Happy Jack

Sorry Jon, but I'm still struggling to get past the ... erm ... well, it's where a headstock would normally be. 😂 For (originally) a £99 bass the rest of it looks seriously fit for purpose, mind.

In fairness, that only happens occasionally in pubs.

Given the name of the band, there's an obvious irony here ...

Re-titled to avoid (further) confusion.

Don't be fooled my by sister's sheet music ... I was banging out honky-tonk blues.

Agreed that the condition is almost worryingly good, but the finish on those very early Precisions does seem to have been less prone to checking. Here's my very early 1957: Now compare that to my 1966:

Mine of course. That's a 6W Clubman. In my studio it sits next to a 12W Westminster and a 17W Dominator.

Mind you, no matter how good those pedals are, they can't save you from

Incidentally, this is what we're talking about:

The Question I'm Asked Most Often Is ... "Is that a cello?" BUT The question I'm asked most often by other musicians is, "How do you do those harmony vocals?". There doesn't seem to be a thread anywhere about BVs, so I thought I'd stick this here. At every live gig with my two main bands, I bring That's a Pedaltrain Nano (plus an extra pedal off to the left) fitted on top with a Diago mains power distribution and underneath with a battery pack that can deliver up to 1A - note the label on the Harmoniser pedal. The bread and butter end of the board is I still rate the red Mic Mechanic as one of the most useful things any vocalist can carry, a genuine Swiss Army Knife of a vocal pedal. https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DDW The green Duplicator is, essentially, a Mic Mechanic with the Echo function replaced by live ADT, really useful if you need a voice 'thickened up' on stage. https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DDX In The Junkyard Dogs I route lead singer Rick through the Mic Mechanic and drummer/BVs Paul through the Duplicator. In Damo & The Dynamites I route lead singer Damo through the Duplicator and I put my own voice through the Mic Mechanic solely for some subtle pitch correction ... essential (IMHO) if you're going to use a harmoniser of any kind. Ah yes, the harmoniser. For that we need the other end of the board. Since The Junkyard Dogs routinely sing in 3-part harmony there's no call for a harmoniser pedal. For those gigs, I swop out the harmoniser for the TC Helicon Voicetone X1 (on the left there). I've always sung and I carry a tune well, but my voice is a muddy baritone which simply does not cut through in a pub rock setting. The X1 is frankly a bit of a novelty act thing; it has eight settings, of which just one I find useful but thats OK, I only need that one setting! https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DE4 With Damo & The Dynamites it's a whole nother thang. The drummer doesn't sing so all the BVs are me, and we do a lot of stuff where the song is 'made' by the harmony BVs ... think how lame a lot of early Elvis would have sounded without The Jordanaires. To achieve that I use the TC Helicon Voicetone H1, and that's the pedal that gets noticed; used wrong it's the most complete train wreck you can imagine, but used right it can really deliver. This pedal has the facility to run your guitar/bass through it which will automatically set the correct key, which is cool but of surprisingly limited use. Firstly, if you operate it like a pedal (i.e. with your foot) then you are either restricted to a single set of harmonies or you have to kneel down and fiddle with it between songs. Secondly, if you play a fretless bass or a double bass then the smallest error in your intonation can have catastrophic impact. 😂 I keep the whole board at waist height beside me and operate it manually. Note the Tippex marks at E and A for easy location on a dark stage. As an aside, on one occasion I used this pedal to tune my bass at a gig ... I sang each note (EADG) with the pedal correcting my pitch, and tuned to it. https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DE1 When multiple harmonies are not needed but I still want it to sound as if more than one person is supplying BVs I switch to the TC Helicon Critical Mass. This is something of a halfway house between the Duplicator and the Voicetone H1; it can be used in quite a subtle way but it certainly beefs up the sound of a stripped-down 3-piece. https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0CGT I should probably state for the record that I am NOT sponsored by or affiliated to TC Helicon ... I just like their pedals. All five of these were bought by me, with my own money. Speaking of which, all these pedals have increased in price substantially since I bought them, by well over 50% in a couple of cases. On the other hand, we now have blue passports. For context, in the unlikely event that someone wanted to duplicate precisely my vocal pedal board today, and bought new all the way (I always buy pre-owned if I can), they would still have change from a grand. That's including the Nano and both power supplies. If my board got nicked and I needed to replace it, I would expect to spend half that figure. Now ask yourself how much a half-decent bass guitar costs ...

Did you know you've fitted your tuners upside down? 😉

1972 2022

He could tell you, but then he'd have to kill you.

What about the other two? 😉

Lucky Lucky Lucky ...

Sometimes the bassist has to provide support activities for the audience, too.

Bring back the newsagent's window, I say!

6lbs 7ozs? Absolutely outrageous! 😂😎

Charts? At a jam? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!

Clingfilm.

Absolutely gob-smacked by this craftsmanship, Andy.

Bizarrely enough, I lived in a big shared house on Mortlake Road in Kew in the mid-70s with a bunch of school friends who were wannabee rockstars and were obsessed with AC/DC. One night they had a particularly heavy session on the indulgences. The next morning I got up and looked out of my window at the South Circular, to find that they had spray-painted their new band name in six-foot letters across the entire road. That name? Well of course it was TNT.

When choosing a mic for a female singer, the most important thing is to avoid giant teddy bears.

Most jam nights have a core of regulars, at least some of whom will play the same (bloody) songs every (bloody) week. It's well worth a couple of scouting missions to check out the vibe, the repertoire, and what you're up against, before announcing loudly "I play bass". 🤨 Those musicians who always play Alright Now or The Thrill Is Gone or Rocking In The Free World or whatever are not necessarily a bad thing, because at least you can prep those specific songs and then drop a few hints. More broadly, at a well-attended jam night each combination of players that gets up will very likely be unique, never played together before in that line-up. That puts a premium on calling songs that any competent musician should know, the sort of pop/rock hits that turn up on every covers band's set list. If you (as a bassist) want to call any songs at all, then you'd better be able to take lead vocals.

In 2016, the aircon unit cost £800 plus £200 for necessary bits to install it plus £350 for the actual installation, so £1350 overall plus VAT to take it to £1620. I don't imagine it's got any cheaper since then. This is an aircon rated for a small industrial unit, maybe 1500SF, installed in a space that's well below 500SF, so it's quite deliberate overkill. In six years it has never missed a beat, never misbehaved, and given how much time I've spent in there I'm happy with the decision I made at the time. To the very best of my knowledge, basses and amplification have no need for climate control. The only thing they respond really badly to is rapid change (in temperature or humidity or both), especially if that can lead to condensation. I, on the other hand, am a far more delicate petal ...