chris_b

Ah, Churchfield Road, location of the Winchester Club, Maurice Plaquet, where I bought my first bass and the Rocket, the last pub in the area I knew of where you could still get a light and bitter and 10 Woodbines for 2/6. I've just looked and the Rocket is a Gastro pub these days!! It was one of the worst dumps in West London when I knew it. You could go there at lunchtime but never in the evenings. Both of these reminiscences from the 60's, so probably before your time, Pete.

Neil Jason, another fantastic bassist I didn't know much about. Delving into his history as we speak.

If you like the D800 and want "more" I'd suggest the D800+. I briefly owned a D800, which I liked a lot, but the Aguilar AG700 won out in the end.

My bass only gets cleaned if I'm selling it. And me? I never wash either.

I'm not judging other people's ability to hear stuff I can't hear.

They can do, and I know 2 that do. A drummer I know has solid silver core cables to the monitors in his studio and at one point Astoria studios had cryogenic frozen Evidence Audio cables.

If I'm wrong I apologise. I'll go with Indonesia.

Recording studios don't use bell wire for a reason. So quality of design, materials and manufacturing will have an effect on cables as they do for every other product. If the rest of your system and your ears are good enough then a difference in cables could be noticeable. Lee Sklar has a story about a Toto tour, when he and the sound guy compared cables and wireless and they could hear that cable sounded better. So if your ears are good enough then cables at different price points are an option. The best option is to let others make their choices based on what they hear rather than on what you hear.

I've heard plenty of players using Markbass amps and cabs and they all sounded pretty good to me.The LM3 has gone from SS to class D and from Made in Italy to Made in China, but if a company has its ears in the right place none of that should matter. My LM2, from many years ago, was a great sounding amp. I would expect the LM3 to be the same. And if you look around there are pro players using them too, including Joe Dart.

Alex Clabber. He designs and builds the cabs and runs the Barefaced company. Email him from the Barefaced website.

I'm betting my OBBM cables will out last me.

Ask Alex.

Playing with two drummers has been on my bucket list since I heard that James Brown used two. Sadly I discovered that only one played at a time! Then we supported the Doobie Brothers in the early 70's and with their two drummers the sound was immense. I think that opportunity has gone. These days I don't play gigs with big enough stages.

The best mod I did to my Precision was to change the weak Fender pickup to Bartolini. That was a gazillion percent improvement to the tone and worth every penny. Encouraged by this success I spent a fortune adding a J pickup. I found this mod added a minimal amount to the tone, but I didn't hear it take anything away.

Sounds like they're nicely run in. I saw an interview with Bob Glaub, LA session ace, and he has a Precision with 42 year old La Bellas on! I don't think he was joking!

I had GHS flats on my PJ5 until I replaced them with TI flats. I thought they were good. I'd use them again. I'm surprised the La Bellas have "gone off"! Not sure what that means, or how it could happen, especially if they weren't played much. I thought they were good for decades.

I've bought several of my best basses on eBay, but I collected in person so did get to play them before I handed over the cash. I've also bought basses and amps unseen from Bassdirect and Basschat. I'm pretty careful with my choices and who I do business with. I have a very slow turnover of gear and so far (fingers crossed) I haven't been stung.

I've had several great deals. In 2002 no one seemed to be interested in Lakland. I saw a good one, hardly played, on eBay and finally, in 2003, bought it for just over half the original asking price. It was my main bass for a decade. But the best deal, in 2004 I watched a mk2 Wal 5 string on eBay getting no bidders for about 6 months. Again the price dropped to about half the original price! At that point I grabbed it. Sadly I didn't get on with it and a month later (talk about 2 buses!) a wonderful mk 3 Wal 5 string popped up the local ABC Music. They gave me a very good trade deal on the mk 2.

No. I'm saying that "flat" is a concept that doesn't matter to most bassists, but starting from a base point of zero is a better than wherever some deaf thrash metal "person", using a dozen pedals, left off last time.

Start with Music Of My Mind and work up to Hotter Than July (it's ok to leave out Secret Life Of Plants!).

The Customs will make a judgement, then it's up to you to prove them wrong.

OBBM. . . . . oh! damn!!

I didn't say great Top Ten. The pubs, clubs, colleges and University's were a thriving scene. I do really badly on hit records in quizzes. I stopped listening to those songs in about 1967.

If the controls have a 0 at 12 o'clock you know that's where the manufacturer intended the sound of this amp to be. You will be able to add or subtract as you wish, but with this type of control 12 o'clock is a good starting point. If the controls start at 0 and increase as you turn the controls clockwise then start at 0 and find you sound from there. The real "flat" on many amps could be anywhere on the dial and isn't a real concern for most players.