Happy Jack

Banbury, not Bicester. Banbury, not Bicester. Banbury, not Bicester. Banbury, not Bicester. 😉

Would this be a good moment to mention how much I detest all metal? No? Fair enough. Alright Officer, I'll come quietly ...

What has it got in its pocketses?

And how many high-end preamps have I bought from you over the years? 😂

And this is why people say bass players are cool ...

It's clearly a lovely pedal and produces some lovely sounds ... but £650 for an overdrive? I play 70/80 paid gigs a year and my entire bass rig isn't worth that much! Like every other bass player I can't resist buying still more pedals, each of which is sure to make me sound utterly God-like. And when I listen to live recordings from my gigs, even I can't hear changes of settings, sometimes I can't even hear when I stomp in a new FX. Worst of all, when I DO hear an improvement and think 'Wow!', after 30 seconds I can't hear that any more ... my ears have re-set to the new sound and it sounds like, well, bass. If you want it and you can afford it then why not? Buy it. I want it and I can afford it but I'm still not going to buy one!

I imagine you've already seen this:

Ah yes, the famous 45-minute extended version of Sweet Home Alabama ... 😱😱😱

You say you want revaluation ... well, you know ... we all want to change the world. 😉

My two main bands are a 60s/70s covers band (Beatles & Stones, Kinks & The Who, T.Rex & Bowie, Status Quo & Clash) and a full-on rock'n'roll / rockabilly outfit. Current side projects include classic 60s soul, modern retro-originals, obscure Americana. Past side-projects have included steampunk folk, mournful singer-songwriter, diva torch singer, late 60s power trio ... you get the picture. 😎 It's a barrel of laughs, it never gets boring, it keeps me young. What's not to like?

I'm in a (broadly) similar situation to @Len_derby. At any given moment, I am usually playing in two front-line gigging bands plus a variety of side projects (some of which lead to gigs and some of which crash & burn). For me this is easy because the only thing that can cause trouble is direct clashes and, since @Silvia Bluejay and I get ALL the gigs for BOTH main bands, the only diaries we need to manage are our own. I never play in two bands who do the same sort of stuff and who could therefore be seen to be 'in competition' with each other, like Len I'm always completely up-front when I first meet potential new bandmates, and above all I run my diary on the basis of 'first in the diary gets it'. I have no interest at all in which gig pays more money or might be more fun ... if I'm booked then I'm booked and I turn down any other offers. All my bandmates in all my bands know the position (I try to be genuinely open and transparent on all this) and it virtually never leads to friction.

Hit a wolf note on that and it might shatter. Ah well, at least feedback won't be a problem.

Almost universally described as Mother Of Toilet Seat ...

Are you asking about the width of the neck, or the width of the four strings - i.e. from E to G? My 1963 500/1 is 40mm at the nut and 46mm at the 12th fret (so not really parallel), and the string width is 33mm at the nut and 37mm at the 12th fret.

Isn't it amazing what you can do with some plywood, a bit of glue, and far too much opium?

It's in Las Vegas. Seller reckons that finding someone stupid enough to buy this is a million-to-one shot but it might just work.

I wondered why the pedal looked so much like a 54 P-bass and then realised the enormous photo was actually your signature!

Before anyone points out that the large Luminlay dots are a mite clumsy, seeing as they're luminous anyway, I should mention that Andy suggested using much smaller dots for a neater look and tighter intonation. I didn't go with that because I'm well aware that there will be occasions when I forget or don't get a chance to re-charge the dots so I'll be reliant on them just being inherently visible and besides, my intonation is about as tight as a pig on roller skates.

That turtle has sailed ...