rushbo

Sigh. I wish I was cool enough to play one of those.

Yes it was - I sent a message and asked if they could do "Prescription Bass" in Helvetica, Calibri or Arial at 14pt in bold. The seller tried all the options and the one that worked best was Helvetica. So there were two transactions in all - one for the "Fedner" logo and one for the "Prescription Bass" lettering, so the total cost, including P+P was £2.98.

I have a lot of fun putting bitsa basses together - nothing high end, just grafting orphaned necks onto bodies and playing around with spray paint - that sort of thing. I always put on a "Fender style" headstock sticker as I think headstocks look a little bit weird if they're left blank. Generally, I use waterslide decals, but I find them to be very hit and miss - sometimes they go on perfectly, but more often than not, it takes me multiple attempts to get something I'm happy with. Looking for alternatives, I found an eBay seller - morphiuscraftsuk which does cheap and cheerful, die cut stickers. I ordered the "Fender style" version and although it wont fool anyone (which isn't really the point...), I thought it looked rather good. I got back to them to do another sticker in a font which they didn't advertise on the site and they came back straight away with a number of options. I ordered it, and part II came today. Once again, it looks ace. Customer service was incredibly good, especially as the items were so cheap. Total cost: 2 x £1.49 If you're lovingly recreating a 1963 Fender Jazz, this isn't the product for you. If you're using up those bits from the parts box and you want a quick, no mess logo to finish it off, this might be a viable option. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323769332446?ul_noapp=true

Frank gave me- yes gave me - a Polytune clip on tuner . He even went out and bought a Jiffy bag specially. And paid postage. This obviously makes him a truly righteous dude. Thanks Frank. Now I have no excuse to be out of tune anymore.

Fascinating stuff. He always come across like a real sweetheart, too.

I've had about five variants of this "company" pop up on my FaceBook feed offering £2000 guitars for £86. It's the biggest scam since Scammy McScamster opened up a branch of "Scams R Us" in Scamstown, Scamshire and offered a free scam with every scam purchased over £85. I'd avoid it, if I was you.

Eric Idle is a pretty useful guitarist, but the reason that he may not be 100% convincing as a Bassist here, is the fact that he’s a right handed musician, playing the role of someone who’s left handed. Here’s a little test- flip your bass around the other way and try and play something that sounds like music and look convincing while you do it.

...and possibly ambitious. My combo comes in at a shade under 24 kilos and sits very happily on the stand, with the legs on the lowest setting. I wouldn't really want to go much higher or much heavier than that. It's mainly intended for mixer units, but there are a few positive reviews from people who use them to hold combos and PA speakers. Only time will tell, I guess, but the early signs are very good.

I use a Genz Benz Contour combo - great sound and not too heavy. When I'm gigging, if there's room in the car/van, I'll bring along the extension cab for the combo to sit on, but most of the time, I don't bother. I've been looking for something to direct a bit of the signal towards my ears and not at the back of my knees for ages. I don't trust the "tilt back" stands - with good reason as some of the posts above prove! I finally found this - A Millennium mixer stand from Thomann. It folds up to a sensible size and according to the spec, it's well capable of supporting my combo. Its a sensible price too - £37 incl P+P. My combo has been perched on one for a few days now and it hasn't fallen off and crushed anything yet. I'd be reticent to put anything too weighty on it, especially on it's highest setting, but it seems to be doing a great job at the moment... https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_mixer_stand.htm?sid=c43730682627b18f9c23051cfeab8379

My pleasure....just don’t blame me if the universe implodes, due to your silk removal!

I may be doing something potentially life threatening but... I swapped some flats out from one bass to another, which generated the inevitable "tatty silk at the tuning peg end" effect. I got my handy craft knife and rubbed gently along the frayed silk and it came off easily and cleanly, which eased my mild case of OCD immediately. I've never removed any silk from the bridge end, but if there's no significant reason why strings must have silks at the peg end (and a quick Google search seems to corroborate that) then as long as you have a cheapo craft knife and 10 minutes of spare time, you too can eradicate the horror of a frayed silk. Caveat: The silk bits turn to dust and fly everywhere, so have a dustpan and brush to hand, or do it outside.

I was curious about Olympias and bought a set a few years back. They’re excellent- not just good value for money, but a great sounding set of strings. I’d been using Fender flats, but I couldn’t really get on with the tension, and the Olympia strings have much more ‘give’ to them, than the Fender set. I’d agree that they’re about medium tension. They have a little more brightness than some flatwounds, which suits my current band, as I have to alternate between early 70s thump and 80s twang, both of which these strings do very well. I love ‘em.

This was way better than I thought it would be. It sounded like a band - in fact, it sounded more like Yes than the last version of Yes I saw...

I may have dreamed this, but I seem to remember a strap which had a pocket at the bridge end. You could fill it with fishing weights, which helped to eliminate neck dive.

I loved my B9.1. I let mine go when the B3 came out and as much as I love my B3, the B9.1 was the best multi fx pedal I have ever used, in terms of programability (especially on the fly) and for live use. The size of it was a bit of a drawback, as at the time, I was playing mainly small pubs and clubs, so with the band all squashed together, it wasn't unusual to have a foreign foot stomping on a pedal mid song. If it wasn't for that , I probably still be using mine to this day.

That Sandberg looks gorgeous.

I’m in.

I think an inverted headstock makes it easier to tune, than a standard 4 in a line. Your arm isn’t going over the top of the neck, but coming from underneath. This isn’t based on any scientific testing, though!

I don’t think it was... I put it together and loved it so much, I wanted to play it straight away, so I just widened the two narrowest slots, so they could accommodate the E and A strings. My intention was always to get a new nut, but so far, that hasn’t happened.

Here’s my upside down bitsa. The body is an Indonesian Squier PJ, the neck is off a Mexican Jazz, the J pup is an Entwistle, the P pup is an American Fender. It’s got a Schaller bridge, Gotoh tuners and a Kiogon wiring loom and selector switch. It’s been my main bass for the last three years and has never let me down.

Yep. Proud owner of a Squier PJ bass with a left handed, Mexican Jazz bass neck. It's my go-to bass. No issues with tuning stability, intonation blah blah. It's a great sounding instrument and a bit of a head turner.

With a lot of these "deep dive boxed sets, the pleasure is in the acquisition of the item, rather than playing it.

I love everything about the Marcus Miller P7 bass - from the affordable price tag, to the high mass bridge... but then I see this: ...and I feel a little queasy. To me, the headstock shape looks really cheap and nasty and the colour of the graphic looks insipid. I'd happily use a bass with MM's name on the headstock, but not in that font, colour or position. Does this make me a bad person?

These are nice instruments. I found one in my local Cash Converters for £25. It was all in bits, but it went together pretty easily and with a set of new, cheapo strings, it sounded decent. Mine was in a rather nice sunburst and I moved it on easily a week or two after I'd re-assembled it.