NancyJohnson

...apparently it will street in the US for a spit under $4K.
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[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1325156451' post='1480276']
The Jeff Ament sig sounds interesting!
[/quote]

There's a lengthy piece in the current Bass Player magazine. JA wanted an over-sized Thunderbird shape (body is larger than standard 'bird), upsidedown headstock.
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Reznor/Ross Dragon Tattoo soundtrack.
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[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1324665007' post='1476906']
Yes. I really love Lakland, but their stuff can be pretty uninspiring and the 55-94 shape has now most certainly aged. Their website isn't particularly awe-inspiring either, dare I say it might be worth looking at Sadowsky's website which I happen to think is very good indeed. They sound brilliant, but they need something a bit daring to bring them back up to speed.
[/quote]

I don't want to keep bumping this thread, but I took a look at the Sadowsky site...it's OK, but again, product-wise, the models are just rehashed/overpriced Jazz/Precision basses. For something a little more compelling, look at the Reverend site; [url="http://www.reverendguitars.com/reverend/guitars.html"]http://www.reverendguitars.com/reverend/guitars.html[/url]. The basses are really very happening. The black set-neck Thundergun made me go a little wobbly. Stick a chrome armrest kit on that...beautiful.
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[sup]I know it's another copy, but anyone here remember Laklands take on the Thunderbird/Fenderbird? I don't know how many they made...maybe just a couple of prototypes, but that was pretty yummy.[/sup]
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I saw this on the Lakland Owners Group earlier. I own a DJ5, really nice bass, not particularly a first choice for gigging (a bit heavy, wide string spacing), but great for recording. If the build quality stands up to the one I have, I'd encourage anyone to give it a try, I really do.

Now moving swiftly along, anyone else find they're tiring somewhat of Lakland products?

I mean by this that while yes, there's a vast choice of finish/electronics combinations, it's worth pointing out that more than half their models remain firm-rooted in suped-up Precision/Jazz basses clones and the spec on the 44-94/55-94 models has barely changed in five plus years. The two other models (Decade and Hollowbody) are just plain bland; I played both in the US last year and they really weren't so great.

When Hanson took over a year or so ago, there was a bit of spring-cleaning going on; the old signature names went, replaced by nondescript model numbers and (horror) the DJ was discontinued (or moreover, suffering a redesign, renaming and then discontinuation). But now, after a bit of a backlash the DJ is back. It's a pity that their efforts weren't directed towards producing something a little more radical and dare I say, exciting.
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My first gig was at a party at a mate's house. Local boy Steve Lillywhite was there and bought along Gerry Cott of the Boomtown Rats.
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[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1318192202' post='1399111']
One time the drummer asked, 'Can I bring in my keyboard, I got it after our last jam?'

I think I'd still be playing with him if he'd left it in the car.
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[/quote]

Once in a while, old threads shuffle to the top of my 'My content' area and I saw this thread and found my comment above. Over a year later, the keyboard thing above came up again in conversation just a couple of days ago. I still shake my head and wonder where my drummer's head was at when he bought that keyboard in. I have to say I was pissing myself inside when he actually started playing it.
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[quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1323623517' post='1465131']
I stand corrected. Would love to check out your FBIV, maybe the next Bassbash?
[/quote]

Sure, no problem.
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[quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1323426532' post='1463159']
Before his T's he used to play some lovely strippey Blitz's, after he moved on from spikey BC Rich's.
[/quote]

Nope! Sixx [i]always [/i]favoured solid finish (dark coloured) Hamer Blitz basses. The striped (and polka-dotted!) ones were Hamer FBIVs (check my sig). Sadly, most of these are firewood now.
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Jeepers. Mr Sparkle.
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I loved The Sweet as a kid...great singles/b-sides band and in my opinion peaked with Sweet Fanny Adams and Desolation Boulevard. Sadly the only time I saw 'them' live was on a horrific double-bill of Les Gray's Mud and Brian Connoly's Sweet at Guildford Civic Hall about twenty years ago.

