Shaggy

OK, that’s definitely a cue for more pictures......😉

Ah there you have it, no other explanation needed.....😉

Circa 1977 an anonymous neighbour had the Police on us for our punk band practicing too loudly in my Mam & Dads garage. 🙁 These days there so many ways to play silently / quietly / virtually I don’t think there’s any excuse. Unless you’re a church organist.......

I hadn’t realised Gordon Smith were still making guitars & basses; I used to own a mid-‘80’s GS Galaxy semi, one of the very few basses that I’ve regretted moving on. They had a reputation back then for making quite plain, unfussy instruments, the designs rather derivative of popular Fender & Gibson models, but hand-built to a very high standard. Can’t say I’m that fussed on the bass in the OP, but glad to see they’re still around and hopefully the quality is still top notch.

More than a modicum of truth in that, although the most romantic memories of my late teens / early 20”s were spent at Cambridge Jazz club in the early 1980’s (“The man in the moon“ on Norfolk St.), which was always completely packed out. Listening to good Jazz music live is an amazing experience, but for some reason I simply can’t do it in the house - of all the many hundreds of CD’s I own, only one is a Jazz one (almost inevitably; Miles Davis “Kind of blue”).

Common misconception! I think mainly as they’re normally strung with flats, with which they sound quite convincingly double-bassy but not much else, whereas IMHO they’re nicer with rounds to really bring out the harmonics and top end. I have a ‘58 and a “69 “D”. For me - like a few above I’d love to try a Ric 4005, I reckon the coolest looking bass ever made. Though I have heard the tone described as “thin sounding and disappointing”. Otherwise, wouldn’t mind a go on a Gus.

Sounds like a fortunate blend of like minds and good planning, nice one 👍. Some of the musician websites and potential for online playing together in virtual rooms are fantastically useful of course. But personally (and bring old and grumpy 😠) I find that every new development in social media and personal communications relentlessly increases one’s exposure to other people’s verbal diarrhoea. Which is why I don’t do any of it, beyond texting. ’Course, when I were a lad it were all done wi’ little cards in t’ local music shop. And all this were fields........

16, in a pub in Cambridge I can’t recall the name of. It was 1977 and I think we were the only gigging punk band in Cambridge at the time.... Kalamazoo KB1 through Carlsboro Stingray 100 and homemade 4x12 cab

The pickups were definitely the weakest component; the magnetic field on mine were so feeble than an ant carrying a staple could have easily walked across both pickups without losing the staple. At age 17 I actually carried out my very first ever bass mod on it, replacing the neck pickup with a Gibson mudbucker taken out of my first bass (a short scale Kalamazoo KB1) - which made it into a pretty decent dub-monster. But it’s still the only one of my basses that I remember with zero affection. 🤔

My second bass, Columbus JB copy. Beyond awful. Hopefully no one will be suckered into buying the one in the OP. As the saying goes; “you can’t polish a turd......”

No “Bermuda shorts” scale neck then? 🏝 I’ll get my coat...... Seriously, great find. 👍

Bells catalogue 1977 (I perused my copy so often at the tine I still remember most of the models listed!)

I remember Kimbaras standing out from the other ‘70’s copies by having really attractive wood for the bodies, usually Sen wood (Japanese ash). This is nice, though not that special.

Fabulous grain on that, BigRedX! They were indeed known for the fragility of the pickup surrounds; my 650B has them intact, but on my 450B fretless they’re bust. Big shame these weren’t more popular, which as ever largely comes down to what prominent bassists were playing / endorsing at the time. As I recall Nick Lowe favoured a 450B, who was no slouch on bass.

as is this, I think.....

From Wikipedia re “You can call me Al” - The names in the song came from an incident at a party that Simon went to with his then-wife Peggy Harper. French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who was attending the same party, mistakenly referred to Paul as "Al" and to Peggy as "Betty", inspiring Simon to write a song.[2][3] Jon Pareles noted that the lyrics can be interpreted as describing a man experiencing a midlife crisis[4] ("Where's my wife and family? What if I die here? Who'll be my role model?"). However, as Simon himself explained during the Graceland episode of the Classic Albums documentary series, by the third verse the lyrics move from a generic portrait-like perspective to a personal and autobiographical one, as he describes his journey to South Africa which inspired the entire album.[5] The song opens simply, with its protagonist wondering aloud why his life is difficult, amid other questions. Simon structured the song's lyrics in a way that listeners would be given the simplest information first, before getting abstract with his imagery in the song's third verse: "Because there's been a structure, [...] those abstract images, they will come down and fall into one of the slots that the mind has already made up about the structure of the song." So it was all obvious, really. 😉 ”A winter shade of pale” really is pretty much random lyrics stuck together. People have done full PhD theses on songs like Eleanor Rigby - which I think rather bemused McCartney

A man of taste sir! 👍. Beautiful bass too, spoilt only by having one string too many 😉 I did used to gig the 1516 or 2x15 when I had a huge Mondeo estate, but yes the 2x10 plus 1x15 is very much more portable.

There are so many. Cover of “Comfortably Numb” by The Scissor Sisters springs to mind. Also that awful dirgey cover of “Mad world” a few years ago that spawned a thousand other awful dirgey covers - it would depress me too much to google who it was (though I guess excluded from the thread as he was neither great or good) Worst one for me - and everyone here will disagree with this, as for some reason it’s regarded as a classic - is Joe Cocker’s “With a little help from my friends”. I have to turn the radio off if it comes on...... Edit: Actually no, I have wronged poor old JC. I have a cheapo Christmas compilation CD with a cover of “Fairytale of New York” sung by Máire Brennan of Clannad (who makes a pretty decent stab of her part) and Ronan Keating (who really, really doesn’t)....🙁

Kevin send me a boxed set of Still Game DVD’s for free and gratis, wouldn’t even accept postage. Looking at posts above, the man clearly makes a habit of this saintly behaviour..........😇. I can only conclude that it’s either down to too much whisky 🥃, or Kevin is an unbelievably nice and generous bloke. Whatever - a true BC legend! 👍

Lol - you can still say it in Wales........🐏

Likewise! 🙂. With current (not very loud) band I’m now using Ashdown 1x15 and 4x8 mini-cabs with Neo drivers; superbly practical / portable, but just doesn’t move the air in the way the Mesa stack did. 🙁 Mind, if I had a roadie it’d be the Diesel 1516 every time.....