Jean-Luc Pickguard

I have (or have had) a few behringer pedals - most have been pretty good, but the tuner pedal was crap for bass. The BDI is great for adding a bit of a snarl to the bass, but the ADI-21 (the brown acoustic equivalent to the BDI) really warms up an electric upright bass - it sounded wonderful when I had my old Dean Pace, and I still use it with my NS-CR5M I often see criticism of the build quality of behringer pedals - particularly the plastic housing, but I've never had any problems with mine. My ancient BDI-21 looks a bit battered and abused but still works perfectly. Out of interest anyone actually ever had a behringer pedal's housing disintegrate underfoot?

respect by aretha

The pickguard makes the bass look like a toilet seat to me

LaBella make a danelectro-specific set of flats. I have some on my longhorn (29.5" Scale), but they might do similar rounds. These have tiny balls like a guitar string or the current president of the USA so I wouldn't be surprised if these would be suitable for your Dan Armstrong.

My CIJ mustang didn't come with one, but I added one as I like the vintage look. I don't really use it, but it is good for getting a deep wooly tone - particularly if you have some length on the nails of the right hand (eg for playing ukulele) where playing fingerstyle could have too bright an attack. Even if you don't use it, it doesn't get in the way.

My stock answer for daft daft song requests was "we don't do that one, but the next song contains some of the same notes". Also if someone looked like they were about to make a request, the singer would announce on the mic "All song requests must be submitted on a fifty pound note."

The build quality on mine is pretty good - and there's even some nice flaming in the maple of the neck. I put a hi-mass bridge on mine as I had a spare one in the bits box. If the grub screws are sticking up due to the the saddles being low when the action & neck relief is set correctly, shimming the neck will enable you to raise the saddles. I wanted to upgrade the cheapo pickups, pots & socket, so I dropped in a set of EMG PJX pickups which sound pretty massive although I tend to only use the P for a big chunky tone (with TI JF324 flats).

Perhaps bass players in 80s tribute acts have been identified as a particularly high-spending demographic?

I think the need for a truss rod tweak twice a year is more likely to be from seasonal changes rather than climate change. Also the offical line from the White House is now that climate change does not exist Over 10 years of using wall hangers doesn't seem to have caused any warping on the necks of any of my basses & guitars.

The way Yahoo! is going at the moment with the sale to verizon, I'd be wary to relying on Flickr being around for a long time. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/10/yahoo_renamed_altaba_mayer_to_quit/

Maybe the selling tickets thing is that they believe they're doing you a favour by letting you play as your band will be 'getting exposure' so you have to prove that you are worthy of the opportunity. If that is the case it alters the dynamic, and donatating your time and skills will not be appreciated.

Perhaps he was using the music stand for the last song on the Folsom Prison album, Greysone Chapel, which was written by Glen Sherley, an inmate at the prison who gave the song to Johnny via a preacher the night before the concert.

My candy apple red VM SS jag cost me £165 from Thomann soon after they first came out. I had to send back the first one I received as one of the neck screws was put in at a wonky angle and the end split could be seen through a split it made in the side of the neck heel. The replacement is a good one - it is very light & resonant, and now has a few upgrades - EMG-X PJ pickups (& pots etc), vintage style jazz bass knobs, a hi-mass bridge & Thomastic TI-JF324 flatwounds. It was my main gigging bass with my last band and is a very comfy little instument to play. It looks like the neck was made from a quarter-sawn blank from the grain pattern and there's some flame in there as well which was an unexpected bonus. As far as I can see the spec of the instument included the pack is much the same apart from the sunburst finish - I doubt there would be any substsantial differences in build or hardware.

I had one made back in 2008 from chandler guitars (pickguard.us) in the US for my CIJ Mustang bass in aged white pearl celluloid to replace the underwhelming stock dark tort one. I requested the two holes for the 'tug bar'. It wasn't cheap but it came out absolutly perfect and on my bass within a month of ordering it. I think they have access to all of the fender shapes in a massive variety of colours/patterns and can do customised versions also.