Connolly was a gibbering wreck at that time and barely moved two feet from his mic-stand; he had to be led on and off stage. His voice had gone and the drink had obviously wrecked his system. He was being heckled horribly by some blokes in the audience (someone shouted, 'You fat bastard!' and he stammered through response of, 'I've lost forty pounds actually.'). Awful. It's an image I just can't shake, even after all these years.

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I own a classic white Gibson and I've owned a Geddy Lee Jazz as well and for me at least, the Thunderbird just wins hands down...there's a very long thread about Thunderbirds here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/94914-thunderbirds-why-no-basschat-love/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/94914-thunderbirds-why-no-basschat-love/[/url] ...have a read and you'll know why.


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In the defence of this guy, I ordered a custom cover for a Line 6 Spider 75 combo in January of this year and it arrived in about three weeks, which was OK by me. It was really well made, very nice quality and a great fit.
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[quote name='warriorbass05' timestamp='1323127601' post='1459725']
Here are mine

[/quote]

Rickenbackers have been a bit of a slow burn for me...a bit like Marmite. I couldn't really put my finger on precisely what it was that I didn't like; sure I liked the tone, but they always looked a tad old-fashioned and the triangular neck-inlays were a real turn off. What kind of turned me was seeing some shots of an all black model on here a while back...no chequered body-binding, no silvered-chrome in sight, black plate and hardware, dots on the neck. To actually see not one, but four similar models in a single shot is the closest I've seen to some [i]real [/i]bass porn on here for a while. Forget Susan Coffey, I'm going to go to bed dreaming of those basses tonight.

Great collection (well, four out of five! )
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I've never seen the Kilo. When I met Larry Hartke it was all about the HyDrive cabinets and that the Kilo was coming and it was going to be epic (I knew all the stuff about Billy Sheehan dropping Ampeg a looong time ago). After going through several LH1000s, the Kilo still wasn't out, so I went the Ashdown route.
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I've boiled my dead strings for years, but I've always added a drop of washing up liquid in the pan when doing so...it just works to degrease the strings (and leaves the pan super shiny too, win win). On the subject of meths, my brother is a chef by profession and swears by using meths on his stainless steel stuff (knives, hobs, extractor etc.), but remember it's VERY aggressive and will strip oils and finishes from wood, so I wouldn't even recommend a wipe down with meths. Never tried vinegar in the boil-process. Next time maybe.
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[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1321790913' post='1442995']
I always fancied a go on the Chapparal. I am googling the FB4 as i have never heard of it! Pics would be nice. Interested to know where you get them from as i rarely see a hamer for sale over here.
[/quote]

I don't like the whole hijacking of other threads, but below is my Thunderbird and FBIV...it's the only pic I have on the PC. If you want to discuss further, then I'd be happier if you opened a new topic.

The Scarab came from the Bass Centre in London about twenty years ago (for my sins I actually liked Def Leppard, it had a great neck, but was a bit too pointy for me). The Chapparal was bought through I guy I know in Swindon, the FBIV came off eBay about a year ago.
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[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1321743371' post='1442740']
As an aside can i call you Nancy? Did you see the pics of the PBass that i (butchered) assembled? That was a relatively simple project compared to the one that Count Bassie undertook. You have to give him credit for seeing through the project and getting a result that met the criteria. When i saw your post i did think it was a bit offensive - i think his reaction was quite mild but hey its all in the past. I come on the forum to talk about bass stuff generally and the stuff about Syria and the rest went way over my head and TBH i don't want to get involved. You said you like Hamer stuff. Do you have one?
[/quote]

You can call me Nancy if you want, doesn't bother me.

