Misdee

Allan was a bit of a connoisseur when it came to beer. If he was back in the UK he liked to take full advantage of the draft beers available. It was one of the things he missed the most after moving to California. It also probably helped that he was a true virtuoso who could play better in his sleep than most other big name guitarists could ever aspire to at their best.🙂 Not only do I play better after a few drinks but I am also funnier and much more charming. Certainly seems that way to me, anyway.😕

Sometimes a slight misalignment can be remedied by.taking the neck off and screwing it back on again in a truer position. I'm not saying it will necessarily work in this case, but it's easy enough to try. I've got a made in Indonesia Skyline 44-02 Deluxe fretless and it's a fantastic bass. No dots on the fingerboard, so I really couldn't comment on that. I really cannot fault it as for anything else, though. As for the routing on the pickup and the headstock, that would annoy me more than the misalignment because it is much harder to fix. If you still fancy a new Lakland then what you need to establish is whether this is a rogue bass or are all the Skylines like this nowadays. I would contact Lakland and see what they say about it.

I think the MK3 Wal is potentially a bit lighter than the MK1/ MK2 designs. I had a custom Jaydee back in the day, but I was much younger and weight wasn't an issue in those days. Back in the 1980s if I had gone a shop and tried to discuss the relative weight of a bass they would have considered me a bit weird. I know that Jaydee can substitute the mahogany body wings for lighter ash if weight is an issue for the customer. Generally speaking, the obsession with weight is a more recent phenomenon. I don't like heavy basses either, but some basses are inherently heavy, and vintage Wals are definitely one of them. I don't entertain any bass over 9 1/2 pounds and all the older Wals I've got to play were probably a bit more than that. Just like with a Series 1 and Series 2 Alembic, the weight is a compromise you have to make if you want to play one. Is it just me or is "vintage Wal" a bit of an uncomfortable phrase in so much as it's a bass that embodied an era of modernity in all things bass? Probably just me getting old.☹️

Nice bass but I'm not keen on those block markers. Dots would look better to me.

Well, the first thing I noticed was the new basses were lighter than any older Wal basses I've ever played. That is not a quality issue as such, but it is a thing. The quality of the woodworking was better on Paul's basses in so much as everything was neat and symmetrical, often not the case on the old Wals. Attention to detail and overall fit and finish was much better. By that I mean things like that the nut on Paul's basses is cut so there the same amount of space from the edge of the outer strings to the edge of the fingerboard. On vintage Wals that metric is fairly hit and miss. However, the most significant difference for the chap who owns the basses in question ( fretted and fretless respectively) is that Paul has guaranteed him that on the new basses the truss rod is anchored more securely inside the channel. He previously owned three MK1 Wals made between 1985 and 1988 and two of them developed the same problem with the truss rod coming loose within the neck and rattling sympathetically with certain notes. This is a documented problem on a fair few older Wal basses and it can be very tricky to fix.

Exactly this. When I played a couple of Paul Herman era Wals I was really struck by how much attention to detail had gone into them. The old basses were good but Paul has made his basses to be on the same level as the other money is no object bass builders. By contrast original Wal basses were professional quality instruments equal to any of their fellow British bass builders of that era, but they weren't the unobtainable holy relics which they have become to some folks nowadays. You could walk into a shop and buy one off the rack for a bit more money than a Music Man Stingray, a bit less money than a Status Series 2 and about the same price as a Jaydee Mark King. And they were always more popular down south than up north, for some reason. I like Wal basses, but they were always an idiosyncratic design. To my sensibilities they have their strengths and their weaknesses. They certainly sound unique, and I love the fact that they have such a pedigree. I would hate it if they went down the Sadowky route.

Regarding Wal pricing, to put things in perspective, I remember that in 1987 a new standard MK1 Wal 4 string cost £790 and the case was an extra £90. That's the equivalent of £2055 in today's money.

Well, as far as I recall, in their heyday Wal had maybe four or five people working directly on the basses, by the 1990s one of whom was Paul Herman. I've played the new Paul Herman era basses and I suspect one reason they are so back ordered is because they are much better made nowadays. Back in the day Wals were a bit inconsistent when it came to some of the finer points of fit and finish compared with what folks expect from companies like Alembic or Fodera. In comparison the basses Paul is making now are absolutely meticulous and easily compare to the very best basses made anywhere. Before I get piled on by vintage Wal owners, let me just clarify that the older Wals were top quality basses but they sold at a much lower price point and were made in larger numbers. They were hand made basses, but I think the amount of hours spent making each one was probably less than now . The approach to making them in those days was a practical one, I think it would be fair to say. Paul Herman comes from a sightly different background in so much as he studied instrument making at the Guildhall and is much more methodical in his approach. You can really tell that when you compare the newer basses with the vintage ones. I wouldn't want Paul to compromise on the quality of his basses, but then again, I'm not desperate to buy one. A lot of folks are.

That's a fair point, but the reality is that a sizable swath of viewers will see it as an accurate representation of events. And what is most unforgivable is the way in which the characters speak in headlines to sign post a narrative for the hard-of-understanding. " We're gonna kick this country awake if it kills us!" How prophetic, how tragic, how prescient. I suppose why all this makes me so hot under the collar is twofold. Firstly, it's yet another example of how, encouraged by broad sheet music journalists intent on rewriting history to serve their own ends, rock music has developed an execrable tendency towards self mythologising. Secondly,I know only too well how this series will be seen by many as conclusive evidence that punk rock saved us from an economic and cultural abyss brought about by a mixture of inbreeding, indolence and Harold Wilson's Labour government. It's a post Britpop version of history made by a Britpop film director. Give it a few more years and Danny Boyle will be making a series about how Britpop saved British culture from being swallowed by American grunge music, how Oasis were the new Beatles and Rolling Stones all at once and singlehandedly got Tony Blair elected and Trainspotting was a landmark film which laid bare the lives of Britain's underclass.

