Happy Jack

Norman Stanley Fletcher, you are an habitual musician ...

Bwahahahahahahahaha!!! How many people can leave a Forum and still be getting Feedback 2.5 years later? Come back Clarky ... you know it makes sense.

Really? I've played mainly fives for nearly 10 years and I still do it.

Pah! Kids of today, eh?

Doh!

But most Brits of our generation grew up listening to Hofners ...

Broadly speaking, lines on a fretless are pointless - you can't see them when you're playing, can you? If you can, try and have a go on a fretless with "fret-end markers" like this: All the comfort blanket of a fretted bass, but to the audience (and the rest of the band) you look like a fretless-playing God. If you can't find one with the markers already in place, any decent luthier will insert them into the unlined fretless of your choice for very little money.

In country music, women and forefront are two words that really go together ...

Excellent! I've managed to avoid her entire career. I thought it was just rap artists I did that to.

And according to her website & Wikipaedia entry she's sold "over 50 millions albums" too. That's more than 50. Dave Matthews Band -- 33.5 million units 49. Phil Collins -- 33.5 million units 48. Britney Spears -- 34 million units 47. Bon Jovi -- 34.5 million units 46. Queen -- 34.5 million units 45. Def Leppard -- 35 million units 44. Bob Dylan -- 36 million units 43. Tupac Shakur -- 36.5 million units 41. Backstreet Boys -- 37 million units 39. Tim McGraw -- 37.5 million units 39. Foreigner -- 37.5 million units 38. Rod Stewart -- 38 million units 37. Simon & Garfunkel -- 38.5 million units 36. Chicago -- 38.5 million units 35. Eric Clapton -- 40 million units 34. Reba McEntire -- 41 million units 33. Santana -- 43.5 million units 32. Alan Jackson -- 43.5 million units 30. Eminem -- 44.5 million units 30. Guns N' Roses -- 44.5 million units 30. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band -- 44.5 million units 29. Alabama -- 46.5 million units 28. Kenny Rogers -- 47.5 million units 25. Shania Twain -- 48 million units 25. Kenny G -- 48 million units 25. Journey -- 48 million units 23. Neil Diamond -- 49.5 million units 23. Fleetwood Mac -- 49.5 million units 22. Celine Dion -- 50 million units ... which is actually kind of impressive. It's good to know that you can rely on statistics readily-available in the public domain. Or not. Incidentally, does anyone have a clue who some of those people actually are? Tupac Shakur? Reba McEntire?

Not being sold by a copywriter, by the look of it.

Two slightly distorted guitars.

Does artificial rosewood produce plastic roses?

They're decent basses and the sliding pickup idea works surprisingly well, but they were built down to a budget and they were let down by the electrics, especially the pickup. My black one has a Dark Star pickup and all-new wiring and it sounds absolutely wonderful. I sold the red one years ago precisely because it sounded so meh.

This luthiery stuff is really easy, isn't it ... oops!

The most important thing to know about DMX is how to avoid having anything to do with it. Unless you're playing the O2 I suppose.

Here's my old one: And here's my current one: And the two of them together cost less than he wants for the one in that listing!

So this is the very bass that Jaco played. Except for the strings, obviously. And the frets and the bridge saddles. And the pots. And the finish. And the decal. But the two big bits of wood are original, and maybe the pickups too. I mean, who knows after all these years, right? Cheap at half the price. If this was a five I'd be all over it.

Well now, that's a pretty wide field.

One man's "essential" is another's "eurgh!".

Or you could just say, "That's a Godawful song and I have no intention of wasting any of my life playing it. Next?".

Just wondering what string they fit to these? 29" is a very unusual scale length. Someone asked if this bass would be the same size as a Strat ... I reckon it must be about 3" longer than a Strat, maybe more.

That bridge is a thing of beauty, and who would want to have even string spacing anyway?