anzoid

Unashamed Level 42 fan - absolutely brilliant. Um... your voice suits the songs perfectly. Obviously not Mr King, but right for the songs... given you sometimes hear covers where the singer is almost a complete mimic and others where they're just, you know, wrong - your voice is different and fits the songs really well. Shame you're the wrong end of the country from where I live as I'd come to a gig or ten and hang out at the merch table. When's the CD coming out?

Just bought Vin's Chowny SWB-1 Pro Fretless. Brilliant from start to finish. Vin's a gentleman who knows what he's doing, is honest, packages stuff up really well, sends promptly, replies to dumb questions and is a pleasure to deal with! Thank you!

Switched to Schaller S locks recently on two different basses (and will be adding them to the one due in soon :D) and the thick locking nut/washer that goes on the strap also has a grub screw so you can tighten it up against the thread. Hasn't budged so far. There's also a hole across one edge of the washer that you can poke the allen key through to use as leverage to really tighten things up. Overall, quite impressed. Slightly less impressed by the bit that goes on the bass which is all in one with the thread attached to the button and an allen key shaped hole for installing. Feels a bit pointless and like a potential weak point, however, ordinary Schaller strap buttons would work anyway, so you can mix 'n' match. Overall - a worthy upgrade for the strap bit, less so for the bass bit.

I had a Warwick Korean Pro Series Thumb fretless that I bought at the beginning of the year and it was an awesome bass (same guts as the German Thumbs, but maple neck). And I fell in love with the sound but not the weight and the reach required when on a strap. (I was and hade been having shoulder problems...). I tried a fretless Chowny at a bass bash and was amazingly impressed. Set up with @Chownybass to reserve a pair (fretted and fretless) of SWB-1s when the next batch came in, but had to pull out as shoulder problems and some other stuff led to me downing bass for quite a while. He was very gracious. I finally pulled things together recently and saw Andertons had a white SWB-1 in stock (the last one), so pulled the trigger and now have a bass to love that has the character of the Warwick - most definitely the growl, but probably not going to be mistaken for a "real" Thumb as the sound also is kind of rounder - being short scale and all. I love it to bits. And want a fretless SWB-1 now :D

Two shortscales: a Cort Action Junior and an active Chowny SWB-1. The Cort is a lovely bit of kit though the hardware was a bit lacking - swapped out the tuners and bridge for Hipshot products, and got an EMG 40TWX waiting to drop in though the stock pickup is pretty meaty. The Chowny is just totally awesome - I love everything about it, quality is exceptional for the money, and it plays beautifully with a sound (for me...) that is close to the growl of a Warwick Thumb - exactly what I wanted. Not going to abstain in 2020 because I really would like to get my hands on a fretless SWB-1...

Had a bass body resprayed by Jack's Instrument Services in Manchester (http://www.jacksinstrumentservices.com/). I had already stripped the old finish but they'll do it for you (and they had to do a bit of work on the body I sent... ahem). Was very pleased with the result. Turn around time was quite long - early November 2014 to beginning of February 2015 (just checked the emails) but that was because it was a really cold winter and the nitro took ages to dry - Jack kept me well informed of progress - never had to bug him. Finish was gloss nitro and it was smooth and very nicely polished up. Other's will be along with other recommendations but I'm very happy to recommend Jack (with the slight caveat that this was nearly five years ago...) Edit: Oh yeah, price was around £200 which I thought was very good for what I ended up with. (Prices may have risen... yeah, £280, but I think that includes stripping the original finish...)

A lovely collection And having visited BreadBin and played most (or all of these...) I have to say the man has impecable taste in basses. The jazz second in from the right at the top is, in particular, a thing of beauty and plays and sounds so good. For me... I'm down to one - a Warwick Rockbass 4 LX in metallic blue that I picked up for a very reasonable price recently. Everything else apart from my TE Elf + 2 Ampeg 2x10 cabs has been sold. I would probably like to add the Rockbass's fretless brother (sister? sibling...) at some point, but hard to justify at the moment as I only play at home and haven't played anywhere else in rather a long time. My musical attention is mostly on computer-based music these days, even the bass is virtual...

Just had a very good experience with BTN Music - https://www.btnmusic.co.uk/ - bought a bass on sale but a look round the site shows a very good selection of bass hardware - Hipshot (US and Licensed), Schaller, ABM, Babicz and even Yamaha (wish list started..) Also Some Wilkinson pickups at good prices, though not a huge range - guessing would be able to get stuff in if requested. When I placed my order I got a call from Alex, (one the directors no less) and had a chat about Warwick basses and importing stuff from the US. So, great to have a supplier of bits and pieces who is friendly and keen to help. Recommended, A+ and all that

Bit pricey and doesn't look to be all original either. Shouldn't have that LED above the jack socket. And there's a third toggle switch been added - looks like the new one is in the original hole and a new hole has been drilled between and the old toggle put in the new hole... I think those toggle switches are quite fragile as quite a few pics online show at least one replaced, but none with three toggle switches. And definitely none with an LED. So, unless the owner can say exactly what's been done to it I'd pass, even though I'd quite like one of these (and not at that price either...)

I've had a cheap (RedSub/Gear4Music) 5-string fan-fret up for sale on a Facebook group and finally it got some interest and I got it out of its case to check it over and have a play... and now I'm thinking whether I really do want to see it. For what I paid (less than £200) it's a pretty stunning bass. Only reason to do so is to help fund a pair of Chowny SWB-1s - fretted and fretless - but its sale is not essential... Would it make me a complete jerk to just tell the guy I've decided to keep it?!?

Thanks. Going to be hard to beat the £15 it was going for on Amazon... but £30 isn't horrendous...

Ah well, that's the end of that then I guess Such is life. I'll have to nick borrow @BreadBin's copy

Well, when you all get bored of your copies (as if...) you know who to send them to - the queue is growing longer

Glad you got a copy I ordered mine 14th Feb and that got cancelled...

Out of interest, do you remember when you ordered your book?

Thanks for the idea... have done the same. Seems unreasonable that they cancelled a series of orders and now the book is available and apparently being shipped... As you say, let's see what happens.

This would look so cool with an Elf amp perched on top... at least one part of the rig would be an easy carry.

So, we won't get to see you in this neck of the woods?

You could gig it for a couple of weeks and just lean it against the amp and hope the drummer doesn't trip over it... instant relic!

Could do a setup for him and get it ready for collection - maybe a bit of light relicing... 😈

Well, if you win and come down this way give us a shout and we can have a meet up!!

Possibly maximising the time it takes to sell so he can tell the missus that no-one's interested and he ought to keep it along with the new {insert brand and model} he's already just bought

Amazing day - thank you @scrumpymike and everyone who made the whole thing possible. Played my first ever short-scale - the @Chownybass SWB-1 fretless 😮 I think I'm in love.