To my ears Never Mind The Bollocks is a terrific rock and roll album. If folks want to call it punk and hail it as revolutionary that is up to them. Chris Thomas's production work makes the most of the Sex Pistols strengths and hides their weaknesses.

I'm going to watch some more tonight so I can be even more annoyed tomorrow.

I would cheerfully watch the whole series if I had the time as a guilty pleasure. But it's a complete fiction on every level. What irks me about it is the way this show presents itself as a serious historical dissection of the 1970s. It also perpetuates the same old lazy falsehoods that punk rock and the Sex Pistols in particular arrived in the nick of time revive pop music and popular culture in general. Contrary to this propagated version of British history, in reality the 1970s was a pretty good time to live in this country. And most people were perfectly happy to with the music they were listening to pre-1977. That's not surprising because there was so much great music in the 1970s. Punk rock was a novelty because of its shock value. Nothing more than that. It was not the salvation of Western Civilization as some would try have you believe nowadays. I can certainly see why John Lydon is upset about it. It really is a Disney version of reality.

What a lovely bass! I quite fancy one like that myself. I hope you get a lot of pleasure from playing and owning it. Sounds like it would be very versatile, while still having a character of its own.

I am not in a band at the moment but if I was I would simply send the unwanted member a letter telling them that unfortunately due to Brexit, competition from developing countries oversees and rising.costs coupled with the overall economic situation after COVID that there is no alternative but to give them the push. I would offer them a severance package including some money-off tokens for Pizza Hut and half a roll of gaffer tape and then block their calls forthwith. Cruel but kinder in the long term.

I saw some of this the other day. I had expected it to be awful, but it was much worse than that.

I like both/either, depending on the bass. What I mean by that is any bass is a sum of it's parts and overall construction. A satisfying instrument might have a bolt-on neck or be neck-thru, but if it is enjoyable to use then that is enough. I am not too hung up on the construction method. I can remember back in the early 1980s when received wisdom was that neck-thru was superior, but that was long before bass players went forwards by going backwards and adopted the new orthodoxy that modern was wrong and vintage retro is right.

Funnily enough, back in the late 1980s I bought a brand new condition sunburst/maple 1978 Jazz Bass from Carlsboro in Mansfield that looked pretty much identical to this one. I remember it was in absolutely mint condition, like it had never been played.

I really like this guy. Great playing, great hairstyle, great everything really. Thanks for bringing him to my attention!🙂 I find it particularly refreshing that stylistically this gentleman is an unashamedly 1980's-style bass player. I'm not sure if that hair is classed as a mullet (and if I understand correctly, it's pretty much the law in Australia that men have to have their hair in such a fashion), but it really adds to the overall sound. I could see this chap becoming a role model to an older generation of bass players. If he isn't already.

No doubt Putin will be pulling out the troops immediately now that the Eurovision vote has gone against him. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. To a man of Putin's sensibilities, Eurovision ( and any other symbol of pan-European cultural integration, however trivial) just confirms his conviction that, by any means necessary, Russia must protect its borders and sphere of influence. .

On reflection,you are quite right. If it's on YouTube it must be true.

If you believe the conclusions of every investigation supposedly debunking the myths of what contributes to the tone of a guitar/bass then you would have to come to the conclusion that nothing really contributes much to the character of the sound. Which leaves the question why in that case don't all guitars/basses sound the same and what makes individual instruments sound how they do? So basically you are back where you started and none the wiser. Common sense tells me that something must be making a difference. What that something is will vary from one design to another. Some manufacturers claims are spurious, some are not. You have to use the wits that God has given you to make your own decisions. I would suggest that, if possible, you play the instrument in question and see if it sounds good to you. That is the scientific method that I have found most consistent.

Lovely bass. I would like it even more with black hardware. The low notes feel further away because of the small compact body with a top horn that only extends to about the 17th fret. You will adjust to it, I am sure 🙂. Warwick basses from this era built in West Germany are a completely different proposition to the instruments bearing the Warwick name nowadays. I remember when Warwick basses first came out and they were so distinctive in terms of sound, feel and looks, ( even though it looked distinctly like they had copied Spector). These were proper handmade basses with a great modern tone. Very much an object of desire for trendy bass players back in 1988. Enjoy your new bass, it's a genuine classic of the era.

I enjoy Eurovision, but I preferred it when it was Europop rather than Finnish death metal bands. Like most things nowadays, it's not what it used to be. The charm of Eurovision was that it had unselfconsciously morphed into a unique musical and cultural entity that was a world unto itself. Nowadays it has become too self-regarding. Still worth watching, though, if only to make me feel thankful that I was born British.

Eurovision is an celebrated event in gay subculture. I don't think there is anything controversial in that statement.🙂

To be fair, poverty may be the real reason why Britain is not too keen to get back to winning ways.😄 I know that Israel is included because for decades it has been part of an organisation called the European Television Union and is therefore eligible. Presumably Australia is now a participant because a large proportion of the population is British/European/gay (or combination thereof).