All Activity

Then we agree 🙄

I rotate my practice bass but often end up back with my 40th anniversary Squier P. I try (often unsuccessfully) to gig one of my favourites and one of the others. I've managed to gig all my basses except the two Kay short scales, and one of those has done an open mic. Some have only done short sets or a few songs. My main bass from the early 90s got its first full gig (rather than one or two outings for the odd set) in 30 years last weekend. So I rotate basses slowly but do have my favourites.

Thanks for the reply. I've watched both these videos already and apart from these, as yet I don'believe anyone else has posted a review or demo - hence me turning to basschat forum 😊 Thank you too for the advice regarding multi scales generally. I have to say, it's exploring both headless and multi-scale that appeals.

Nick Beggs just paid £15000 for his old Wal Pro bass. I could have bought that bass from a chap in Norfolk in 1995 for about £475 if I remember correctly. I passed because I couldn't be arsed going all the way to Cromer. Thirty years ago Wal would do you a new bass for about £1100-£1200 if you went to the workshop with cash. You could get a decent used MK1 Custom for about £600, maybe a bit less if you were lucky. A new Status Series 1 or Series 2 cost a few hundred quid more than a new Wal. At that time Wal and Jaydee were considered a bit old-hat compared to newer Warwicks ect.

Isn't it! I remember first seeing it on Raw Power / Noisy Mothers the late night ITV rock music program when I was..well.. younger!!

...or the tank like build quality... The new Trace amps are really Peavey, a company who I may never trust after this which possibly explains the title to this thread (a lost art!):

I know this thread is from a while back, but just in case anyone’s still interested, here’s the finished bass - looking and sounding great! 😉 I asked a friend to check it over with a one minute demo. Antoria.mp4

I might try this next week...

There's actually a precise formula: Too many = how many you have now + 2 That means there's always room for one more...

I passed up a Wal for £250 in Cash Converters back in the mid-90s. It was a Mk1 with the V-shaped neck carve and it felt horrible in my hands. Would probably be worth a fortune now though. It was pretty much entirely because of Justin Chancellor of Tool that Wal got their second wind. After Aenima came out in 1996, you never saw a cheap Wal again. And now they regularly go for five-figure sums used and have a six-year waiting list if you want a new one.

I use the resale value as a metric to judge how much money I could get back. If you ever want or need to sell a bass, they worth what you can get for them and what you get for them may well dictate what you can get to replace them. I remember well when Wal basses were less valuable than today, but then again now they are grotesquely overvalued. They, and Status and JD, never super cheap in relation to other comparable basses, just relatively less overpriced than now. Plenty of those basses you are mention are very attractive, no question, but I just can't see me handing over cash for most of them.

Yup - it would be where that orange wire runs from the switch to the bottom-right (in the picture) pot, between the green sleeves to the two tone caps. So, you’re not going to get the Chris Squire sound.

In the sixties the MM was the go-to music paper. NME just wasn’t in it. In the seventies I used to read Motoring News.

I have no great insight. It appears to be in the lap of the gods, more often than not. In any event, you always play your best and treat every gig the same. A guy I know played Woodstock and treated every gig with the same mentality.

Saxophones - Jimmy Buffett

I've had a HW 4005 for about 6 years (in my profile picture), bought secondhand but only a year old. I don't know how long Harry has been making them, and whether he hadn't mastered finishing then, but the paint finish wasn't great. It's a mapleglo and the clearcoat was very orange peely. It wasn't horrendous and the previous owner was happy with/hadn't noticed it, but it bothered me. I flatted and polished it and it was fine then. Everything else is fantastic, the woodwork and attention to detail is exceptional, checker binding, crushed pearl inlays, the fretboard colour, everything, perfect. I've seen many other finishes of his which are great so maybe mine was a bad day, who knows. It was my main gigging bass in my Mod/Northern Soul/Ska band, which has now folded but I can't see me selling it any time soon. It's a beautiful bass and after a couple of little changes to suit me better it's a one off.

Yakety Sax - Boots Randolph edit: with added Chet Atkins:

Acid test over what time period? go back a few years and that range of 80s custom basses, Wals and JD and statii etc were super cheap secondhand cos they weren’t fashionable. but we digress - your statement a load of posts back was “I don't see any of the newer makers as offering worthwhile alternatives to what those established brands offered.” - I suggest at least some of the makers I listed make exciting and interesting instruments that are worthwhile. I also dont think I would use resale value as a main metric to judge the worthwhile ness or quality of an instrument.