Russ

After six years over here, you appreciate what the UK has that other places don't. Right now, it's the fact that my kids won't get shot at school, have to do lockdown drills, and then have to say the pledge of allegiance to the place that permits all this to happen. I like Canada - have been there a couple of times. But we don't know anyone there and immigrating there is tricky. We are considering Ireland as well - I have family there and citizenship, but finding somewhere to live is nigh-on impossible. The housing shortage there is way worse than in the UK. It's a work in progress, we're in the "discovery" phase right now. Maybe I'll end up back over there with my TE-1200 before they show up in the shops!

I still speak the Queen's English. It'll take more than six years over here to knock that out of me. Seriously considering moving back at the moment. My (American) missus has finally cracked, all the recent gun stuff has pushed her over the edge.

They definitely exist - I have one in the cupboard. Going to gig it for the first time in a few weeks - will report back on it then.

Fair enough. I'm talking about Cyclefly - seems they used to support practically everyone when they came through London! I'm sure I saw them at least 8-10 times at The Water Rats, the Underworld, the Bull & Gate, the Barfly and the Dublin Castle! Good band, actually.

I think I was at that gig. Trying to remember who the support bands were so I can identify you! All the gigs from back then seem to blur into each other, mostly because (not naming the band, just in case, but they had an Irish singer with a Perry Farrell fixation and red dreads) always seemed to be involved... When I heard that Skunk Anansie's bass player was Cass Lewis, I was expecting to see the pink Warwick! But he sounded thunderous with the Cutlass - I think he sounded better then than has has more recently with the G&Ls and the Alusonics.

Cass is an absolutely lovely bloke. Had a few good chats with him whenever I'd run into him at The Gallery over the years. Regarding his time with Terence Trent D'Arby, he's got some stories... most of them not very flattering.

The Sonic Hammer was basically the Flea Bass. Flea asked for it with a scratchplate, a sparkly paint job and the Lane Poor pickup (the Sonic Hammer came with a Bartolini MMC), otherwise it's essentially the same instrument.

Only dial up the bass and treble to full if you’re going for a slap solo or something and you really, really want that scoopy thing. Otherwise, keep the treble flat and bump the bass a tiny bit. If you’re on a 3-band, bump the mids just a little bit too. That’s a good all-purpose tone right there. Personally, on my MMs, I go for the Levin tone, with lots of compression and the bass turned most of the way up, with just a little additional treble. Everyone, when they first get a Stingray, turns everything up to full, and then promptly forgets that there’s a ton of other tones in there!

I've played a few - an older, original one with the LP, and a couple of newer ones, one with the Seymour Duncan MM pickup, and a 5-string with Bartolini MM/J pickups. Only the old one sounded to my ears like the recorded tone on the RHCP records. The other two sounded great - the SD-equipped one had a little more of a high-mid bitey Stingray vibe, and the Bart-equipped MM/J 5-string was clear and warm, but didn't sound much like the others. It was probably my favourite one out of all of them, to be honest, it had the most "balanced" tone. I have yet to own one though, so I defer to your experience in terms of how they work in a band context. I'd love a 5-string, like the one I tried.

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.