rushbo

As a die hard Rocker in my early years, the "Live at the Budokan" by the Ian Gillan Band was on heavy rotation on my crappy old stereo. The Bass playing is superlative and the Wal he's pictured with on the sleeve provoked much early GAS... safe journey John.

"Dusty and dirty but I will give a bit of clean at least but still may be dusty" Does that mean the seller will re-apply the dust after he's cleaned it?

No point. It's no good for metal.

These are great basses. Mine is the "Icon" model. I picked it up from Thomann with a hard case for £250 ish (I think) and I love it to bits. A few inexpensive mods (teacup knobs, fake binding on the headstock, brasso off the logo on the trussrod covers, switch the pups around) and you've got an authentic looking and beautifully thumpy instrument. Whack a bit of foam up by the bridge and Bob is your mothers brother. They're also really light and if you have delicate, girlish hands, dead easy to get around.

[size=4][font=Arial][color=#002CFD]"Currently strung with a new set of Rotosound Tru Bass nylon flatwound strings as shown in the pic - easy on the fingers, and a full, fat, thump of a bass sound. [/color][/font][color=#002CFD][font=Arial]I will be removing these and refitting the original roundwounds before parting with the guitar[/font][/color]" Lovely. Is there a full list of the other things he's not selling with the bass?[/size]

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1404317650' post='2491557'] Max Webster & Rush were very closely connected - remember this? [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD2aep1ge7Y[/media] Both bands set up toigether in the studio & knocked this out live - absolutely immense! Jon. [/quote] Max Webster were fantastic. Overlooked and underrated. Check out "A Million Vacations" or "High Class In Borrowed Shoes"...stunning albums.

I sold a Dean Jeff Berlin to Fabien - he paid promptly and put up with some courier shenanigans with patience and good grace. Top bloke - buy and sell with confidnce

Well, here’s another “not quite a build diary but a story of a build”… So, it started when I bought a second hand Aria STB Bass from FleaBay. I managed to grab it for £50 complete with a little practice amp, which I shifted for £17 at my local Crack Converters. So far, so good. My original plan was to just keep the body and look out for a “Jazz” type neck to use, but after playing around with the Aria, I found the profile to be nice and slim…perfect for my dainty, girlish hands. I’d already scored a cracking EMG35P4 pickup, so I was (almost) good to go. [attachment=165850:Aria before.jpg] This is what I bought, complete with rather random stickers... I decided I was going to go for an all-out “Liberace style” Bass – Gold hardware, fake pearl blocks, fake M.O.P knobs, reddy-brown tort scratchplate (crafted by the Bass Doc, natch)…the whole nine yards. The machine heads were second hand Wilkinsons and the bridge was a second hand no-name high mass jobbie. All very yummy and as camp as Christmas. I stripped the thing down (nowhere near as backbreaking as the Squier I did last year…) routed out a battery port and modified the pup recess to fit the EMG. I primed it and applied many coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White. The early signs were good. Getting the logo off the headstock was another thing entirely. This wasn’t just a normal decal…the wording seemed to go through the headstock like the lettering in a stick of Blackpool rock. After what seemed like many hours I gave up and decided to paint the headstock too and I’m really pleased I did. [attachment=165851:stripped.jpg] Stripped... [attachment=165852:old headstock.jpg] That pesky headstock... [attachment=165853:primed.jpg] ...primed The fun started when I lacquered the thing. Whilst casually spraying coat number 6 or 7 on my loverlee looking custom bass, it fell to the floor with a bang, bounced three times and came to rest on the concrete floor. Bum. Yep, it was dinged in about five places, quite significantly too. By now, my patience was running pretty thin and I was rapidly falling out of love with the project, so I finished it off as best as I could, leaving the dings exactly as they were and threw on the Pups, custom decal and hardware. All I wanted was a bass that worked which I could use a beater. Well dear reader, I could not believe the glorious noise that came out of this bass…powerful, defined and HUGE! It must be the EMG pup. This thing is a Rock machine. I gave it a quick polish with some T Cut, a minor tweak here and there and it’s my new favourite bass. I’ve accidentally made a relic bass – how cutting edge am I? It’s still not quite finished as it needs gold screws for the neck plate and bridge and a couple of screws for the machine heads, but I couldn’t wait to gig with it. It didn’t disappoint. Through my Genz Benz Contour rig, this thing sounds gorgeous. Light too. The good thing about making an “imperfect” instrument is that you don’t get too stressed when you knock it about as it’s already pre-damaged. Smart. [attachment=165854:whole.jpg] [attachment=165855:headstock.jpg] ...my idea of a joke [attachment=165856:plus strap.jpg] Check out that strap... Once again, I feel slightly embarrassed about putting my humble bodge- bass amongst these incredible boutique jobs (nuts made from crystallised angels tears, tuning pegs carved from the horns of a Unicorn etc), but I like it. It’s quirky, unique and if I knew what “plays like butter” means, I’d probably say that about it as well. Summer is coming – what better way to avoid August’s warm drizzle than by hiding in your shed doing unspeakable things to cheap Korean basses?

