Rich

I don't mean functional features like slim necks or tighter string spacing, I'm talking about purely aesthetic stuff here. Body shapes and the like. I'll start the ball rolling. Early P-bass/Tele headstock shape. Don't like it, at all. It looks like someone's had a bandsaw accident with a regular P neck and tried to make the best of it. 90s hair-metal Charvel/Jackson pointy headstocks. Looking at them, you can just smell the hairspray and dodgy spandex. Stick your foot on the monitor and away you go. Far, far away please. "Whoops". Rawwwwk. Errm, no ta.

Cynical marketing exercise. "What are we going to do with all these leftover Jag bodies?" "Easy. Tweak the router CNC, knock the point off the top horn and bang on a Tele neck." "Ok, might take some time to do that." "Simple . We'll just call it CS or Masterbuilt and charge seven grand. The usual people will lap it up." "See, this is why you're head of marketing."

Long Beggs-related story. Feel free to scroll on by. Back in late '86, when I had hair and a discernible waistline, my rock-pop band were making our desperate bid for stardom. We lived in Reading, so it was dead easy to jump in the car and head into London to play gigs. We played quite a bit at the Red Lion in Brentford (RIP) -- our first few gigs there were as support to a guy called Philip Jap (the old farts among you might remember him) and his then band 'Secret Society'. I think he missed a trick by not calling them 'Jap's Eye'. Anyway, he asked us to play support at a party in London and we accepted. Being the mid 80s, slap was still acceptable -- almost mandatory in fact -- and our songs featured a lot of it. A lot. So there I was, thumbing the blazes out of my poor Wal, and it gets to the song with my showoff solo bit... I take a deep breath and go thwack-thwacka-ding wickety-wackety-wockity-dang, and having given it my best I look out at the crowd... straight into the eyes of Nick Beggs. Apparently an ex-label mate and friend of Mr Jap. I had a brief moment of wanting the ground to open up, I mean here's this bass god looking at me and I've just tried to impress this audience with something he could probably have done with one arm tied behind his back. But then his face broke into a big genuine smile, and with a nod he raised his glass towards me. I was walking on air for a month after that. I've bumped into him a couple of times since then, obviously he doesn't remember me but he's always been really friendly and happy to chat. Definitely one of our instrument's Nice Guys.

Officially the happiest song of all time.

No thanks, I want to keep the few friends I've got

I know, I was just being facetious. God knows we could do with a bit of a chuckle at the mo.

My bitsa P has a J neck. Will that do?

My Wal is for me. Always will be. I'll sell a kidney first.

Good call. I'll just pop out and buy one... ah.

Waghorn RD. That top is just stunning.

Shuker 'Uberhorn'

Yes it's definitely not Jamerson, but it is an entirely accurate facsimile of his original bassline.

14:09, when it steps up a gear and the bass pedals kick in... Oh my word. Gives me shivers and goosebumps, every time.

This for my money is the greatest single bassline ever recorded. It's very busy but still sits beautifully in the song without overpowering it, and when you isolate it you really get to appreciate its fluid majesty. Brilliant.

Topics merged

As long as you kept the "whoa, fookinell" which is my favourite bit I'd definitely have kept Eleanor Rigby and binned Ob-la-di (and Octopus' Garden, did you keep that?), but I agree on a lot of the others. I'm not wild about their twee moments either.

Fantastic 😎 I'd forgotten how good this was, thank you for reminding me. I'm going to suggest it to the band.

Plugged-in noodling: Unplugged noodling:

Played a festival couple of years back, I emailed the tech guys to ask about the house rig and whether I'd need to take mine and was told "we're getting an 800 watt Markbass head and a 4x10 cab, hope that's ok..." Yeah, I guess I can slum it with that EDIT: just realised the thread is about backline at permanent venues. Ah well. Can't be bothered to delete this

It's in the diary although I've got a gig in Swindon the night before, so I can't promise to be there to help set up

I used to love playing that in my old fusion trio. We didn't do it at that speed though but I did make a rod for my own back by playing it on fretless... We did quite a few Stern tunes, one of my favourites was Tipatina's. That was a bit of a challenge too!

None of the Specials songs have any time to relax or anywhere to hide. And being a ska band, our set is full of 'em. The first verse to Concrete Jungle is another one... it's so atonal and weird, when you practice it at home you think "nah that can't be right". Oh yes it is. And as for Little B!tch...