Al Krow

Really useful thread - just been reviewing your recommendations; I'm particularly after a wide strap to spread the load as much as possible and the following caught my attention in terms of value / quality: Ibanez BWS90 3.54" - £27 (Muziker - black Friday sale) Gruv Gear Solo Neo 4" - £52 (Gear4Music) Minotaur Padded Leather (Black) 4.3" - around £41 (Thomann) Levy Leather 4.5" - £77 (Thomann) (prices incl. P&P - although this can be saved if you spend above a min or for additional items from some of the above). I was recommended the last two by Mark from Talking Bass who I am huge fan of for his online tuition. He finds the Levy to be a little more comfortable than the Minotaur but, as with many things, he said it's not worth twice as much! Well I have a birthday coming up, trouble is investing in a decent strap I suspect is just going to open the door to certain slightly heavier basses that I've had my eye on but balked at getting, so could actually prove to be a very expensive investment 😁

What a stage great act - can totally get why they would have packed out at that venue! And no, I don't think her is natural or that it matters 😁

Great song, but a straightforward collaboration rather than a re-cover of an original?

Another stunning bass @gafbass02! Really sorry to hear about the health issues - wishing you a full recovery, fingers crossed, mate. I have to agree a cheap EQ pedal can be bit a like a cheap bottle of plonk - sometimes it's possible to pay too little for stuff and regret it after! It's a weird one though, some bits of kit can be amazing value e.g. HB basses (and that's just from the +ve comments I keep reading like the from Stew above and @TheLowDown below - not had one myself); and the Zoom B1-4 mulitfx, which has a very passable EQ ability. I guess the beauty of BC is getting tips on what is great value and what is just cheap - such a key difference!

The one in the pic is a BB1025, which you were present at the Yammy store when it got bought(!) and which has never left my herd and I suspect may never do so! The one that's now back in the herd is the black BB735A, which was one of your favourite models too once! It managed to sweep aside a rather lovely Sandberg Panther Special 5er, which was also on my shortlist. The fact that it was just 20% of the cost might have had some part to play - hehe - but, straight up, it really did seem to go toe to toe with the Berg tonally! But I see you've gone exotically posh since those former days 😁

Yeah - it's kinda revealing that a lot of us on BC, including me, often regard MB gear as "MOR" rather than high-end! I remember going into a PMT store and the sales guy saying that they didn't stock MB gear as it was regarded as being too boutique! Having said that, I recently treated myself to a MB combo (a replacement for the top of the range AC 121 Lite I had a few years back) to leave at my aged folk's place for when I'm regularly up there these days. For £400, I reckon I'm going to struggle to find something that's better value in terms of quality / price. Speaking of Ashdown, there's a pair of lovely Ashdown headphones in the pic - made available to me for a ridiculously good price by @dave_bass5 - cheers buddy. My worst purchase this year (for the second year running!) was a Boss pedal! Last year's brown pedal prize went to the Boss OC-3, this year to the Boss SYB-5. Tbf it's relatively ancient tech - I just wanted to see how it stacked up against its new sibling the Boss SY-1. Well it's simply pants in comparison! But I suspect if I was going on value for money and most use my "best buy" trumping a very worthy Tech 21 VT Bass DI which is such a good pre-amp - it provides a clarity and articulation to my basses which I didn't realise I was missing before I had it (and would certainly have been a perfect partner for the AC 121 Lite I mentioned I sold a while back) - and also my recently reacquired Yammy BB735A, which I'm loving, and both of which in another year I'd have happily given top billing to, is the cheap as chips, versatile multifx, headphone amp, drum machine and tuner in the shape of the Zoom B1-4. In fact I liked it so much, I've got a second one to slip into my gig bag which allows me to lazily leave the first at the heart of my small pedal board and which just also sneaks into the pic below.

Boss OC-5 in action on this clip. But forget that - I want the Boss RC-500!!

