fun size nick

Experienced, mature bassist newly arrived in London and looking to gig - prefer covers & function work. R&B/soul is my first love but I'm happy to play in most genres - I've been on stage playing pop, neo-soul, afrobeat, funk, reggae, ska, blues, rock, and jazz amongst others.

Thanks all, much appreciate the advice. I've lived in other places that everyone has an opinion on because of the small slice of what gets reported on the news, so I appreciate how helpful is is to hear a non-sensationalised account of things from people who live there!

I'm moving to London soon from outside the UK and would love to humbly ask for some local wisdom...in the grand mess of advice out there about moving to London there's always advice about staying safe, some of it from experienced Londoners (usually helpful) and some from folk who despite never setting foot there seem convinced that being outdoors in X borough (or indeed within the M25 at all) after dark will result in lying by the roadside relieved of all possessions (less helpful). A familiar refrain is keeping tempting valuables stashed away out of sight. This seems an obvious impossibility for a gigging bassist who might reasonably be expected to be carrying a gig bag on their commute back home at 2am! I've been living in a couple of big Asian cities for the last 15-ish years where I really have had no qualms about being out on the street or on public transport after gigs, and while I want to adjust to a different environment and not 'be an idiot' (also a common refrain, but lacking specifics!) I also don't want to be fearful about that difference.

So I wanted to ask - how do those of you who gig in London approach your personal safety on your way home? Is it something that you feel is a bit overblown, or is there anything you do to mitigate risk? Do you take the tube/bus and walk, or perhaps feel more comfortable taking cabs/minicabs despite the cost?

No backpack straps! Looks like the worst of both worlds to me. Not a fan.

Up for sale is my beloved 1974 Fender Jazz Bass.

Amazing tone, incredible feel, genuine player of a vintage instrument. Bought by me in early 2006, I have owned, gigged, recorded with, and loved this bass for the past 16 years. I'm only parting with it because I have settled into being more of a Precision guy and I'd like to upgrade on that side of things.

Beautiful northern ash natural finish body, one piece maple neck with pearl block inlays and white binding - classic '70s look and a real stunner on stage. 4 bolt neck joint.

Original pickups, great clear tone with strong midrange character. Electronics in excellent condition. Feel free to have a listen here on an album I recorded a few years ago: https://louisewright.bandcamp.com/album/the-deep-places

Neck is stable and truss rod adjusts freely. Frets are in good condition and takes low action. 1.5" nut width with fat, broad-shouldered neck profile - slightly less deep front-to-back as Fender's current AO '70s or their previous AV '74 Jazz, with a similar shape & feel. Neck is smooth & comfortable, finish has thinned in places but without rough edges. Nicely yellowed nitro finish on headstock and that iconic TV logo.

The bass sports Schaller tuners (replacing the almost-seized originals) & straplocks, everything else is original. Neck pickup cover included. Body finish & hardware displays natural wear & patina, particularly around the edges as you can see in the photos. Weight is around 5.2kg - about what you'd expect for a mid-70s jazz, but a wide, padded Levys strap has made it quite ok even for a little guy like me.

Price includes shipping to UK via postal service. I am happy to ship to other destinations, please feel free to contact me for an estimate for your country. Rates can vary quite significantly between countries due to the pandemic.

Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

On 12/11/2021 at 01:53, wateroftyne said:

 

The red's faded - the red is resplendent on the back and under the pickguard. My '71 fretless has done the same.

 

Not quite sure why some aren't affected. It's a strange one!

Pigments are funny things, where chemically the part that gives the paint its colour can be quite different between paints, even with two similar looking paints. There are tattoo colours that are notorious for fading with sun exposure more than others due to what goes into them to make them that colour. I suppose that the chemical makeup of the red paint that Fender used might have changed over time!

My early '80s P had the opposite - they hadn't bothered to spray the red where the pickguard would go, so it's a three-tone burst except for underneath the guard.

Brilliant story and big thumbs up to @Normski for making it happen.

[quote name='tonyclaret' timestamp='1456562328' post='2990243']
That's good to know Gareth.

I want something that can house a TH350 and a few leads ideally. If I could get a four block in, then that would be a bonus.
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I have a TH350 - it probably takes up less than half of the space in the Sleeve's pocket, you could easily get leads and a bunch of other stuff in as well. It's huge.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1455673419' post='2981422']
I had one for a year or so.

There's very little in the way of containment for anything other than the bass. There's a large flat zip pocket on the front, but you won't get anything in there except for a cable or a book of charts. There's nowhere to carry tuners, or a strap etc.

Also the piping or whatever you call the stuff that runs around the seems split all the way around.
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Surely you're referring to the Vertigo - the Bass Sleeve's pocket is enormous! The Vertigo is the one with the small, flat pocket.

I've always flown with Hiscoxes - they are designed to be flight cases after all! I usually put clothes in with the bass in strategic spots to make doubly sure that it can't move about inside. I'd be more worried about the case itself as it's designed to deform to absorb shock if it's abused, and that seems much more likely when flying in the US than in other parts of the world (never had trouble in Asia myself)!

