Linus27

We did play there but it was on the 12th August 1999. I don't think we played there previous to that.

This goes back to how you define success. I did 3 years as a club band, playing over 100 gigs a year, earning around £10k a year whilst doing a 9-5 job every day and having a wife and 2 kids. It was just a case of finding a balance.

Here you go and yep, looks great 😁

Been playing around with mine a bit today 😁 Tort scratchplate and a lighter gloss 70's neck. Does change the look of the bass somewhat. Rosewood neck which is quite nice. Original

Here you go, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_(band)

I never wanted the fame and fortune but I wanted to play music and make a living out of it. When I was 9 in 1979 and at school, I told my teacher I wanted to play the trombone so they gave me a test and then told my parents I will never make a musician as I don't have a musical bone in my body. Then skip to 1985 and I saw U2 at Live Aid and saw Adam Clayton strutting around the stage looking like the coolest dude on the planet and I wanted some of that. Went to college and met some friends and got myself a guitar and my friend got a bass. I wanted to play bass and he wanted to play guitar so we swapped but he gave up and I stuck with it. I then spent two years learning to play and then joined a band and gigged lots but this ended after a few years. I then formed another band that eventually got signed in 1996 and actually did really well. We went on tour, photoshoots, recorded two John Peel sessions, did a Radio 1 roadshow, a live Virgin radio session and recorded an album with Mark Wallis who produced the It Bites album, Travis albums, U2 and many others. We released 4 singles, got lots of airplay including TV and cinema adverts. We made it, were signed, getting paid and living the dream but I was still not interested in any fame or fortune despite some of that coming my way. All I ever wanted was to have a song played on the radio, record an album and go on TOTP's. Now, my perception of making it is different but I still don't want the fame or fortune and if anything, even less so than before, I just want to play music and making it is all about how much you play and how much you can live from the income it brings rather than being famous. A few years ago I was playing in a club band that was earning great money and gigging pretty much every weekend. It was supplementing my day job income enough for me to buy a car from earnings and to be fairly comfortable so I considered myself to be semi-pro during that period as apposed to being pro when I was signed and it was my only income. If I look back over the 37 years of playing, I have been amateur, semi-pro and pro and I look at the wall with the albums I have played on and think that I have spent more of my days gigging, touring, recording and playing music that I have working for someone else so for me, despite being an unknown, but known to my friends and family as a musician, I identify myself as a musician more than anything else and to me that is making it.

Post up pictures when you've done the bits to it as it will be great to see. I'm thinking of changing the pickguard to either a vintage off white or red tort and possibly fitting the fretted neck that came with my Fender FSR 70's Precision. It's tinted as well but not being used as the bass has a fretless neck on it as per the picture above. Like your idea of bridge covers as well so might do the same.

If they do come in at around a grand then I think they will be super popular. Official release date is rumoured to be the 19th so we might find out soon.

Oh, I get you now, Mr Rosewood hahaha love it 😂

Huh?

Just to add, my 40th Anniversary Precision in Satin Dakota Red has just arrived and it is incredible. An absolute dream to play and is actually set up really nicely. It also sounds brilliant and despite not liking satin necks as I prefer gloss necks, it feels really really nice. The only other satin neck I've ever liked was my fretless Stingray which was the nicest neck I've ever played but this also feels really good. The vintage look is also really nice. So I am super happy and the best £250 I've spent on a bass and will tide me over as the only fretted bass in my collection 😜

Starting to appear now. https://reverb.com/item/73213671-fender-vintera-ii-70-s-telecaster-bass-vintage-white I had made my mind up on getting it in green but I'm actually liking the Vintage white more now.

Plus, there is a list of things you can claim back as expenses before submitting your tax return, for example, travel, stage clothes, accommodation, insurance, repairs, consumables etc. The list is huge and we used to claim back on literally everything we possibly could and it went through without any query.

