Dave Vader

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1506601142' post='3379843'] And even when they do, it's still bloody wrong. I'm convinced people have just got cloth ears, 'musicians' worst of all! Edit: I think what is needed is a band consisting entirely of bass players. Bass players who are prepared to sing, play drums, keyboards, brass and guitars. Now that would be some band. [/quote] Every member of Dagobah also plays bass in another band. We're quite happy - but really badly organised sadly.

[quote name='Raymondo' timestamp='1506681480' post='3380364'] The Craft Room was brilliant! It reminded me very much of Tom Sharpe books.....high praise indeed from me because I loved Tom Sharpe books [/quote] You're the second person to say that - weird, cos I've only read 2 Tom Sharpes and I didn't like them much. Must read more... Thanks

[color=#34495E][font=Lato, sans-serif]Just in case you want a free copy of the new one, there's a goodreads giveaway running til the end of the day here[/font][/color] [color=#34495E][font=Lato, sans-serif]https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/253355-the-craft-room[/font][/color]

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1504875386' post='3367955'] 3. You have a Roadworn P as a backup [/quote] I fear this might be the answer, even if you don't want to hear it. 4. Buy yourself another bass - you know you want to.

But then you can't do a sliding harmonic properly, and why would you get a fretless if you're not going to do sliding harmonics?

You guys are still lovely. Ta

Just managed to get back in here, having read a very nice review of the new book on Amazon, by some chap in France. Suspicions confirmed, and my heartfelt thanks go out to you Douglas. You are, as always, too kind.

More details, it's out, it's done, you can buy it here. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Craft-Room-Dave-Holwill/dp/1973974673 Apologies for spammy advert and for not being on as much as I used to be, work has got busy, as have the four bands. Also I've been writing this book. Thanks

[color=#34495E][font=Lato, sans-serif]For those who asked when the next book is coming out... (not a sequel, or about bands, sorry)[/font][/color] [color=#34495E][font=Lato, sans-serif]Next Friday, more details later or on...[/font][/color] [url="http://www.daveholwill.com/"]www.daveholwill.com[/url] [color=#34495E][font=Lato, sans-serif]Thanks[/font][/color] [color=#34495E][font=Lato, sans-serif](Now in second draft hell with the third book)[/font][/color]

[quote name='DanH71' timestamp='1496845904' post='3314264'] surely its how you play the thing, and how it feels and sounds anyway and not the badge it has or hasn't got on it. [/quote] Ironically, I put the decals on mine so I could stop having that very conversation with every band I depped for/muso bloke in the audience. I know it's stupid, but it worked.

Now that is good news. I'm still using switch cleaner and a jack plug in and out of the phones socket. Works most of the time. Might get someone more patient than me to change it out, that would drive me nuts, and I would break it.

[quote name='Jus Lukin' timestamp='1495051053' post='3300939'] Also why can't people tell you the chords without prodding the root note as they do so? Just say C#, I know where the '***ing thing is! [/quote] Conversely - why can't people get the chord I am telling them without me prodding the root note as I do so?

Di box on the end of the board for emergencies. Never ever used it once. Needed it the day before I bought it, obviously.

[quote name='bluesparky' timestamp='1478762971' post='3171399'] My first was a Sunn Mustang, very cheap P copy, no idea what happened to it or who j sold it to. I remember it sounding awful but I played it to death for years as i practiced and practiced. The second bass I ever had was a Bass Collection SB3111, with all its posh active circuitry and amazing neck. I remember proudly playing it in my room once and my mum came in and said that initially she didn't uderstand why if I already had a bas's why I needed to get another, more expensive one but she said she could hear just how much better the Bass Collection was than the Sunn, and the it sounded really nice, and now she knew and understood!. My first and only electric guitar was a sunn mustang too, I guess that the shop, Sounds Plus, in Ipswich sold lots of them in that range to keen teenagers back in the mid '90s! [/quote] One of them Mustangs here too, still gig it nearly every weekend. (Though mine's the 80s one made in India, bit better than the 90s pointy head ones)

Legacys from Strings Direct Because they are only 7 quid a set. Used Fender flats for years, but they got too pricey for me, so I had a go with the cheap rounds, and after a couple of gigs I couldn't hear the difference anymore, once they've deadened up a bit they thump quite nicely.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1492010488' post='3277175'] Likewise. Explaining that mine is a cheap Brandoni kit-built Jazz with an inexpertly applied coat of beige floor paint is an undertaking I am no longer prepared to make. [/quote] I did enjoy the punter who thought my cosmetically unaltered Sue Ryder tele might be some kind of luthier made thing as he had never heard of Ryder before. I put him straight, but it shows how stupidly good the thing sounds and why I can't get rid of it.

I put one on my Sunn Mustang P-copy years ago. Simply because it is my favourite bass and I do lots of dep work and jump from band to band. If you want to not have to talk about gear endlessly with some boring dickhead then take a fairly average-looking Fender Precision. Back when it was a Mustang, I had to spend hours justifying why I was playing a cheap piece of crap from an Argos catalogue to people who thought I should be wildly grateful to them for offering me a £40 a night gig in a shithole pub. Or explaining what it is to a well-meaning enquirer. Since it has been pretending to be a fender nobody has asked me about it (apart from the odd nerdy gear-spotter at a gig, who gets told very quickly what it is and loses interest when it isn't an ancient Fender) it has saved me hours of dull conversation with guitar geeks. That is why (see also my crappy old Jap Strat that I use just as much). If I were doing them now, I would just write my name on the headstock in marker pen like I did to my fretless P, but I did them about 10 years ago and I can't be buggered to refinish them again.

I tend to wipe off the strings and the back of the neck after every gig/rehearsal, but I am a sweaty bugger and my basses are full of fag smoke and cider sometimes as well. Resulted in my 25 year old P-bass (that has been played constantly pretty much) looking like this when I changed the pickup out a year or two ago. I don't know what the green stuff is in there...

[quote name='Telebass' timestamp='1490611307' post='3266337'] I'm still thinking my point is not being grasped. Do other people, on finding out from one's other half that you are a practicing muso, seem to think, for whatever reason, that she should attend every gig? Is that not completely weird? [/quote] I do find that completely weird, and have never come across it at all. I was in a band once where the guitarist's girlfriend did come to every gig, and we all thought that was really weird. Mrs Vader come along every now and then just to see if I've joined a good band yet.

It all depends, somebody once said that nothing sounds like a real, old Fender P after hearing mine. He was a bit upset when I told him mine is nothing of the sort, though it is old. (1989 Sunn Mustang from an Argos catalogue in disguise)

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1489259203' post='3255591'] Iggy and the Stooges. There would be no dinner. [/quote] I'm going to this dinner instead...

[quote name='bassjim' timestamp='1489683566' post='3258987'] Great book!! [/quote] Thanks Jim. PS - Step 2 is to re-read an amusing novel on the theme and try to avoid the problems laid out therein.

I would say do your research by reading a humorous novel on the subject, available from amazon (link in sig) That would be the best thing to do first... I AM SUBTLE!!!!!!

Bugger, you have my sympathies.

You misunderstand me, you don't need to, the pickup should sit in the hole you already have, and then the big chrome bit sits over the top, hiding any holes left by the old one, hopefully this picture illustrates what I mean. Although looking at that, it seems wider than I remember, bit of chiselling needed maybe.