Simon.

I think the combinations on the body hardware are excellent! Understated, without being drab (which I think all black would have been). As for the tuners - I love the mix 'n' match approach, but am at a loss as to which one looks best! Sorry, not a lot of help...

I went to see the Pet Shop Boys last week, and I would challenge anyone who would say it wasn't a 'proper' gig. Great tunes, fantastic light show & sound, and 3000-ish very, very happy punters. In fact, I would say that the only weak link in the show was actually the use of two live musicians! They had a pair of percussionists on stage, who, aside from providing backing vocals, could very easily have been replaced by a single competent drummer, and who would have given a better feel, as well.

[quote name='rushbo' timestamp='1487445708' post='3239903'] Some great stuff here... Lovely to see some love for Bark Psychosis ( I saw them in Brum a lifetime ago and they blew my doors off), Miracle Legion and a stack of others. I'm currently very much enjoying The Mummers' tune... From the dusty crevices of the Rushbo archive, I give you: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE-znePV0UQ[/media] The Grays - Very Best Years. A PowerPop supergroup. Peerless. [/quote] The Grays (very sadly only) album gets played to death on a regular basis in my house! Utterly brilliant from start to finish. Pretty much anything that came out from the folks involved in Jellyfish is: A. well worth tracking down, and B. generally pretty obscure... One really great off-shoot from the Jellyfish inspired PowerPop movement was Randy & the Bloody Lovelies. Basically a vehicle for Randy Wooten, and only two albums, but good stuff. [quote name='phil.c60' timestamp='1487333699' post='3239036'] As for bands, how about the Decemberists, and Cake. Both American indie bands, Decemberists a bit more folky. [/quote] Nice to see a mention for Cake! going back a few years, I toured in support of Chuck Prophet, and he had ex-Cake drummist Todd Roper in the band. Really lovely bloke and a great player.

I regularly do the PAT testing for a well know, touring band. It initially started off as a favour from a friend, who is their Production/Tour manager, who knew I was qualified to do the job and also out of work at the time... I've done the job every year since for them, despite explaining numerous times that it's not a legal requirement, but they still like to have it done to satisfy insurance and venues. When I first took on the job we found a lot of failures in the first couple of years - mostly mains cables, but other bits larger pieces of hardware, too. In recent years there have been very, very few items which fail, as we have weeded out all the broken kit. They also tour less these days, which helps the life of the equipment. It's also worth bearing in mind that the PA test is a 'moment in time' record - if I test something today and it passes, that's great, but it doesn't guarantee that it'll still pass after being chucked about in the back of a van for 4 months. Just to add - on the cost side of things, I charge £3 an item. However, all their kit is in flight-cases and I have to go into their warehouse store, hunt round & de-box everything myself, test it and then re-pack. Most of that £3 goes to cover the time it takes me to find the items, rather than doing the test. Usually takes me at least 2 full days to get round everything. If all the kit was laid out in front of me, it would probably be something like 50p a throw. The band have never quibbled the price, and I haven't changed it in 8 years.

Good to hear you are happy with Chris and getting him to do the work. I've had nothing but excellent results from him. I did like your comment that "[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]He doesn't mince his words[/font][/color]"! So spot on. He knows what he's doing, and doesn't suffer fools gladly.

Wow, that is very, very lovely. Excellent work Kevin (and Chris...) I had forgotten that Chris uses the threaded inserts - so simple, yet it makes things so much easier, especially on a working bass. He installed them on the rear cover of the P-Lyte as the threads had stripped after 20+ years of changing batteries. I must check if he's done the same on the pickguard of my jazz...

Seeing as you are in Edinburgh, Chris McIntyre is worth a shout. Quality work, and reasonable prices. [url="http://www.mcintyreguitars.com/"]http://www.mcintyreguitars.com/[/url] He did the reverse process on my Jazz - routed it out for a P-pick up and cut a new scratch-plate to hid the old J route underneath.. We also added plug & play connectors to the pick-up leads so you can swap it from a PJ back to a straight Jazz in less than 10 mins.

I've had ACS pro plugs for years (best piece of music kit I ever invested in), and have never had any issues with them. As a result I went with ACS for my in-ears and although they are great as well, I did have a few issues to start with. Like FinnDave, I found their customer service to be excellent. Give them a call and I would expect them to be very helpful.

This is lovely. Just lovely. Fender Japan do a colour called Old Lake Placid Blue, which I would love to get on a bass - it's a bit darker and slightly less of a green tint than yours, but what you have is very close to my ideal bass spec. Good job!

In the swagger of my (long departed) youth, I was 18, had just played iconic (and also sadly departed) Venue in Edinburgh for the first time and so full of myself I was probably a right annoying twonk. By agreement with the venue staff, we had left some gear there after the gig, so I wandered down the next day to pick it up. Went in, noticed some random guitarist guy on stage setting up and sound-checking. Asked if he minded if I went on stage to get my gear, and he was most obliging. It wasn't until I was leaving and looking one more time at the posters outside to bask in the glory of seeing my band's name up there that I realised who it had been on stage... Midge Ure.

