Happy Jack

We're not going to be a Stones Tribute, but we fancy playing the best songs written by the Stones PLUS the best Stones songs that they didn't actually play. We can choose our own selection from the Stones back catalogue - at least, that part of the catalogue when they were actually making great music. For the non-Stones Stones there are some obvious markers: Rocks and Moving On Up by Primal Scream thrust themselves to the front of the queue, elbowing aside Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols, but I'm sure I'm missing loads of great candidates. Throwing this out to The Basschat Massive ... what have you got for me?

Yup, first version all the way. That line works, and it grooves, and - best of all - it doesn't do that stupid slappy look-at-me thing.

The Bass Centre had long since departed from Wapping by the time I bought my first bass. On the other hand, last night I was playing a Westone 'The Rail' which attracted far more attention from the musos and punters than my Wals ever used to.

Asking for a friend.

As near as I can make out, he's playing sitting down.

Fit a 3-pin plug and go straight to mains. Just make sure that you use a 5A fuse and proper shielding ...

There never was an umlaut on the logo. I've owned many vintage Hofners and I have a 1964 Violin Bass 500/1 hanging next to me as I write. If you want to really get stuck into these things, the Bible for many, many years has been https://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/

Actually, that's several beasts sharing one instrument.

Those strings will still be going strong long after you're dead & gone ... if it ain't bust, don't fix it. Worse, those who start 'experimenting' with different strings on DB turn into perennial fettlers facing bankruptcy. On an amplified DB, there's not a lot that can be achieved sonically by changing strings that can't be achieved faster, cheaper, and more reversibly using the knob-thingies on the amp.

Checking out who Kenneth Lawrence is led to me to this very strange site: https://salefuet.best/product_tag/37018278_.html I have absolutely no idea what is going on there.

SOOOOO many questions. What's that made of? What are the dimensions? What distinguishes A from A2 from B quality? Do these meet all the relevant regs about import/export of hardwoods? What's the shipping cost? Would you send c.$200 to a complete stranger in India?

This popped up in my FB feed:

That website has been turning up in comments on Basschat for ever. I've never seen this guy as a crook. His joke listings are more of a publicity stunt to attract attention and comment ... and they work! If anyone is stupid/drunk enough to actually buy any of that stuff at those prices, then good luck to him.

Erm ... why did the body need restoring?

So this Active 10T will actually and definitely make me a better bass player?

This ^ And de-fretting an existing neck is pretty much irreversible. Do this and find that you don't like it and you're stuffed ... you no longer have the bass you liked so much, you can't convert it back again, and you've destroyed the resale value. +1 for buying an after-market fretless neck, then source the hardware you need (tuners, string-tree, etc.) pre-owned either here on Basschat or through eBay. No real need to buy new if you're strapped for cash. As a matter of personal taste I've never really 'got' lined fretlesses. They don't look fretless unless you get up close and you know what you're looking for, so you get no Wow! factor, and the only person who can't see the lines is you, the player. It all seems a bit silly. I've always preferred to have fret-end markers inserted instead. You look down at the edge of the fretboard/fingerboard and you see where the frets would be if there were any frets. I find that system to be well inside my comfort zone.

Thwaites are confident that the bass can be recovered, so my Kolstein now resides in Bushey until further notice. Strangely enough, they are far more relaxed about the sunken table than I am. Apparently it looks far worse than it is.

Bin there, dun that, got too fat for the t-shirt. As a complete numpty when it comes to electrickery, one thing I've learned about pedal boards is that sometimes they develop some sort of [non-technical gibberish alert] standing wave in the power supply which acts as a roadblock to the signal. There's nothing wrong with any of the pedals, or any of the cables, or the power supply, but the problem won't go away until you completely disconnect every single thing and then start over. The first time this happened I thought someone was playing tricks on me. By the third or fourth time it was just routine ...