Happy Jack

Yes ... I found his fingers in the gigbag and it was all there.

An hour ago, I was actually holding Pino's red Precision. Seriously.

We have an old expression in England about opinions, Gianni, but you are of course welcome to yours, as I said six years ago! Have you ever played an Alleva-Coppolo? I'm guessing not. Have you played a Fodera or an Alembic? I know nothing about you so perhaps you have, but if you had I suspect that you would not be so dismissive of high-end luthier-built basses.

You appear to be a man of taste and discrimination. Could I perchance interest you in a pair of copper-wound gut strings for a double bass? They have an attractive reddish hue ...

And it shows the Ali Kat in the background, too.

Paging @Silvia Bluejay ...

Even by my very low standards, that's appalling.

And then Lockdown hit and everything went quiet for a couple of months. Mid-May and we had our first rehearsal (in a civically-reponsible, socially-distanced sort of way) out in my two acres of woodlands up in the Chilterns, and I was struggling. The Red Diamonds still hadn't settled, and the bass need to have the tuning checked - especially the E and A - after each and every song. In June we had several more outdoor rehearsals, and the bloody strings still wouldn't settle. Yesterday we had our third session in July and I finally lost it. Enough is enough, this is no longer acceptable, and I simply wouldn't be prepared to play a proper gig with these strings on my bass. Luckily enough, I am associated with Double Bass String Resource Support Group (sometimes known as @Clarky) and he was able to talk me down from the ceiling and recommend a fix. I will shortly be ordering the E and A strings from a set of Evah Pirazzi Slaps and seeing how they sit alongside the D and G strings from Red Diamond. Watch this space.

The coffee mug is there for scale. The brown paper is to fill the empty space. And what have I actually bought? Yes ... it's a clip-on tuner.

Damn! Rumbled ...

Don't mention the singer's facelift.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Well that might explain the pricing oddities, I suppose ...

Good article, but very confused by the on-screen pricing. I appreciate that each of us may well be offered different choices, but for example I get 2. D’Addario Xl Ecb81 Chromes Flat Wound Get these if you're after long-lasting brightness Street price: $25 £42.95 VIEW AT AMAZON £44 View at Amazon £44.50 View at Amazon This isn't to do with UK£ / US$ exchange rates, or shipping + taxes, because across the article I get as many options where the strings are way cheaper as when they're way pricier.

Well it wouldn't be rock'n'roll with a sausage dog, now would it?

I grew it under the heading of Things To Do Under Lockdown. Then I got bored and shaved it off. Then I grew it again. Watch this space ...

https://www.facebook.com/Ericbaixo

OK, agreed that the TC tuners are both unavailable at present (not that I'd need a poly tuner anyway) it seems the Peterson is the way to go, despite the vomit-inducing corporate videos that they submit you to when trying to find out more. Ordered from DV247 ... we shall see.

Interesting, I thought it was just me. My first Snark had a structural failure on the plastic clip which rendered it useless, and I'd also noticed the battery life issue. OK, time for something new then ...

I love it when I see a post from someone I've never heard of, and then discover that they've been on the site for years and years!

Drat ... I thought it was Asschat.

Well Hell! If they're individually signed by Ped, then how can I resist?

Never been to Maracas ... they tell me it's nice.

It's a dangerous place, the Internet. 10 years ago I was experimenting with 'clever' straps intended to reduce the number of back problems I was getting. At the time I was mainly playing 9lb basses and above - but not too much above. I tried a variety of double-shoulder straps by people like Dare and the Slider system used by US postmen (stop sniggering) but eventually decided that the only real solution was to buy lighter basses and combine them with a Comfort Strapp on every bass. This led directly to my obsession with instruments from Mike Lull, and my enormous collection of Comfort Strapps. I've used them exclusively for years now. I still have three Lull basses, and they're still very light, but I have also ended up playing a 9.5lb Rickenbacker as my frontline bass in my main band. Thanks to Pilates I am now in way better shape than I was 10 years ago, but it can still be hard work playing a 3-setter with the Rick so I thought I'd have another look at double-shoulder straps. And I found this. The leather is thick, padded, soft & sumptuous ... it's just a really lovely thing and it feels great on the shoulders. The double-shoulder system works exactly as I'd hoped, and there's no 'scissor' effect with the two sides trying to dig into my neck - this was a problem with some of the nylon straps I tried previously. And of course, much as I love my Comfort Strapps, there's no denying that this is far better looking. The strap is the Spider by EVO in Brazil and it cost US$160 plus $45 for shipping with DHL. That ain't cheap, but the guy behind Evo (Eric Silva) offered me a second strap (a Riviera) at half price, down from $130 to $65. I wasn't sure what I would use it for, but I bought it anyway. On arrival, serendipity cut in big time, and it turned out to be a perfect match for my Safran Iris Custom. It's another beautiful strap, the leather is soft and supple and very comfortable on the shoulder, and the C&W styling works perfectly with the bass. Not to mention the colour! Well now of course I'm on a roll, and I've been looking through Eric's designs, and I realise that a classic disco strap would be a perfect match for the Gus G3 that I bought recently from @BigRedX. The bass is so completely over the top that it cries out for a look-at-me strap, and I have fond memories of @MacDaddy's rather battered disco strap. This one is a Comfort (not to be confused with Comfort Strapp) and cost $120 plus $45 shipping. Once again it made sense to do the 50% for the second strap thing and save on shipping, and my 1965 Precision deserved some pampering, so I bought another one, this time in gold. On the subject of shipping, and having suffered many times with getting stuff shipped from the USA, I was genuinely startled at the transit times from Brazil. The first pair of straps took just six days to get here following payment; the second pair of straps took an unbelievable FOUR days. Eric is a pleasure to deal with, and there's no 5-hour time difference to negotiate so communication is 'real time'. Highly recommended.

Stop quibbling! It's lush ...