Soledad

Don't you just slightly miss the all-over breeze of a nice 8x10 though?

Is this a thing with banjo's, that they go out of tune a lot? Anyways, my pedal tuner (TC Polytune) mutes when tuning so if the acoustic level of banjo is acceptable for tuning that would maybe sort it. Even quieter - get him to tune from the harmonics - I mean just off the first harmonic (12 fret I assume) - that is quiet, deadly accurate and a foot pedal tuner will see the pitch fine.

I'll just mention Bela Flek, then stop. With the Flektones: 'Big Country'... Victor Wooten on bass. And we're back👍

Can't help on banjo tech, but I do like banjos quite a lot. Recently found banjo Ben on YT (brilliant character and player), and it's about now I get to post a link to Sheila Kay Adams (never thought I'd get to say that, certainly not here !):

+1 - fabulous. Love the old reverse tuners too.

G7th P3 is about the best I found for my acoustic, but note it's optimised for acoustic guitar board radius, board width and string diameters. I have never seen a bass player using a capo and never seen one available. As Frank says try a G7th... if you must!!

Very interested to hear views once you've had it a while and worked it good n proper. Seems to me that Barefaced have dominated the loud and light corner (esp. here on BC!) - I've avoided BF so far as I haven't liked the sound (personal I know) so it would be good to have a serious alternative out there. Could quite fancy a 208 or 210.

Wow, I had one of Martin's very early ones, exactly like yours - a 5 headless, amboyna facing (think yours is that?) - had mine built back when he was working out of his flat in NW London (may have been Willesden, was a long time ago!). IIRC, I discovered the early Sei basses through a player I knew who was a part of the early '90s north London acid jazz scene. They were a seriously hot ticket for a while. I had Bartolinis fitted to mine but otherwise really looked ther same, sadly don't have any pics to hand. Was a truly epic bass, beautifully built and very nice to play - as you say a very clean musical and balanced B, I mean transition across B to E sounded seemless. Sold it on a whim... like we all do. As a side note Martin also took my '64 Precision in for a refret at that time (around '91 I think). I know he took very detailed measurements of the neck which I think he referred to later when he made some P style basses. Enjoy it... and try and keep it!!

Stepping aside from basses for a moment, my absolute fave electric is the Tele - somewhat overlooked in favour of the Strat but they look great and sound far more great than many realise. Front p'up (OK, neck then) with tone about 8 (8/10)... divine. Through a Fender Twin, better still. May have to get one just to look at.

Years ago I studied flamenco with a really good player at El Mundo Flamenco in London. About the fretting hand, and I think this applies just as well to bass (or guitar) etc. A practice routine is to watch your fretting hand (even film it playing) and watch for ANY unneccessary finger movement. Being aware of wandering digits helps working to eliminate them. The main exercise was to make chord or passage changes whilst hardly lifting fingers at all - I mean just enough to allow strings to sound, no more. The approach is a common one of minimising finger movement, but taken to an extreme, where you start by hardly lifting fingers at all during changes, even if notes are damped/muffled. Sounds minor but it inverts what you are telling your hand to do. We all start by learning to put fingers down to fret a note. The idea here is learning the opposite - all fingers are down or like 1mm off a string, all the time. For some reason, all these years later I still have an index finger that tends to wander - but at least I'm aware of it and can work it away.

This clearly matters to you @SteveXFR - calculated to 5 decimal places. Do you play a Precision?

Picked up a trick elsewhere (pardon the pun) - drill a decent size hole through a pick of choice (about 8mm-ish) - gives a really good grip without squeezing too hard (which brings fatigue on) - made quite a difference for me. If it works drill a few more😀

Quite pricey but just seen they do a 208 (Bass Direct £699). I'd like to hear that, with my valve pre Genz head. The popular alternative seems to be Barefaced but I just find them really coloured - not my thing at all. All that aside the PJB looks very excellent at a sensible price.

I'd quite fancy one, love the sound of my 6B Neo but a smaller cab would be a handy alternative sometimes. I do think the 5" drivers sound amazing. Wonder if you might do a mini review once you've lived with it a bit?

Bit late to this but from years of experience I would strongly advise second-hand. I've been through around 5 bandsaws over the years, 3 planer/thicknessers, various cheapo pillar drills etc. It's a really expensive journey!! SO, pillar drill go British (eBay's a good place to look). I have a Startrite Mercury - green body means made in Gillingham (prob in the 70s). It is a lifetime machine. Just check for wear in the quill (the sliding pillar) but they are super-precise, compact, 3 speed... Fobco really good but maybe a bit big/heavy for purpose. Bandsaw... you guessed it > Startrite 502 (Green paint = Gillingham build). Almost bomb-proof, I deep-rip 10" hardwood boards into bookmatched panels with it - a handy talent for basses etc. After years of pratting about with various blades I only use Tuffsaws, usually his fastcut 3tpi. Ian there will make almost any blade you can think of including super-thin kerf custom blades. I promise you there are a lot of junk blades out there, and a good blade, well set-up, transforms any bandsaw. Planer thicknesser - been through Axminster (truly awful); Scheppach (acceptable but really a pain to go from planing to thicknessing) and finally found a single phase Sedgwick (Sheffield 'brick' makers of many years standing). It's a 10" and again a lifetime machine. I concede it cost me around 1100 second-hand which was actually a bargain for what was an unused ex-school machine). I really believe, and have learned the long and expensive way - buy quality second-hand once. And surprisingly in the field of machine tools, Britain (well, England tbh) has made amongst the very best ever, anywhere.