The fasting showman

I've enjoyed reading this thread as I've owned and enjoyed a few US Stingrays over the years; 2 USA subs and 5 USA rays, nothing newer than '07. My most ornate, and the one I wish I still had for nostalgia, was a maple neck blue burst 2 eq from '94. Lovely object and really harked back to impoverished late '80s music shop window shopping. Contrary to opinion, and this could be more due to a defect in my playing, that '94 sounded the worst in my hands out of all that I owned. The US sub 2 eqs sounded good ( rw board) and in general the best in my hands were the 3eq rosewood board rays...I.e totally opposite of what is usually the archetypal maple neck 2eq. Some basses I seem to drag a nasal quality out of sometimes unfortunately. Great fun to play though, I never experienced the weak G either. I just had a look on the Bass Bros site; a good mix on there from EXs that look great through to pre EBs. Prices looked representative and reasonable from a quick glance.

Nice bass. The only basses I now own are Tribute Fallouts; one with LaBella flats and one with bright d'addario nickel rounds. One that goes thud and one that's growly. Re gig bag; it's dead basic but I found the Fender FBSS 610 fits a Fallout ok. I'd be interested to know if a better quality bag is out there though of a similar size. I think a Fallout is 111cm long. I'm using a mid priced full scale Gator double gig bag for my two.

https://share.google/U5owh09omz454e5Sk Not sure if that attached OK but there's a 1995 Fender custom shop Rumble head in Stoke, relatively cheap for a 300 watt valve head. I believe these had cooling problems but that may be a few modifications away for someone in the know. Interesting amp if it's your thing anyway.

This is light hearted, and as we're all just playing it doesn't take into account foreign regimes, imperialist land grabbing etc. A bigger obstacle is how skint I am regarding buying new musical gear. As my tastes are firmly stuck in the past: Fender doing a new range of USA made p bass/ j basses with the Fullerton shaped headstock. They would come in a few different custom colours ( they'd need to dust off an old '70s catalogue and look at the back page) per calendar year; I.e LPB alongside say black, white , sunburst and maybe an international series colour like cherry burst or orange for example. The non black / white / burst colours change every year. For about £1500, just a dead basic '70s copy, like a well made s/h one.

I can't be of much use but I'm ditching a very strong gig bag if you need it for packaging. I'm in Lichfield btw

Protection racket 7051 bass gig bag. Zip works after a fashion, handles likewise. Completely un-sellable as it's got major issues. Ideal for in house bass storage or for part of the packaging to transport a bass in a sale dispatch. Free to collect from Lichfield, Staffordshire. I couldn't bear the rigmarole of couriers, packaging etc

Andrew Bodnar RIP continued

Andrew Bodnar RIP, great player

Gallien krueger 800rb reissue but mono without the biamp feature, with speakon outputs.

Definitely agree re sound; when one of the guitar players in the band I'm in bought a bass IV, switching to a Fallout bass solved a lot of problems. I'd been using a very nice P bass up to then but the Fallout sounding so even across the board, ( particularly played high up the dusty end) it really sat in the spectrum below the bass IV without competing for the same space. I marvel sometimes how 2 30 inch scale basses ( admittedly one into a guitar rig, one into a bass amp setup) can separate out so well. The Fallout is capable of being physically an octave above the bass IV yet feeling much deeper. It didn't work like that with the Precision. All very subjective and unique to that band situation obviously.

still sounds new to me 40 years on

The guys at Jaydee in my experience are always helpful. I wonder if they could accredit the bass in some way to make it identifiable? I was just surprised at it's existence at all, a 30.5 scale Jaydee Supernatural Correction: Roadie not Supernatural

I've no link to the sale at all but there's a short scale Jaydee Roadie for sale at Bass Bros. I've no funds whatsoever for such a thing but it's a really interesting bass for JMJ mustang money.

I managed to keep the frames to the castors but transplant in new wheels and axles on my 8x10. I just needed new 75mm wheels, this way getting the hole centres right for the castor plate didn't matter.

Hometown gig in a converted church that I've played before, nicer onstage sound than previous times. A few mistakes but a well received generally enjoyable gig. I've used a Peavey vb2 810 fridge for my last 3 gigs, this one and the 2 previous tour supports we did. The fridge was purchased for the usual blue book £100 for a non Ampeg 810: it's the 3rd 8x10 I've owned and I maintain that despite science going in the opposite direction they can be a good, cheap viable solution for certain situations. Obviously it wouldn't have worked when I was doing pub / club covers and probably not ideal for everyone. When I found out the bookings we had this year I either had to get an additional 2x12 neo GK cab or go on a different tangent. I flogged the GK and bought the fridge for half of what I got for it...I can rethink things in the future if needed. Fair to say that the 810 with the GK head is like a 3.5 litre v8 ticking over and never gets shouty; the volume is at the volume of the drumkit ( I'm enjoying playing with a more energetic drummer after playing with a sedate one for a few years) and one guitarist plays big chords while the other plays a bass 6. So I need to really ground the music, giving an illusion of being an octave below the bass 6. The tilt and roll drill with the fridge is pretty workable too, I struggle more with 4x10s tbh. My first gig with LaBella flats. Not wild about them on their own but great in the band mix, really full and consistent. The higher tension seems to work well too, nice to play.

Given the links between John Diggins and John Birch, I'd say Jaydee are the people to go to regarding John Birch pickups etc. I remember seeing a new Jim Lea bass at Jaydee back in 2010 or so, another branch of what they made along with the Iommi SG, Angus Young model also. When I think of Jaydee I tend to associate them with the Mark King bass but there's a lot of John Birch previous history before the Supernatural basses.

There used to be loads of them kicking around Birmingham in the early '80s....my ignorant 13 year old self used to be quite sniffy about them! There was always a few in Musical Exchanges The Broad St Musical Exchanges had a Super Yob in the window for a while in 81/82.

Would have been a popular setup in the '80s. Loads of those cabs around. I remember hearing a 400rb through a boogie 1x15 with an EV speaker at a gig, sounded great. I'm not into loads of low end tbh more the low mids and good presence. Much of my tastes are stuck in the last century!

Definitely, my thoughts exactly. That old JBL will sound amazing with the mk1 400rb also, great low mids I bet.

I certainly do gig with one, I find the string to string balance and thickness of the notes high up really useful. The Fallout is a pretty versatile bass....I don't sound that different whatever bass I play, for better or worse, after all these years.

Supported the Bluetones in Brum on Friday and at Hangar 34 in Liverpool yesterday. Great room sound in Liverpool. Absolutely freezing loading into the house at 3am this morning but nice to be still doing gigs like this occasionally, worth savouring