The only time I can recall being sacked, the excuse I was given was that I didn't play a sunburst & rosewood, '63 Precision... I suspect there may have been other reasons in the background, but they were a craven bunch* so whatever those reasons were, they were never articulated. * - highlighted by the fact that they stole about £2k worth of my gear from a lock-up, but denied they had anything to do with it. Taking it all on tour and publishing a daily blog of said tour with lots and lots of photos, meant the police had a jolly-whizzy time knocking on doors and asking them to stop being quite so f'in stupid.

I haven't had the chance to play one of the Ltd Editions, but had one of the Fender Japan 75 RI's (the one in my profile pic). Construction was excellent and it played fantastically well. Very much regret selling it, even though I didn't have a need for it any more. Have played a couple of other 75 RI's, and they were equally excellent. I would very much look to get another MIJ if the need ever arose.

Try and get a loooong sound check... Sounds like it could be a quite a fun set to play - good luck!

I did read somewhere that one of the reasons the Turus / STH case is happening now (well, it started a few years ago, but is just getting to court now), is due to the Remasters collections Led Zep put out. The statute of limitations had passed on the original recording of STH, but the remastered version counts as a new track. This does kind of raise a couple of interesting points: 1. As pointed out already, if this is only happening now, then it's fairly safe to say the guys in Spirit knew of STH and the similarity and chose to do nothing about it. 2. As the statue of limitation on the original recording has passed, would any claim for royalties be based only on sales of the remastered version? To be sure, that will still be a considerable sum, but only a tiny fraction of the total royalties STH has earned over the last 45+ years.

Maybe not dodgy, but very much not what I would have considered as part of my sphere of interest at the time: Pet Shop Boys. Girlfriend at the time (now Mrs Simon.) was a huge fan and badgered me in to going to see them. Despite my reservations, they put on a very, very excellent show - a proper entertainment, rather than just 4 or 5 guys shuffling around a stage. Surprising just how many of the songs I knew as well. Have been to see them a couple of times since and they are always well worth it.

It's not a legal requirement to have PAT testing done, but for peace of mind, it's something worth thinking about. As others have said, some venues will demand it, others never question you about it. Without scaremongering, one thing to potentially consider is that if something does go wrong and there is a fire or injury resulting from a faulty piece of kit, you can be sure that the insurance companies (on both sides) will want to know if the equipment involved had been maintained to a reasonable standard. Proof of a history of PAT Testing would help in this. Although, one of the problems with the test is that it is a 'point in time' assessment of the equipment. eg. On the day it was tested, it was OK, but if that was 4 months ago and you've done 35 shows, in 8 weeks, touring round Europe in the back of a Transit since then, the condition of the kit might no longer be as it was. Part of the guidance for PAT testing puts some of the onus on the user to do a visual check each and every time they use the piece of equipment. Approximately 80% of faults are found visually - the damaged/exposed cables, broken casing that allows you get a finger inside, etc. There are no hard and fast rules for PAT testing, you just need to apply some common sense. An Ampeg rig which is gigged heavily and in harsh conditions (touring, in and out of trucks, etc), should be checked and tested more frequently than an identical rig which sits in someone's house, never moves ('cause it too frickin' heavy!), and is only used one or twice a week.

I'm trying hard to raise my two on a diet of funk & soul. Craig Charles on a Saturday night is mandatory listening, and their current favourite for in the car is Wilson Pickett, with some Otis thrown in as well. The eldest has stated showing an interest in my basses as well, so I'll have to work on that too!

That fretboard is proper lovely! I would be very tempted to go for side dots only, just so you can enjoy the looks of the board.

As the Blues Brothers did once upon a time declaim: J H G-D C! I've never been a fan of single-cut shapes, but that is ludicrously good looking. I really like what you've done with the pup covers as well. Merely saying "Good work" somehow seems a bit shallow...

[quote name='steviedee' timestamp='1421950953' post='2667060'] Apologies for the grainy photo will upload better ASAP. Guitar Info Your guitar was made at the Fuji-gen Plant (for Fender Japan), Japan in the Year(s): 1986 - 1987 [/quote] Cool! That's pretty much a twin for mine, same year too. Mine was originally owned (and neglected) by a flatmate. I bought it off him for not very much when he was skint, nursed it back to a reasonable state of health and used it as a back-up. At some point I decided to get the neck de-fretted, used it quite a bit before realising I wasn't really good enough to play fretless in a live band... It's now got a new, fretted neck, reconfigured as switchable between standard jazz set up and a P/J and is my main bass. I really love playing it. Enjoy it Steve! These are really decent bits of kit for the money.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1445862275' post='2894749'] Here it is in the sash clamps...I'd just wiped the excess glue off with a damp cloth and just look at that figuring! This is pretty much the colour and effect it will be when it's sanded and finished Close up, there's quilting and bird's-footing and all-sorts going on! [/quote] That looks amazing! Sort of reminds me of the da Vinci anatomy drawings, where he shows all the muscle groups...

Going slightly O/T here, but has anyone ever used the Guitar-Auctions site Howie linked to? I just had a quick look at the catalogue for the next auction (10th Dec), and while there's not much bass content but, going but the estimate prices, there appears to be some very good deals to be had on some of the acoustics and Fender Japan electric guitars.

Welcome back Pete! Tough to hear about what has happened to you, but very glad to learn that you are back and on the mend.