ossyrocks

I haven't tried enough amps to be certain there is a difference, but my main gigging amps are old school solid state affairs. If I carried on I would have to use the "H" word, so I won't. I'd like to try one of those some day. Rob

This is a new one on me. But, I've been through as many basses as I can be bothered to look at on Andy Baxter's site and I think I agree, but it got a bit hazy after so many. What did strike me though, was that if they did have the "step" or "notch" (we need to decide how to describe this), they had a full set of them. There are no examples on Andy Baxter's site of basses which have a mix of both styles.

It was good to meet you today. and the big surprise for me was how much I loved your Gibson Ripper! I've never played one before. Rob

Yes! It was indeed spendid. Thank you Rob for organising again. I regret not taking any pictures though! Does anyone have any pics? Rob

Shame on the pickguard. I forgot to let you know that the polish & cleaner arrived the other week, thanks for sending it back. Rob

Marvelous, thank you sir! 🤣 I expect to be there around 10 ish

There are a couple UK guys who can fake guitars to the point where they are indistinguishable. It's not a recent phenomenon either. I was looking at guitars produced by Clive Brown 25 years ago that were absolutely convincing. I owned a vintage 60's Strat "refinished" by Clive Brown which another luthier gave me the willies about and I disposed of it quickly to a Jeweler in Portsmouth. He once pulled out a "58 Strat" to a bunch of assembled dealers (I was present), and they all gawped over it until he revealed it was actually a JV Squire he had completely done a make over on. Richard Henry can tell you many stories of the number of "all original" Fenders which appeared in Music Ground (he used to work there) having passed through the hands of Clive Brown. It's always been tawdry, and the main culprits are still at large. 60's is a minefield, 70's seems much more safe as they haven't moved on to those yet.

I could use two extra stands if anyone has any spare and can throw them in their car.

My blues band played a new festival last night. Great stage, excellent PA and lighting, and very well run in terms of the sound. The guys were really good at their job. However, it was a brand new festival, I would say intended to be a very big event with thousands in attendance. But....there were not a lot of people there, and they are still desperately trying to sell tickets for the rest of the weekend. I think the organisers are going to take massive bath on this one. We were very grateful to those who did come and see us, especially @rwillett and his partner Zoe (credit to Rob for the photo). '73 P bass, GK Legacy 800 (DI'd), TE Elf 2x8. Rob

Thanks for coming Rob! The sound on stage was pretty good too. For anyone interested, I ran my P bass into a GK Legacy 800, through an Elf 2x8. The GK DI ran to FOH and back at me a little bit in the monitors.

Blimey. Now I want to see if it has been stamped at all.

I have two '73 Jazzes here and neither of them have a board like that. Mine are clearly thick veneers and follow the radius of the board which results in a slight curve in the rosewood at the headstock end. I'd like to know when Fender started putting slab boards on Jazz basses in the 70's......

If I were going into a project like this, I would want to make sure it was a success, and therefore I would not want to cut any corners, otherwise it might end up a waste of money. For me, there are two people who come to mind, Dan Whitelock-Jones in Liverpool, and Martin Garton in Edenfield. Both could build you what you want and it be a very high quality amp. The Ceriatone amps are actually very good (I've had 5 of them), and you could always order the kit without transformers and source better ones elsewhere. So that's an option, but I doubt either DWJ or Martin would build it for you. Nick at Ceriatone would build it though, and ship it without the transformers which you could get added here. Many options. Rob

The Harrisons and Music Ground have released many dubious and fake guitars into the wild over their long and illustrious careers.

We have a gig tomorrow for the very first time in the town where I actually live!

That's actually hilarious!

I was there too! It's was our 4th time seeing them. Amazing band, with a very talented and wonderful vocalist. It's the first time we've seen them at The Brewery (their first time there I think), and I don't think the sound was as good as our three previous gigs, but it was still ok. I really liked everything Dave Jones did on bass, except perhaps his solo, which I found a bit hard to understand. Yes, highly recommended. Rob

In my experience, the weights are all over, from nice and light, to boat anchors. I currently have 4 70's Fenders, and they vary between just under, to just over 9 lbs. The '78 Precision I had was 8 lbs 9 oz. 2 of mine have been played to death, and two have been looked after very well, they're all nice basses to play, and they sound great, though different from each other. The condition of this one above is lovely, and I particularly like a black Jazz, they do look fab. The gap in the neck pocket is a shame, but if it plays ok, that wouldn't put me off, but the weight is the killer for me, my shoulder hurts just looking at it. Rob

11 lbs !!

Beyond the pizza, which you are already generously providing and for which I shall make a donation, I just need access to tea, preferably continuously, otherwise I might expire. Rob

Running just a pair is fine to do. Make sure you run them on either side of the output though, ie run a pair in the middle two sockets, or the outer two sockets, and not two on the left or two on the right.

We have 16 gigs in the diary for the rest of the year including a few festivals and a theatre. We're also releasing an album this year to coincide with our appearance at The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival in August These are exciting times for me! Rob Edit: PS: I also turn 60 in a few weeks and my wife and I are off to Tuscany to celebrate.

If the output transformer is the original, then there are no options for changing the settings, they didn't have multi-tap output transformers. Your mains transformer is certainly changed, the one pictured above is a Hammond, and it would have originally been a Schumacher. No big deal, but make sure the price reflects the changes. Just think about this, Fender installed speakers in their amps which correctly matched the output impedance stated on the back panels, and the actual spec of the output transformers. They also gave every amp an EXT SPKR output, which when used, immediately had the amp seeing half of the stated impedance. It worked fine, and they didn't worry. Rob