Dan Dare

Selling it for a chum.

He's still calling it a Fender in the title, but has added a couple of semi-literate comments. Caveat emptor. Hopefully, people won't be fooled.

Just roll up pieces of foam and stuff them in the ports. Cheap and enables you to experiment whether partially or totally blocking them works best.

A shame it's collection only in Sheffield. For a tenner, I'd buy it for a laugh. When the jam I play in the house band at gets up and running again, it would be great to have it to offer to those "Lend us yer bass, mate" types who turn up without an instrument.

If you don't mind collecting it - in Bilston, so Midlands, which is where you are - this - Trace Elliot Bass Amp, GP12SMX, AH400SMX | eBay - is on the Bay at the moment. Looks in good shape - even the sliders have all their knobs. I was tempted for old times sake (I had the AH350), but mustn't buy any more gear.

Don't forget tone polish - Rag-Time: How to Clean Your Guitar for Better Tone (gibson.com).

I'm thinking of trying some different strap buttons to improve my tone. Any suggestions?

It's inevitable that people will be appreciated best when they are at their most active, which Paul M no longer is. He was always very musical and inventive. He's done all right. I don't suppose he worries about whether he's appreciated or not.

That's because it is (not that exact one, but the same model). Have a look at Gibson Style U - Wikipedia for history.

I like it. Certainly has character. Wouldn't be surprised to see it make a decent price. Vintage Jap stuff is quite collectable.

Headstock shape looks really off.

Beyer DT770s work for me.

If you don't want to spend too much, have a look at Musicman Bridge (wdmusic.co.uk). Looks a solid item. I've bought several Gotohs from WD and the service has always been good.

This is it in a nutshell. I've had a few instances of people on eBay offering to pay me via PP and then "sending a courier". I simply tell them to give the "courier" the cash and he can give it to me directly in exchange for the item. Oddly enough, they never agree to the idea. Wonder why?

Has to be commando for the spontaneity it lends my playing.

Given the amount of kit people are trying to sell at the moment, I wouldn't buy new. Plenty of good used stuff about.

I find the Lindy plug board effective for removing noise at home. I got it for the hi-fi, but take it out to gigs, too.

I like it when someone who is good at it does it. That doesn't include me. I'm crap at slap.

It's a good time to buy and a bad time to sell at present. If you can hang onto the ones you're thinking of off-loading, you'll get more for them once the world has returned to something resembling normality. It's a particularly bad time to trade in right now. Shops aren't shifting much and won't want to take things into stock unless they can buy them for next to nothing. You can't blame them. They have a living to make, wages and bills to pay, etc, etc. If you must sell now, do it privately.

I had a 2x15 Bassman cab of similar vintage. The drivers were pretty useless and looked cheap. There was a glued seam on the cones - it looked as if they had been made by bending a piece of straight card to shape. I blew one up, so replaced both with Peavey Black Widows (which were then considered pretty nice and certainly not cheap). Turned it into a very fine cab (by the standards of the day). Shame it was so big and heavy. I needed a Volvo estate to cart it around.

You can see the man himself explaining what he did here - Guy Pratt Lockdown Licks Ep 3 'Earth Song' - YouTube

I spent around £100. As I said, I may have been lucky.

It seems we have many different experiences of couriers, online retailers et al. I have bought from Bax and been satisfied with the service. Ditto Hermes. It's very much dependent on the individual(s) you deal with at any large organisation. If the people who process your order are conscientious and competent, you will have a good experience. If not, you won't. It's not possible to generalise.

I've wondered about doing that, too. I've only been able to find plate amps for subs. The idea of using a powered PA speaker amp module sounds interesting. I found a company called KJF Audio in Warwickshire that sells Hypex plate amps, but they seem to be aimed more at the hi-fi market. They're at Full range drivers, DIY speaker kits and DIY audio components (kjfaudio.com).

Interesting that Chapman chose laminated bamboo. I've always understood that bamboo, whilst very strong (weight for weight, it is pretty much equivalent to steel), has natural flexibility/compliance and can withstand repeated bending stresses and recover quickly. That's why it was traditionally used for fishing rods. It has also been used to make violin bow sticks, which again must be light, flexible and recover swiftly from flexing. Rigidity doesn't strike one as being one of its main qualities, although I expect laminating can be used to achieve that. It would require many layers of lamination to make something the size of a bass or a Stick because bamboo is hollow, with thin walls. That would likely make building guitars and basses from it very expensive.