TrevorR

My personal nominations.....

Ooooooh, so wish there was any way I could justify taking it off your hands. Always had a little hankering for an SB900! Loved Neil Murray's back in the day when I was starting out on my SB700.

I’ve always been in the “signature bits as they should be/other bits, recognisably the song and in the spirit of the line” camp like many others. It strikes me that this whole debate never existed (and certainly not to the polarised degree you see in some other places) before the interweb gave the “self-appointed universal law creators” a platform to criticise people. A couple of anecdotes from my wedding/covers band days... We were a really entertaining band who always put on a great show which got a fantastic response each night from the punters (whether bridesmaids, the corporate management team or denizens of the Ferret and Sack). But the main line up was: Singer/Acoustic or Electric Guitar (depending on set/song) Bass/Backing Vocals Drums Sax Female Vocalist Sometimes second electric guitar But we were doing songs by, for example, The Jam (EG/Bass/Drums), The Doobies (3 EG/Bass/Percussion/Horns/2 Drums), Motown (Funk Brothers), James Taylor (AG/EG/Keys/Bass/Drums), Lynyrd Skynyrd (3 EG/Bass/Drums/Piano/Honkettes), Elvis (AG/Archtop EG/Double Bass/Close Harmony Quartet)... and so on and so on across a pretty diverse party set. When the format of cover band and the original artist are that far removed from each other the question of whether the bass player was playing exactly every note and nuance as per the original recording seems a little moot - and, frankly, potentially counterproductive. Despite wanting to get the lines as mostly right or, at the very least, fitting with the spirit of the original there was one song where this was impossible. Going Underground by The Jam - the only song in the set where the lead singer/guitarist fundamentally changed the key to suit his voice - shoving a capo on. That either moved the signature bass riffs so key notes were either down below the nut (if played in the proper shapes) or way up the neck where they really just didn’t sound right. Plus he and the drummer played a funny rhythm which clashed with the bass riff somehow. Bruce Foxton’s classic line just didn’t work. So in the end I just made up a sympathetic bass part which kept some feel, energy and spirit of the song. And boy, did we ever give that song welly, attitude and energy - it was great to play! And you know what... in the 10 years I played in that band can you guess which tune more than any other had punters coming up after the set telling us we’d totally nailed it just like the record? Yup - Going Underground, just about the one that was further from the recording than any other. So when anyone says in an internet debate that “Unless you play it note perfect you’re letting the punter down any they’ll hate it!” just remember this story! So long as they can sing along with tunes they love, jump around, dance and have a good time feeding off the energy of the band the punters couldn’t care less.

Playing the Gustafson basslines isn’t a bad job either! Two of my all time favourite bass players. Very jealous you got to see Alan Spenner before he passed away.

Oooooh olive ash top. They look so gorgeous...

Very tempted by those Bass Collection basses - sadly no reason to justify one (hmmm... never actually owned a P bass though... hmmm). For many years we had a great sound guy who cut his teeth working doing engineering on albums by OMD, Queen, Steve Hackett, Gary Moore etc. He always made things sound great and rocky and he loved the combo of my Wal and MarkBass amp.

Been there with a previous (sometimes tetchy) worship leader. We kept getting this low frequency boom/feedback type sound on stage in rehearsal which was annoying the Leader. He told me to turn down a couple of times. I did until I could just hear my amp over the drums. It kept happening and I realised it was the keys amp resonating the acoustic guitar into low frequency feedback.It happened again and the worship leader was actively annoyed (at me) by now. I told him what I thought the problem was and he, effective told me to shut up, stop making excuses and just turn my amp down. Having had enough by now I quietly removed my bass, placed it on its stand, turned off the amp, unplugged the cable and coiled it neatly on the floor in front of me, turned to the drummer, winked and tapped the side of my nose and stood with my hands in my jeans pockets. The band started to run through the song again and the low frequency noise started again. The worship leader was furious by now and yelled while starting to turn around to confront me, “OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE TREVOR WILL YOU JUST DO AS I ASK YOU AND TURN YOUR AMP D...” I sweetly smiled at him, shrugged and said, “You really do need to do something about the acoustic guitar feeding back.” He never said sorry though...Bit of an ego issue, that guy.

