| Hello, My name is Longbow...
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Nice site you got here.
I'm into computers and tweaking them, though i'm not
so great as some...
Been playing a little over a quarter of a century now (excuse
the drama)...
Yeah, i was 13 when i got my first bass.
A Fender Precision Copy - nice - tortoise shell pickguard and
all. I learnt everything in my Black Sabbath collection, then
thought i would be a smart arse and started playing guitar...
Been picking up the bass on and off since then though.
The bass for me, will never be mastered.
And i like that!
The guitar - i got good with, but i care less about it after
all these years...
I feel like David Coulthard, not bad, until i hit the wall.
Oh well, they tell me it is not a competition.
Just as well!
Virtue is it's own reward.
I got a new bass today, the first in many years...
though i have begged, borrowed and stole the instrument
through the ages (can i say that ? - i mean, i never actually
stole one - out of the back of a transit van, i mean,
though, sometimes maybe, i should have given back that
Vigier Fretless sooner than i did ;-).
So, i went to pick my bass up:
Guy upset me. (was gonna say something else, but i am
respecting your rules of engagement here). Was gonna tell
him to "Go to HELL".
I asked hims several times over the phone if there was any
"Snap, crackle and pop" on the pots, and he said - "Dude, I
plugged it in myself last night and it was as clean as a whistle
(I paraphrase here, for clarity and brevity)...
Cool, says I...You sure now, I don't want to make an "EIGHT"
hour journey just to be confronted by cornflakes???
Sure, says he. Plugged it in last night, just by myself.
So.......
Gets down there.
Plugs it in.
Ahoy, says I.
What is this?
A squidgy pot!
Rotating and functional, but squidgy.
"Doh, didn't notice that last night when i plugged it in".
I believed him.
Though i didn't, and neither did the thousand proverbial others.
But.
It did not stop there.
Next pot.
"Snap, crackle...POP!!"
Mmm, thinks i.
I just got $20 off this beauty or he can go back to HELL...
I didn't care about the money.
I cared about the bass and having my time wasted...
Still, when i saw it there in all it's black shiny glory, all
2 octaves and almost Pininfarina curves, I thought, NO,
i shall not wrap his own instrument around his own neck.
I shall persevere.
I 'umm'd'.
I 'ahh'd'.
I tried to play the (expletive) thing after years of forgetting.
Then said, like a Rattlesnake in a hurry, I'll give you $......
OK, he says, even quicker.
That is when i knew i had been had.
'OK' says i, in little sotte voce...
And walked out of there, A happier man than i have been
in years.
Maybe some of you around here will understand this.
I'm gonna post in another thread, what i bought and
how much i paid, and ask what it is really worth and
how much it will cost to restore it to pristine condition.
Barring the scratches on the glossy black paintwork.
Nothing that a bit of 'Goth Black' nail varnish won't cure,
i'm sure.
But for now, I am happy. To have come full circle on my
musical Odyssey.
My muse?
My Mojo?
An Aria Pro II MAB-20/5.
cheers. | 
