wintoid

My memory from the 1980s was that Pino favoured Stingray fretlesses with carbon graphite necks. Just wondering if that memory is to be trusted...

Thanks @BillyBass I may return in a few months and ask the same question if you don't mind. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much BillyBass, I am much obliged.

I'm still thinking I'd like to do this accelerator course. Is there any way I can be notified when it opens without having to swim through a river of spam?

Thanks, I might try on my Hohner one day.

Oh really? So there are double ball end flats, or some sort of adapter for normal strings?

My first bass was an Ibanez Roadster bass bought at Gigsounds in the early 1980s. I think I traded it against a Westone Rail on Denmark Street. I remember being frustrated that it didn’t have enough variety of tones. I really wanted an active bass.

Great stuff, I enjoyed that

So far, I've had the most fun with the Stevie Wonder suggestion. Really enjoying Master Blaster Jammin. Good arpeggio workout. That's a great suggestion, thank you!

Some great suggestions, thank you!

I've been having a lot of fun playing along to tracks as a practice, trying to get myself tight et cetera. I'm working on finger style and looking for pop, funk or soul sort of things. So far I've had the best time with artists like Shalamar (great basslines), Chic, Duran Duran, The Meters, some Motown, even Abba. Just wondered if people had some recommendations of other artists/albums/tracks I should check out given how much I've enjoyed the ones I listed. I'm probably less interested in rock or jazz at the moment. Trying to get funky and in the groove. And yes, I appreciate the question has rather a wide remit, but it should still be interesting to see what anyone recommends. Cheesy is fine! P.S. I've been trying to master some of the Pino basslines on things like Go West and Paul Young, but often they're just a little tricky for me

I'd never heard that, thanks for sharing. Just as you said!

Thanks!

I’ve heard a few people speak highly of Wunjo. Peach say they don’t do commission, so perhaps I’ll try Wunjo in the new year.

It’s a masterbuilt cs nocaster. A total extravagance, and way too nice for my meagre talents. I’ve got no idea what I was thinking!

No not at all, there's really no rush. I'll have a think about that. I guess maybe March-ish might be a better time.

Thanks all. I didn't know Peach did commission sales. Maybe I'll try that in the new year.

Thanks. I don't fancy subscribing to anything, but I'd consider a one-off hit for an accelerator course. If it's closed, I guess I'll keep my money. If I happen to notice when it's open, I'll probably give it a try. 12 months though...

I seem to enjoy buying and hate selling. I really don't fancy eBay or selling something myself. I could use a shop to sell on commission I suppose, but I was wondering which good shops do reasonable trade ins. I've ended up treating myself to a rather nice guitar a while back and then realising I'm never going to be good enough to do it justice. I should stick to bass. So I need to trade in a 6 string against hopefully some sort of nice bass. Places like Bass Direct or the Gallery are bass only, which doesn't help when you have a 6 string guitar to trade. Just wondering which outlets people would be using.

So enrolment is now closed. What's the point of that?

Thanks @Boodang In true Basschat fashion, the only reasonable thing to do was to replace the bass, which is what I've done. My new one is not headless, and I've been enjoying trying different strings!

I decided to try some flatwounds for the first time since about 198x. My current bass is a headless Roscoe, and I bought Thomastik flats as an experiment. With my headstock, you have to trim the strings and clamp them at approximately the right length. When I went to trim the first string (G), I tried to match the length to the string that was coming off. That meant I clipped it so that there was no silkwound string at all. The old string still had some silk at the clipping point. Subsequently, as I tightened the string, it slipped quite a lot, and basically mangled the string where it was clamped, so it's now unuseable. I've had to go back to the Rotosound roundwound. Looking in the documentation that came with my bass, I found a piece of text in the letter which says "we do not recommend the use of taperwound or contact core strings due to issues with intonation and setup". I don't really know what this means. Are Thomastik flats taperwound or contact core? Hoping for some guidance here. Do you think the problem is that flatwound strings are just not compatible with this method of clamping, or was the issue that I clamped where there was no silk? If it's the silk, should I order 32" strings for my 34" bass, or will they be too short? Any advice gratefully appreciated!

Terrible news, RIP Robbie