Happy Jack

Which rather begs the question, what was it that you wanted to cover that with?

That's never Aha ...

A Walk In The Black Forest - Bert Kampfaert

Autobahn - Kraftwerk

McArthur Park - Richard Harris

Without You - Nilsson

Silver Machine - Hawkwind

If you're the one being photographed, and you have no input to what's happening, then let the photographer call the shots while you just try to enjoy the experience. If you (the band) are supposed to be telling the photographer what to do, then sort out your ideas at the pub the night before, not while he stands there laughing and the meter is running. If you think about it, this is the visual equivalent of turning up at a large gig where what the crowd hears will be what the sound guy gives them.

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1451723865' post='2942698'] I would urge you not to take this so personally , perhaps see it like a guy who loves cabinet making in his garage at weekends , but doesn't do it as a professional during the week. [/quote] I need a lightweight cabinet with long scale legs and standard door spacing. Do you think he could make one for me if I specified alder?

The rig was an Aguilar TH350 into a Midget + Compact pairing. Apart from that, I was going through an Earthquaker Warden compressor pedal. It's quite possible that I had turned down the volume slightly for the PT4 because it's such a high output bass. I must confess that I assumed this was down to the pickups rather than the strings ... I've never really thought in terms of "loud" strings before! I absolutely adore that Thunderbird, and it remains #1 bass, but the tone of that PT4 is just to die for. That said, Silvie (Ms. Warwick middy-tone) doesn't like it so much.

I once asked him for his advice on an 8-string (i.e. 4 pairs) and he recommended an Ibanez. He's very keen on them, but I suspect that's partly because he's such a big bugger! I find (on average, YMMV, the value of basses can go down as well as up, past performance is no guarantee of future performance) that Ibanez tend to be seriously heavy basses, real boat anchor stuff. As to the Hootenanny, I've been lucky enough to be gigging every NYE for years so it's a long time since I've been able to comment.

I followed much this line of thinking when I set up The Sapphire Grooves (with Neil the drummer). We'd never been in a band together despite wanting to do so, and we started by asking what a drum'n'bass band should be good at. We came up with ... (drum roll, please) groove. We spent over a year trying to find the right people to play with where all we wanted was songs that grooved. Not fussed with what genre they fall into or how you'd describe them, the one-line pitch was "we play songs with a groove". Are we there yet? Probably not. Does the band have a future? Probably not. Have we played paying gigs? Yes. Have we had fun? Oh yes! As a side project, this sort of thing is solid gold. But IMHO it only works if you also have a main band to focus on.

OK, so here's the Mike Lull PT4 (34" scale) with the Thomastiks, and me trying VERY hard not to dig in too much: http://youtu.be/x2nCtaVZbiY And by way of comparison, here's the Mike Lull T5 (35" scale) with my usual LaBellas on EADG and a Lakland Jo Osborne B-string: http://youtu.be/sTUdPwiU4zY That Thunderbird has been my first-choice gigging bass since I bought it last Easter. Note that both basses have exactly the same Mike Lull Thunderbird pickups, which are quite simply the best I've ever played through.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1451662866' post='2942203'] And why does the word relic look so wrong when used as a verb? [/quote] Cos it's a noun, innit?

Holy Cow! I don't "do" relics at all Mark, but that paint job is simply amazing. Lovely looking bass, I hope to hear it some day soon.

Some people call him Maurice.

Ours was pretty similar to Truckstop's, the Sussex Arms in Twickenham. Small local with a great reputation as a CAMRA stronghold, plus a hog roast. The pub was rammed from start to finish, our 4-piece band had to set up in the amount of space you'd normally use as a large wardrobe, great excitement to be standing next to the door of the Ladies (the Gents was down the other end), the beer was superb with an unexpected tab for the band, and the money was decent too. At the start of Set #2 a large, elderly gentleman came and sat as near the band as he could, and spent the rest of the gig watching me and my playing. At the end of the gig I went up to him and asked if he was a bass player himself since he'd been watching so closely. He replied in a very refined manner / accent (think Sergeant Wilson crossed with Private Godfrey), "Oh no, I've never played, I was watching you because I thought you were so very good." Result! That guy can come back any time ... easily the nicest compliment I've ever received.

Never yet had a string "go dead" on me. Not once. Sounds to me like you need to make the move to flatwounds. Beware though ... it's a one-way ticket. Once you switch to flats you'll not want to play rounds again.

So you actually play it while standing up Dave? I have to say that I think of this as purely a lap bass. It's so big that even disregarding the weight I thought it would be too much for a standing gig.

I've had a hankering for one of these for ages, I used to play Clarky's occasionally (considered buying it), and I played the one in Wunjos a couple of times before Xmas. Truth is, it's a strange beast and hard to employ sensibly. The curvature of the finger board (to full DB status) may allow bowing in theory, but it's hard to imagine anyone actually playing TB10 as an upright - surely anyone capable of bowing would rather play a DB? - and it certainly makes playing it as an electric Fretless more challenging. The one thing that bass gives you is the classic DB tone in a Fretless electric, but only so long as you can cope with the radius and the high action. I think of the TB10 as an excellent studio bass or home noodler, but I'm really not sure under what circumstances I would gig one live. I still want one, mind, I just don't have any real justification for it!

I'm still trying to imagine The Agony And The Ecstasy done as a panto, with Rex Harrison trying to creep up on Charlton Heston while the audience howls "he's behind you!".

Loving it to bits. Planning to debut it on NYE.

Jon Shuker is great but, in fairness, you specified a black bass. Now had you specified a primary colour, it would have gone tits up.

How are you getting on with P5 Nick?

I just did a straight swop of my bass strung with LaBella FLs for his bass strung with TI flats - interesting. I've not played the TI strings before and I immediately liked them, very comfortable under the fingers, pleasant tone. But my fingers are attuned to playing FLs and I do like to dig in ... my own mother would never describe my technique as "subtle". The result is that I play the TIs too hard. That's hardly the fault of the strings, so I need to work on remembering to back off a little when playing that bass. Swopping out the strings is not on the To Do list.