Russ

There is a "legacy" range of Lane Poor pickups (Lane Poor himself has long since retired - not even sure he's still alive), but they are only produced in small numbers and are quite sought-after and lead times are quite long. I think Modulus actually buys most of them. I believe Bartolini produce an MM pickup to the Lane Poor specs as well, but they're special order only.

The classic Flea Bass / Funk Unlimited sound is basically the sound of the Lane Poor MM pickup, which has a very distinctive punchy-yet-hollow tone, so this one won't sound like Flea on Californication or Kettle Whistle. Delano make great pickups, and I'd be interested in hearing what this one sounds like. Having a mid control would make a big difference.

Alex has lots of different instruments (he’s friends with the Carillion guys and plays their guitars in his other projects) but he plays the Statuses when he’s touring with Slipknot. I seem to recall the designed him a pointy, kinda X-shaped one, but it never made production beyond a few prototypes.

It uses Rautiaguitars multi-coil pickups (copies of the Wal ones) and a Lusithand Devices filter preamp. The Lusithand circuit has similar controls to a Wal - volume, pan, and two filters, each with a resonant peak that can be changed by pulling up the knob. It doesn’t have the “pick attack” setting like a Wal, where you pull the volume knob up, but the frequency ranges of the filters are wider to compensate. I’m currently having a Lusithand preamp installed in my Sei. There’s a few companies now who make the Wal-style multi-coil pickups - Rautia, Herrick and Bassculture come to mind. Nordstrand also make the Big Blademan range, which are not multi-coil pickups, but they are voiced to sound very much like Wal pickups They were designed for Justin Chancellor to go in some Warwick basses that were being made for him, but he didn’t end up using them. I think the prototype ended up getting sold on Reverb!

The irony is, The Who never played outside of the UK and Ireland until they were well into their second record deal. The whole "mod" thing wasn't popular outside of the UK.

It's still easier to get visas for Europe - they're a lot less strict than the US, but it's starting to become comparable.

We're not really talking about the sorts of bands who would headline Download. More the ones who'd end up on the smaller stages, at smaller festivals like Stonedead, and those who do pub or small venue gigs. The big bands have money, management, and most of them are long established. Paying for some visas that they didn't have to pay for before is a drop in the bucket compared to what they're already paying to move their stage show around the world. We're talking about smaller, newer unsigned bands, who don't have major financial backing or professional management, who've had the ability to expand their audience overseas severely restricted, in both directions. This is why the rubbish that the likes of Bruce Dickinson and Roger Daltrey have been spouting about Brexit winds me up so much - they say that bands from the UK used to tour in Europe before the EU, but conveniently forget that the music business was massively different back then. You never got to play gigs on the European mainland unless you were signed and managed, and this was back when labels and managers would pay to "develop" acts. The managers would pay for visas and arrange the logistics. Those days are long gone, the labels don't have the money for that sort of thing anymore, and smaller bands have to do all that sort of thing themselves now, on a shoestring budget. Plus, it reeks of them pulling up the drawbridge behind them.

Only in as much as European bands have 26 other countries they can tour in with no restrictions, and the UK now only has one (Ireland). The visa, customs and cabotage conditions are just as strict for European bands going to the UK.

Not particularly aware of any online personalities who play Wals. It's all Geddy Lee, Justin Chancellor or Mick Karn fans who want that particular tone. In recent years it's largely been Justin Chancellor fans driving sales as a lot of people want something akin to that Tool bass tone.

If they were to expand their operations, they should go the Spector route - Eastern European manufacturing. That way you still get a high but more affordable price point. The Czech Spectors are fantastic basses, as well as the likes of Mayones, Maruszczyk, etc (made in Poland). I had a conversation on here a couple of months back, where I mentioned that I wished that Jaydee would make something a bit more lightweight and modern and a bit less 80s, and the counter-point was made that they do what they do, and that's what the people who buy them want. Fair enough. I guess Wal is the same way. You are starting to see some companies (Herrick, Rautia, Bassculture, even Nordstrand) making Wal-style pickups, and John East and Lusithand making filter preamps, and ACG making the whole kit and caboodle, so something akin to that Wal sound is available in other form factors now if you want it.

