tauzero

I've used lockwashers to act as a shim between the threaded shaft and the hole for a couple of pots and switches.

Always on for me, although I need to do a bit more playing around with it since going from a Zoom MS-60B to an MS-60B+.

I have a Kam PAR bar which doesn't get used as I already have to set up the PA and my bass gear, and putting up the lights as well just got too much. I supplied the drummer with four LED PAR cans which just get laid flat on the floor pointing up (thus relieving me of a job).

Another headless bass you can find second-hand is the Westone Quantum. No flip-out leg rest but it does have a notch for your leg.

It's not bad, though there's nothing to rest your right forearm against. The flip-out leg rest works well. On a strap, it tilts forward because the neck end strap button is behind the body. I keep meaning to look at moving it to the shoulder instead.

As long as you get some good quality tone dust to replace it with, it's not a problem.

As also found on the Sire M6, so it's not just anonymous Chinese makers who do that.

Have you considered the Hils HNB5? There's also the upcoming Sire M6. The only thing about these is that there is currently only a fan-fret option. Kiesel also make headless basses: https://www.kieselguitars.com/models/bass

Clear or no scratchplate (what's this ghastly "pickguard" word?). Scratchplates are an abomination and a monstrosity created so Leo Fender could do all the routing from the front and save money, then perpetuated by Ernie Ball and then by most of the FSO and FakeRay builders.

My fix was just to take the battery carrier partly out. I do want to come up with a better fix - may have a look at that shortly.

I was going to mention the 10-string Dean Edge Hammer. I have one - the neck is rather on the thick side but it's not bad.

We use backline and vocal PA, and the drumkit isn't miced up. Our drummer isn't a heavy hitter. We set volumes to match the drums.

I'm glad that so many subsequent manufacturers have improved immeasurably on that bass guitar design.

Express Music in Solihull. Rather more geared to keyboards (I bought my Roland D10 there) but they did have guitars (I bought my Eko Ranger 6 from there, the instrument I've owned the longest). I remember dropping in one day when there had just been a delivery and Pete the guitar specialist was doing the unboxings. One of the instruments was a Tokai bass, IIRC a Jazz (FSO anyway) which had an amazing finish, a lacquer with glitter in it, very sparse but it seemed to be really deep. Pete went on to run his own shop in Shirley which has subsequently moved on to new hands a new name, the Bop Shop.

The chap on the right in the third photo is little Gary. He finished up at PMT in Birmingham. As a schoolboy, I'd go and look in the window of Musical Exchanges when it was in Broad Street, and occasionally venture inside, though I never bought anything. It did get so the staff recognised me. There was a fire there around the time they moved to the new premises - I remember Gary showing me some photos of the aftermath. The new premises were where I bought my Fender P and later exchanged it (and a lot of money) for the Warwick Thumb that I still have (and I only went in there to try out an octaver). Musical Exchanges later became Reverb and moved to new instruments only, rather sadly. When I still had aspirations and pretensions to being a guitarist, I bought a Carlsbro Stingray combo from Woodroffes. Had that amp for many years.

Needs a bigger stairway, there's Keith Moon, John Entwhistle, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Amy Winecellar, half of Lynyrd Skynrd, John Lennon, George Harrison, Jeff and Tim Buckley to fit on it and that's just off the top of my head. Edit: And I forgot Phil Lynott and Dusty Hill.

My pet piamh is the pronunciation of Irish names.

FTFY

The ones with male names, eg HMS Prince of Wales, self-identify as female.

Grab stands are good but not always the answer.

