Chris2112

They still offered the body shape with a graphite neck only now. The preamp wasn't listed as an option but I'm sure for the right price you could have had one...

I've had some really nice Status basses over the years. Some of the best instruments I've owned, I think. I recently got a fairly decent payout from work after it transpires that they hadn't been paying me properly since March last year. I was considering speaking with Status once they opened their order books to order a Kingbass or a Hellborg signature model. I guess that won't be happening now. I do have my eye on something equally eccentric though.

It needs to go to a central point that can take action rather than just collating reports and farming out those with leads. If you have twenty scams in twenty force areas, all for a low value, I can see how it would get lost in the mix. There is so much minor fraud in the UK now that we could dedicate every available hour of police time to it and still not be near cracking it, I'd imagine. Of course, having the money to equip a central task force for fraud is the real issue, it's not forthcoming at the moment. It's not for a lack of desire for nailing crooks either but a case of getting the details on the right desk at the right time. Back when I started (thirteen years ago) we would regularly get reports like this from different force areas. If the offender had been traced to your force area you'd do the business. I don't work 24/7 anymore but when I moved departments, we hadn't done that sort of cross force enquiry in years. There just wasn't time for it. The problem is systemic and structural rather than a lack of desire for your average officer to take a fraudster to task. I could have an offender of this scale before the courts in a matter of weeks. Telephone statements from victims, a few files of digital evidence documenting the sales, arrest and interview. Charge on overwhelming evidence even if no admission, likely a guilty plea bit sadly no realistic chance of anyone getting their money back. It's a simple MO only compounded by the amount of times it has been repeated. Sadly as my current role is now a specialism I can't just ask my boss if I can take the Basschat case and run it!

Pentabuzz or MVP?

A great bass. One of the few fretless basses I GAS for, but don't tell my Pentabuzz that. As far as my number one goes, my 1993 Spector NS-5CR gets the call most days. It's one of those basses that is extremely flattering to play because it's effortless. The tone is supreme but there is no hiding it in a mix, so if you're one of those guys who likes to sound like you have a pillow sat in front of a 15" speaker with strings that went dead twenty years ago, it's won't be for you.

Quite. I like Wal basses but I've never played one that was worth their asking price (to me). I don't decry him at all for trying to sling the nasty pasty, might as well take the cash out of some rich doctor or architect's pocket and enjoy it. Clearly it wasn't 'the one' for him as he's been playing his Status basses for years. Given their light weight, superior ergonomic form and tone, that doesn't surprise me. I may have mentioned earlier here or on Facebook that a friend of mine once sent me an advert for a Nissan Micra being sold by a member of Status Quo. I had mistakenly thought that it was Rhino selling it but a review of my records showed it was actually John Coghlan.

I would expect a discount given that it may have been the bass used to inflict that awful Christmas song on us but even so, the price is steep. I'm wondering if his roof hasn't fallen in.

Between £1200 and £1500 is probably realistic. I've seen a few float around the £1200 mark for a while over the years. I used to have the number for Todd Krause when he was building Stu's basses at the Fender Custom Shop. I used to dream of having a Mel replica but the price would have been extremely high.

My brother has one of the last three Shawn Lane Excalibur models on order now. It will be the last natural alder model out of the shop before they close. He had a heads up from a Vigier dealer about the end of the production and was passed details to buy it. I am really looking forward to hearing it as Shawn got the best cleans tones ever committed to record from his natural finish Excalibur models.

A bit like unboxing videos, I find these to of the sort of utter nonsense that floods YouTube.

Ordered a set of these in Medium gauge to put on my Spector NS-5CR this evening. All went on fine except for the B, which barely tapers at all at the headstock end. It won't fit into the tuner for me to start winding. A shame as the four that fit on the bass actually sound and feel pretty good.

Class!

Gilmour's bends sound like a cat being strangled. The whole thing does nothing for me, very naff. I appreciate if you're of a certain age you may feel differently.

The gold fretwire on this is so cool.

Gorgeous. Just keep it string with fresh strings. Nothing sounds better with fresh strings and worse with dead strings than. Thumb. I've had a couple in the past and there is no doubt I'll have another. I wanted to go back to Spector first and then a Thumb, when the right one comes up.

I guess if I hit the big time I'd be happy with a Spector. Probably with the curved NS body in quilted or flamed maple with EMG single coils. Basically what Yoshihiro Naruse was playing in the 80's. I love signature basses and I'll defend them to the hilt, particularly when the model you can buy is the one that the artist actually uses. However, over recent years I have noticed a slew of no-name bassists claiming their own signature model just because they've paid for a custom build to their specs. It's a bit cringeworthy IMO. Ultimately that's just a custom build. You can get a bass built to your specs and call it your signature bass but unless you have the profile to warrant a sig you're just cosplaying at having a signature bass, sort of like buying a privateer entry into a race series and being crap rather than getting a factory seat. If the manufacturer doesn't propose the deal to you, it's probably not the real deal.

If meeting with friends to jam we'd meet the pub across from the rehearsal room and have a pint and share a pizza. Not enough to have any effect on our playing, and in any other setting or with any sort of audience then we'd tend to abstain. I've known plenty of players who think a drink or three helps to loosen them up and get them playing their best. It really doesn't. You might feel like Yoshihiro Naruse up on stage entertaining thousands and playing like a wizard but you will sound sloppy and bad. Whether or not your audience can tell or care is another matter.

I'm going to order with Strings Direct today off the back of this. I ordered some strings (and other stuff) from Bass Direct on the 4th of June. They took payment but then emailed to say they didn't have the strings in stock but would send them as soon as they came, if I didn't want a refund first. Well, I'm still waiting so I guess it's time to take that refund and look elsewhere. Strings Direct it is. You can tell Lee that good customer service pays dividends next time you speak.

That does look really crap. I guess Lakland are just trying to pump them out as cheap and as fast as they can.

They definitely struggle with their stock keeping system. I ordered some strings and a couple of other bits the other day. In fairness, whilst the money had gone from my account via PayPal they did email me promptly to say the items I'd ordered weren't in stock but they could order them in. They offered me a refund but I said I was happy for them to just send the goods when they arrived in store. Of course, I would have shopped elsewhere if their stock system was good enough to tell me they didn't actually have the gear I wanted. Maybe they don't want to miss out on those sales? 🤣

Man, what does that weigh? 😳