FinnDave

Bob Dylan is an excellent songwriter, but every cover of any of his songs is always better than the original.

Why bother with two pick ups when one is enough? I do have a couple of Jazz basses, but invariably have both pick ups on full - can't be doing with fiddling around to get 'the right tone' - if it sounds bassy, that's good enough.

I bought his solo album when it was first released in 1976, listened to it a few times, then left it on the shelf. The bass playing was incredible, but I wasn't too keen on the music itself. It didn't seem relevant to what I was playing at the time, but I had certainly heard of him long before Basschat came along - long before the internet came along, in fact.

I used a Bass Station for a few gigs after motorcycle accident left my right hand hand rather damaged - I had never played keyboards before but worked out a few bass patterns and was able to play a few songs on it in order to give my injured hand a rest. Sounded fine!

I only found out about this after it had started - I am only a few miles outside of Oxford!

First time I played in the centre of Reading I picked up two fines for bus lane infringements. The fines cost more than I got paid for the gig. I played there a few more times and drove very carefully, but picked up another bus lane fine and refused to play there again. I think on that night everyone in the band was also clobbered with parking fines.

Which pub? I've played a lot of Swindon gigs and parking is usually a nightmare - but Oxford's even worse! I went to see a band in Swindon a couple or weeks ago, spent an age finding a car park, walked to the gig and only afterwards realised that I no idea idea where the car was. Luckily, my phone had remembered and directed me back there.

Has W been done yet? If not (or even if it has) I offer not one, but two, Ws in one name - Kevin Ayers & The Whole World.

I played there about three years ago with the Grateful Dudes, I remember it being fairly full. We must have had a few in as I took home over £150 and that was door money minus expenses split six ways. Of course, that was pre-covid.

I've had a few of the tweed covered ones - as Lozz says, they do absorb stuff off a wet/dirty stage. All bar one have stopped working, the one I have left is kept for home use only. On the plus side, they do look good.

They make a right mess of your frets, though.

I've had quite a few Ashdown amps, and the only times I've had to use the warranty was with a couple of ABM 600 heads. They were replaced without hesitation.

Me too - and I've bought two in the last couple of months as well.

The Rotosound flats arrived in the post about midday, and I've just put the bass away after playing the new strings for a while. Bearing in mind these are new strings, fresh on, they sound pretty good on a Classic 50s Precision (also new to me this week!). Good tight punchy sound, surprising amount of top, but that will probably fade as they wear in. Less sweetness of tone than the LaBellas I have on the other basses, but I suspect they'll work better in the band. Time will tell!

I'll pass the message on!

Our guitarist often plays a strat copy he found in a skip. He also has most of a PA and a working lighting rig from the same source! I don't think he makes a habit out of late night skip raids, but he works as a mechanic at the place the skips end up at, so gets to see what's about to be chucked out.

Thanks, I'll give them a few months to settle down.

I've bought a set of Rotosound flats to try from a fellow bass chatter - I'll see how I get on with them.

Thanks, Lozz, I might just have to order another set of LaBella strings, I like the tone of them, just fancied trying something different, but I don't think a scooped sound is what I'm after. Main reason for considering the Rotos is that they have in stock at the local PMT, LaBella means a drive to Leamington Spa or mail order.

Sorry to push this interesting thread back on topic, but having tried and ultimately rejected flats several times over the last 20 years, I finally have got used to them, and currently have two Precisions and two Jazzes, all strung with LaBella flats. I am now waiting for another Precision to be delivered and will almost certainly change the strings to a set of flats once I've had a chance to check the bass over. As I haven't any spare flats at the moment (other than a set of LaBella's I had on an Epiphone Casady for a while) I need to buy a new set. How does the sound of the Rotosound flats compare to the the LaBellas? Having read this thread from start to finish since lunch, I am inclined to opt for a set of 40-100 Rotosound flats, as they are both cheaper than LaBella and much easier to find, as I can pick up a set in Oxford tomorrow.