Friday evening was my first gig as an official member of the Bonnevilles, rather than a dep, as efforts to communicate with the previous bassist have proved fruitless. A few days on from playing inside at the Anker Inn, this was an outdoor multi-band charity fundraiser. This was for a local charity, a Nuneaton hospice. Arrived a little after it started, the band on when I arrived featured a couple of the guys who were providing the PA. The bassist was playing a 5-string Ibanez BTB, which was nice to see and hear (I've grown bored of 4-string Fenders and Squiers, almost all one sees on open mic nights with bands). Next up was a country singer and guitarist with backing tracks. He revealed partway through his set that his father had died on Tuesday, and had been cared for in the hospice. Then it was us. We were using supplied backline which was OK but the guitarist's sound was a bit indistinct. I'll use that as an excuse for missing my cue back into the "Light my fire" intro after his solo. Then we got a pissed-up woman who told us it was her birthday and wanted us to play f*cking "Wonderwall" and said she could sing it. We ignored her and continued to the end. After doing an encore, the guitarist and I had got our gear off stage when our singer picked up his acoustic and started playing f*cking "Wonderwall", and the drunken woman sang, in a variety of keys, none of which were correct. As a bit of a postscript to that, the next act on were a duo - male lead vocals and lead guitar on an SG, female rhythm guitar on a slimline semi-acoustic Tele. They were very good and managed to survive the drunken birthday woman thinking that she could make a positive contribution to "Go your own way" (before someone removed her from the mic and the stage). Gear - Antoniotsai 5-string fretted dragon bass -> Lekato WS-50 -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Ashdown combo as on-stage monitor, Caravelle memory foam trainers. Then it was Saturday afternoon. For several years, an open mic player called Rick has hosted an event known as Rickstock in his back garden. This stopped a little while back but he decided to revive it as a charity fundraiser for the charity "I'm homeless get me out of here". Rather than his back garden, it was held at the Shirley British Legion. I had a slot mid afternoon, which I did with my usual crap vocals (Mrs Zero having gone to Bloodstock), and as I finished, Rick said to me "the next act's bassist hasn't turned up, can you do it?". I foolishly said yes (I had played with the guitarist who was on next once before and it was freeform jazz, so I expected to have my boundaries further expanded). Then David the guitarist launched into "Sunshine of your love" and I felt safer. Three more songs - "La grange" which I don't know but bluffed through, and "All right now" and "Black magic woman" which I had no problem with. The personnel were guitarist David (pronounced in a German fashion as he's German), keyboard/vox David (pronounced in an English fashion as he's English), and Phil on drums. Plus me, of course. Gear - Hohner B2AV -> Lekato WS-50 -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Red Sub combo, unbranded velcro-fastening trainers. So then I headed off to the Dirty Roses gig in Sutton Coldfield. We were at the Sutton Park Hotel (which I think is probably no longer a hotel). Car park was rather full and I got a space about as far away from the doors as was possible. After doing my cardio for the next couple of months I got loaded in. The usual chaos of setup ensued and we started up at 9. The applause was a bit more enthusiastic than "polite" but fell a bit short of "rapturous". Things did seem to shift up a gear for the second half though - one of the songs is Time Warp and that's a bit of a barometer. There were several dancers, and the guitarist and I went walkabout to check them. Another few crowd pleasers and the usual encores. Afterwards, the manageress said she was really pleased with us, wanted us back, and then as we were about to go, one of the bar staff (who had been videoing us all evening) told us she didn't like bands but we had been really entertaining. And some bloke in the toilet asked me if we were playing anywhere else locally. Which was all very nice. Ringing the changes, gear was Sei Flamboyant 5 -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212, and footwear the same unbranded velcro-fastening trainers.

I had one as it was the only stand that could cope with a Warwick Buzzard 5 height-wise. The grabber mechanism fell apart after not a lot of use. If you don't need the extra height of the Ultimate, a Hercules is (IME) a much better stand. But the Stagg is better than both.

Stagg SGA100BK. Cheap, stable, accommodates headless and asymmetrical basses, with a neck security thingie.

My basses all have names because the manufacturer/luthier was good enough to provide them with them. Oh, except for the 6-string headless made by the chap I bought it from, which I have called "the six-string headless".

My dislikes aren't totally irrational. Headstocks. Ugly heavy things that wreck the balance of a bass. Although that hasn't stopped me owning quite a lot of basses with headstocks. Painted bodies. I just know I'm going to chip it. Chipped painted basses. Deliberately chipped painted basses. Deliberately chipped painted basses with "Fender" on the massive ugly heavy headstock. Scratchplates. Calling scratchplates "pickguards". Calling plectrums "picks". Giving measurements in primitive. We've been a metric country for 60 years, just bloody catch up. Connecting basses with wires, unless it's to connect a 13-pin hex pickup. Wireless is the way.