NancyJohnson

One of the guys over at LBO has posted Gibson are doing a reissue of the original no-reverse Thunderbird at the end of September. Price is $1,200 (so read that at £1,200). Twin T-bird pickups, Pelham Blue or Tobacco Sunburst finish, black hardware. I'll post some pics as soon as I see them. P

Anyone had any recent dealings with Ishibashi recently? I dealt with them a couple of years back and aside from a little frustration down to language and time difference, the transaction was relatively smooth. I’ve just bought another bass from them and this time around it’s completely opposite. Very poor communication and five days after payment I’ve still no idea whether the bass has even shipped yet. I’ve had one e-mail advising it’s holiday season so things may be slower than normal, but a quick search online shows there’s no public holidays on at the moment and hey, it’s 2012...nothing ever really shuts down. If anyone is in the same boat... P

G30 all the way! Great product. P

When I was [b]much [/b]younger Carvin were all kit guitars/basses (much the same as Schecter were at the time) and from a personal perspective I've never been able to sake that image off. I have a mate who built a Carvin kit bass and it wasn't awful or anything...nice wood, great quality hardware etc., but ultimately it was a [i]Carvin [/i]and for the money he could have landed a very nice Fender Jazz/Precision or Lakland Skyline. Eventually he moved over to a US Precision and the Carvin never leaves the house. P

Lovely. P

Well, we wrote the lyrics. It's a strange thing the way a song evolves and by the end of the night we'd dropped everything down two full tones and the the first draft title is 'I'm In Love With A Contract Killer'. Lyrically, not as dark as you would believe, trust me. P

OK, picks. I use Dunlop Max-Grips 1.14. I tend not to use the pointy bit...generally I'll rotate them 90 degrees. I also usually suffer some kind of degradation of my index finger nail as that takes a bit of a bashing on my downstrokes. D'Addario strings. P

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1344353621' post='1763240'] Did you play the Aria on "The Boy Just Loves (Being a Girl)" too? [/quote] I did the first part on the Thunderbird and when it heavies up (the second section) was on my DJ5. Blitzkrieg was just something we used to warm up with. You'll notice we shout [i]Derek Doyle, Martin Doyle[/i] at the end, which is a little nod to a fighter of a kid our drummer grew up with who had Werner Syndrome and learning difficulties. I wasn't sure about The Boys Are Back In Town...but it kind of works. I don't think we'll do it live though. I had a similar arrangement by someone else (can't remember who) and Leigh (singer) couldn't get the vocal lines to fit, so elements of it stutter a bit. Lynott had great delivery. P

Shameless plug, but if you want to hear some other stuff we do, go and visit www.nancyjohnson.co.uk - there's a playlist player on the front page. P

We're doing the vocals on Thursday... P

The guy w [quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1344280957' post='1762269'] Although bizarrely enough all of the original examples to be found in the first 5 pages on [url="https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-ContextMenu&q=Aria+Pro+II+Primary+bass&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=1243&bih=529&wrapid=tlif134427947538710&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=shMgUMeVOMaR0AWXiIC4BA"]google image search[/url] (bar this one ) did... [/quote] The guy with his arm in a sling is me! Two operations to correct thumb and middle-finger issues. I look very pretty in blue. That's also me leaping out from between the two flashpods. Heh. P

[quote name='noelk27' timestamp='1344267437' post='1761963'] Several different version of the Primary. The PB400 and 450 where alder, and tended to have four or three piece bodies. The PB500 and 550 were sen ash, and tended to be three and two piece bodies. Alder versions usually weight circa 4.0/4.1 kg, with sen versions circa 4.3/4.4 kg. Necks mostly one piece maple, with bonded maple touchboard, although some rosewood versions can be found. Necks are usually slightly slimmer at the nut than the Fender models these are based on: circa 40.0/40.5 mm. Most didn't have DiMarzio pickups fitted, contrary to urban myth. Matsumoku, mostly, bought in pickups from Maxon and Gotoh for these, until it started building its own. You can tell the date from the first three characters of the serial number - letter is month, first two numbers are year. Knobs: usually chrome, so those might have been replaced. Covers: Usually came with a bridge cover, some models came with a pickup cover also. [/quote] Thanks for this info...this is what is so good about this site. From this, it's a July 1980 model. I've already put on some tele-style chrome knobs (the ones on the photo were black - it didn't have any when I got it, but thankfully the pots were OK). The neck is a single piece of maple, with a glued-on maple fingerboard, the headstock is clearly three pieces, the body is three pieces. I used to own a 1979 Precision (US...weren't they all US back then?) and if memory serves, the neck is certainly slimmer on the Aria. I'm becoming an advocate of cheap old basses and this one is quite the beaut. Might try and find a Jazzer at some stage. P

I've spent a lot, with potentially another huge wedge going out once I find a black Thunderbird. Let's leave it at that. I think if my wife did the numbers she might pull my scrotum right over my head. That said, the only thing I'm not fond of with the Aria are the 12th fret dots, but otherwise...

I've got the Bellybutton and Spilt Milk instrumental stuff as well. They're interesting... P

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1344193255' post='1761058'] Agreed it's a tiny bit 'clanky' but that's not really a criticism, just my taste, still sounds really cool as it is . I've never really been drawn to the Fender side but I picked up an Aria STB Series P bass for £40, I'd heard the necks were really nice and they weren't wrong, I put some Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders in it and set of Chromes on and somehow it became my main bass. It plays beautifully and sounded instantly like the sound I had in my head, especially in a band situation, strange how you stumble across the sound you're looking for when you're not really looking isn't . [/quote] I paid - are you sitting down? - £50.00 for a job lot of the Aria, two other guitars and a small practice amp. I gave the guitars and the amp to my nephew (ten years old). The Aria had a set set of Schaller machines on it as well. The thing is, I probably wouldn't have given it a second glance when it was new. P

I tried a Sandberg (couldn't tell you the model, but it was a Jazz-esque five string). It played lovely, but I just couldn't get past the headstock design. It was nasty and cheapened the look of an otherwise outstanding bass. It looked like one of those SX basses. P

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1344163636' post='1760500'] edit : Does it have cream DiMarzios? Listening to it again it sounds a lot like my 70s Jap P which came standard with them. [/quote] The pickups are non-descript with black covers. P