Happy Jack

I feel sure that Dave will be hugely flattered by the comparison ...

[quote name='Steff' timestamp='1390397928' post='2344900'] Please excuse the ignorance but... what is this thing? [/quote] It's a sort-of amp bag for people who need to have ... erm ... designer amp bags. I've gigged with amps that cost less than that bag.

[quote name='Immo' timestamp='1390392634' post='2344797'] [/quote] Mmmmm ... chicken-heads.

Option #1: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PETROL-BAG-PS601-small-used-Sound-kit-/131094243156?pt=UK_MusicalInstruments_Parts_Accesories&hash=item1e85d36754 Second-hand, incomplete, not great condition, £150 + £7 postage Option #2: http://www.visuals.co.uk/salesProductDetail.php?PRODUCTID=1307253&gclid=CMHlu_PwkbwCFYNi7AodJy8AOw Brand new, complete and mint, £170 with free P&P

The Junkyard Dogs have decided to dust off Honky Tonk Women and re-introduce it to the setlist. Happy Jack: [i]My cowbell is far deeper than the one on the record - Charlie Watts has a much higher tone with his[/i]. Paul The Drums: [i]Well, you can get cowbells of different sizes to give you different pitches[/i]. MacDaddy: [i]Maybe he's using a vealbell[/i].

Saw this in the window at Wunjo's (Denmark Street). On-board synthesizer is it?

[quote name='Marc1t' timestamp='1390237706' post='2342986'] ... if I ever get to the stage ill pretend to be Norman Watt-Roy one of my heroes ... [/quote] That's an easy one ... wear Gollum make-up and sweat buckets (and I do mean buckets). I go to see NWR play as often as I can, used to watch him frequently with Wilko Johnson, once went to see him at The 100 Club with my leg in a cast following a motorbike accident and spent the entire gig with my cast resting on the stage by his feet just outside the sweat puddle. When I grow up I want to play like Norman.

Is the Deeside Inn free admission?

You guys aren't thinking laterally enough. FIT SPEAKERS IN THE CUPBOARD FFS!

Try putting your hands together and splaying out your thumb and fingers as far as they'll go without pain. Even after only a few months, you'll see that your fretting hand can stretch further than your plucking hand. By the time you've played for two or three years, you should see a difference of maybe a centimetre. IME that's pretty much where the process stops, i.e. your fretting hand doesn't continue to stretch until you turn into something out of The Fantastic Four, but then (hard to believe) but I'm on the wrong side of ... ahem ... 30.

Dunno. That idea wouldn't work with a J/J because of the interaction between the two single coils, so you'd have to test it by setting up a P/J as V/V/T controls. I have several P/J basses, but they are all fundamentally Precisions with (adapted) Precision controls, and all have a pan control ('cos I like pan controls, me).

I have a Mike Lull PJ5 where he's done something a bit different ... the pan control doesn't pan [b]from [/b]the P-pickup [b]to [/b]the J-pickup, instead the P-pickup is always on and the pan control simply [b]adds [/b]progressively more of the J-pickup to the constant sound of the P-pickup. I have several PJ Precisions where the pan does what it normally does and I always just use the P-pickup, but this Mike Lull system genuinely adds something since it means I can play [i][b]simple-P[/b][/i] or [i][b]P-with-attitude[/b][/i]. What I can't do with the Lull is play [i]J-bridge-pickup[/i] only, but I've never liked that sound anyway.

[quote name='skychaserhigh' timestamp='1390075835' post='2341252'] I'm not that impressed with the lightweight heads , the older heavier amps just sound and feel better to me . [/quote] Agreed, but it's the old thing about[i][b] weighs 10 times as much, doesn't sound 10 times better[/b][/i]. I love my Matamp and I use it at any gig where it's appropriate. Our NYE gig was not an appropriate venue for a 100W all-valve amp so I took the OTB500 instead. Did it sound as good as the Matamp? No. Did it sound good? Yes. Did anyone else notice? No. Am I glad that I have both? Yes. Do I suffer from some sort of bi-polar disorder? Why would you think that ...

