Steve Browning

I have two examples. My very first gig. I set everything up and go to tune my bass, only to realise I had left it at home. Touring in Germany. Nice big stage and superb foh sound man. Soundcheck goes well, but the bass is non existent as we start playing. I can hear the bass from the foh but nothing on stage. Finally, after 3 songs, I found I hadn't thrown the standby switch. Did that and all was well!!

He has sent out two emails saying how good the gig was and how so many people congratulated him at the end. Difficult.

My gig last night was horrible. I play is a Stax-orientated soul band. The singer (a good fried of ours) has Huntingtons, and the band has existed to keep him gigging. There are gigs when things go ok (never more than that) but last night may have been gig that we all knew was on the horizon. I won't go into detail, but it was horribly below par. Desperately sad though it is, I think we've reached the stage where he is unable to deliver a gig that can be classed as acceptable. In truth, we're probably past that point already, but we've kept going through the bond of friendship. The guitarist is a particularly long-standing mate of his. To complicate matters, the rest of us are a band in our own right that is, dare I say it myself, awesome. We are well known locally (where this band gigs) and we cannot allow the one to affect the other. Tough decision (in some ways) but it is simply a case of the negatives have now exceeded the positives - and there was only one positive really.

I have only tested their customer service re a faulty item once, but it was dealt with immediately and without any quibble. Whether true or not, it always feels like you're dealing with a local store, even though they are online. The shop isn't far from me. Must visit the basement (bassment?) again soon.

Two others. Light coloured basses. They look huge on me. I'd love a white precision, a la Pete Farndon etc, but I know it'd look daft on me. Buyers (not sellers) who give no indication of their approach to the seller. It raises a level of expectation if there's no recorded interest, and you find the item sold.

My 65 Jazz. 100% original with the exception of the body rout, the pickups, the electrics, the scratchplate, the tuners. Ok, so the body and neck are the original bits, just not in original condition. 🙂

Good players grade instument I'd say. I have an irrational dislike of light coloured basses (I should list that!!) so wouldn't entertain it (I certainly would the 64, though not my favourite neck profile).

Absolutely the best live guitar sound I've ever heard was a Les Paul through a Marshall 2x12, 18 watt Bluesbreaker-type combo. Apparently they were made for the old catalogue market many years ago (this would have been 40 years ago anyway). Just a volume and tone control. Just a gorgeous rich sound with loads of depth and beautiful sustain.

You'd hate me. My 'redundant' fingers have worn substantial grooves in my basses just above the scratchplate.

Looks like a good deal to me. The changes are minimal overall, and stripping to natural was pretty common back then. My 72 has been stripped and so was my 66, before being refinished back to sunburst. If the changes included pickups, tuners, scratchplate or the like, I'd think differently.

Don't blame you in the slightest.

There's an ocean of difference.

Paid the princely sum of £260 for my 66 Precision at Tiger Music. Headless basses were all the rage at the time. It had been in the shop for ages.

After how long? I played a pub in Worthing where, after figuring we needed to watch our volume, we were asked to turn down after the first number. When they made the same request after the second number, we were asked to stop playing and got the full fee.

Oh yes. Way better than any glimpse at a Health and Efficiency. Proper smut for the aspiring and skint adolescent musician.

This lady was pretty impressed. In a bar in Amsterdam. It was a mirror until you got closer and this image appeared.

Another shout for the Bass Centre in Wapping. I bought a number of Entwistle basses from there, and my 66 slab bass. Locally I recall the original Telecomms in Portsmouth, a small shop that moved location a couple of times. It eventually became a branch of PMT, lost its soul and finally closed.

Yes. I never get that. Why wear a hat indoors or under cover? This is multiplied a million times by blokes who wear hats on stage. You think it's cool and I think you look like a complete kn0b.

Any thoughts on cheesy peas?

Leo didn't put blocks on any bass during his ownership. The rest is hypothetical. Supposing he'd designed the Ricky and called that a Precision?

Yes. Yes. Yes. The worst sacrilege there is. I would buy a Classic Vibe 70s mocha if it had a proper neck on it. Even now I'd buy a body to put the right neck on it.

You may have to take issue with Mr Fender about that one! 🙂

And Earl's laugh!!⁹