The handsome family: Unseen The Felice Brothers: Life in the Dark

I've never considered buying another gigbag to fit my short scales. My danelectro longhorn fits my telecaster guitar gigbag perfectly. If I'm taking my mustang, musicmaster or squier jag shortie out, I use the same standard Fender gigbag I use for my 34" basses. The extra space at the headstock end is not a big deal - there's just about room to stash a mid-rehearsal snack such as a pack of monster munch.

I bought an Eastwood Warren Ellis on ebay recently. I was very pleased to get it for £240 (+£15p/p). Its the single pickup version in translucent cherry. I already play ukulele so I was always going to set it up like a tenor uke with low G. Coincidently the previous owner had already set it up with ukulele tuning but the setup was pretty bad with far too much tension on the strings. I worked out the string tensions and put on some plain strings for (G C E A) uke tuning: 008, 011, 014, 018, gave it a full set up and it is now absolutely perfect. I'm very impressed with the Eastwood build quality.

NS users - how often do you change your strings? I have had my NS Design CR-5M for ten years and it still has the stock strings so it might be worth thinking about changing them. They seem OK at the moment, so maybe they'll last forever, and the cost of a replacement set of the stock ones is rather scary. The GHS Crossover strings for NS EUB seem to be available for about £70 for a 5 string set if you shop around, with the D'addario contemporary 5 string set about double that amount. I really like the pizz sound on the demo video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBnCxCmh-Mk Anyone tried them?

If brandoni guitars in Wembley still have their fretless Precison necks, I'd recommend checking them out. They're not listed on their website, but its probably worth a call. I built a bitzer using one and it is on a par with a MIJ Fender - a nice bit of maple with an unlined ebony board. It looks very fendery including the headstock shape. I think it cost a shade over £100 but it was quite a while ago.

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like one of the new focusrite scarett devices would probably be a good choice. I'm planning to buy a new macbook pro when(/if) new skylake models are announced at the WWDC next week. I had forgotten that my zoom B3 can act as an audio interface so I will see how that well that works before buying something new - I also have a behringer mini mixer with a phantom powered XLR input, so I'll also try rigging that up to go into the B3 to for mic recordings

I now have two fully working, but functionally useless USB audio interfaces as the manufacturers stopped providing updated drivers for newer operating systems. The first is the Tascam US-122 which is only supported up to OSX v10.5 leopard To replace this I bought a native instruments session I/O which is flaky on OSX 10.9 mavericks and according to my research will not work at all on the current El Capitain or future releases. All I need is one guitar/bass input on a 1/4" jack and an XLR input with phantom power for a condenser mic. I guess the reason for manufacturers to not release updated drivers for old products is they think that this will drive the owner to replace it with a newer model, however this is a flawed logic as what has happened in my case is that I will never buy anything made by tascam or native instruments again. Are there any manufacturers who do care about releasing drivers for new operating systems? I'm looking at the IK Multimedia irig duo/pro and focusrite scarlett interfaces- Does anyone have any comments about the longevity of support likely to be provided by these these or any other devices?

I went to the big annual music equipment exhibition at Olympia one year in the early 80s. After checking out lots of shiny basses and other instruments at the main show, I checked out the unofficial 'over the road show' in the upstairs room of the pub opposite where a few smaller companies, who presumably had a tighter budget than the ones exhibiting in Olympia, were showing off their kit. One of the exhibitors was a guitar company I'd never heard of before called G&L, and sitting by the guitars there was an old fella who looked like he was someone's grandpa who had come along for a day out. I later found out a little about G&L, and after seeing photos of the founders I realised it had been Leo sitting there.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Handsome family at the 100 club on 1st June & Penguin Cafe at the Barbican on 2nd July

Advice I wish I had been given: It is pointless being in a band with a drummer who plays too loud, can't groove, can't keep time, doesn't listen to what anyone else plays (or says), and thinks a weekly band rehearsal is all the practice that's ever needed.

When I played an Ashbory bass with sticky 'rubberband' strings I used unscented talc on my hands before playing. If the problem with your bass is caused by sweaty hands on the gloss finish it might be worth trying this - don't get it on your shoes or shirt though or people might think you're being paid too much.