tauzero

I've just joined the ranks of Ibanez owners with an SRF705, which is jolly nice. The piezo bridge was a significant factor in wanting this. If only they'd put piezo bridge saddles on the EHB1505 and done a fretless version...

I would have preferred properly unlined but I can cope (although a source of mild confusion is the fact I had the dot markers on my lined fretless Sei moved to be on the lines rather than between them).

Out as of Monday last week, I found an SRF705 with my name on it. Well, not literally, that would have been a bit spooky.

Having read many very positive reviews of the SRF705, and having heard a Youtube demo or two showing its tonal abilities, I've been keeping a lookout for one. One turned up collection only in That London on FB marketplace, and as it was such a good price, it was worth the petrol and £15 ULEZ charge to go and get it. First impressions were a high action, rather quiet piezo pickup, and duff elderly strings. On getting it home, it got destrung and degunked (it wasn't bad), then the fingerboard got lemon oiled (helps the tonewoods) and a set of Elites fitted. The relief was rather more than I like - I go for a nearly flat fingerboard on a fretless. So off with the truss rod cover, to discover that it's a clever design with a swivelling plate allowing easy access to the truss rod without removing the cover (I suspected there was something of the sort but couldn't work out how to use it). Truss rod adjusted, action lowered too, and then adjusted the trim pots on the piezo bridge to increase the volume to match the magnetic pickups. Still to do - fit Schaller straplocks. Do I use the chrome ones I've got here or get some ruthenium ones? Decisions, decisions. Now it plays very nicely and sounds good. What more could I want?

I didn't buy my Warwick JD Thumb based on looks, as back in the 80s it looked rather odd. I bought it because it was such a great bass to play.

Ibanez headless or SR series. Or a Hohner B2V/B2AV, though they balance a bit oddly - moving the neck strap peg to the upper unhorn can help with that.

Yes, I have two which are almost twins - a Sei Original headless fretless 5, and, for backup, a Hohner B2AV. Apart from the slight difference in the body shape, the difference in the number of frets, and the neck profile, they're pretty much identical. I'm just popping out to Barnard Castle.

Yes. I was looking for a 5-string that was as nice to play as my Warwick JD Thumb 4-string. I saw one on That Ebay, in Vietnam. As it turned out, it was a brilliant bass to play and sounded pretty good. I'd just bought a Squier Precision Special 5-string and that went straight out for sale, it was so inferior to the Antoniotsai. The Antoniotsai is still here, now sporting black knobs, Bartolini pickups and a Delano preamp.

If they've kept the neck profile the same as on the Cort Custom GB4, it will be a fantastic bass to play.

That drummer was still accelerating into "Don't let your son", so the additional rehearsals didn't help (or maybe nobody had bothered to tell him). The reggae seemed rather fast too. Then he said it was over too quickly. It wouldn't have been if he'd played at the right speed though. I don't think that the female singer was helped by having mentors who went all Whitney Houston on her whenever they demonstrated a point. The other band did OK. The bassist could have done with a longer T-shirt though, when he lifted his arms up at the end that wasn't a great look. 😁 I also couldn't figure out why they needed 32 minutes to play four non-prog songs, and WTAF was going to be said in 20 minutes of speeches? That said, they had fun and the crowd seemed to be enjoying it.

I read that as "trowel" and thought "shouldn't you have bogroll too then?"

Help other band members with their gear. Make sure you're not always the first to the gig, otherwise you'll be forever helping other band members with their gear.

Never mind, I'm sure you'll be able to exchange it.

Kate, Dolly, Pat, Duran Duran, Eurhythmics for me. Pat Benatar because I think she was one of the few women putting a huge footprint in the male-dominated world of rock (pronounced rawck) - I'm surprised she isn't showing that well in the Basschat poll.

I could have bought a Hofner violin bass from the 60s rather cheaply about thirty years ago. I didn't, because it was so utterly dreadful to play.

And that's why you should go wireless. Which reminds me, another thing I've learnt is, er, go wireless. And headless basses are less likely to go through the ceiling/fluorescent light tube/singer's right ear (left if you're a leftie).

I don't know why many makers keep putting those ridiculous heavy headstocks on their basses. Pointless balance-wrecking lumps of wood.

When the drummer came in on "Don't let the sun", he was about 25% too fast. Either he can't play slow or he was desperate to get it over with. Male bass player seems rather better than my first impression of him. Carol is really bloody annoying, although she has a better sense of timing than the "I can't feel it" drummer.

A beautifully crafted lyric like He had slyly inveigled her up to his flat to view his collection of stamps And he said as he hastened to put out the cat, the wine, his cigar, and the lamps: for example? Or We've gained notoriety And caused much anxiety In the Audubon Society With our games They call it impiety And lack of propriety And quite a variety Of unpleasant names But it's not against any religion To want to dispose of a pigeon maybe? Beautifully crafted and humorous need not be mutually exclusive.

Yes, but at the cost of becoming a slave to Bill Gates. The thought that comes into my head when hearing yet another theory about Them implanting things that will track the conspiracy theorist is "why would anybody want to track you?".

A picture's worth a thousand words, so here's a couple of kilowords. The basic jack-jack plus one DC extension: I have another one to power an MS-60B (centre negative) and a Smoothhound (annoyingly, centre positive), for which I use two wall-warts. Colour coded, as are the wall-wart plugs, and put into a braided sleeve (took ages but it's lovely and neat):

Keep leads tidy. Coil them properly, velcro-tie them. If you use wall warts or similar PSUs, don't wrap the leads round the body of the wall-wart. Wrap them round your hand and use velcro ties on them. And if you use more than one wall-wart, put some coloured heat-shrink on the plug so you know which is which without having to go back to the wall-wart itself. Periodically go through the leads bag and weed out anything you don't need. You will need: 1) all the leads to connect your gear up (you're probably doing the PA too, so those leads too) 2) spare leads for all of 1) 3) spare lead(s) for the guitarist(s) (which should be bright yellow) Besides the set list being in big enough letters, make sure it's in black ink and that you've made any necessary additional notes (like which key it's in or which note to start on or if it's one of these modern tunings like drop-D) Make sure that at least one person other than the singer reads the setlist and tells the singer if he/she has suddenly skipped two songs (adult supervision). Please feel free to have a 20-page discussion if you are a singer who is offended by this. Have a checklist for car loading and make sure that everything is in Make sure there's enough extension leads Colour coding leads can be handy if you're doing the PA If you're running a pedalboard with separate PSU, get a DC extension lead the same length as the jack-jack lead from the pedalboard to the amp, cable-tie the two together, and keep the pedalboard PSU by your amp

Well, I was going to mention Flanders and Swann (two mentions so far) and Tom Lehrer (just beaten to it). Another couple of names - Allan Sherman, Ivor Biggun. And I've written a fair few comedy songs too.