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I, find, that I, can talk, as long, as I, do it, in time. S.P.

Finished work early yesterday and drove a 330 mile round trip to pick up a Fender American Standard Jaguar Bass (I don't trust couriers, too many horror stories on here!). I've always wanted a Jaguar since the original Japanese model came out, so when I could finally afford to treat myself I started looking for one and found there was a US version, only available for a couple of years. I found a couple for sale and went for this one. Looks great, is pretty light, and plays really nicely. Looking forward to figuring out the controls this weekend!

I love P-basses!!!

https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-musicians-wanted/bass-player-needed-for-function-band/1311925635

How can you not love this P bass blue and maple heaven? 😊

He should be put overboard for that crime 😡

No.

With a touch of Post Traumatic Binding Stress Disorder creeping in, I rock-hopped back to the neck and did a bit more on the heel. Still more to do to get a more interesting visual effect and get it looking a little slimmer, but it's starting to get there. I also remembered the final "once you've spent all that time joining the body parts and thicknessing them and fitting the braces and tap tuning the top and sorting the kerf strip and sorting the join shapes and cutting the soundhole and making the rosette and fitting it and the purfling around it and gluing the top on and fitting the back on and routing the binding slots and fitting the purfling and bending the binding and gluing it and stretching the fibreglass tape and next door neighbours kids bicycle tyres round then fixing the bits that didn't quite work and scraping the bits flush that did" - yes, after all THAT then..."You need to clamp the complete large dreadnought body somehow without crushing it and rout a large slot through the sides into the neck block with the hand router that you wreck most other things you use it on and which, if it is the slightest bit out alignment in any of the three planes, will render the guitar unfinishable." Hmmm...I think I might just go and have a gin instead.

being able to read/knowing music theory does not stop you being able to play by ear/jam etc.

I’ll come and bring the usual double bass and stuff. Might have some declutter to sell. Looking forward to trying OBBM’s Quilter. It’s always a great day for cake.

Just spotted this. Im sure the more experienced musicians out there are very aware. But some may not be. A good well thought out vid on why your place is your place and why your favourite licks are best kept for moments in a song.. Too many voices trying to put a point across in a conversation never works.

So often I see clips on You Tube and elsewhere where posters are in jawdropping awe of children playing bass, guitar or drums to a high standard. Thing is if a child starts learning at 3 or 4, with natural ability, being able to absorb information more efficiently than adults, having parental support and a good teacher by 10 they actually should be pretty advanced. At my school there were quite a number of boys who could play drums, piano, sax, violin, trumpet or guitar to a very high standard by the age 12 but given that they'd been playing for 7 or 8 years it was kind of expected. I wonder if these posters would be in such awe of an adult reaching a high level of musical proficiency in a just 2 or 3 years?

A couple of pics:

This is my perfect 😁

A busy day, I'm getting too old for all this, I'm looking forward to a holiday in a couple of weeks First job was to tidy up the veneers, trim the edges, open out the bridge recess and cut out the bit where the fretboards fit. I then cut the truss rods to size, threaded the ends and fitted the anchors, I flattened the threads to lock the anchors and I wrapped the rods in cling film to stop them getting glued in place, I also greased the adjusting threads with copperslip.. After that I fitted them and glued in the filler strip. When dry I planed that down and fitted the small wedge to go under the headstock veneer. Then I trimmed the headstock to shape and stuck on the veneers. Finally for the day I fretted the Satinwood board so that can be glued on tomorrow

I've always liked the look of them, and the idea of the semi thing appeals. The scientific name for my condition though, is Permaskint

My first ever bass was a Fender 57 reissue Precision bass, back in the 80s. It was made in Japan. Since then I have owned several P-basses (all Fender or Squier, from USA to Mexican) and they've all delivered. Standouts for me included, a 51 reissue, an all original 1978 and a 70s bitsa. However, they came and went. A couple of years ago I bought a new 57 reissue, also Japanese. It reminds me of my first bass. As others have said I've tried, owned and enjoyed several basses from Gibsons to Rickenbackers to Danelectros and beyond. There is something about the P-bass that means it will always be part of my life, even if I happen to be doing a gig on a Jazz or an upright. Anyhow, here's mine pictured just this afternoon.

Let's hear it for the ladies! Kim Deal, Divinity Roxx, Yolanda Charles and Sooze of course! 🙂 PS - good advice from Happy Jack as usual! x

My recently acquired Spectorcore 4 fret less wearing flat wounds. Simplicity itself..

