Rich

It's looking a lot happier now after a good clean-up, an oiling of the fingerboard and a fresh set of D'Add nickels. I tried it on a strap for the first time... my god, the first fret is such a long way away! black tuners and string tree are in the post as we speak.

That doesn't need to be a barrier. When Mrs Rich v1.0 and I split up, she quickly reverted to her maiden name but the kids (at the time they were 7 and 5) retained my surname. Partly for administrative ease (school etc) but also because she didn't want appear to be trying to take them away from me.

Substantially less than £100

My latest guffing-about-with project thing, a Westfield 'Bird-shaped thing. Bought for next to nothing on my local Farcebook marktplatz. Was cheap because it's scruffy and was missing half its knobs and had really awful strings and is a Westfield, most of which is easily sorted. The fingerboard is filthy and cleaning it is the first thing on the list... well the 4th thing, having already 1) binned the old strings, 2) chucked some temporary knobs on, and 3) fitted a black bridge. Some black tuners will be in the pipeline too I think, probably a full electrics overhaul and maybe even new/different pups depending on what it sounds like. The action was surprisingly low and the neck felt really good to play in the quick blast I gave it. Inevitably there will be massive neck dive but I will cross that bridge when it comes along. I'm not expecting it to be any great shakes really, I only got it for the look... as deep as a puddle, me

That is a proper stunner. The GA has always been my favourite JD, and that headstock shape is to my mind far more attractive than the old 'peace sign' one.

I had a fretless Roadie 1 back in the dim distant. I fitted a Hollis preamp to give a bit of a boost, and then later the original humbug pickup died -- well, half of it did anyway. So I fitted an EMG-35 in its place, which sounded a lot better I have to say. The neck sadly developed a slight back-bow which meant that, whilst playable, the action was a lot higher than I would have liked, so I moved it on. The fingerboard was the hardest piece of ebony I have ever seen in my life -- I only ever strung that bass with rounds, and in all the years I used it they didn't leave a single mark on the fingerboard at all. The second hardest piece of ebony I've seen is on the fingerboard of my current fretless... the neck of which was made by Jaydee. They certainly have some good wood.

Yes, they hung up the phone on me when I said I was going to do Simple Minds' Waterfront. Sarah -- hearty congrats 🤩 but the work starts now

I have a bitsa P bass, the neck of which has a F decal on it. In the unlikely event that I sell it, I will sand it off first. That notwithstanding, it's my bass and I can do whatever the hell I want to it. If anyone has a problem with that, they are welcome to contact my complaints department on 1-800-IDONTCARE.

The 3 members of The Hamsters used to go by the stage names of Snail's Pace Slim, The Rev. Otis Elevator and Ms. Zsa-Zsa Poultergeist.

Have you considered changing it to the far more exciting Brett Stopwinkle?

This, this, this, and this.

The Storm - Big Country

Over and Over Again - Nathan Sykes

Life On Mars - David Jones

My musical tastes are summed up by my CD collection... It goes from Abba to ZZ Top, with Motörhead next to Mozart, but if you look closely you'll find more jazz/fusion and prog than anything else.

'Sailing By', the BBC R4 shipping forecast tune as played by the Alan Perry/William Gardner Orchestra. There is a howling bass còck-up at 1:55 or thereabouts... a very bum note followed by a bar of frantic chart-searching "where are we?" silence, and then he's back.

Minute by Minute - Doobie Brothers

Just found this video grab -- this is where I wear mine. Rather fetching t-shirt, I'm sure you'll agree. Gormless expression model's own.

It'd probably look a bit like this:

A Ken Smith BSR5EG, many moons ago... water under the bridge now though.

I'm Not Like The Others - The Lovelites

5-4-3-2-1 - Manfred Mann

New York State of Mind - Billy Joel

That's make-before-break.