NancyJohnson

I remember being in one of the bigger guitar shops in New York and the new Gibson Thunderbird had come out (this was the one below with the different pickups and the switches). I was using a variety of other 'birds at the time (see elsewhere). Plugging in, you couldn't really hear anything different going on. I mean, if anything was actually happening tonally, it was on such an infinitesimally small tonal swing that you couldn't really identify any difference.

I think these are lovely. People rave about that vintage tone from these old Musicmaster basses. Have a guess what's under the pickup cover on most of these. Ta daa!

You know it. Bwahaha!

For some time, I've advocated that we shouldn't be so obsessed with the swapping out of pickups/hardware; sure if something is broken, too difficult to repair or non-functioning, then fine, pull it out and replace. I could stick any pickups in any bass and so long as they fit the rout and I told you they were wax potted Vintage '62s (or some other nonsense) you be happy as a pig in sh*t and off you'd toddle, none the wiser. I just wish more people would realise this. There's also zero correlation between price and performance. A Timex watch will tell the time as well as a Patek Philippe. Seriously.

I had a bluefaced UK built ABM head, I think it was the 300 (I was in a bit of a bind and Ashdown sorted me out). The head was quite bass heavy/boomy; I was running it through Hartke Hydrive cabs which had fairly bright tonal characteristics. While the power was there it was very hard to get any overdrive out of it, I mean yes, there was some kind of drive circuitry on it, but it was more of a crackle/interference than dirt.

Yup, this, 100%. I used to use a mini-jack adapter.

Send the bass over to me and I'll put in an old bit of junk from my spares box and fudge up some pickup covers from somewhere. I'll tell you I've installed exactly what you want and you'll be none the wiser. That's how it works 😅

While a lot of people may define defeatism as something that John Myung might record, insofar as a body of work goes, there's a post-hardcore/alternative band called Shudder To Think where, despite every song being less than four minutes, there's a ton of stuff going on; bizzaro key changes, timing changes, guitars all over the place with a falsetto vocal capping it off. Because things don't come across as being particularly cohesive, it's difficult to simply noodle along to if you have a bass to hand.

Yeah, yeah. Guitar stuff. I'm just looking for advice on anyone that has a standalone guitar cab, 1x12 (or smaller). It's only going to be used at home and for home recording...I have a Fender Pugilist distortion (which works great on bass as well when going direct into an interface) and a Harley Benton GPA-100. Don't want to spend a fortune, so used is probably the way to go. I'm not entirely certain whether an existing (bass) cabinet would be fit for purpose (I have a pair of Darkglass 1x12s). It seems the better deals are for loaded cabs (and to be honest, without a bit of investigation, I wouldn't really know what to load it with). Advice, please!

In the good old days it was more, 'Can you email me a track?' or 'Have you got any audio up anywhere?' The 2025 spin on this is obvs a blanket invite to send audio out without doing the footwork.

A new one for me. Email dropped earlier (via Bandmix) letting me know that I had been selected for a digital audition with a guy 30+ years younger than me. Clearly digital auditions are the 2025 alternative of standing in a room for two hours with three strangers. Anyhoo, intrigued, I viewed the guys Bandmix profile, and once again another bloke bigging himself up; age difference aside, I simply couldn't work with anyone that uses the expression, 'midweek meat up'. Sigh.

I prefer sand in the Vaseline. 🙄

There used to be a time when shipping stuff in from Japan was worth the time and effort. Great exchange rates etc. I can say with some certainty that fully landed in the UK (so bass+shipping) was under £700; somehow or another I didn't pay any import duty on it.

The colour of those Thunderbirds was more ivory than white. This was mine. I bought it in from Japan.

So like Ticketmaster's Dynamic Pricing, then?

If a restaurant in a big city sold single baked beans on a cocktail stick for £2.00 each, some epicurean would be saying they were divine. Again it's all subjective and there's this correlation between price paid and justification. Charge £500 for a bottle of red wine vinegar and there'd be people queuing up to drink it, all saying it tastes delicious. I'm reminded of this:

If anyone on the Facebook massive is following this thread (and the mutual lovefest with me and John), seriously now folks, fire up Spotify (or whatever) and go listen to Heights...their Phantasia on the High Processions (etc) is a fantastic thing. Likewise, check out the two Rhoda May EPs on the same platform (347 and 589). Awesome band.

Me too. ☹️

I recall being at The Wilde Theatre for one thing where Al and another guy were handling sound, but can't actually remember if you were playing (jikes, sorry). It was an all day thing, but memory blurs...we saw My Never Time and a truncated set by the truly fantastic Rhoda May, after this we kept going to the bar. I saw you at the Cellar Bar, can't remember if this was with Tesseract ..Jay did two sets? Trust your recovery is going well (as usual mine!).

I'm sure I pointed a camera at Heights at one point.

Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos - Live in Boston 1993. God, it's a belter.

There's a similar thought to a different builder, here. I'm uncertain how many luthiers Jaydee employ(ed). When Mike Lull died a few years ago, his son Spencer took over the business; my understanding is that Lull had outsourced elements of the builds when demand exceeded the limits of the workshop. Spencer changed things by bringing work back in house and by stripping back the models they offered (focus is now on Precision/Jazz type models). He seems considerably more hands on from a socials perspective, too. From what I've seen and read, quality seems to be as good, if not better, than previously. Perhaps all it takes is new blood to take over. They know the legacy of the brand and want to invest in that.

Haven't most of us owned something that we sold cheap only see the prices go nutso? My old Travis Bean (sigh), that frankly terrible '79 Precision, all those Gibson Thunderbirds. Mass produced bass amps have little or no appreciating resale value unless they're old valve things like Matamps. I doubt any of the current production line Fenders/Gibson/MusicMan/Ibanez etc basses will be loss-making or worth anything long term. My belief is the money is in investing in short runs and decently built kit. I own a couple of Hamer basses, I bought one very cheap and am being hassled by two Americans who are in this odd bidding war, currently at $4k. My Mike Lull basses (one likely going up for sale shortly) were both built by Mike before he died, are certainly carrying ticket prices equivalent or higher than what I paid. Again, I'm getting enquiries on a Lull build from the US offering c.£6k. I suppose you have to realise one swallow does not a summer make; just because there's someone out there that'll pay over the odds for something doesn't necessarily make it a collector's market.

I've been using Elixir Nanowebs for yonks - Nickels and Steels (whatever is cheaper at the time of purchase). To be honest - and while using adjectives to describe a sound here - the differences are marginal. I'd say that a new set of steels may come over as slightly more brighter/zingy than a new set of nickels BUT if you were to randomly mix the steels and nickels, I doubt you'd really be able to tell the difference. The main thing is that the strings settle in and once they have, they don't really wear out like conventional strings and that's the main thing. I've never had strings last so long (I would replace D'Addarios monthly). I've had nickels on one of my Hamer's since October '23, still good. I put a set of 45-130 nickels on a Lull (sitting down?) in June '21, and they've still excellent. Steels on a Spector in July '24, still great.

A Growler means something completely different in these parts and I don't see any photographic representation! 😄