Cato

And to yourself. (Note for next year: this is not the best day to start a Merry Christmas thread, it's the quietest day of the year on the forum. There'll be a lot more people around tomorrow, but by then Christmas is technically over).

I've had a few bits and pieces from them in the past that have always arrived a couple of days after ordering. A couple of weeks ago I bought a bass from them. It took nine days to get here, no problem with that, it's almost certainly down to the time of year, but i did find the tracking process quite frustrating. There were various 'your bass has now reached this stage in the process' alerts, but no actual delivery dates were given, not even estimates until I got the 'your bass is out for delivery' notification about 00.30 on Saturday morning.

Every now and then I start researching and pricing parts to build my own 51 precision replica. Then I remember that I have the technical skills of a drunk koala.

I've fancied one of those for a long time. It's one of those Squier models that I suspect got discontinued for being a little bit 'too' nice.

On the plus side it is now, more or less a bass guitar, which it wasn't when he got hold of it. No excuses for the beard though.

'No, no, No, no, no, no , No, no, no, no. No there's no limit'. Words to live by.

In other news music retailer Gear For Music have just announced bankruptcy after an unfortunate pricing error was ruthlessly exploited by an online bass community...

Now listed as 'this product is currently not available for purchase. Either they've noticed, or we've just bought them all.

Half of that is p &p, presumably it's below the free postage threshold.

Reluctantly ordered, despite postage and packing almost doubling the price. Someone reassure me, assuming that this is some sort of pricing c.ock up, they can't just take the full amount out of my account without my permission?

Welsh language jazz fusion? Who knew such a thing existed?

I've modded a Squier VM70s Jazz to the point where on paper it's higher spec than a standard US Fender. I did it over quite a long period of time because it was easier to meet the costs that way, I installed high spec Aguilar pickups, a new wiring loom with CTS pots, had the frets dressed and levelled by a local luthier and put a new bridge on. It sounds and plays brilliantly, but is it actually a better bass than a US Jazz? I have no idea. I also have a couple of £1000 + instruments that I've never felt needed to be upgraded. I suspect a lot of it is psychological, if you don't believe that you get whar you pay for, there's no point in buying the more expensive instrument.

Bit of a can of worms this one. Is it possible to take,say, a Harley Benton Jazz, and upgrade everything, from the fret finish and tuners to installing all new electronics, to the point where it plays and sounds as good as a Sadowsky.? I have no idea, other than that buying all the premium components would cost a lot of money in itself, but anyone who has bought a much more expensive bass, and I'm one of them, would prefer to think that it isn't.

This why I love Basschat. At 43 in the real world I'm 'on the turn', but I'm still a whippersnapper on this forum.

I guessed it probably wasn't an off the peg model. It's just too unique looking, in the best possible way

That's the problem with these things. Personally I think Flea and the Chilli Peppers peaked with 'Mother's Milk' After that they became a lot 'safer' and less unique.

Led Zep one was pretty transformational in terms of how bass guitar was recorded and mixed. Led ZepTwo followed it's lead and picked up where it left off.

I don't think he got the offer. The version that I heard was that Charlie got the final decision and he felt he clicked best with Daryl.

I don't know if he wrote any of Living Colours songs during their brief flash of mainstream success in the late 80s/early 90s, bit he's definitely had a more successful career than most as a session musician/sideman. He caught the attention of Mick Jagger and the Stones, and ended up working with both. Apparently he came close to getting the permanent Stones gig after Wyman left, but quite a few prominent session players have similar stories. Also played with James Brown. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Wimbish

I really like that. What is it?

Hipshot do some nice stuff. http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Hipshot,_Knobs.html

Funnily enough I was working through this guys funk guitar tutorials last night. I've not been overly impressed with a lot of the guitar stuff on YouTube, a lot of it just isn't filmed well enough to let you see what's going on, but this guy is amongst the best I've found.

Yeah, but you're quite handy with a camera. It was probably much more horrible in the flesh.

Andertons have had those two high spec fretlesses at a bargain price in stock for at least 6 months. So I suspect there may be something to 'the curse of the black cherry burst'.

Yep, I'm in the shallow camp. It could be the best sounding, most comfortable to play instrument in the world, but if i don't like the shape or the colour it's a deal breaker. To bring us almost back on topic, that's exactly what stopped me getting one of these the other day. https://www.andertons.co.uk/spector-bass-legend-4-classic-black-cherry-lined-fretless-sl4clbc-lf?LGWCODE=SL4CLBCLF;56375;6335&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyNjRBRCpARIsAPDBnn3kq5pJ91_N4SFEVnlCcx4Ev5QGsKKQ-zmDTB8kOMtN0JCeDQTmz8QaAm3cEALw_wcB