uk_lefty

Replied to my wanted ad for Fender ashtrays and delivered immediately for a very fair price. As with all BC'ers I've bought and sold with, an honest and friendly fellow bassist. Can't ask for more! Thanks again 😊

Too much choice isn't there?! Also, for everyone raves about TI Flats I personally didn't like them, but maybe I just had a right handed set 😉

It can be an expensive purchase so some may find this article useful... https://www.guitarworld.com/features/the-best-flatwound-bass-guitar-strings-how-to-choose-the-right-flatwounds-for-you

Believe me storytime is a MASSIVE part of my life, and one of the most enjoyable.

Used to buy Q in the early 2000s but only if there was a decent free CD. Found the content a bit smarmy and "you won't have heard of this band but I'm better than you so I like them but you won't" and I remember a reader letter moaning that all music now is by private school kids (who had grown up and left school so jot that relevant) when referring to Keane and Coldplay. It's sad that it's gone but I think the digital age is perfect for someone like me who can only read or look up things in between work calls and while on the loo. Otherwise I'm either on work calls or stopping my kids electrocuting themselves so I haven't had time to sit down and actually read a magazine for nearly four years.

Any money I earn from gigging goes in to savings for my kids, I have a full time job that has not directly been affected... Well, I was employed by a company that was already doing badly and will have to shed jobs soon but I was already in the process of jumping ship to a company that will be more secure in these times. Anyhow, my wife doesn't work for the time being and without childcare available for many months it's been hard. Aside from music life has just been tough, I know many have it worse so I'm not saying "poor little me" but managing working at home and keeping the family going has been emotionally hard and tiring. I've barely played my instruments, though while on the crapper I've picked up some new toys on ebay and BC by selling off toys I don't use. I was getting a it tired with the band, the drummer would only play gigs for people he knows and was really awkward if a random person made an enquiry to the band. I got us set up with a promotion company for gigs this summer to spread our wings and landed a dep spot in a similar band that plays in different towns to my band. Then lockdown hit. Now we are trying to get a rehearsal going and the drummer doesn't want to, no real explanation except the drum kits in the rehearsal rooms are crap. Usual complaint but he's refusing to play our rehearsal and it's too late to cancel the room booking. I've tried to rally the lads around to do some recording, everyone says "I'm keen" then doesn't do anything. It's my only real social activity, not having it has been quite tough. Also the kids savings pots aren't really going up by the gig money which used to be good over summer.

Having put a Leo Quan Badass on my old P bass I don't think it did much for the sound. But then I wanted an old school sound and just put that bridge on out of boredom one day... Now that bridge on a jazz would be a different story.... Still, tis a good price for the bass. There's lots of tasty lefties coming up second hand at the moment, probably because I just bought a tasty second hand lefty. Sods law, eh?

We need a bah-dum-tish emoji...!

I used to follow Sixx:AM on Facebook, I quite like a lot of their songs and think DJ Ashba is a great guitarist. Anyhow, Nikki was selling his basses off after each show. You could pay a huge amount of money for a meet and greet and he gives you a bass he used in that night's show. Part of the draw was this description of how he uniquely wraps each bass in tape, making each one different... Seemed a bit tacky to me, but then again the money isn't there like it was in his heyday in the 80s and if people will pay it why not? Can't blame him for making his money while he can.

Why didn't they just chuck in a sticker so if you really wanted it you could put it on? Baffling.

Great basses! Envious of the fretted and fretless almost-twins!

Playing high and fast after a mistake... May as well give over my car keys, house keys, kidneys...

If you're ever around Hertfordshire/ the bits of Essex I often play in you're more than welcome to have a go on my US Stingray. Best neck I've ever played, the fingerboard as well just makes life easy and THAT pickup just wallops out big big bass. Perfect for covers band gigging. In the shop I actually preferred the sound of the significantly cheaper US Jazz but just felt the overall kick of the Ray was better as a working option.

The jazz is giving me something the others don't. Hard to describe, because while the Stingray is my go-to gigging bass I can easily do everything I need on a jazz. And there's something about a jazz that just feels right to me, maybe having played one for 7 years as my main fretted bass?

Once it has a working pickup I can confirm in full... But for now, it just feels nice in my hand. I do like The feel of a neck thru bass.

Updated family photo... P bass has gone, jazz has arrived. Aria needs a new pickup then she's good to gig!

Isn't mahogany an incredibly fast growing wood, making an abundant supply, which is why it became so popular for furniture many years ago? I would suggest watching the last series of Poldark as that is why my mahogany knowledge comes from, and stay away from any produced by the chap who becomes Poldark's nemesis in that series, he was a bad'un.

Well terrible photography conditions here, including the idiot holding the phone camera... Here's a 1984 Aria Pro II SB-Elite I giving a cheeky flash of flesh through the (used to be) pearl white paint. And some lovely wood grain visible through the butterscotch finish on my latest squeeze, a Fender MIJ 70s jazz reissue.

I have an RM500 with RM cabs as my gig rig and the practice room has an RM800 on top of ABM cabs which in true rehearsal rooms style have at least one knackered speaker. I find the amps identical with the exception that the RM800 is scientifically speaking a "f#ck ton" louder. I reckon the ABM cabs help a little with that. This doesn't mean the RM500 is a quiet amp. It most definitely is not. I've never had either amp farting when pushed or wimping out but then again I like my amp clean, not pushing the input too hard, and if I want drive I use a foots witch to bring in the drive setting or my fx pedal. I also have never ever had need to push the master volume over half, for gigs I'm usually only on about 30%

Love my Stingray... Its kicked my P Bass out of the collection, but can never replace a jazz (IMO)

As already said, maybe your specs in reality weren't what you expected in your head, or didn't all work together in the same bass? Either way, once it's gone and its replaced with something you do want then it will be a happy memory. My P Bass is. When I spent serious money on a bass 18m ago I wanted lack of choice. That sounds daft but I went in to Wunjos with a budget and bought the bass that sounded and felt right for my gigging needs, though I could have spent months online agonising over fretboard woods, etc. I don't regret the choice at all!

Right, Fender give me a job NOW!! Half asleep from teething baby this morning I thought what if.... Fender need to make a paranormal series bass where the body is TORT and the pickguard is sunburst. A P bass body with a single J pickup in a white pup cover in the P position and the crappy white plastic knobs they used in the 80s for a while, gold hardware, upside down headstock, fretless all maple neck, only available left handed. The most divisive instrument they can make. They can call it the "Furk You" bass.

I think if you'd left it red it would look like a cheap bass, but now there's a bit of mystique about it, keep going with the mods!

Me too!! Though I don't think I'd have much use for it I just like things that are a bit different!

From what I saw from a dealer last week, you never know what was going on in Fender Japan, there's always some surprises there!