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1389994717' post='2340468'] New strings. [/quote] Hmmmmm. IMHO that's debatable, unless you particularly want the sound of zingy new rounds. With flats you're better off leaving well alone. With rounds you may well prefer the sound of a played-in set. My next studio session will be on DB and I certainly won't be putting on new strings for that!

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1390104390' post='2341519'] And there's yet another new interesting looking Harley Benton fretless bass. A U-bass copy, it appears. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_kahuna_clu_bass_fl.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...clu_bass_fl.htm[/url] [/quote] If that's any good, then at £100 it's scarily good VFM and way, WAY cheaper than Kala ...

[quote name='Noisyjon' timestamp='1390165656' post='2342267'] My 2p worth is go for a nice Fender CS bass. A [color=#ff0000][b]good [/b][/color]FCS bass blows a Bravewood away IMO. [/quote] But there's the problem Jon, there are some very average FCS basses out there too. IMHO a good Bravewood is at least as good as a good FCS, and better than a poor FCS. If you're unfortunate enough to end up with a poor Bravewood (yes, I know) then a good FCS will beat it of course. Once you get out of the mass-produced market and into boutique stuff (and I reckon you know this better than me anyway ) it's not down to the name on the headstock or the value on the price tag, it's down to the individual instrument.

Yup - no argument. When I first got my Matamp it was definitely over-gained, it was unusably loud (for pub gigs) and broke up too soon, but that was the AX7s in the preamp. I swopped them out for AT7s. I played the George IV in Chiswick on Friday, very large place on the High Road and we had at least 200 in the pub and 50 of those on the dance floor. I had the volume at about 8 o'clock on the dial - no, that's not a typo. I was plenty loud. Plenty. I run my Matamp through a Barefaced 69er (a 6x10) with no pedals or boost, and I'm playing a passive 5-string P-Bass (a Mike Lull). It's equally loud - but different - through a Compact+Midget stack. If I was playing the Shepherds Bush Empire or the Forum in Kentish Town, then maybe I'd think about getting a 200W valve amp. That ain't gonna happen. I've never yet played a gig that called for more volume than my current rig can turn out, and still retain loads of headroom.

But seeing as this thread has been revived anyway ... [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/Argentina_zps542d94ce.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/Argentina_zps542d94ce.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1390088421' post='2341438'] And whilst Gear4Music were mentioned, what the hell do they do to their stock? It puts me off ever buying anything off them if they treat stuff that badly. [/quote] If you import instruments by the thousand, and they arrive in cardboard boxes which have been stacked 15 high in containers, it's pretty much inevitable that you'll have a significant number of them damaged in transit. It's not just basses. If you search for, say, cellos you'll find the same thing ... plenty get here from China with the headstock snapped off.

[quote name='thebassist' timestamp='1390128833' post='2341651'] I've had two Jazz Basses and moved them both on very quickly. They were very, very good basses but, and I know this might sound weird, but I always felt a bit fake playing them. I would certainly buy another one but I'd want it 10/10 condition - no ageing. [/quote] This is why I sold my Crinson. Utterly gorgeous bass to play, but it was beautifully relic'd and I don't do relic'd. Despite which, it had "Crinson" on the headstock, which I liked. The Bravewood I had was one of the very few unrelic'd instruments he's made, and it was an absolute cracker, right up there with the best basses I've had. I'd have it still were it not that it said "Fender" on the headstock and I don't do fake.

I know at least one drummer who'd swap snare drums mid-set if he thought he'd get away with it ...

And kudos to him for saying it ...

Or use a Sansamp BDDI as your grit pedal. If your amp should blow, just plug it into the PA. My PA is a 4-channel jobbie (700W per channel, allegedly) and we use only three of those channels. If my amp were to blow, I'd simply run the BDDI into channel #4 and connect that channel to my bass cab.

Where they are doesn't matter as much as where the gigs are ...