+1 for the Lekato - been happily sitting on my compact board for a while and takes up very little space. Really tempted by the recently released Boss RC-500, appreciate it's out of budget in terms what ped is looking for, but it looks great and a nice step up over the Boss RC-10R for just £30 more.

@TheGreek Have to 'fess I do like a bit of PMJ - great fun and a BIG following. We've kinda nicked that swing / vibe for our cover of that one in our 50s/60s band. Our guitarist has a sweet spot for Heart and that one is definitely an improvement on Spirit's original, although I do prefer the Led Zep cover better - hehe. Oh, and I still like DG amps... 😁

Oh dear are you deliberately trying to induce a bad bout of Eden GAS in me? 😁 They seemed to be all the rage 6 years or so back when I first started being a bit more focussed on gear / spending time on BC (obviously mere coinicidence - haha). But have since pretty much disappeared from view on the amp front?

What I do love is that both my current and previous 735As feature in very decent YT clips by a couple of our pro-bassists 😊

Story here is that TSWbeEnough (yup - you really do need to ask @pedto shorten that - lol!) had a K sticker on the bass, which has left a very minor blemish when he removed it. (Bet none of you could spot it from the pic I posted? 😊) Given that it is now Al Krow's bass, he could have left it on, none of us would have been the wiser about the blemish and he could have asked me for a higher price - certainly by at least the cost of the sticker, which I've now got to go out and buy! 😂

I loved these boys when they first appeared on the scene back in the 80s. This was a really poignant show for a completely different (sad) reason.

Be following closely how your experience of the 735A develops as I am definitely partly to blame for persuading you to get this! FWIW if my first experience of a 735A was a meh 6/10, which I put down to poor set up, my current experience, second time around, with a really well set up and well played in bass (and for a really good price!) - thanks for all of that to @TwoStringsWouldBeEnough (although he really could have chosen a more compact Avatar name - lol!) is a really happy 9/10! I don't tend to give 10/10, so you get the idea!

That's a very nice collection you have there! Are you trying to corner the entire market in mint used BB 1024s? 😁

@TheGreek Mick, noooo!!! I mean the rap version is an interesting take on it, but those covers particularly that Goldbug version is not in the same league, let alone the same division, as Led Zep!

Not sure Maroon 5 managed to top the fab 4 at all with their covers! And what about that royalty audience?!

Yeah, fair points. I'm still (genuinely) of the view many of us will be gigging again by May.

Yeah - there was a disappointing amount of hype and euphoria on this particular announcement last week (which was certainly fanned by the Beeb amongst others). It seems that Pfizer were well aware that their vaccine, which needs to be stored at -80O C, would be rapidly superseded by vaccines that can be stored at higher, i.e. normal refrigeration, temps so they needed to get a "first mover" advantage by coming up with their press release first. Well it's worked for them: they have now secured orders for 300M vaccines from the EU following on from 40M or so from the UK. Transporting large volumes of vaccines at -80O C is going to be a rich-world luxury - guess we are very fortunate (yet again) to be living in an affluent part of the planet with comprehensive and free health care.

Woody, you've quite correctly now picked me up twice on my research skills or lack thereof! I clearly didn't join the dots with Theodore's very clever title wording when starting this thread at 1AM last night - lol! Next time I need a PA, of the typing rather than 1000W variety, I'll know who to contact 😁 Mods - please feel free to bookend this thread onto the back of Theodore's if that would make better sense.

Dang - that McCartney geezer sure knew how to lay down a walking bass line!!

That was never going to be in doubt!

I'm sensing a theme here. Lol! But "anything"?!!! Just find me something better than Something.

What tracks do you reckon the cover beats the original? (I think there was a short thread on this a few years back pre "change over" - but I'd be up for hearing from the current BC crew on what their views are!). I totally rate Cream (who doesn't?!) - they were just an amazing 3 piece and this is a classic piece of blues rock from them: ...but having heard John Mayer on this cover, I think this crew just edges it!