Maude

Luckily I'm in a position to either fully restore it properly myself, ie completely remove the finish and do it sunburst blue again with tinted lacquer. Or wet sand and compound the worst of the scratches out and live with its history. Or take everything back to bare wood and do something completely different.

Well, I've got my comeuppance! Lately I've been lucky enough to buy some very nice basses at some very nice prices, but my luck ran out with this BEX4. It's not so bad though as it was cheap enough and it can all be sorted. Last Friday @andy67 posted that he'd seen a blue BEX4 in Cash Converters in Edinburgh. I'd kind of low level been after a blue one for a while so jumped on it. With the bass being in Edinburgh and me in Cornwall, giving it the once over was out of the question. No biggy, Andy said it looked OK, no minter, a few scratches and needed new strings but OK, and the guy I spoke to at CC said roughly the same. In fact he said he'd just been playing and it played and sounded great. Well it would, it's a BEX4 😉. It arrived today and up close it's a bit of a dog, it's had a hard life and needs a damn good clean. Poor old thing. I'm undecided at the mo whether to just give it a good clean and polish and live with its roadworn state, or to go to town and fully restore/refinish it. It looks like someone's tried to polish the body with a brillo pad and there's plenty of dents and chips. The neck wear is quite odd with some excessive wear near the nut and loads of crescent dents up the dusty end, as if a thumb with a ring on had been curled over the top edge all the time. The rest is just green and grimey. Oh yeah, nearly forgot the strings, nicely fitted 😄. Nevermind, it was cheap enough and it will still play and sound great once cleaned and set up. Cosmetic plan to be decided. With her sister.

Hmm, nearly, but not quite. But being Phyllis Offacle (who?), if you buy enough basses you'll have to encounter a pooper from time to time. I took a chance early in the day but Lady Luck was having a lie in. NBD thread imminent.

There's a large parcel waiting at home for me apparently. 😁

What could be better than a beatboxing, doublebass playing, deep southern American? I really like this bluegrass cover of No Diggity and Thrift Shop.

Bare legs don't soak up puddles in the rain.

There's a fantastic local band down here in Cornwall called Company B. They play lively jump jive music and wear American GI uniforms. Always a great night out. I'd imagine those gigs your dad played were a hoot.

A great night after a terrible start. There was no support act, PH&TL did a set of New Order songs as an opener. First song (Dreams Never End) the bass drum was absolutely horrific, stupendously loud and every chest rupturing thud completely swamped out all the other instruments. I was so disappointed and couldn't have taken a whole evening of it. To be fair I was off centre under a gallery but even so. Slowly throughout the New Order set it got better and then was bang on when they ended with Blue Monday, as it was a drum machine. The sound crew obviously realised as the rest of the gig, all of Unknown Pleasures and Closer, then finishing with a handful of non album classics was absolutely spot on sound wise. Each instrument was clear in the mix. Congrats to the sound crew.

For a punk band I think I'd favour the 424 over a 1024. I have both and was going to compare the two and sell the 'loser', but at the mo I still have both. The 424 tone is slightly more abnoxious than the politeness of the 1024. The 424 is a snotty teenager, all shouty and needing to be heard, compared to a grown up suave gent that is the 1024, who'd rather let his smooth charm speak for itself.

Peter Hook and The Light in the about an hour and a half. First proper gig in a long time and I'm like a little kid on Christmas eve.

Play For Today - The Cure

I was sorely tempted but I just bought a Yamaha BEX4 out of the blue on Friday which I'm waiting delivery of, and my P need was covered by the Encore I bought a few weeks ago.

The absolutely gorgeous faded pelham blue Jack Casady hasn't been posted in this thread so here's mine. The colour changes quite dramatically with different light. Above is outdoors in bright daylight, below is indoors in warm electric light.

The Funeral Party - The Cure

I've just watched a Sunn Mustang end on ebay for £72 and didn't bid, I'm feeling quite proud of myself. 😁 It had had mods done to it but it looked like a beauty. I wonder if someone here bought it. Sunn Mustang

Any Roxette single will do, and a bloody good use for them too!

Ah, they make that wierd staccato noise when near amps. Your phone related tale reminds me of another, not so much a D'oh moment but embarrassing oversight. In a now defunct band we used to open the second set with 'Blockbuster'. I'd found the correct siren noise online and looped it into a five minute mp3 file, and put it on my phone. I used a Line6 X3 Live and I'd plug the phone in the line in and route it through the volume pedal, I could then just leave it running and fade in and out as needed. Start of the second set we'd get the fog going and had old school red and blue police lights either side of the stage, I'd then fade the siren in and folks would wonder what's going on, until the guitar riff kicked in. I'm smiling just remembering it. Anyway half way through the song at one gig my wife phones me to leave a message about something or other, only problem is the phone is routed through the PA and the whole place was treated to my answer phone and her message. I put it in flight mode from then on at gigs.

Insomnia - Faithless

Don't know, I think he's still out buying either a brightly coloured Ibanez bass or a swanky jacket.

I Believe - EMF

Take your pick. 😁

Where Is My Mind - The Pixies (not whoever does that version in an advert with the oh so predictable and boring breathy female vocals)

It's missing its battery cover apparently. I'll have to try and source one from somewhere.

It's all your doing 😁. I woke up this morning with not even a thought of buying a new bass*, then by half ten one was in the bag. A good Friday indeed! 😄 *Well not this one anyway.

There's a lot of unplugged cabs, amps, etc. Is there any link between this seemingly common problem and the average age of the Basschat member? 😁