Bought a superb Spector from Mike. Great communication all the way. Couldn't have wished or a better transaction. Buy and sell with confidence. Rushbo

I'm using The Gig Easy at the moment -it's ace. Easy to tweak set lists on the fly and scroll through tunes.

For rhythm guitarists only, judging by the limited access to the upper frets!

I can only echo some of the sentiments of the other posters here. My background is one of a Secular Humanist whose family are practicing Christians (including a retired Vicar). I have nothing but respect for people who live their lives by the Bible (as long as they dont go all Westboro Baptist Church about it...) Rather than giving up playing (which denies you and other people, the joy of your expression), could you find a non secular outlet for you musicianship? I'm not an expert on the scriptures, but I certainly remember the bit about "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord; break forth into joyous song and sing praises". Your abstinence may make you resent your religious calling after a while. No one can make that call but you, I guess, but there are many ways to express your faith and love and one of them is music. Whatever you do, I hope it makes you happy.

I've bought from GAK and Thomann and had great service from both. I'd happily use both again.

Three words I thought I'd never see in a sentence in 2014... ...."Budgie tribute band" Please don't take that as a slagging - my current band does "Breadfan" and I love every minute of it. Maybe the time is right to start up that Be Bop Deluxe trib....?

The review says more about the reviewer than the band. Slagging off Coldplay is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. I'm not a Coldplay fanboy by any means, but reading that review wouldn't put me off buying the album in the least - it's just a few hundred words written by a guy with either an axe to grind or who's playing to the gallery. Lester Bangs it aint

Must hang Sally.

As a habitual modder and tinkerer, I can see what the OP is about here. It is indeed a ballsy move to even suggest that you might be less than 100% happy with such a high end instrument, but it is yours to do with what you will. Certain members of certain forums may round up the posse and load up the crossbow if you do so much as change the scratchplate (I'm looking at you R*ckenbacker owners) but you should treat that as the trivial irritation that it is. If you do go ahead and mod the Fodera, be prepared for a fairly sizeable drop in resale value. people expect certain things from an instrument like that and if they ain't there, they'll look elsewhere or expect a hefty reduction in the asking price. I do get the feeling that you're not entirely comfortable with the bass tho'. It may be a beautiful, boutique instrument but if it doesn't feel right to you then rather than tweak and twiddle with it to (hopefully) make it right, it may be an idea to let it go. That kind of money would buy you another beautiful instrument (or several pretty darn good ones). To use a horrible cliche "at the end of the day" it's your property and you are at liberty to screw four legs to it and use it as a coffee table if you wish. But it will never be the best coffee table for metal. (PS: No offence intended to Ric owners and I have had lifelong 4001 GAS brought on by a teenage Rush obsession. It's just that Ric owners can be a little...intense)

Well, I had a great time, thanks very much... I travelled down from Brum and caught both days of the show. I had no intention of buying (or even trying...) a new bass, I was drawn by the quality of the speakers and performers. I did have a twang on a rather lovely Sterling Ray and the new Jeff Berlin signature model (in front of the man himself which was trouser browningly nerve-wracking) and a couple of other bits and pieces, but I would have been there regardless. High points for me were Steve Lawson and Lee Sklar - totally different players, but warm and engaging. Jeff Berlin was thought provoking and although I didn't agree with everything he said, you have to admire the mans thinking and his consumate ability. I would have liked to have heard John Taylor actually play, but I really enjoyed just hearing him talk about his experiences. But then again, as a proud Brummie, I am biased. There were nowhere near as many stands this year as last year, which would have frustrated me slightly if I was on the look out for a new instrument. And (forgive me if I'm wrong) not too many cheapy Basses either. A couple of stands selling bits and pieces like machine heads, scratch plates etc would have been most welcome, too. The logic of having the Birmingham show on at the same time baffles me. It couldn't have been good for either event. The LBGS is a great event and it's so nice to be in a room full of Bassists. We're pretty solitary creatures (generally only one per band unless you're in Hugo Largo or Neds Atomic Dustbin and not many people are...) so it's great just to be amongst like minded people. If occasionally like minded and noisy people. I don't really understand the negativity towards it in some quarters. It raises our profile, gives us a meeting place and an opportunity to see incredible talents like Roger Glover away from their bands and talking specifically about their career as a Bassist. I left tired but happy. And with a signed photograph of Frank Bello. That my friends, is a good score

Paul whizzed a book out to me in doublequick time. Buy and sell with confidence

I'm there both days as the line up is stellar!