Yes, exactly this, if fact my wife had her car written off by another driver on the way to work. Insurance company asked for some photos of the damage, sent a chap round to look at the car and then offered a thousand pounds more than the car was worth. Bought it for £4600 and they gave us £5600. Wife's replacement car got hit by an unknown car in a petrol station on the way to work. Again, asked for some photos, they then sent a local repair company to look at it and within a week, the car was taken away, repaired and returned. Following year her premiums went down. No quibble's or questions.

As a weekend warrior, legally, no organisation or company would consider or lay claim on you as a worker or employed, and you would have no rights, especially as there would be no contract of employment in place. Even if a contract existed for you to perform as an agreement on a date for a sum, if below a financial threshold, then HMRC would not be interested in asking you to pay tax.

I don't see this makes any difference to be fair. Lets say I went out for a meal on Friday night and my car was full of old furniture that belonged to me that I had sold on Ebay and was going to deliver the next morning and was being paid £50 for. That's not a business or a trade so it is no different to having my car full of my own music equipment that I used as my hobby by playing down the Red Lion and got paid £50 for. As long as I am not acting as a business or a trader and earning enough to cause a concern to the HMRC then there is no difference. In fact The Police wouldn't even be interested at all to be fair unless a crime has been committed. My mate Dave down the road could ask me to give him a bass lesson. I load my car up, give him a lesson and he pays me £20 for the trouble. I give him this lesson in the back room of a pub. My mate gets totally smashed on booze and I drink water all night. Again, that's not any concern to The Police or insurance company as no crime on my part is committed and I am not acting as a business and purely a hobby. They may smell booze, breathalyze me but as I am stone cold sober then no crime has been committed.

I think there needs to be some clarity if we are talking about pro or semi pro musicians or those who are weekend warriors playing down the Red Lion on a Friday night. I'm not aware of any musician who is a weekend warrior who declares on their insurance they are a musician or claims it as a second income. I am not even aware of the insurance company being remotely interested in what you were doing prior or post accident on the day/evening and only interested in your description of how the accident happened. I have never had to provide information to the tune of saying it was Friday night and I had been playing a gig at the Red Lion and after the gig I drove home and had an accident. It has always been on this date at this time I joined the A31 and the other driver rear ended me etc. I am sure also below a certain financial threshold per year, it is classed as a hobby and not a business, professional, trade etc. However, if a pro or semi-pro (how do you even define this) and you have registered your vehicle for business use as a musician then I can see that you would possibly declare it.

Perfect, thank you, I will check it out

I'm a big Chorus and Flanger user. Which Flanger did you get?

I've personally never noticed any difference between different bridges. I've had Fender Precision's with a High Mass Bridge, standard bridges and ever the '51 design bridges and never noticed any difference whatsoever in sustain, playability or tone between any of them. The only difference tonally is the pickups where a '51 P-Bass sounded like a '51 P-Pass, a '72 Humbucker Telebass sounded like a Humbucker Telebass and a split coil P-Bass sounded like split coil P-Bass. In fact the best sounding Precision I have ever had is my Mexican Fender FSR 70's Precision which has a standard bridge and has sustain for days. Even our singer has commented on it. Its why its my main recording bass but I am sure that's more down to the 62 Custom Shop pickups and the Ash body.

That's pretty much why I bought one. I don't actually have a fretted bass, only fretless basses these days and don't play in a band that requires a fretted bass but useful to have one just in case.

I know, its stunning right and I quite like the Surf Green colour. The yellow that will also be available is quite nice but the green is just tipping it for me.

Not even close but then again, I just like collecting basses and trying new stuff so these are on my hit list, along with one or two fretless basses that a fellow BC member has. Soon to be released Fender Vintera II Telecaster bass. Fender Japan 51RI Precision Bass Fender Japan 57RI Precision bass Fender Japan 62RI Fretless Jazz Bass Ibanez Musician Fretless Bugera Veyron 1000T but just because I've heard great things about them.

I think £250 for a 40th Anniversary Squire Precision or Jazz that sounds and plays amazing and has had positive reviews from owners and the press can't really be sniffed at. Not much out there that's better at this price £250.

This is easy, it would 99% be Madonna 'Like and Virgin' and Madonna 'Madonna'.