Good way of looking at it if you didn't like them i suppose .Being a fan i think otherwise,its not like they were banging 3 chord tunes out . The sexy punk rockers were supporting them at their well attended regular gigs.Given how their music developed in a few short years they would have made it regardless of fads.Black and white went to number1 with no title or band name on its cover.A first iirc .That and The Raven were their peak for me ,never really heard a band sound like those albums before or since .Some of Jets drumming on them was way out there .Opinions like Aholes,we've all got one

I've had a bit of a reaction with the paint on the body so I'm sorting it out but here's the neck anyway I'm still going to give a few more coats so it will go a bit darker 😀

You know, I have been following this thread since it started and still have absolutely no idea what the point of it all is. Anyone else confused? Bean9seventy - you seem to have invented a whole new way of punctuation, let alone bass playing. On topic - or is it? - I do recall Mark King saying in an interview that he started playing the way he plays because he wanted to play like the start of 'Rise' by Herb Alpert. Which does sound exactly like a slowed down version of Love Games.

It's a Gibson! Two quick ways to tell A. Bridge placement B. Neck heel. With the Gibson, The Bridge is further back and they have a rounded heel. Epi Bridge is closer to the Bridge pickup volume pot, and the heel is almost squared. Also, this real or Epi thing is a bit off, my Classic Pro plays better than the Gibson I tried.

Anything you learn that enhances your knowledge and appreciation of music is important. I would place reading very high on the list.

These two notions are often lumped together (maybe rightly so..?), but are, in fact, quite distinct. One's prowess at reading does not impart knowledge of theory, harmony, musical styles (although helps considerably when studying those...), any more than the inverse; the study of music theory does not automatically make one a good reader, even less a good sight reader. Both skills, plus, of course, a degree of playing ability, are very useful indeed, but separate notions. Just sayin'.

Musical notation is just another form of communication, from a quick glance you know the key and time signatures, and the rhythmic and harmonic structure of a piece of music you may have never heard. As you play it you begin to commit it to memory and put your own stamp on it. I still learn stuff by ear, but if I am being paid to turn up and play the dots that what I do. I teach for a living so I use my reading skills everyday, but not everyday in my playing that's very situational. I play in a rock covers band, I don't read for that, but If I'm doing a theatre gig, or reading charts for a jazz gig that bit of music theory really helps. It just opens more doors for you. But there are plenty of great players out there who don't read or know a lot about music theory who are still great players.

I had you down as a coquettish debutant. Close enough.

Well - the results are largely OK for the top. A couple of places where it is a little bit iffy - and I had to heat a couple of the areas with and iron and clamp them properly down to the sides, but this is the sort of look it gives: The above looks OK but, I think binding of an acoustic sorts the men from the boys - and at the very best - I reckon I'm at the petulant adolescent stage, if that. For me, it's too hit and miss. But - curses to poor memory - fixing those couple of bits with the iron (which softened the PVA enough to be able to ease the miscreant binding into position and held until it glued - reminded me that a couple of years ago, I tried a completely different approach to binding - that worked! It was on this re-body of a Peavey EVH I did - where I wanted to put a similar type of binding on upside down to give me a feature line from the thin maple bar: The challenge here was that ANY misalignment would have meant sanding down - and potentially losing - the feature line. So I simply couldn't risk the 'strap it all up and hope for the best' approach. And so I came up with the crazy notion "Why don't I do it like I do veneering - iron it on! And that's what I tried - and it worked!!! And then I forgot all about doing that. So for the back binding - today's little least favourite job - that's what I'm going to do. If it works, I'll show you the shots of the technique (or just look up one of my veneering threads - it's exactly the same). If it doesn't work, I'll quietly sweep the idea under the carpet and get the inner tubes out again

The construct on this sentence could infer a couple of different things.

I just think its a useful tool for learning any song. I'm all for making life easier and using whatever tools are available when learning songs. I've seen me using my ear, bass tab and manuscripts when its a tricky song to learn so anything that's available is a useful tool. Dave

I spent 30 years playing (percussion) in orchestras, theatre bands, brass bands and such, where good sight-reading skills were vital. I now play bass in a pub band and I hardly ever read at all. However, I'm really glad I *can*. It's very useful every so often. Not for a minute do I think it doesn't matter to me. It's been an important part of my musical "journey".

Check out Xotic bass, I really like these.

I've burbled on about mine too often on too many threads before... But there's nothing quite like the lightness and vibrancy of that semi-hollow body combined with that punch and growl with the bass boost kicked in. Nothing. Plus feeling 50 years of music history flowing through your hands. Do it. Save up for it. Keep your eyes open and they do turn up now and then.