I've had three Hamers in total, a white/ivory Scarab (lovely, but of its time), a Chapparal (nice but not a keeper) and an FBIV or FB4, which I still have.
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[quote name='Wolverinebass' timestamp='1321723910' post='1442467']
I think that the Waterstone is passive.
[/quote]

The Waterstone is passive, yes. I was thinking about putting a John East in at one stage, but didn't. I was giving some consideration to putting in some different pickups too (102mmx38mm), but have no idea what would fit...despite the sound being fairly big, the stock pickups are a bit tame.
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I had the same issues with an LH1000 a couple of years ago. I was dealing direct with Korg back then. I think I had four heads in total before saying I would wait for the Kilo to get released. They're great heads...seriously great tone through the Hydrive cabinets, but that crackling and popping did my head in.
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Mr Vaughan, or can I call you Roger, now that we're all cosy?

Let's bring some clarity to proceedings here for a moment. You posted to a semi-public forum and I responded. I am a bit of a Hamer fan and have owned several, to be honest, the original photos looked like the body needed some work, but clearly it wasn't something that would buff out, but - and I repeat - I hated what you did to the Cruise and stated so.

Obviously somewhat narked about my comment, I get a response asking whether I'm running for office (no I have a car, my place of work is too far away fro me to run to), juxtapositioned with some quite flippant remarks about the rainforest and Syria, because yes, the rainforest and Syria [b]really [/b]validate your argument concerning my comment about your mod. Have you ever been to Syria, my friend, or does the carpentry work keep you too busy? I have visited Syria, earlier this year. I know, you probably now think I'm muslim-loving commie, but let's not let that affect [s]the war on terror[/s] our friendship. And we were getting along so well. Anyhow, it's a really beautiful, place, the Syrians are nice people - well, the ones not doing the killings are - but I don't have much time for the two groups of armed militia that stopped us while we were driving from Damascus to Palmyra right after the killings really got started at Easter. It's really not that pleasant having a gun pointed at you and your family, so NEVER make a flippant remark like again, because it is neither clever or smart, it's ignorant.

Moving along (as I do have a life away from Basschat, it's the weekend and I need to go stand outside the US embassy to protest about something), I return periodically to find out you and Mr BottomE are having a nice little forum-chat, peppered with smileys, winky-winky...[i]rubbing each others rhubarb[/i], so to speak. You have to realise that when you post here, your posts get read, wooo, and get this, sometimes they get read before you have a chance to edit/withdraw what you've posted. So yes, my ignorant friend, I have read some of the stuff you've posted pertaining to my original post before you changed it. Ho-hum.

The final straw really for me was being described as pompous, arrogant and self-important. I apparently also dig 'venting off on [my] soapbox' and I have no [i]humour [/i]in me. Amazing how you can determine all this from a two sentence post. But then you Yanks love to draw your conclusions based on a small amount of hard facts (WMDs anyone?), so it doesn't surprise me. I can take sticks and stones so long as they're grounded in fact. You don't know me. You know nothing about me. You also know nothing about my spat with another member here whilst defending the honour of a company I have an artist-endorsement with (which was the reason I upped and left originally, despite being asked not to by the mods here).

I will stand by my original comments. I didn't like how the Hamer turned out. If you can't take some criticism, seriously, don't bother posting. Boo hoo! It looked so much nice before, even if you did, for some reason have the strap on the lower horn.

Much love, from your new musilm-loving commie friend.
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so I'm pompous, arrogant and self-important. Lovely.

This is precisely why I gave up posting to this forum a couple of years ago. I quit. Again.

Go f*** yourself.
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[quote name='Chairleg' timestamp='1321209014' post='1436513']
Thanks. I will post the finished bass and hopefully any snags/mistakes as I go along. After I finish it, I am hoping to get a more experienced player to have a go on it (a Bass Chatter perhaps?) to give it a bit of a 'review'. Novice assembler + home assembly kit = ?

All the best,

Mark.
[/quote]

I've done a couple of refinish jobbies in the past and I've never had an issue with that aspect of this type of thing, lots of patience, elbow grease and fine grade sandpaper. Today's paints are [i]very [/i]forgiving. Make sure you take a load of photographs.
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I've seen these kits on eBay and to be honest while I've not had the inclination to try one, it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

Good luck with it.
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