Munurmunuh

...and some guy on TB keeps banging on about his.... 😜

When browsing the Bass Bros site just now, I saw they've a mid 80s MIJ Yamaha BB-VIs, which they've mislabelled as a BB-IVs. (I don't know what the extra EX suffix means - "export", @AndyTravis?) I guess the "s" stood for short, but the scale length is something like 31½". And it's RED.

Pretty hacked off at having missed out on the opportunity to get to know the music of The Crucifixion Pyjamas. I bet Semi-Detached Kitten Asylum were perfect for getting a bleary-eyed festival crowd going.

Thought to look up the line up. What was interesting about the Cure that day was that they had recently lost a band member and so performed as only a 4 piece - was good to hear the old stuff like A Forest with a bit more of the traditional sparse texture rather than the late 80s wash. What also stuck in my mind was Robert Smith played Fire In Cairo just him and a 12 string acoustic, I was delighted when I found it on YouTube: Quite impressed how well the festival crowd knew the words to an ancient album track

😬

Why is this bass line at a different pitch to the faint track in the background?

GAK's 80s MIJ BB-VI has had another £100 knocked off its price, now £499: sober-looking BB-VI If only it were like this one: black, with a reverse P

German mini-LP: very promising Creation album: fantastic, still First Fontana album: bobbins

*sigh* more internet lies. There is NO evidence that he EVER had the tea cakes, and is on record as saying, every time I went there, it was either the curd tarts or a fat rascal.

The gentle modesty of this colour caught my eye. (Not sure how logical that is, but never mind)

I don't get any fret buzz, despite that low action - but then I've fairly high tension strings and play with a very light touch. My tech was sceptical of how much he could lower the action until I demonstrated how I play. Ah, right, yeah, no problem

Presumably a fair bit more expensive than the Squiers I've been mentioning, and so not for this purchase, is this current MIJ Traditional 70s Precision - 40mm nut but U-shape. I wonder what the thickness specs are. (The MIJ Traditional 50s and 60s also have U necks, btw, with 43mm and 42mm nuts respectively.)

There were some things about the state of the bass that made me think the previous owner knew what they were doing - an interesting balance of pickup heights, a choice of strings that made the most of the resulting sound - but the intonation was quite flat so maybe not. Perhaps the bassist was used to a 7¼" radius, and the higher A and D on this 10" radius fretboard was for familiarity's sake, to get a sense of that greater curve? At any rate, this bass didn't get played much in its first 9 years on this planet. That's being corrected now

There's something about this fact which is unusually satisfying, no idea why

When trying to be nimble on the E string, it would be nice if it were as low as the G string .... but on the other hand, it is good to be able to give the lowest notes a hearty thwonk safe in the knowledge that the stringp won't clatter into the frets.

I recently had my BB set up by my local tech. The previous owner had the heights like this: E 2.25 .... A 2.50 .... D 2.60 .... G 2.00 What would have been the function of having the A and the D higher? The new set up is lower overall and gradually gets lower going up the strings: E 1.80 .... A 1.70 .... D 1.60 .... G 1.50 What is the purpose of the slight gradual change? Just giving thicker strings more room to vibrate? Or so that fingers aren't having to curl around so much....actually that makes no sense, does it? - the string still has to be pressed down to the frets.

Sorry for polluting the memory. Here, wash it away with this lovely finger-picked acoustic version. Music starts at 2'20"

Bagpiper + käsig Metal band + The Riddle, cutting through the mix indeed

40½mm and "thick C" .... very promising! I found an old ad which was for a Squier Dirnt - did that precede the Road Worn? Same neck specs. And yes it does, because it would be to take the Dimarzio model P pickup.

I like the absence of hats

About 13 or 14 years ago, I found myself working alongside Tim Bricheno, who was just doing of a bit of casual non-musical work to fill in the few weeks before he took up a permanent teaching position. I recognised the name and said, last time we were in the same room, I was miles back in the crowd and you were on the stage of Wembley Arena.... He was *awfully* good about it! 😂 I recently read an interview with Andreas Bruhn who said, "[Tim] is much too nice for this world."

Best gig - by miles - Grandaddy at Manchester Uni, about 2002, touring The Sophtware Slump, the most extraordinarily blissful atmosphere.

Finsbury Park (literally) 1993, the boring lowlight of a pretty boring day

While the edges of my 424's fretboard aren't rolled, they do have a pair of well judged bevels doing a useful impersonation. Will those have been done in the factory, or is that something that will have been done by the previous owner?

It seems the P-ish bass I bought has got lost in the post, and if so I'll soon be looking for something I can fit a Dimarzio Model P split pickup into. Something with a neck as similar as possible to that on my BB424. It has a seemingly unusual combination of a nut that is only 40mm (1.57") and deep 1st / 12th fret thicknesses of 22mm / 25mm (0.86" / 0.98") I expect all my options will be a millimetre or two wider, but I'd love to find something with a profile almost as deep. * The Squier CV 60s Precision has a 43mm (1.69") nut and a "slim C" profile, so that would be both too wide & too shallow * The Bass Centre's Power Bass has the 40mm nut, but is also shallow: 20mm / 22mm (0.79" / 0.87") * I think the Squier Matt Freeman neck has the standard 1⅝" / 41¼mm nut and I've heard that it's not as shallow as the current CVs, so that's a possibility * ditto the G&L Tribute LB-100 (Should you care, the deep profile is to keep the thumb on my left hand happy and relaxed: when a shallow neck requires it to press forward, the bending-back reminds it of an old injury and make it very weary. I won't be attempting any gymnastic lines on this bass, so the inevitable extra width won't be any bother)