Not an urban myth - I remember Blackie Lawless having to talk about that in interviews even years after it happened. Talkbass has an interesting post about this episode and other accident-prone rockstars.

Really? Yeah i can think of hardly anyone who uses a precision.... I'd list them here but there's probably so few.

Eye watering for sure. I still want one.I care not for Sadowsky etc. My holy grail of Jazz Basses are Pensa's.I like the rare and unknown one offs like my Sei. They just don't get talked about in the UK.

Yeah, but it's right handed.........

Depends on the site, though. ...

when we made our last album I jokingly said (many a true word said in jest) that I only have to get it right once during the song then the engineer can cut and paste to the rest of it, and this did happen to get rid of one or two mistakes on otherwise good takes Must admit though I'd be annoyed if I hadn't played anything on my own songs at least. But is using drum machines and bass sequencers any different from using session musicians instead of band members?

Lol! Mine barely goes forward!! Grab my coat, too

I guess it's like reading a novel written by somebody else. It's a nice change if you're used to writing your own novels. I don't think of it as just copying either, you're playing music that someone else has written, you can still be creative in the way you interpret, if that's what you like doing of course.

❤️

I play mostly rock bands and i'm usually the only one that reads or uses music unless we have a keys player. Keys players generally read music and it works far better for me. I've played in a very few bands where guitarists didn't even know the chords they was playing. Needless to say i didn't stay long with them. Too disorganised for me. Dave

^^ This! 17 pages of discussion distilled into one sublime statement!

Give it 6 months before really deciding. I was like you at first too. Don’t get me wrong, they are really good value but mine at least didn’t stand the rigours of regular use. Hopefully they have improved things and if they have I would certainly consider one as an alternative to a Mexican Fender.

Yes and No. Being literate in standard notation is essential for certain situations, such as reading gigs, academic music study, arrangement and scoring. Being literate in standard notation gives access to a huge amount of written music. Being literate in standard notation will absolutely not grant automatic benefits towards timekeeping or groove (I've played with lots of amateur classical musicians who have decades of reading experience but whose ability to maintain pulse or lock with other musicians is pretty terrible, and let's be honest, not all drummers have good time/groove even though all their learning materials use standard notation) Being literate in standard notation will not grant you the ability to write good songs, improvise, memorise parts, hustle gigs, improve your aural skills, give you the practical nouse to survive life on the road, equip you for negotiation with promoters/venue owners/agents/labels, give you any sort of personality on stage, make you easy to be around etc etc etc Musicianship is a multifaceted skillset, and what's most important varies from one musical situation to another - I would argue that good time and ear training are the skills that cross to every practical situation without exception. That being said learning to read has enriched my musical experience and opened new oportunities, so it is definately worthwhile, but it is important to remember that you can still bring a great deal of value as a musician without that ability, so it is a mistake to assume that you are automatically a lesser musician if you can't read standard notation.

I'd strongly suggest you use a manual tool. You'll be able to 'feel' the adjustment and don't risk stripping the nut/bolt. Use the cordless job for putting up those shelves she keeps asking about.

I played (drums) with CreepJoint on Friday. It was our first gig for over 2 years and it felt so good. Our new material is IMHO brilliant. Hopefully plenty of people will check out our new album off the back of it I then played bass and made weird noises for my crazy heavy band Heavy As Balls. I don't know what it is about this band but it always goes down so well. We're basically a jam band but we've just put an album out. The idea is that we jam until one of us plays a riff that makes us all go AEEEUUUUUUGH, due to it's heaviness. Then we base a "song" around that, the idea being that we have to either come up with a heavier riff that fits with the first idea, or somehow make the first idea heavier. It's supposed to be so ridiculously heavy that it's funny. It's heavy as balls. Oh, and we wear masks and robes and have lights on our guitars and on the sides of our faces. We gave out a load of masks before we played and most of the people I could see from stage were wearing them and either head banging, or laughing, which is the desired reaction. It's a shame our drummer's going away travelling for 9 months as it'd be ace to do a run of gigs.

I don't mind most covers, but what I really dislike is the recent trend for adverts using dour cover versions by "quirky" female singers accompanied by melancholy piano. Usually they destroy a classic song, be it rock, dance, punk: the original genre is irrelevant. I'm looking at you Lloyds Bank especially, but perfume ads are guilty too. May they burn in whatever final destination for naughty people your chosen religion prescribes