I know several bands based in the EU who have had to turn down UK shows because of the post-Brexit visa and customs situation. They're all smaller bands who basically just can't afford the red tape. The old days of just piling your stuff in a Transit and getting on a ferry are over. Venues in both the EU and UK are reluctant to book bands from overseas because they're not convinced they'll actually be able to show up! One of them did hit on an idea though - they put on a couple of shows in Dublin, and laid on coaches for GB-based fans. They worked out that even doing that is cheaper than dealing with all the visas and customs charges. The £300 charge that chris_b mentioned is per band member or crew member. Plus, for customs, they have to itemise (and possibly show receipts for) all their gear and personal effects, and pay VAT for any merchandise in advance. Most bands aren't registered as businesses, let alone VAT-registered. There's also the issue of cabotage - that, if you're driving a commercial vehicle (even a Transit or splitter van), you can only make 3 stops in the EU before you have to turn around and go home. You could rent a van on the continent to get around this, but that's yet more money most younger bands can't afford. What a cluster-fornication. 🙄

I say learn to play it. You're on the right site for hints and tips! If you did want to sell it, I think the one that The Galley had up for sale a few years back was up for £1200 or so. It was up there for a while but it sold eventually.

Yep, definitely an Eccles. I think that's a slightly newer one, without the metal bar in the top horn and with a proper strap button. It also looks like a "slap plate" has been fitted at the end of the fingerboard. Beautiful looking thing though, a proper piece of objét d'art. @Andie84What are you planning on doing with it? Hang it on the wall, play it, or sell it?

I thought it was a remarkable looking thing, a lovely piece of sculpture, and I definitely appreciated the thin-ness and light weight, that all the hardware on it was completely custom (including a metal piece extending out from the top horn to hold the strap, which you had to tie on like an acoustic strap) and the unusual construction. I was just underwhelmed with its sound, which is a shame. Apparently the shop in Denmark St (I think it was Hank’s) got one of them in every six months or so - Mr Eccles apparently only made a couple of them a year, so there can’t be many of them out there. Eccles basses were definitely not made in the 60s though - early ‘90s at the earliest. I think he stopped making them in the late ‘90s.

Found the pic. Is this it?

I know the ones. I remember trying them back in the mid-90s in one of the Denmark Street shops. Short scale, fretless, apostrophe-shaped plates around the control knobs, custom-made bar pickups, tuners you had to use with an allen key. Stunning looking things, body and neck made from a single piece of wood. Very light, but not particularly good sounding. I've got a photo somewhere, I'll have to dig it out. Other than knowing of their existence and having tried a couple out, I can't tell you much more about them, alas.

Nate's a great player. He's been getting some good gigs lately too. He toured with Devin Townsend a year or two back, and he's just been announced as the bass player on Porcupine Tree's upcoming reunion tour.

Just realised I've never actually posted a pic of my three. Let's remedy that.

@MertonSo far so good. Not had a chance to gig or rehearse with it yet, it's been in its bag most of the time, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Is it just the CHB and SWB basses that are going to be made in the UK from now on? Is the Retrovibe range going to continue? Kinda had my eye on a Tony Butler Retrovibe as a nice modding platform - thinking of modding it into a Rick/Jazz/Wal hybrid by adding Herrick or Rautia multicoil pickups and a Lusithand filter preamp.

Thought it might be Ben & co. I was struggling to think of many other guitar manufacturers in the West Country!

BC is proving to be a rather good advert for Ibanez EHBs as of late. They are great instruments, and I love how unbelievably light they are. They look absolutely tiny on me though!

Stunning. Are those tiny white LEDs in the fingerboard, or Luminlays or something? Or is it a trick of the light?

Mine is under 9lbs... just. 8lbs 12oz.

My 2007 Bongo 5 weighs about 10lbs and is a bit of a boat anchor. My 2018 fretless 5 is much, much lighter, with the newer lightweight aluminium hardware, and tips the scales at a little over 7lbs. My most recent Bongo (a sixer) weighs a little under 9lbs, and I reckon most of that extra weight is from the neck. If you're going custom, a lot of builders are using a timber called paulowina as a decent lightweight replacement for ash - I know ACG, Sei, Sandberg and several others now offer it as a body wood option. I've heard good and bad things - the tone is supposed to be good, but it apparently dings quite easily.