Reason for joining

Hi everyone.
I would like to tell you anout the reason I joined this forum.
I own a Westone thunder one bass which I bought new 26 years ago this year and which was my #1 bass during my gigging years.
As i have aged a little (yeah, a little) I found myself band-less and spending more time in six string pursuits with my epiphone les paul and my acoustics (my 5 string banjo too)
I still think of myself as primarily a bass player even though I haven't played bass in years. So, I decide to get a bass. Heres the thing, I can't decide what to buy until I take out my old Westone and the memories flood back! Also, the quality of build and the "feel" of the damn thing are just so spot on I cant imagine getting anything like this quality without paying a fortune. Sometimes you get so caught up in the fact that what is now available for relatively small amounts of money is infanately superior to what was around back "In the day" that you also forget the reason you fell in love with your instrument of choice. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that compared to now there was a lot of crap around but there were also a few gems. I know, I have one of them.

Hiya, rushfan - good to hear from you!! Also good to hear from another Rush fan; I've followed 'em from 'Fly by night' days and am now introducing my six year old lad to 'em - his fave CD, "Feedback"; what can I say, he likes the classics!!

Ain't getting old a bitch; I too bought my first Matsumoku in about 1980 and gigged it seriously for 25+ years with no backup; you gotta love these guitars, eh! I recorded with an Spectrum ST bass about 11 years ago and was impressed; it played better than my old P-bass, and then bought my first Westone about 4 yeasr ago! I know - late starter!!

I, too, played banjo a little - couldn't get my head around it really and always tended to wind up playing it like a guitar!! I used it for the Who's 'Squeeze box' solo and one or two other country-tinged things that various bands I was in played, along with a lap steel. Banjo's gone now; went to fund a Westone!!!

Look, the deeper into this you get, the clearer it becomes that Matsumoku instruments were very high quality indeed for the money paid, and if you did want something a bit classier, then the company catered for that as well; my Vantage VA900 is in a class of it's own and the Westone Pantera and Prestige models are very highly regarded indeed!!

Are you gonna show us your guitar, bro - we live for guitar porn in here!!

Yeah, Rush! Been a fan since the late seventies. First saw them live at Queens Hall in Leeds in June 1980 during the Permanent waves tour.
Back to the bass. I don't have any pics as such but I will certainly take some and post them if it's of interest (though it's pretty much a standard thunder 1 bass in a lovely cherry red) It may have been mentioned in these pages before, so forgive me if i'm asking a question already answered but if I wanted to upgrade the pickups, whats recommended? It's not a 1a by the way but the passive model.

I don't know what you could replace 'em with; I'm not a bassist primarily although I do have a minty Spectrum GT Bass which is a goody!! One of the guys will be along shortly to give a verdict I'm sure!
Hey, bang the pix up my friend; we do like to look at each others' kit!! (not sure that came out right, but there you go...)

Having a single split coil doesn't really lend itself well to an upgrade... at least I don't really know anything about splits. Too bad it's not a Magnabass pickups, those are amazing.

Rush fans!

My youngest kid is really into this group... His favorites are "The Trees", "Closer to the Heart", and "YYZ". I like some of their stuff from 2112 on through the '90s. Each of those players is a virtuoso - seeing them live is an experience.

The tech in our lab was telling me that Geddy Lee's name is actually Gary. His slavic grandma would pronounce his name as "Geddy" and it stuck.

Not sure if that's the straight stuff, but it makes a good story.

Yes! His birth name is Gary Lee Weinrib, but to the other kids it sounded as if his mum was calling him Geddy due to her accent. He changed his name to geddy officially some time ago. In my opinion he's about the best bass player around.

...and good as they may be, they don't play Westones which shows that they aren't the universal panacea!!

No, but they did a section of a track in "Fountain of Lamneth" called "Panacea"!
Back to my bass. I decided not to even attempt to change the pups as a good clean has revealed them to be highly effective still.
Incidentaly, I fitted them with some budget strings from Roberts guitars on ebay just as a fill in but I'm amazed how good the string quality is, not a million miles away from my usual Rotosound swing bass strings. Anyone else tried them?