Bargain

A bit of a bass day today. Now we know the New Years Eve gig can definitely go ahead, we ran through the second set this morning to make sure there was nothing that might catch out our stand in guitarist - we tend to have stops, quiet bits and extended solos, all of which can come as a bit of a surprise if you’re not expecting them. It certainly took me three or four gigs before I started to anticipate them correctly! We now have two set lists prepared, and a few extra numbers in reserve, but whether we actually stick to the lists on the night remains to be seen!
And then it was home to have a really good look at the acoustic bass guitar I’d bought on a whim on Boxing Day, and collected yesterday during our trip out to Whitehaven. The advert description was “as new” and a close inspection seemed to back that up. No obvious signs of wear and the protective plastic film was still on the scratchplate. It plays nicely and is the same scale length as my main electric bass, so will prove very handy to practice on without having to plug things in.
But that’s not to say it wouldn’t benefit from a bit of fettling. A set of flatwound strings for starters, coupled with a good set up. The ends of the frets definitely need a bit of smoothing in places as well. Even if we say that’s an extra thirty quid to spend, it still only comes to a total cost of just over £100. A quick google reveals that a new one from one of the major online retailers is between £200 and £250. And that’s just for the guitar - the guy who sold it to me chucked in a gig bag as well, so that’s another £25 worth of kit!
Definitely a bargain.