper before having any serious work done. But check out the fret-dress possibilities first.

The best I've ever used is Virtuoso. It comes in two bottles: cleaner and polish. Saying 'best' isn't really good enough. This stuff, the cleaner especially, is spooky. It cleaned my vintage Gibson 330 in a way nothing else did. Use an old white cotton t-shirt, so you can see how much brown goop is removed. It's almost miraculous. The technique is to work on a small area at a time, with circular movements, until the cloth begins to 'stick'. But keep working until there's no friction at all. I think you can only get it from the USA. If I bought a Gibson EB that needed cleaning/polishing and I'd run out of Virtuoso, I'd wait until I could get some more. I am that impressed by it. PS In my personal experience; please please don't use T-Cut, or wax. Spit at least won't do any harm.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1467014311' post='3080357'] Don't know about Coldplay but the surprise and delight of the festival for me was PJ Harvey. Original, engaging and brilliant. [/quote] Agreed! Compelling stuff. Love PJ.

I've played a few Nash P's and they've been pretty okay. Always hated their neck finishes - that horrid orange lacquer suddenly going to dirtied bare wood - and I think there are now better, and cheaper, options in faux-old-Fender land.

If it is '80s (looks like it to me), the serial number won't help you. I remember chatting to Tokai's UK distributors Blue Suede Music back in the '90s and they said the neckplate numbers were basically meaningless, and there are no records.

Pledge is stuffed with silicone. You have been using an inappropriate product for instrument care/repair for 50 years. It is damn good for cleaning motorcycle wheels, though.

I enjoyed that... (Word to the wise: atrocity has one T, won't has an apostrophe, edit that sh*t). Great job!

Sorry Callum, I gave up too.

A friend and I once got some freebies to a BBC TV event that was being held under the arches near Portobello Road. It was a songwriters' circle thing, and this one featured John Cale, Chrissie Hynde, and Nick Cave, swapping songs and stories. So we went, and stood about halfway back and rather enjoyed the show, and I exchanged only a brief polite smile with the rather small woman standing on my right. Afterwards my mate said "Haha! Blimey! Why didn't you talk to her? I would have!" It was Kylie.

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1462406676' post='3042856'] There's Dunlop SpeedPicks that have a twist at the tip to help strike the string at a better angle. [/quote] Back in the day some bass picks had a twist in the TAIL to help you hang onto the damn thing. This is the pick I used in 1980-81. Seriously. I found it in a box of stuff a while ago. It's like a skateboard deck. [url="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/transalp1998/media/bbJJ_zpsatimqm34.jpg.html"][/url] I'm fingers mostly all the time now but I still love picks for some things... trying to get that that Carol Kaye/Beach Boys vibe, or the sound on Ennio Morricone's Italian pop songs, or the Serge Gainsbourg Histoire de Melody Nelson bass sound. For me that's a kind of lost pinnacle of bass playing, that hip, commercial, jazz-informed, almost orchestral late '60s approach. So cool...

I had not seen that. A cool insight, and just six months ago. Hope that the musicians left bereft by Prince's passing carry it on. Thanks Stance.

It depends which Precision and tuners you have. If you have a vintage reissue, here's my thoughts. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/248905-gotoh-resolites-ooh-lovely/

http://jpfamps.com/

I've never tried OBBM's cables, though I feel as though I have Another option is http://www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html . I've run a couple for five years and they've been great. Price-wise, I don't think you can do better for handwired-in-the-UK cables, anywhere.

Oddly, I don't mind siggie basses if the player means nothing to me whatsoever. Fender Japan do a bass for some cat called Hama Okamoto. It's a dead straight '62 sunburst P-bass with a Jazz width nut. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Our man Hama could play hair metal, K-pop or deeply progressive post-rock sea shanties, I don't care, I'd buy that bass as long as his signature's not visible from the front. Equally I have never googled Sean Hurley, although I suspect I know the kind of thing he does, but i'd buy a Precision with a Jaguar string mute any day. Gimme gimme. (Though not at that price).

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1460870863' post='3029395'] My favourite Dee Dee quote about basses ( and the only one I'm aware of ) was something along the lines of 'I prefer maple boards because they bounce better'. [/quote] Great quote, although I believe that was JJ Burnell... I remember the original interview. He may have nicked it from Dee Dee, though.

You'll probably find it surprisingly challenging, and lots of fun. If this is a trad barn dance, you'll be playing mostly tunes with A and B sections that cycle around. If unsure, don't be afraid to sit out a tune as it goes around both sections the first time. Much better to drop in late and get it right than fluff the changes. If the band's playing 'sets' of two or three tunes in one dance, suss which player is in charge of calling the tunes and watch like a hawk - you might only get a faint strangled grunt of "D!" or "G!" one or two bars before the whole band launches into a new tune in a new key... hit the new root note confidently, and pedal on it until you work out the chord sequence.

Our singer does it only very occasionally, with a home crowd, usually near the end of a certain cover... an obscure and lovely Neil Young song that's become something else, the way we do it. So we stay on the turnaround while he gets it done, break down section, really soft, and the cool thing is, as it's going round, nobody does a single thing different. Not one slap, lick, roll, twiddle, or parp. Best band I've ever been in.

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Though I must admit, I played a private boat party yesterday for a load of charming theatre lovelies, and the ever-fragrant Juliet Stevenson was bopping about, and I strongly suspect I was grinning like a fool. [/font][/color]

I know from pics and videos that I mostly look fairly stern/miserable. I try to alleviate it by taking enjoyment when others in the band play something cool. Otherwise, I don't bother. I'm trying my darndest to play the best I can, every time. Acting doesn't come into it. If I did corporate gigs for £250 a pop, maybe I'd make an effort. I was once nobbled at the bar in the break by a girl accusing me of not looking happy, but she picked the wrong night. I very truthfully turned to her and said, "Well, I fell off my bike four days ago and broke two ribs, it hurts me to blink, and frankly I'd rather be in front of the telly with a shitload of Tramadol. Have you got any?" She went away rather quickly, looking shocked

All looks good from top to toe but I do notice somebody's had a go at the truss rod nut. I once bought a dead mint Squier JV '57 P which was probably only mint because it turned out to have an inoperable rod. Probably not helpful. Sorry.