Burns-bass

This looks like a lovely place!

Hardly the crime of the century. When I was on a walking holiday in Flanders we met a chap who, after a lot of very delicious beer, showed us what he was carrying back to Britain. It was a WW2 dagger owned by a member of the SS. Reckon that would probably get you stopped at customs! Was an odd chap. Was very interested when I told him my great uncle was a member of the SS during the war. Not the normal response you get.

Looks like a standard ply double bass. Not rare, but good quality, durable and a reasonably good sound. The name stamped on the bridge is usually the luthier who has shaped it or the company who manufactured it. If you want more info on your bass shine a light inside the sound holes.

The best advice. Basses can vary from a few hundreds pounds so several hundreds of thousands. The likelihood is that this isn’t a rate or particularly valuable bass. If it sounds good and plays well, then take it to the gig!

Yeah I’m happy. I don’t think they’ll continue with live music which is a shame. They would make more money with a DJ and I’m sure it would suit the venue better (but I’m not going to tell the guy that!)

We had an evening gig booked in a swanky cocktail bar. In the space of an hour four lovely Welsh women drank £150 worth of booze, danced, trod on the guitarists foot and then three of them passed out. Bar owner closed early and still paid us full fee. Very, very weird.

Solid advice. Play the instruments you like to make the music you love.

Scale length, weight, string spacing, design, aesthetics. And the fact that you’ll look like an 80s sideman. I’ve tried playing them and it’s just not needed (for me). 5-string basses are like Land Rovers in that 90% if users will never need the extra capabilities.

I had some lessons with the incredible Greg Cordez and an hour of his time for a few weeks transformed how I played. Would love to go back but I just can’t find the time at the moment.

When I had injured my arm (43 year old men probably shouldn’t play football two days before a gig) and I swapped to Golden Slaps which we met fine. I now play Orchestral Spiros now so slightly lower tension than Weichs and sound rich and full bodied.

Good luck to the kid. Would love to have seen that.

Makes sense. Whatever has happened it’s still, for me, is one of the best periods for Fender Precision necks.

I was expecting a thick neck but then when I got to the shop it was really thin, which is what I wanted. It’s flats all the way and I’ll weigh tomorrow. Shop had it as 9.5 pounds and that feels right.

And we’ll do it positively, constructively and without arguing or contradicting ourselves (as they do on other forums!)

Did you buy it new? The interchangeability of Fender parts makes it hard sometimes. The accepted age is the newest part. While people love the idea of Fender having bins of parts and spent time cobbling together basses from bits, it’s nonsense. This was a factory with stock and inventory management systems and (for them) modern production techniques. This isn’t a workshop where they’d sometimes just build basses for the fun of it out of whatever parts were there. If you had the cash I’m sure they’d build you a custom order, but that’s about it. It was a production line process. It’s more likely that yours is a 69 body and bits and that someone has swapped the neck.

Fascinating, thanks – as always – for your help and advice.

Yes, you're right it has the longer pickup poles for A and D. The pre amp is epoxy coated which is interesting. Do you have any idea why they did that?