Burns-bass

What you could do is to try and locate the instrument. Do you have the serial number of it and any photos? It may have gone abroad or be broken up for parts, but who knows. The '6 degrees of separation' thing is likely to be shortened in the small world of bass players. Has to be worth at least a try.

Absolutely agree. I’ve met some fantastic people on FB too, but with the internet these bargains are few and far between so I’m always cautious particularly on FB.

We’re all talking about objective criteria here but the truth is that you had an emotional attachment to that bass and it’s going to be hard to find that with another one. Try and explain it to anyone who isn’t a musician and they’d laugh; but we’ve all been through similar things. Youll never be able to replace the years of investment in that instrument and you’ll probably have to settle for the closest approximation.

Great! It really does feel lovely when you’ve got a beautiful, clean and wonderful sounding upright bass. was playing my Bryant today and just want the same feeling (if at all possible) from the Eminence.

Cool. I’ve got lemon oil for my electric basses but bought I’d ask the question...

There is so much crap advertised on Facebook, and some really quite obvious fakes (to those that know). The problem is that the marketplace doesn't seem to have any admins who police the site. I've bought a couple of great things there, but I'd be wary and ask for advice.

Hi all, just picked up an Eminence which is really nice. I need to clean the fingerboard and care for it. What would you guys suggest?

It is indeed. It's a Barcus Berry Pickup. You can see the guys website here: http://barcusberry.com/product.cfm?ProductID=22 It's a nice thing, and I might be interested in it if you're looking to sell it? It's missing the pads I think to attach it to the bridge.

Hi Andy, I know how you feel. I do the same with my DBS. Having a pro work on it just puts your mind at rest and Labella strings will exert more tension on the neck than the new Rotos on there (make sure you don’t ditch those strings, I only put them on last week for an hour!). I asked a friend and he recommended these guys in Stokes Croft: http://www.edgeguitarservices.co.uk/ I actually need to take a guitar to get looked at by SiCo sometime (I need the pickup rewound and I’ve heard they do a good job) so if you’re stuck I can drop it in with mine but won’t be until next week sometimes.

They were friendly with me when I went in there a decade ago, to an extent that I still remember it now. I had the requisite bored girlfriend and time-waster countenance, but I ended up spending quite a lot of money in the end.

Lovely chap with a great taste in basses!

That's true. It's my fault. The good news is that with our continued policies of austerity there will be many more derelict factories out there!

Working in a factory doesn’t have the Be piece work on a production line. The men and women at Airbus for example are all highly skilled engineers. And more people applied to a Rolls Royce apprenticeship scheme than applied to Oxbridge. We can develop high skill industries in this country if we wanted to, it’s just that our Government can’t or won’t do so. Successive Governments have done the same thing. Very sad really.

I"m not allowed to play it during the day! I do sometimes stay late and have a play, and can pop in over the weekend too if I get the chance. I wish I could do an hour a day like I used to when I worked at home and had no kids!

This is good advice. Plus, if you display it in your house just about everyone who ever visits will be impressed even if it's a massively battered Czech beast from the 60s. I've taken it to the extreme and I now have my DB in my office, which I think has directly led to at least one contract being won.

My suggestion would be to find a good teacher and get a few lessons before you spend a lot of money. Many shops will let you trial a bass for a few quid a month, and they’re usually well set up too (as you’d hope). Also, your teacher may be able to source an instrument or to test out any instrument you may be interested in. These are all the things I should have done, but didn’t. I was lucky finding a wonderful sounding bass for little money and then getting an amazing luthier to work on it. If I did it again, I’d do what I’ve described above.