Me neither - sounds fab, though!

Setting the bass peak at 40hz seemed bonkers to me. Do most active circuits do that? Seems unlikely. Thought I’d have a look at my Audere preamp’s spec... I do love how that preamp sounds!

Yup you read it right. Now you can get your own little mini Lemmy to make sure you get no sleep ‘til Hammersmith. https://www.nme.com/news/music/lemmy-action-figure-unveiled-for-ace-of-spades-40th-anniversary-2789684?fbclid=IwAR1lHDHuKywi8Jm60zQ0t_VBy4wpfVZTj9fQjFYPcHTcsZgETTEYemN3JDw Just make sure you buy yours quickly before Mr Hall and his m’learned friends kick the door in and slap an injunction on it for selling fake Rickies, infringement of trademarks and trying to pass of the teeny plastic accessory as the real thing!

White chocolate or Classic? 🥴

Her trio work is pretty stunning. She’s got such a great feel as a player. She certainly has the bass chops but she always strikes me as so much more melodic and tuneful than a lot of the shreddy jazz bassists out there. Worth checking out some of her live gigs on YouTube...

Already mentioned but for me my “Do” doubles are: Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds, and Out of the Blue, ELO Probably cheating but I’ll add it anyway: Star Wars - Original Soundtrack, John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Got it for my birthday in August 1977. Loved it then, still love it now.

Another vote for an Aria SB! They’re lovely (if weighty) basses. Here’s my SB700. My first ever bass. Still love it!

We refer to them as “transitional Custom series” or “transitional Pro” basses - when zeal we’re still tying down the Custom design. Other than the Pro neck it’s a standard Custom series in all other ways. They made quite a few like that around 1981..

Also in Staines and would have been happy to help but we're all shielding at the mo. Glad that it looks like Mr H can help.

When people say that the bass sold for $384,000 it’s not really quite correct. The vintage 1969 Fender Mustang bass sold for $1,000. A thin layer of Bill Wyman’s sweat and dead skin cells sold for $383,000!

Mine will be this one... had it since 1992ish...

Looking forward to the video on the Wal!

A chum of mine (who is into wilfully quirky music) got a basic hurdy gurdy made for him (before people like a Robert Plant made it “cool”). He was showing it off to me and some chums when one of the others said, “Cool Tim. You’ve just spent 500 quid so you can sound exactly like a 50 quid monophonic synth. Nice!”

1 Bass: Well, a Mark III Wal 4-string would be nice (to go with my Mk I and Pro) but I'd also be looking at an Overwater, an Enfield and a Sandberg. An Amp head with 1 or 2 cabs: I'd porobably want to cehck out a Quilter Bass Block (but I can't decide if it would be the original or the 802) and match it with a couple of nice Barefaced 1x12s. A combo amp: Probably a Markbass CMD Super Combo K1 (or go right the other way with a teeny weeny Micromark A preamp pedal: well, it would be nice to know if the Noble preamps are really as wonderful as folks say they are. Or maybe a Shift Line Olympic MkIIIS - they look like nice bits of kit with a decent emulation circuit.

Yes, it was while he was getting increasingly ill... but it was his and Ian’s legacy!

Maybe it’s “mockney” then! 😉 By the way, when I’m chatting on the phone to my dad or my siblings on the phone I start off pretty much with Surrey RP but develop an increasing Norn Iron twang the longer the call goes on!

I'd definitely keep it for a while at least. Then I can see it being sold off to fund a nice custom build... maybe a Sandberg and an Overwater... or even a Mk3 Custom Wal to add to the collection...

Maybe he was talking about the construction of the G and D strings on the mandolin and it's just his funny Scots pronunciation of the tiny phosphor bronze wires that go around the steel cores on the two lower courses... Wind - as in rhymes with "find". If so, then it IS about time he changed the mandolin wind (and plain strings too, just changing the wound strings is a false economy and the plain ones will be just as dead)! 47 years is way too long to have one set of strings on there...