Lasermonkey

Curve fans might be interested to know that Dean's current band Spc Eco still features his distinctive bass playing. Much as I loved Curve, I actually prefer Spc Eco.

Cocteau Twins Boards Of Canada The Chameleons Big Star The Posies Teenage Fanclub Besnard Lakes Black Mountain Slowdive Lucky Spc Eco

Looks like it may have a goldfoil in the bridge position. These are quite sought after these days, especially by slide players. I think it looks quite cool.

Teenage Fanclub at The Junction, Cambridge, 30/11/16.

On the JM and Jag, the upper slide switch engages the "rhythm circuit" on the neck pickup. This has its own volume and tone control, which are the two roller wheels you can see next to it. It's much darker than the standard neck pickup sound, but I've found it useful at times. These controls are independent of the main tone and volume knobs. On the Jaguar, the three lower switches are, from left-right: Strangle Switch (it's a high-pass filter, which takes out a fair chunk of the bottom-end); bridge pickup on/off; neck pickup on/off. I have a few more Fender offsets. There's a couple of Japanese Jazzmasters, a Pawnshop Bass VI and a '65 Electric XII. Oh, and a Jazz Bass! Guess what colour that is....

My first bass was a '74 Fender Precision. I wanted a bass (I was a guitar player first, sorry!) , went down to my local music shop (WAM Music in St Neots) and they had the Precision for £135. That would have been '84/'85. I still have it and wouldn't ever part with it, as it plays and sounds great.

I'm using Fat Beams on my 4001 and they're my favourite strings I've tried so far.

I picked this up the other day: It's a 2008 Fender "thin skin" AVRI Jaguar. I've wanted a Jag for ages, but somehow kept buying Jazzmasters instead. Anyway, I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket and then this turned up locally. The thin skins are pretty rare. I've read in a couple of places that only 25 of each colour were made. This particular Jag has a Staytrem bridge added, which is very nicely made and works very well. I suspect I will end up replacing the bridges on my Jazzmasters with them too. The scratchplate is by Spitfire and is just stunning in the flesh. The guy at Spitfire is the only one IMO who manages to do tortoiseshell as good as the vintage stuff. Why the Fender Custom Shop doesn't use his work is beyond me. It's interesting that the Jag that came up was in Daphne Blue, as my think skin Jazzmaster is also Daphne Blue! Well, that's one more Fender offset crossed off the list. What I'd like next is a Custom/Maverick, but the chance of finding one are pretty remote, especially at a reasonable price. I did happen to chance upon one in Peterborough, back in either '91 or '92 and it was £495. I'd just bought two Rickenbackers and was totally skint. I really wanted it and have regretted not selling any family members for medical experiments ever since!

Sounds like an OTA phaser, and a nice one at that. At last count, I had sixteen phaser pedals. I'm a bit of a fan!

The price of Japanese Jaguars and Jazzmasters is getting silly at the moment, with people asking anywhere between £650-£950, though unsurprisingly, they don't seem to be actually selling. I wouldn't pay over £550 unless you absolutely *have* to get that particular rare colour.

I tend to use either a Boss CE-20 or an old EHX Clone Theory, depending on mood.

Elizabeth Fraser.

Since I love these albums the same, I'll have to include both. Treasure and Victorialand by Cocteau Twins. They're my favourite albums of all time, by the way.

Subterraneans.

There's a very good comparison between the Mk III Odyssey and the new Korg one, done by Dave Spiers of GForce (who make the Oddity 2 soft synth). IIRC the ring modulator is totally different, if that matters. https://youtu.be/qBxhOXFrvrI and an Octave Cat demo. https://youtu.be/77s3bcjO4kU BTW, I reckon the Oddity 2 is amazing. Bags of character and very flexible. And polyphonic.