Boodang

That's every singer isn't it!

Also, play sitting down, then you don't have to worry about being on your feet for 2 hours. In a punk band?, get a seat with the hydraulic adjustment, then you can bounce on it and it'll look like you're pogo-ing.

Always have time for people who enjoyed your gig and come up after for a chat. Too easy to be wrapped up in packing up and not be generous with your time.

Welcome back. Band name suggestion; Long Story Long Seriously though, interesting story and good luck, especially finding a vocalist, and keep us up to date, maybe with a cheeky demo or two.

Also good for making gaffa tape wallets while you're waiting to play. Scrawl your band name on them and sell them to eager punters.

Galli Synthesis update.... so, on my Squier Jazz VM the strings are great, no issues now they're settled in and love the flexible feel and the tone is nice and open. The above pics are from a set I was going to put on a new fretless but decided to use TI flats instead. As I was coiling up the E string I slightly over did the radius and pop! The chrome windings split open in 5 places. And when I said I over did the radius I do mean only by a bit, I wasn't being brutal and tying knots with it as I know they're delicate. Well, when they say delicate they mean it! Having said that, they're not delicate once strung up and I've had no issues on my Jazz. Once out the packet though, they're getting put back in, just in case!

Latest cable purchase... Sommer SC 'the Spirit'. Definitely more manageable than the Van Damme silver. PS Design-a-cable do have Mogami cable in stock.

My latest build from my local luthier, a '61 spec jazz neck (well dimensions that is) and a lovely set joint!

It certainly did! But as the body was already made and the luthier is semi retired and only doing projects when he feels like it, it's happened pretty quickly. We initially had a chat about the project, I expected it to be a while before it got off the ground but next thing I know he sent me pics of it in progress. Not complaining, actually pleased it's almost ready as once you get an idea for a bass you then just want it, but glad I had a clear vision for this from the start. Apparently the main woods in this bass he bought 25years ago. The walnut he got would usually have been used for making gun stocks by all accounts (not by the luthier!).

I haven't seen it in the flesh yet, apparently the oil coating is still drying. According to the luthier it has a slightly compressed, focused sound. The pickups are in the 70s position with the rear pup slightly closer to the bridge.

Yep, for a minute there I thought I was on pianochat!!

Ah, but are you playing a half diminished b9 b13 at the 24th fret?!!!

An angled headstock is going to be more susceptible than a level one. As it happens I'm having a bass made with a particularly thin jazz neck (36.5 mm nut) and although I didn't want an inline 4 headstock we've kept it level as an angled version would make it a bit vulnerable.

In 40 years of playing I've never broken a neck, and although such a thing could happen I've never chosen a bass based on how easy it would be to repair.

If I'm in a mischievous mood and I'm in no hurry to sell something (and I did this with a classic car I was selling as I was fed up with ludicrous offers).... if I've explicitly stated no offers, the buyer gets one warning after which the price goes up by the amount of the difference in their offer. Huge amounts of fun to be had with indignation from the buyer, especially if they then go up to the original asking price which has now in turn gone up, so I treat it as an offer and price goes up again! They even use swear words!! Brilliant!

Yeah, gobsmackingly expensive!! You see his stuff and think, ooh nice I wonder how much that is. Answer is, you could have a table or a house to put it in but not both.

So, I've been going through the recesses of my mind to see if I can locate the reason why I have the correct (!) attitude towards bolt on necks and think I've come up with a culprit.... John Makepeace. MakePeace is a furniture maker par excellence, his stuff looks like it's grown into being rather than been made. I think if he saw two pieces of wood screwed together he'd cry! He had a place called Parnham House in Dorset which I used to visit when I went down to see my parents and you could see all the furniture that had been commissioned (back in the 70s a table from him was about £40k!)... they were works of art. Now I'm not say a guitar should be made in the Makepeace tradition as no one would afford them, but they should be made in such a way as to not make him cry in disbelief!!

Yep, don't know why, but from the very first bass I got many moons ago, I thought the 'bolt on' arrangement was clumsy and most un-elegant. Consequently i saved up so I could get a neck thru custom made and solve the issue. But since then I've owned many 'bolt ons' as well (but still prefer neck thru), so to avoid getting rid of half my collection, as well as yours, when I'm PM I'll just ban them from now on!

Gwizdala's really into bit crushers and he gets some interesting sounds... too mad for me though.

Yeah, as you say the bulk of playing is always going to be below the 9th (unless you're Gwizdala!) but it's nice not to ignore the dusty end. Funny enough, as I've been playing mostly with keyboard players (piano/bass/drums stuff), I've gravitated to centering my playing on the C rather than working from the low E, as I'm the only 'string' instrument in the band.

Gwizdala plays 5 string but strung high C. I'm just using his playing as an example of what can be done but you're right, it's hardly mainstream. I've got a custom that's made for that type of work but when I play fretless 4 string I still want to use the full range of the bass but not necessarily in a Gwizdala way. I'm just bemoaning the fact that i like to play Jazz basses but it would be nice to have one available without the bulky bolt on, without having to go the extent of getting it custom made.

Check out Michael Moore's book Melodic Playing in the Thumb Position to see how being up around the 15th fret can be ... well, melodic! Double bass players have long realised there's a lot of effective playing a bass player can do in that region and they're not afraid to go there. It seems it's more in their DNA than bass guitar players which is ironic given how much harder it is to do on a DB.

As the saying goes, the money notes are not at the dusty end of the neck.... but that doesn't mean we can't go there! So, whilst the 19th fret is not that hard to get to, try doing an exercise out of Janek Gwizdala's book Chordal Harmony with a bolt on and see how you get on. Ah you say, just buy a bass that's suitable.... and you're right! Except it just raises the question that is a bolt on joint actually up to the job (and I mean playability not strength) and i would say it's not fit for purpose. If you gave 2 pieces of wood to a proper joiner he wouldn't bolt them together. It just seems like a cheap, unimaginative way to make a bass. Now as to why I'm up there, well as we've established it doesn't have to be widdling. Check out some of the double bass icons and see how far up the neck they go when walking to add interest into their lines. Also chordal stuff (aka Gwizdala) works nicely, again to add interest (and no, I'm not a frustrated guitarist, how dare you! The upper register notes on a bass sound so much different to a guitar). I used to play in a folk/rock band and play high up to double the lead riffs which sounded good, and my fretless lines start/end up in dusty end often as again it adds interest. Many reasons to be up there.

Yep, such a shame that they will not be in production for much longer. I was disappointed though when the series 4 went over to bolt on as I thought their thru neck basses were something truely special, especially with their own single coil pickups. I did actually email to ask them why they moved over to this construction method but the reply was very wishy washy and therefore made me think it was for financial reasons. At some stage I want to track down a Vigier Passion thru neck with a delta metal fretless board but you don't often see them for sale. One of the truly great basses. Incidentally they changed the name of the 'delta metal' fretboard to 'iMetal' which irritated the f*ck out of me as everything seems to have 'i' in front of it these days in a misguided marketing attempt to make it somehow modern and relevant (another old man rant from me!). I sent them an email about that as well!!