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1444576606' post='2884219']
Loving these suggestions.

Weirdly, I've had an urge to do a flat grey bass for a while, and had seen this colour on a car a while back, which I really like

[IMG]http://www.autoweb.co.uk/media/images/15634998/1403867944FIAT__500__C_S__PETROL__GREY__2014__WR14XAM-01_md.jpg[/IMG]

It's called Tech House Grey. Can you even paint a bass in automotive lacquer? Again I think this colour might lend itself more to maple fretboard and would look a bit heavy with rosewood.

Whilst I'm on Fiat 500's, they do a pretty sweet mint green:

[IMG]http://cdn2.autoexpress.co.uk/sites/autoexpressuk/files/fiat_500_frontaction.jpg[/IMG]

A nice duck egg blue might work also.
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I remember reading somewhere that the classic '60s fender colours were automotive finishes...don't quote me on that though.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1444386017' post='2882748']
Sorry if this has been addressed earlier but can someone tell me how's the porting (if any) on this cab?
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Its a 'hybrid resonator' according to Alex, so it behaves a bit differently to a regular port. My recollection is that it designed to have two tuning frequencies rather than one, but don't quote me on that.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1444122944' post='2880403']
Just loved the comment "[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]I've got the 69'er too, love it but for some gigs it's just not quite loud enough."[/font][/color]

[size=4][color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]What the hell sort of gigs is he playing![/font][/color][/size]
[/quote]
Ha! Not a quote you'd read too often.

36kg is almost half of my old Mesa 610! I wish this was around when I was young and stupid enough (and vehiculiar enough) to carry around such a beast.

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1444082477' post='2880209']
Two of those would be a target for Al Queda.
[/quote]
Or could be used to drive them out of their caves.

Thanks for the detailed description of the Urban! Sounds promising.

It's like an optical illusion...I'm having to remind myself that the LMIII is smaller than I think it is from the photo!

Perhaps you should define what you mean by 'boutique'.

One problem you're going to have with your criteria is that, especially on the speaker cab side of things, super flat is hard to find in mainstream brands and tends to be the domain of smaller manufacturers such as bergantino, barefaced etc.

I see that Fusion are discontinuing the F1 bags and launching a new line of 'Urban' series bags that look fairly similar. I was wondering if anyone knows what the differences between them are? As far as I can tell, they're a slightly different shape and the Urban bag has 20mm padding rather than 30mm and is therefore slightly lighter. Anything else?

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1416215589' post='2607892']
We've just come back from a trip to China and we had a big problem with the Chinese smoking everywhere, even in the non smoking hotel rooms, where the management thoughtfully provided matches and ashtrays!![/quote]

Sounds about right! Smoking is still viewed pretty much as an entitlement (almost exclusively a male entitlement) here, much as it was a few decades ago in the west - if you've got a problem with having it inflicted on you, you should lighten up, man. Things are slowly changing, at least in the big cities, and its thankfully socially unacceptable to smoke on a lift or in a subway station. Still pretty common to see grandpas with a toddler in one hand and a cig in the other though. It's still a crappy situation for hospitality staff (who are mostly women) who have to spend their working lives breathing men's smoke.

[quote name='StringPing.com' timestamp='1416217397' post='2607914']
Dust and other detritus can settle on the strings and dull their tone. More-so with round wounds, where it's hard to effectively clean the tiny spaces between the winds.
[/quote]

Plenty of 'detritus' in the air around here!

Welcome to the [s]cult[/s] club

I love these strings - and I love that I dont have to change them but for every 5 years or so (I think the pollution here gets into them...they should last longer!) - it changed my life!

What I want is a little fan in front of my mic to blow cigarette smoke away from me when the lovely people on the front table light up...

I always love seeing this genius little board - I may build one like this one day

[quote name='FretNoMore' timestamp='1416148814' post='2607333']
Moved things around a bit and cleaned up some cables, so here's the current state of the madness






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I'm not sure you have enough preamp-DIs!

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1413572307' post='2579807']
Not posted one in a while


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[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1408654454' post='2532333']
There's a bit of demand for this, so I thought I might as well kick it off. C'mon you Limelighters... get involved!

[i]([b]Note:[/b] If the 'F' logos upset you, I respectfully ask that you start your own thread, or write a strongly-worded letter to the Daily Mail.)[/i]

Here's my '63 relic:
[/quote]

These are flippin' gorgeous! Does that '63 replica have a P-width neck, or are my eyes going funny?

Hmmm...I am planning on a UK trip next year anyway...

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1408362482' post='2529330']
WD-40 isn't the best stuff for penetrating rusty threads. Something like [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Abrasives-809-10-Plusgas-250ml/dp/B0001P02S4/ref=sr_1_3?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1408362329&sr=1-3&keywords=plusgas"]PlusGas[/url] would be better or [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-40-Specialist-44709-Release-Penetrant/dp/B00KPUBO28/ref=sr_1_2?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-2&keywords=wd40+penetrating"]WD-40 Penerating Spray[/url].
[/quote]
Thanks! I'll have to make a note of that - always like to have the right tools for the job.