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Meet the new range, same as the old range...

Adrian Maruszczyk must laugh his socks off whenever Fender come out with an updated range & price list...

F**k Rock, F**k Roll

So... skimming through today's threads we learn that you're probably best off with an old Peavey TNT combo and a used Fender bass. Hooray! Ten years of membership to find the best gear was totally worth It!

Boring.

Okay, okay so plenty of head shaking from the experts and the knowledgeable, but I just discovered Chuck Rainey. I'm learning Rock Steady by Aretha for an audition and have steadily fallen in love with the extraordinarily splendid bass line. So I do a little research and discover that I probably haven't just discovered him as he has played on so much. I have actually been listening to him for quite some time, notably with King Curtis. I just didn't know who he was. The riff to the song is a joyous thing, rhythmically perfect, and perfectly repetitive with some little unexpected flashes. He then breaks into a few bars of pure inspiration before settling back onto the groove. Yum. It's beautiful. A little more research and I find he played with Steely Dan who were of course one of Bruce Thomas favourite bands and Bruce has always been my biggest influence. So there we go. Anyone familiar with Chuck's work who'd care to point me at other of his gems would render me eternally grateful.

As a bass player, I don't give anyone playing solo bass a second thought, either.

Fender really need to start looking at what other builders are doing. The likes of Maruszczyk, Sandberg, Lull, Sadowsky, Moolon...the list of builders who seem to make better Fenders than Fender themselves at competitive price points is as long as my arm. There’s little incentive for many of us to buy a brand new Fender and the sale of used models obviously brings no new revenue in for the company. Out of interest, anyone know how Fender are doing, financially?

Today's word is 'grandmotherable'. You win the internet.

If the title wasn't "new range" you could be forgiven for not realising

Lake Placid Blue! Yay! ..and tort. Wut?

Judging by the video I don't think he is!

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You could look at it another way... I'm assuming that you and the guitarist don't sing. Find a singer or maybe a singer songwriter and be their backing. Get some gigs doing acoustic sets. If you do sing, don't look for a singer, but do the acoustic sets! Then get a drummer. Then do bigger gigs. Open mic nights can be good to polish things and inject some momentum and urgency to rehearsal, if there's something to aim for people pull their socks up. Did it myself where there was a singer and guitarist who were flatmates, I played bass for them and we did some open mics while looking for a drummer. A good drummer will want to know you're moving in some direction and not being yet another load of dreamers, so it helps.

I understand your smugness. I was getting remarks along the same lines after a bee-sting to the scrote at a naturist campsite years ago.

That's the Spirit. Oh teehee back at you.

The first week back at work is always hard.....so I bought a bass to get me through In reality I wasn't looking for a new bass but I wanted a BB for a good portion of last year but I thought I had staved that GAS with other purchases, until I played one of the new BBs I can't quite afford a BB735 but this popped up on Facebook. Haggled a bit and got a good price for it. Turns out the guy had a meeting at a building right next to my flat so got it delivered straight to my door the next day! It's in A1 condition, original strings feel like they have barely been played. While they aren't the best strings I do like the tension of them so they're staying on for the time being. If you've played a BB you'll understand what I mean when I say: It just works. Nothing fancy, it just sounds massive. Really love the grit you can get on either pick up, wouldn't mind if it was just a touch lighter though. Took it to a jam night and got several compliments saying how full it sounded so colour me chuffed. Now most importantly, PICTURES

This has been posted before, but, hey, if we're talking Rainey?

I'd argue that they go elsewhere because they have to. I doubt that even if I had the money, that the Fender Custom Shop wouldn't make me a 24 fret version of a Jazz. So the likelihood of that model even making it into the bog standard production range is nil, and off I go to Maruszczyk.

Gibson tried to shoehorn robo-tuners into 60+ year old designs. Somebody who buys something as ergonomically dreadful for the sake of adhering to original form as a Les Paul is generally not looking for robo-tuners as part of the deal.

American Professional, Elite, Vintage and now Original series. There just seem to be too many ranges to me. There's no point in Fender doing 'new', its customer base just won't buy any of it. If it were me, I'd go for a simplified product range of what they do best.

