Agent 00Soul

I was in a shoegaze/dreampop band on and off in the 2000s and 2010s called Soundpool. As if you can't tell from the rig in the photo. It's the most stereotypical shoegaze bass image ever.

I have a RH450 and RS212 speaker cab that I bought the year they came out, years before the RH750 came along (or I probably would have bought that). I guess that was around 2010/11 and never had a problem. I basically played through it several times a week until Covid. It transversed North America multiple times. It only broke once and sounded fantastic in dreampop, garage rock, and cinematic bands once I dialled in the EQ. It could even hold it's own in what had to be one of the loudest bands NYC - we played at near-My Bloody Valentine levels. I would pull it out of storage and use it again if I returned to playing music. Maybe yours was a lemon?

I bought a 2011 Fender Japan Jaguar bass new as my backup. When I switched bands, I started using it as my #1 for the mental change and it broke in much faster. Once it had broken-in, it sounded so good that it became my main bass. It still is. Fender Japan is fantastic! The body is alder or ash, not basswood, but I'm sure it would have been the same situation.

So beautiful! I have Jazz that looks very similar but is a Frankenbass, made from various parts of Fender, Warmouth, Bass Centre, and maybe Seymour Duncan (I can't remember anymore). This stock instrument looks nicer as it's untouched. Fender Japan comes up with the most creative, beautiful stuff!

They give your bass the bounce it needs.

I have to say, that's far and away my favourite bass distortion pedal ever, and I've used lots. It was the first stompbox on my board and it's the only original one still left. Never stopped using it lots.

I once got chastised by John Hall on Facebook. I took it like a man.

I used to always mod my instruments in my teens and 20s - putting a Precision pickup on a Jazz Bass, EMGs on a Rickenbacker 4003, Seymour Duncans in my Jazzmaster (although that was a swap, no mods needed), installing a pickup selector switch on the same Jazz and then changing it to a blend knob. It was a popular thing to do in the 70s and 80s, I stopped all that in the early 1990s. It just dawned on me: "Do you really think you know better than Leo Fender or <fill in the blank pro designer>?" I'm now kind of mortified I ever did those things....especially to that Rickenbacker. Presumably it's still out there somewhere. Although I did swap out that old Precision pickup in the Jazz for a Bruce Thomas from Bass Centre a few years ago, so I guess I can still be persuaded.

Cream and tortoiseshell - the most mid-century modern of all colour combinations. I want to play it while sitting in my lefty Eames chair! BTW have you ever tried Sadowsky strings? I swear by their flats. Our practice space used to be next door to their factory and I would just walk over and buy them.

Are you familiar with this gent? I saw him with his "radio orchestra" a few weeks back in Liverpool. https://www.bdsentertainments.co.uk/ I have to say that they were hands down the best 20s/30s act I've ever seen and I've seen lots. The audience was, as you said, mostly people over 50, but there were also lots of young people who are on the retro circuit who were dressed so perfectly, that I felt I was in a costume drama.

Has anyone watched Geddy Lee’s TV show “Are Bass Players Human Too?”? I’ve only seen two episodes so far - the ones with Melissa Auf der Maur and Krist Novoselic - and was wondering what the community thought.

That's really cool. My last band was also instrumental and I loved it.

Are you doing the Bangles' 3-4 part harmonies?

I've been on a garage rock kick lately. The best thing about that is I can usually learn the bass, rhythm guitar, and lead solo quickly. This morning I did Help You Ann by The Lyres.