NancyJohnson

I couldn't bear to be in a covers band*, I've seen a few too many and well, I find the whole experience kind of awful. Everyone who knows me knows this is my stance. *That said, detest playing covers too - but don't tell our singer. Half our set is stuff that our he had some success with in the 1980s/90s, plus Suffragette City and Did You No Wrong. I'd honestly prefer to do more original material. Occasionally, I'll get a comment that something isn't right and I'll just mutter something about having no point of reference (mainly because I've not actually listened to any of it). Take it as you may, if you don't like what I'm doing, then sack me; it's not like I'm making £££. What I'm playing is a country mile better than what's on the originals.

But what quantifies 'lower quality bodies'? The Flea models aren't plywood, they'll be jointed, maybe two/three-piece bodies; Fender don't pancake bodies. Uncertain how they're glued, but there wouldn't be anything particularly horrific under the finish.

The nitro finish should come off with (lots of) acetone and a cloth. The fear would be what is actually under the nitro and/or what Fender have primed the [Flea] body with. Personally, I'm really not a fan of these mass production Signature model guitars (did a gig years back where two different bassists turned up with Fleas), much better to make one in your own image.

There's a lot of good people on here that'll be more than happy to do the control plate, and to make it even simpler you could go with a quick connect mechanism to hook up the pickups. Easy peasy. You've mentioned elsewhere that you have '£900 waiting'. This is easily doable. Easily.

That's actually a prototype Gene Simmons Model III. The Double Axe. Limited run, 150 I think, $12k. Apparently he played something similar for a few minutes at a Wicked Lester gig in 1971 and Gibson's thoughts were, as everyone is harping on about the lack of Grabber and Ripper reissues, they'd just go straight for the money grab, because 'Kiss fans are stupid, have deep pockets and will buy any old crap'.

Have you not thought about just doing it yourself? If you want a Fender Jazz bass in a specific natural finish; (many) parts are readily/easily available online, including wired control plates if you're not confident with a soldering iron. It's really not difficult!

To my delight, Alkaline Trio's Agony and Irony (finally) appeared on Spotify in the last few days. Took the opportunity to rejig/recompile my AT playlist to get everything in the right order and chuck in the Past Live, Matt Skiba and Dan Adriano solo projects as well. Had it on shuffle all day. Love it.

The Gibson reissue was a dog. See thread elsewhere. I suppose - well, to a degree - I was just expecting to see an upsidedown version of the IV; light in weight, fast in neck and bright tonally. I don't really care for alphabetical profile categories, but the neck was fat'n'chubby, tonally there was zero brightness, just mud and it weighed way more than the IV. I used it for about ten minutes at a little gig just a few days after I got it and changed back to my old white Thunderbird for the remaining 30 minutes of the set. Never used it in anger again. I noodled on a modded Bach for a few minutes and it was everything that I wanted the Gibson to be. Lovely neck.

I don't know where Gibson's head is at to be honest and I'd say with some certainty that they clearly don't frequent the various bass forums online. They're ultimately a Les Paul reissue business, or just lazy enough by putting Slash's name on anything. From a Gibson bass perspective, players don't really want nonsensical Rex Brown or Gene Simmons Thunderbird IVs (or EBOs); there's clearly more desire for faithful reissues of the Thunderbird II, plus Rippers and Grabbers. Hell, they missed a trick not making some 20/20s three years ago. More colour choices needed, ditching of the three-point bridge etc. The only reason Gibson reissued the (frankly awful) non-reverse Thunderbird about ten years ago is because Bach had a lot of success with their model (which was pretty close to Gibson specs and ultimately customisable) and they could probably sniff some profit.

Pretty happy with the kit I own but circumstances/priorities elsewhere have overtaken the desire to acquire anything else. In reality, I probably need to get rid of stuff. Earlier this year, work reduced my days and my wife quit accountancy taking a less stressful (and lower paid) job; reckon compared to 12 months ago we're down about 35% on our take-home income. We have a slow moving garage conversion project going on, so we throw £400-500 a month towards that; getting that finished overrides any musical purchases.

I picked up a late 70s Aria Primary Bass (pretty decent P-copy) in Gumtree job lot a few years ago. £50. It needs a lot of TLC, but fundamentally it had good bones and it's a decent player.

Early-mid 80s. Band I was in had done two or three gigs, we played a lunchtime show at Richmond College, but did it right. We hired in a decent PA and played a well rehearsed 45 minute set. (I remember a girl in the audience deriding us - because we were doing it properly - shouting 'laser show' at every opportunity between songs. Sheesh.) By chance, there was an A&R guy there from Polydor, just scouting. Polydor paid for us to do a demo in a strange house based studio in Surbiton (under £200) and we had a pre-signing meeting with the label; who said within a couple of minutes that they were only interested in our (female) singer. We all decided that wasn't going to happen and walked away. Band were effectively broken from that point on and we split up a few weeks later. I do feel for the singer, even now, but she said 'no' straight away. That was it really. Never really came remotely close again.

Quick question. Looking to get a scratchplate made up for this (see thread elsewhere): Has anyone go one of these with a scratchplate? The guys I'm asking to do the work are asking if I can i) borrow one that I can offer up for sizing, ii) send to them for making, and iii) return back to to both parties. Anyone?

Is this happening?

Didn't realise! All mine went to fund the Lulls!

Did you sell the Ripper?

I'm giving some thought to having a custom pickguard made for my Hamer Cruisebass; oddly, I think I'd probably play it more if it had one. Query here is how do I go about getting one made. It's not a standard off the shelf shape; there are a few decent straight-on photos available (see below). Would it be feasible to take the fingerboard measurements and the distance to the pickup pocket and risk it? I don't need holes, I'll just attach with double-sided tape. Mine:

Alvin Stardust. Yep.

When Big Country started, Mark Brzezicki was born and still living in Slough. Tony Butler was London born and lived next door to a lady I worked with, in Owlsmoor, Camberley.

Korina. I know a few companies use it for guitar building, but never fails to amaze that Gibson rarely stray using it outside of the pointy models (Explorer/Flying-V/Futura/Moderne), but these are regularly two or three time more expensive than the mahogany alternatives. I know it's supposed to be a bit harder to work with, but body-sized slabs can be had for £60+, which is comparable with mahogany. Don't get it.

Haven't seen this on here, but it seems to be getting a bit of traction in the news. Might be of interest to someone! I can't say I'm particularly bothered or enamoured with what happened to a bass that went missing in 1969, I'd much rather know what happened to the Gene Simmons Lobue bass. https://thelostbass.com/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66700300

I is taking a selfie. What is the possible worth of that photo (apart from @Clarky being in it)?

I'm familiar with this album. My jaw dropped to the floor when I realised John Edwards was the bass player on it.

I adore UFO's Strangers In The Night (even the super extended version is great). I don't possess a single UFO studio album. This is all I need from them. Haven't listened to Cheap Trick At Budokan for a while. Other notables: Aerosmith - Live! Bootleg Sinatra at The Sands The Heartbreakers - Live at Max's Kansas City Wings Over America Rachel Stamp - Stampax The only other live thing I dip into regularly is the 4CD Transistor Blast by XTC. There's live at the BBC content on there (from Rock Goes To College and other stuff) and everything has so much speed and energy. The actual albums this material is sourced from are great, but the live stuff is just great.