I use a Tesco recyclable canvas bag for my cables, 4 way, pedal, stand and water bottle. Still looks like new after three years. cool as nuts or what! no-one's ever tried to nick it - odd that?

Blue with tort... blooargh!!

A few months? Remind me never to lend you any of my stuff :-D

They do a nifty line of underpants and pencil cases.

That's my thought. I'll have a 50s Mex any day.

Never thought of that. I've just compared my Mex PJ with my Bitsa (which uses a Squier body, so I assume it uses the same spacing as a full fat Fender) and the p pickup is in the same place on both.

Most people walking past these guys probably have their own agenda, lunch break, catching the train home, work deadlines etc. and are too busy to stop and watch buskers. How many non bass players are going to give someone playing solo bass a second thought ?

So is Grandmotherable another word for GILF?? "Cor!! She looks Grandmotherable!!"

Oops, forgot the link http://www.wembleyloudspeaker.com/

Regarding your electrical problems I'd suggest having a tech replace all the electrolytic caps on the preamp PCBs. If you look at the circuit boards you may notice that there are components leaking a greenish substance, looks a bit like what you get from a leaking AA battery. Very simple job and only takes a few minutes for somebody handy with a soldering iron.

To be fair the revolutionary innovation happened years ago. I agree with you about the rut, but on the other hand when Fender do try something new everyone practically has a heart attack and demands they get back to their 'core values', i.e. more of the same.

Now if they'd just get with the program and do an MIM version of that 60's P bass then we'd (I'd) be happy...

It's not really a showcase for bands. The format is more a mix of players from a number of local bands, putting together ad hoc bands for the occasion, no rehearsals, just a set list (which more often than not, gets forgotten on the day) announced a few days before hand. Happy to let you know when the next one is though. It's a good place to meet the local musicians, introduce yourself and put yourself forward. I know the next one will probably be July, when we will be raising money once again, for Great Ormond St Hospital.

The above makes it look like you have a granny flat in your rucksack and you have a low opinion of her. For shame! Heeheehee I have a canvas bag in the style of a holdall but smaller. It's a little shy of eighteen inches in length and it holds cables, tuner, strings, a mains extension reel, some switch cleaner and nail clippers. I don't gig but if I did I imagine I'd have to be a lot more focussed about what gets carried in it than I am now. I'd consider a rucksack if I didn't already have a gig bag for my bass to put on my back. Although I have a hard case for the bass, it's not used for the walk to my local because it spoils my gait and I get problems with my neck as a result. As I have a gig bag for the bass that can be worn with shoulder straps I'm happy enough to carry the bag. If I was going in a vehicle, the hard case would be used and then the rucksack would be ideal. I suppose it is inevitable that I will get into pedals and other peripheral stuff which will make me rethink my luggage but I won't get a larger bag just now because I would tend to look for gear to fill it up. We'll soon be able to buy robotic luggage that follows us whilst looking like something cute out of a Japanese cartoon. Won't that be great?

I have a B2A and a bottle of Tippex. When I know the cash is in the post I'll Tippex in the missing '1' and send it to you. Heeheehee

Cool idea. Good luck.

Couldn't agree more. Have been using one recently in a practice room and it sounds better than my main rig! Which may raise a question or two

Yes, it pleases me to have a good old swear as well, but I can't. Apparently this is a family-friendly forum, but I've never seen kids on here, ever. Or dogs, babies or grandmothers. Plenty of grandfathers, though.

Rock and roll is dead. Er, long live rap?

How much!? Of course I will play in your party.

Are you on Facebook? Pop along to the Wal Bass Club there and join in the fun. There’s a sticky post which lists various players’ fave tone settings. A lot of good tones to try out as you explore the preamp...!

Whilst I was out the nice courier delivered bass number 2... I have been hankering after one for a few months actually, and when one was up on eBay from Absolute Music I copped it in their 20% off day. Retail on these is £609 - I got it for £412 Ibanez SRH-500-DEF

Magic always comes with a price: every time a mod re-opens a closed thread a tiny wee fairy gets a nasty case of the trots.