Jean-Luc Pickguard

The 5 string gibson version from that time is not a 'classic' style thunderbird with the usual neck thru construction but is designated as 'thunderbird studio' model. instead of the neck-thru construction of nine-ply mahogany/walnut neck with mahogany wings it has a mahogany body with a mahogany set neck, and a different bridge.

damn - I’d have had that if I had seen it before it went. I remember liking the look of these when they came out & the blueburst is a great looking finish.

I'm not surprised to find out he's a right whinger

That finish should be called 'technicolour yawn' -- It looks like someone threw up on it.

That's a good one - who is that attributed to?

Does anyone have any favourite quotes from well known bass players? The same ones keep coming up when googling but some of ones I like are: "The gunk keeps the funk." - James Jamerson "I like to believe that I play bass like Dusty Hill, and that's something nobody else can do as well as me. I'm the best Dusty Hill I know." - Dusty Hill "The bass should be the note of the bass drum, and then you've got the engine of the band that everything else builds on. Everything else, the guitar, the keyboards, is a colour." - "Suzi Quatro" "The bass is the link between harmony and rhythm. It is the foundation of a band. It is what all the other instruments stand upon." - Victor Wooten

I used to have an alpine white bolt-on one. It was a decent bass but my vintage pros are in a different league altogether in terms of playability and tone.

The warning comes up when https://www.basscentre.com/ is accessed But the non-ssl version http://www.basscentre.com loads up with the usual 'site not secure' indicator in the address bar. Its a little concerning that following the 'secure checkout' link after adding something to your basket takes you to another non-secure page to enter your your details. I'd hope the credit card info is taken on a secure third party site. Really in 2020 to avoid losing customer trust all sites that do ecommerce should be 100% HTTPS as modern browsers throw out so many warnings when browsing with HTTP. Adding a secure server certificate is not difficult or expensive. bty - my head isn't pointy

I like to have music on while I work (web dev), but I've found that most music and in particular just about anything with a vocal causes my train of thought to get supplanted with the bus replacement service of discombobulation. My favourite album at the moment to help me concentrate is Roger Eno & Brian Eno's 'Mixing Colours Expanded' I also like Moby's long ambients I & II which have a run time of 7 hours and 43 mins, and are available for free download from his website https://moby.com/la/ Anyone else listen to this kind of thing when doing brain work?

The embossed numbers on the knobs of my starfire bass only go up to nine. That just doesn't seem right as its 'one less'

I had great service from Musik Productiv when I bought a fairly pricey bass which ending up needing to be replaced.

I'm not a fan of the stealth look - or black hardware in general. The only thing I would change on that bass would be to swap out the pickguard for a mirror one. To go full stealth you'd need a Status graphite neck and an EMG pickup.

I was setting up my guild starfire bass and found that it had a dual action truss rod so I've been able to set the relief for lowish tension flatwounds that enables me to prevent string buzz without needing to raise the action. I've never encountered a dual action rod before so I wonder why in 2020 this isn't the standard for all basses? being able to add relief when the strings don't pull enough on the neck to add relief is a real game changer and I'm impressed that Guild didn't stick to the original 1960s spec by using a standard single action truss rod. Who else is a fan of the dual action truss rod?

says 34" here: https://www.chicagomusicexchange.com/products/fender-custom-shop-abuelo-bass-heavy-relic-3-color-sunburst-apprentice-built-by-vincent-van-trigt-w-novak-bi-sonic-pickup-serial-r98802

That looks and sounds fantastic. A short scale version would be very tempting. My starfire has Guild bisonics which the Novaks are based on and they're great pickups.

He'd have to knock a few quid off for the missing thumbrest

A mustang with the original style bridge with large plate will need 32" medium scale strings as it is string-thru, but the ones with a standard BBoT will need 30" short scale strings. I have a few shortscales with various different strings. My favourites for the mustang were TI JF-324 but then I added a JMJ mustang to my collection which came with standard fender 9050L long scale flats which sound and feel great so I kept them on the bass and got a set for y other mustang. I recently bought a Guild starfire bass which also needs medium scale strings despite haveing 30" scale length. As it comes with roundwounds for some unknown reason I needed to source get some flats for it and ended up with status stainless flats. These are made by picato I believe, and no longer being made so stock will run out at some point which is a shame as they are perfect despite being half the cost of similar strings.

Yes thats the one.

If you replace the socket, or get someone to replace it, make sure you get a mono switchcraft jack socket. Standard cheapo ones lose their springiness over time but switchcraft ones are much sturdier.

Frankie Poullain left the Darkness for a few years and rejoined several years later.

To get the full effect you need to hear one