peteb

Of course, but maybe worth a chat. Chris is a very helpful chap and talking to him might help him to gauge demand. Personally, I prefer this shape to the usual ones they produce!

I would think that Chris could probably make you a short scale version if you wanted one!

Yes, they're out in the countryside near Cross Hills. I've been out there a couple of times - lovely spot...

Great news hopefully - best of luck mate

I must admit that I formed an opinion on Bruford when I read his autobiography where he came across as a whiny, entitled public schoolboy, with petty gripes against his former colleagues and that he seemed amazed that the band didn’t fall over themselves to throw money at him when he left them in the lurch when they were about to go out on tour promoting Close to the Edge. It’s the entitlement rather than the schooling or his background that I took against. Chris Squire was a funny one as his dad was a taxi driver, but he went to a minor public school and sang in a choir that performed at St Paul’s, etc. A massive personality and a very influential musician.

Just come across this - a TV programme from 71/72 of early YES (the Fragile period when Wakeman had just joined), following a British small hall tour before they went off to conquer the States. Bruford comes across as a bit of an entitled posh boy and Anderson is surprisingly down to earth, but fascinating stuff...

Funnily enough, I never really thought of the bass player with the Undertones as being a top session player...

I've got one of the earlier Gigblade bags and there is a bit of an issue when carrying over one shoulder for any period of time, although the later versions have supposed to have sorted that problem out. I use a Mono Vertigo and it's great (5'10" here). Having said that, it's quite rare that I carry on my back for any length of time. I used to use an iGig double bag, which was brilliant for protection and storage - a bit of a nightmare when I had to carry two basses from one side of a Butlins site to the other though. To be fair, that was one of the things that I liked about it - no one is going to try and do a runner with a bag with two bases in it...!

I've got a story about meeting Mr Schenker at a party in the early 80s - not sure that it's suitable for Basschat though...!

'm not sure that I would necessarily include King Billy! Sure, he plays lots of sessions but he gets called to be 'Billy Sheehan' rather than to do whatever is needed to create a track ala Sean Hurley or a Guy Pratt, etc. I would add Alan Spenner to the above list, along with Michael Rhodes, Clive Chaman, Stanley Sheldon, Carmine Rojas and possibly a pre Zep John Paul Jones...

Definitely agree about Come Taste The Band - I still play that regularly to this day! It doesn't really sound like a DP album (more like the best Bad Company album ever, but featuring Jon Lord playing keys and with a big hint of a Tommy Bolin solo album), but certainly my favourite Purple album.

Just to note, that is Thomann who have done that. The same may not apply to anyone else in Europe you buy something from.

Perhaps a little bit of work on your technique lads?? Dave - that doesn't sound very efficient and must be tiring. I haven't got a really light touch or anything, but never had any issues like that. Loz - if you like the bass, why not get a pro to do some fretwork on it? I'm sure that it will sort any issues out, although it's not something you want to do yourself.

I would get someone who knows what they're doing to have a look at it. It sounds like the neck might be f***ed - it certainly shouldn't be like that, but maybe a pro can sort it.

To be fair, that sounds like one of the bad ones!!

I think that you get the benefit of Mark's 'strong opinions' if you are happy to debate with him, or if you say something that he thinks is stupid! He seems to have a bit of a 'road to Damascus' moment in recent times and now seems to think that you can find very good Fenders, but many are poorly made. Something that many of us will agree with.

Yes, I have a lot of time for Mark and have had many interesting chats with him over the years on everything from gear to politics to travel to mountain biking. He has always gone out of his way to help and once advised me to get a cab from somewhere else as he thought it was a better fit for what I was after compared to what he had in stock at the time! Not many shops will do something like that. The thing is he never got the 'customer is always right' memo and he certainly is forthright and has an opinion. I find that quite refreshing, as I hated going to old music shops where they would try and convince you that whatever old tat they had in stock was just what you needed, when it obviously wasn't. I once had a guy try to convince me that a Skyline was better than an US Lakland, which is plain nonsense if you've ever played one. I have a pretty good idea of what I want, but I'm happy for someone who knows what they are talking about to give me advice and a different view. Bass Direct isn't the place for a beginner who wants an Ashdown and a MIM Fender, but that's the point of it. It was meant to be a specialist shop and an alternative to the big box shifters...

Yes, that's an option alongside something like a Volto.

Exactly - no point in getting something that that's more faff than I currently use! . Maybe the new version of the Volto when it comes out might be able to handle something more than 9v?

But how many of those are rechargeable? The idea is that it should be smartphone sized, so that you can put it under a PedalTrain mini board, and can be charged up before the gig (like a phone) so that you don't need to run a mains cable to the board onstage.

I am thinking of getting a rechargeable pedal power supply for my mini pedalboard. It would need to run one 12v (ideally 15v) pedal and maybe three 9v pedals. Does anyone know if such a thing exists? I know that there is the PedalTrain Volto, but that only seems to work for 9v pedals.

The Xotic jazz basses are well worth adding to that list as well. Mike Lull basses are supposed to be excellent if you can find one.

For £2k you should be able to get a really nice secondhand 5 string. If you want something versatile, then personally I would go for an active jazz. As @thodrik notes above, something with a Fender vibe will never look out of place on any gig you're doing and will give the band leader a nice fuzzy feeling of recognition!

It's his job to know these things and he has a track record of developing young bands that went onto better things.