NancyJohnson

Jeepers, we're talking about a comment made to me about 45 years ago, when everything buzzed like a wasp nest or hummed like a vicar. I threw it in there and now we have people sucking on their pipes, going (assume Terry Thomas voice), 'Well, you know old boy, the bloody electricity this side of the pond cycles at a different rate of Hertz than in the colonies and that's where your comment falls down I'm afraid, old chap.' When all this was fields we just made sure we were were all in tune with each other and that did. No piano, no easy tuning method (pitch pipes, anyone?), no internet, no rack tuners, no mobile phones, no apps. It was just, 'Can you play an E?' we'd tune to that and we were off.' You'll note the title of the thread is 'Tuning without a tuner'. That's what I answered, OK I was incorrect. Meh.

There is obviously a bit of logic to what I posted and the second part of this reply. It was a long time ago when someone mentioned this to me. Personally, I prefer tuning to H# off the sound of my doorbell.

Wasn't there some method of tuning a G via a 60 cycle mains hum?

I'm in the studio on Sunday. I think I might take my LT.

I'd concur...the crowns are way nicer than blocks/dots. On the subject of inlays, the first run of Forte basses (NS & 4X) didn't have anything on the board and that worked beautifully.

I'm just listening to the first Duran Duran album. I got a cheap copy of the deluxe edition a while back and never listened to it until now. It's really not aged that well and it pretty wretched. Assuming they played everything on it, observations? Simon Le Bon can't sing for toffee and they probably would have sounded better without Nick Rhodes musical and background noise contribution.

Honestly, no. What with the day job, long hours, the house rebuilding, the laying flat because my back went, no, not really. It'll happen.

I've been on a bit of a Tears For Fears marathon today. I'm listening to the new album. I'll give it a listen in 5.1 after dinner.

Me neither. I do remember some bloke on alt.guitar.bass going on about lubricating his machineheads and he was wholeheartedly derided for even raising the question.

I had a 5HH, same/similar colour. Honestly wish I'd persisted with it rather than just trying to better my bass collection (I did move it along to fund my Thunderbird obsession).

I have a fairly expensive piece of (discontinued) upholstery fabric up on eBay at the moment; it has hundreds of watchers. It's amazing the messages I've been sent about it. Chancers and beggars, yes. Many offers for 30/40% of what it's advertised for. Many requests to sell a metre or two. Many people asking me what I'd take for it (when I reply saying I'll take the buy-it-now price, they get shirty). The best one was a woman begging me to reduce the price because she didn't have much money and she needed the fabric because their daughter's Cockapoo (Trixie) had defecated on their sofa it was somehow my duty to sell it cheap to her so she could get new seat cushions made. It's like a game. For every dumb offer I get, I feel like adding £10 on the BIN price.

I don't think I've seen anyone mention this here, so just a heads up. If you're looking for some drum loops and have a method of routing Spotify content through a hi-fi/bigger speakers, I can wholeheartedly recommend a quick search on 'Ultimate Drum Loops'. There's hundreds of full rock/pop song loops on there, varying tempos, of 2-5 minute lengths.

Moi aussi.

Chortle.

I haven't gigged for about two years now, last one I did I just took a bass, headstock tuner, strap, a Sansamp of some sort and cables. I used to take a lot of kit, but in truth it was unnecessary to do so. [Edit] Earplugs.

I've been using Elixirs pretty much exclusively for maybe 8-10 years. Expensive, yes. Longlasting, yes. Great? Yes. The only strings that have made me question my preferred string choice is the MarkBass LongEvo sets. They're finally available for £34/£39 (4/5) at Bass Direct. Lovely strings.

Two of the guys I was jamming with at the time now own a successful mastering business, I spoke to one of them about five or six years ago and we really had a good laugh about the amp on fire story. Well, one of us did.

I've got a Darkglass 1x12. Small, capable etc.etc.

I had an Orange Matamp in the late 70s. Bought it from an ex-hire place in Chalk Farm, it used to belong to Davey Johnstone, Elton John's guitarist. Carried it home on the train. It always smelt odd, like Scaletrix, and met it's demise when it caught fire at someones house, smoke, spitting sparks and a bit of flame. We yanked the power cable and put the fire out with Coca Cola. Sold it to a place on Denmark Street for £60.00 that I probably spent on records at Virgin right after. In hindsight, I should have got it fixed, these are worth thousands now.

I really like Josi's pickups...they're like £20 a pop or something. I've got a pair of his P94s in another guitar and used some of his zebra humbuckers in something else. I've just wired the PJ units straight into the selector switch and then into the volume control. It honestly doesn't need anything else. It's lovely and bright sounding. Honestly can't see why there's a market for all these boutique pickups.

I saw that and just heard cash registers ringing! There's money in them thar hills! I'm not certain (to quote Old Horse Murphy), whether this is a keeper. I'm going to take it up to the studio mid-month and that'll be the deciding factor. I wish the paint job had come out a little better, but it does look mice. I did feel a little let down with the Crimson lacquer, but much like many post-modernist paintings, it looks better from a distance.

In reality, it should be simple to make your own template. There's very likely someone within walking distance of your house that has access to a CNC machine that could cut you a routing template in seconds.

In answer to the OP, no. Cheapest bass is an Aria Pro II Primary bass (obtained as part of three guitar and practice amp job lot/Gumtree £50). Most expensive is a Mike Lull custom build, nudging £6K. I'm happy playing anything to be honest; I can afford nice kit, so why not. I'm not really drawn to commonplace instruments, so I don't own a Jazz or Precision, for instance. I'm drawn to the different.

By way of observation (as I'm always on the lookout for rare stuff), I'm staggered how much some of the XTC boxsets (Transistor Blast and Coat Of Many Cupboards) and Andy Partridge Fuzzy Warbles go for. Also post Seeds Of Love Tears For Fears stuff on CD seems to be quite expensive too. On the subject of Tears For Fears, I have two limited SDE editions of The Tipping Point coming (three bonus tracks on the CD and the Steven Wilson 5.1 BluRay version - 2,000 copies), these are already on eBay - even though it's not out until tomorrow. One of the blurays sold for £170.00, the CD has plenty sold at £70+ a pop.