Joe Nation

I was never very musical as a kid - my sister played flute and violin to a moderately good standard, I had a couple of cousins who played cello, French horn and other things pretty well (one is now semi-pro in a folk trio). I dabbled with trombone in primary school and drums in high school but never did more than a couple of terms of lessons. Then when I started 6th form in the summer of '99, I went from a small rural school to a big-ish college in town and discovered other people. New friends, wider circles, socialising, pubs! In our gang there was one guy who was a total metal head and wanna-be Steve Vai, another guitarist who was actually good (and very humble with it, he's now a pro tutor) and a drummer with Marfan's syndrome who we called Fingers. They needed a bassist and the only one we knew was into The Smiths and stuff like that, he wasn't interested but I asked him for some tips. First bass was a black Yamaha P-bass bought second hand with a massive combo (I think it was 100w and had a 20" cone, it was big enough to sit on without touching the floor, perfect for a beginner!). I was never really into metal and all I ever did was chug roots, but it was cool. We were called Chasin' The Dragon (I was too young and innocent to know what that meant at the time), I don't think we ever actually played a whole song all the way through! We spent a lot more time drinking than playing. I drifted off into different circles after a few years but kept playing for my own amusement. I had a black and white Squier Jazz for a while, then a Jackson Kelly, gave fretless a go then gave it up, I had a Peavey thru-neck and possibly a couple of others, before gradually losing interest. Uni, jobs, wife, kids, mortgages came next and I finally picked up another bass (a Rockbass Fortress) again a couple of years ago. I dabbled here and there until the bug bit hard again a few months ago - I just traded up to a Squier CV60s Jazz and I realised why I never felt like I wanted to play the Fortress, it was so heavy and chunky, the Jazz feels so easy by comparison. I've even actually started to learn some music theory, instead of just learning songs by tab.

"Knowing" someone (online or in person) is not the same as really knowing them, nor is it the same as knowing about their personal life and relationships etc - mixing up two people with an uncommon name, both connected to the subject but without knowing the fine details, is not unreasonable (although quite unfortunate in this case). My 2 cents - anyone who dates someone with their own daughter's name is almost certainly a creep. And FWIW, my dad was an alcoholic, sober for the last 17 years of his life - which he worked really hard on every single day, and I am incredibly proud and grateful to him for that. He was mostly really good to us, and his first two wives and 4 other kids (yeah alcoholics tend to do that). But even I didn't really know all of him - I found out last year that when he would bring my half-siblings home from school, he would stop at more than one pub on the way for a pint. They would sit in the car, he would get more and more drunk and keep driving. This was rural Ireland in the 70s, but still. There was a side of him I never saw, thankfully. Just sayin', you can never really know someone all the way to the core.

When you pay more for any old or cherished artifact (when compared to a similar but newer or more commonplace equivalent), what you're paying for is scarcity and/or originality. We aren't tripping over '62 P-basses in every nook and cranny (I wish), they certainly qualify as rare and therefore valuable. But to call that a '62 P-bass is like me putting some vintage wheels and whitewall tyres on my 2017 VW Golf and calling it a classic Beetle.

Never thought about playing it, but it sure is a great show and a great soundtrack. Saw it with the wife a couple of years ago, downloaded the soundtrack and then accidentally played the opening number in the car with the kids (9 and 5 at the time) - they loved it. We do have to bleep out the STFD bit every time though! And we had to be a bit careful explaining the story. Maybe I'll try and find some tab...

Gently lambasted someone on the "newbie fret buzz" thread about which way to turn the truss rod nut (left or clockwise), then promptly went and tightened my truss rod when it needed loosening. Muppet.

Possibly a really dumb question, but is there any way to plug headphones directly into the jack of a bass for amp-free practice? I have one of those MightyAmp plug-in thingies which works fine, but just wondered if there's a simpler (or massively more complicated?) solution. I feel like I should already know the answer to this question but my electronics knowledge is fairly hopeless! I'm sure if it were something simple we'd all be doing it already. Obviously you need something to power the headphones and boost the signal, so a plain passive bass is out. Would a normal active/pre-amp set-up work that way? Is there a readily-available electronics package that would work? Ideally something just using a normal 1/4" jack and 9v/18v batteries, no midi or weird cables and such. Purely hypothetical, money and luthiery skills notwithstanding.

Dignity is one of my all-time favourite songs, thanks for that fantastic rendition. I really like how they pulled the carbon cloth around to match the contours of the headstock, makes it look so much more organic.

Looks to me like the only issue with setting them up 4-in-a-row is the space available in the cavity - some of those circuit boards are pretty big. But if you're after using a normal Jazz control plate, surely the J-Retro 01 is the way to go? Or the 01 Deluxe if you're prepared to fit a side-mount jack.

That's the version I had - PJ and three knobs - but in blue like the OP's one.

Nice pick-up choice, now I need to add mismatched pole pieces to my irrational prejudices list.

Try https://www.croxguitars.com/products.html. And yes, bushing is probably a better term than ferrule.

In theory you can put smaller tuners in bigger holes if you have ferrules with the right inside and outside diameters. Whether such a thing exists or not, I don't know. Or you can plug and redrill the holes, but that's a lot of work. Those are nice tuners though.

I had one of those, also about 25 years ago (crikey, how am I that old?!). It does give Tom Daley a run for his money, but looks amazing - like an Explorer on speed.

Loving that spray booth, might have to get me one of those.