TrevorR

Since you're going to proudly tell everyone that you did the bass yourself as a project rather than try to pass it off as a genuine .fender a logo saying something like "Dan Dare Custom" with maybe a little clip art retro style rocket would fit the bill nicely. I agree that without a decal it looks a bit empty and unfinished but with a fake branded logo it looks a bit sad... Does that neck still have the Squier logo as leaving that could be an option.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1455105120' post='2975860'] Thin stuff actually. I know that the first three tracks and the last two were originally written as a single suite a-la Supper's Ready (Tony's idea) but the band decided to split them up with random tracks. There might be a theme with some of the songs but certainly no concept. [/quote] Well, I never said Duke was a great story... ;-) I'd always thought/heard that the other tracks had also been loosely woven about that faded rock star midlife crisis theme/story which bookend the album, with liberal drawing on Collins' messy life of the time. Happy to file under "theme" rather than story, though. [quote name='Bikenbass' timestamp='1455156608' post='2976578'] Camel, Flight Of The Snow Goose. [/quote] Good call, forgot that one. Love that album. I'll also chuck in Home ( and the NewYork Suite mini album) by Welsh proggers Magenta, Snow by Spock's Beard and with a loose storyline, Clone by Threshold...

Don't forget there are two varieties of concept album... The story type and the overarching theme/high concept type... Lots of great ones mentioned but here are a few of my faves... STORY: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War Of The World's Donald Fagen - Kamakiriad The Who - Tommy Rick Wkeman - Myths and Legends of King Arthur Genesis - Duke Horslips - The Tain Horslips - The Book Of Invasions OVERARCHING IDEA: Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak Alan Parsons Project - Gaudi Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon Horslips - The Man Who Built America & Aliens Gordon Giltrap - Visionary/Fear Of The Dark/Peacock Party

Ok so my Wals have a wee bit more scope for tonal tweakery than your average passive wiring loom but for me there's a lot of fun to be had sculpting the sound with the tone controls and finding one that really works for the song and the mood. I have loads of different fave settings for different sounds on mine. And that's before you play around with right hand placement, the level of attack and where along the string you pluck, how you pluck the strings - tips of the fingers,sides of the fingers, fleshy part of the thumb... All make a huge difference. I did a wedding gig where a teenage kid came up in one of the breaks to ask what pedals I was using to get all the different tones I was using (songs from Britpop to folk to white reggae to rock n roll to funk...) . All I had at my feet was a Boss TU2 Tuner and a Lehle switching pedal to swap between my two basses.

Just do the gig and fill the space between you. As you say, the audience won't know!

Just spotted this in the Grauniad... http://gu.com/p/4gh82?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other So it turns out that the legal wrangles over Happy Birthday To You have been settled and that it is finally in the public domain. And Warner Chappell have to compensate everyone they charged to use it for media and performances. So, no longer will the guests at birthday parties on films and telly programmes have to sing "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" slightly awkwardly instead of "Happy Birthday To You".

Can I nominate Gordon Giltrap. I got to know him over the years and he's so self effacing and such a gent. Also dear old Herbie Flowers. Saw him playing bass in Jeff Wayne's WotW a few years ago in Brighton. The following afternoon my wife and I were wandering the back streets when we saw Herbie and Chris Spedding trundling their overnight bags down the street towards the theatre for that evening's show. I said to Herbie, "Don't want to disturb you or hold you up but just wanted to say how much we enjoyed the show and what a treat it was to hear you and Chris recreating your parts..." We would have just left it there but he insisted on stopping for a proper chat, wanted to know about us, asked about my bass playing, shared a few anecdotes... Just a lovely bloke!

The fix on the neck was done by Mike Lull so it should be a quality, reliable bit of work too. As you say, a US bargain.

Indeed, hence the stateside comment... Import taxes would add a slug on top of the price...

http://www.talkbass.com/threads/cheap-wal-mk3-5-string-repaired-neck-player-bass.1205096/ Just spottted a bass being sold by a guy I know through the various Wal bass chat rooms at a knock down price. Yes, it has a story attached but he's pretty much gone full disclosure in the ad. He's a known collector in the Wal world but got a bass in a sale without realising some of the neck issues that it had when sold, anyway... May be of interest particularly to some of our stateside brethren. For info, I've got no connection to the sale or to Mike other than occasionally shooting the breeze online about our fave brand of bass. Hope that someone snags a bit of a bargain.

[quote name='MoJoKe' timestamp='1454602097' post='2971263'] If he's like most MB users, most of them won't even be plugged in, or it'd be way too loud! You wouldn't hear the bike for bass... [/quote] Yeah, I was trying to workout the impedence load on the MB, but I'm pretty sure he'd have to be running it at less than 4ohms... Which of course raises questions about the longevity of his power amp...

This is where those "one finger per fret" left hand fingering exercises will pay dividends as they will minimise the need to move hand position... But then again, embrace the pure joy of punctuating a line with a huge glissando up the neck and down again. Having just gone the other way it's the thing I probably miss the most!

Yeah, ZingZillas is a top show and another fave. I recall a while back a "how low has Stu fallen?" thread about that. However, when you look at their roster of muso guests it's quite an exalted group. From Nicola Benedetti and Julian Lloyd Webber to The Gossip to BJ Cole, Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth, Sharon Shannon and Evelyn Glennie (if my memory serves)... Oh, and the Hawkins Brothers! Each show focuses on an instrument or a genre or an aspect of music. Plus, forget Glastonbury, Live 8, the Albert Hall, I'll bet that if you're a muso with preschool kids, ZingZillas Island is simply the coolest gig you've ever done! Period!

Mine loves Chic too, and The Jacksons. With a side order of Lizzy... Think he'll be a drummer, though.

Having a 5 year old you end up watching some funny old stuff on the telly. Latest from CBeebies is a show called Go Jetters. Designed to teach kids a bit about world geography it features four cutesie manga style adventurers who travel the world in a spaceship. But here's where it gets a bit interesting... They are led by UberCorn, a disco unicorn with the voice of Huggy Bear and the sparkly disco jump suit of Travolta! And boy, does this show rock! Or rather it funks and discos with all its might! The sound track is the perfect cheesy pastiche of 70s funk and disco. The theme tune channels the theme of the Linda Gray version of Wonder Woman, all big Philly strings and horns, wah wah guitar and funky bass... Plus it features the vocals of the wonderful Sharleen Linton. Goodness knows what they were on when they thought up this show but, it must have been some good stuff. And when you get to UberCorn's Funky Facts there's some pretty cool slap bass going on! The music is by Banks & Wag. Worth a listen. Anyway, git your funk on to this... http://youtu.be/REBUEe3mtXo http://youtu.be/WDvVRH6bq3Q

Yes, I've used Joe in the past too. Very highly recommended.

It's funny, somehow I feel I'm kinda programmed to say "Well, Entwistle, of course." but actually, when I look at my listening habits it is Squire's playing I keep going back to and whose playing I most enjoy. Throughout his career he was playing melodically interesting lines and riffs across Yes' various styles. And always with an incredibly tone. Entwistle was, of course a phenomenal player, a huge influence on many and a bass innovator. However, particularly later in his career that clanky, trebly live tone he adopted was all but unlistenable (better on studio recordings, thankfully). When I listen to the Who I tend to listen to the overall band sound and, actually, the bass is one of the least important elements to me - certainly not in comparison to Townsend's guitar, Moon's drums or Daltrey's vocals. When I listen to Yes I tend to appreciate all the parts of teh arrangement but my ear does keep homing in on Squire's playing. So for me it's Squire by a very long (Rickenbacker) neck.

PS either tuning source is valid, they are both sensing the string vibration frequency. The pedal tuner may be a bit more stable and consistent. A bit...

Definitely chromatic, esp if you're doing non standard tunings. The non-chromatic will tune to standard guitar notes E A D G B. The chromatic will show you which note the string is playing and how in tune it is. I didn't know theystillmade non chromatic. The other two tuners to checkout are 1) the Polytune (my personal fave). Good stable tuner, well designed and clear display. And 2) the Boss TU series. I think the TU3 is the latest model. Not as clear a display in my opinion but still very good. This was my fave until I got a Polytune. Both excellent, robuat pieces of kit that will probably outlast you! These two alongside the Korg Pitchblack are probably the three market leaders.

Apropos of nothing... just done an update and some new content on the Wal History blog. See whatca think. [url="http://walbasshistory.blogspot.co.uk/"]http://walbasshistory.blogspot.co.uk/[/url]

For me I think that whether a bass is cool (to me) or not is largely aesthetic and visual - and as such is irrational, inconsistent and purely personal. There are many basses I think are cool that I would never play as I find them uncomfortable or for one or another reason they just don't work for me. For example Ricky 4000 series basses. Love them, can't get on with them but till terribly cool. Thunderbirds, cool. Non reverse TBirds deeply uncool. I would probably find it easier to define elements that rule out coolness for me than define a cool formula... So Laklands bridges, modern style single cuts, really over extended upper horns, probably more than five strings and definitely more than 6, multi wood/colour fingerboards, never seen a Warwick I thought looked cool (their aesthetic just doesn't do it for me)... And a random host of others I'm sure.

Initially the result of a divorce, I understand... Mrs got the shop in Kew and Mr went off to set up his own new shop and repair busniess. Hadn't realised before that the head of the Kew repair workshop was the legendary Brinsley Schwarz though.

I guess for me it al depends on how you and the drummer are going to work together in that situation. If the drummer plays his fill as usual at the end of bar 8 and lands back in for the verse or chorue where he's supposed to then you'd do that together. If you think that you and he can have the eye contact and intuition to make a 9 bar solo work seamlessly then that's the way to go...

[i]"When Charvel first started, I went out there and saw a bunch of nice alder bodies, and I hung them on wires and tapped them until I found the one that really resonated. So I took that body to John and we made a bass out of it. It's kind of my Frankenstein.[/i] [i]"I've got first-generation EMG pickups on it. Also, I have two sets of Precision pickups, and I have them where Jazz pickups would've normally gone. But I reversed their position, which totally evens things out. In redoing the neck, we had to strip the frets off, and we ended up replacing them with mandolin wire, which is very small fret wire. We didn't know if it would work, but it turned out great. So that's been my main bass since about 1983."[/i] I've often wondered how Lee Sklar's Frankenstein Bass apporach would work... replacing the standard fret wide with the thinnest gauge mandolin wire you could find...

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1454065448' post='2965929'] IIRC Wal did something similar for a while... [/quote] Not as a standard offer. I just about do seem to recall someone did once order a half fretted neck as a special though...