Leaderboard

Well, after some humming and ahhhing... My 50th birthday present turned up last Friday. Fender Precision Professional in Candy Apple Red, from PMT in Manchester. Initially I was wanting a Precision Active Deluxe (in surf pearl) but after trying one in Dawsons and comparing to the American Pro they had it was clear that the American version for far superior – to me anyway. Possibly just down to the string through body, but it just literally sang, felt so much more alive and I thought the quality of ‘heft’ was particularly telling – it felt more solid. Then after spending an hour or so on my birthday (with an unusually attentive wife...!!!) trying their American Pro (which actually didn’t feel brilliantly set-up compared to the one at Dawsons) I picked up a Nat Mandel Precision. flip, I wish I hadn’t!!! Immediately the output of its Quarter Pounders was so marked – quite a bit louder and with a more pronounced growl – also I think the neck was more appealing, very familiar to my Yamaha BB424 so that was probably the reason it felt good. But, the Pro won out for me. It’s a special thing to me this – I can’t see me spunking this much money again on a guitar – I know, I know it’s only a bloody mid range bass, but as I say it’s a special purchase this so it had to be the American Pro – plus you get a lovely case too Ordered it last Wednesday and it arrived on Tuesday, but could only pick it last Friday due to work commitments. Picked it up and its perfect!! I’m a fussy git, but couldn’t find a single thing wrong with it – both in how it plays and cosmetically. The boys and PMT were awesome too – unknown to me, my Mum and Dad had nipped in 4 days earlier to pay off the remainder after my deposit and they played along with it right up until the end when I was about to pay when they then gave me an invoice saying nothing to pay! They also chucked in guitar stand too. Played it on Saturday night at a gig and it was brilliant - the neck is definetley different to what I'm used to, but it's by no means a negative. The action is so much better, more easier to play and it’s tone is unmistakably P-bass, plus got lots of comments on the colour from the ladies too – really, really pleased with it. ...Just need to learn to play proper now.

I got the gig!

Hope they don't take any flack, they have been informative and played with a straight bat. I think that's all we can ask for, as well as good customer service

I think it`s the difference between Jazzes & Precisions in general. I`ve found this, and to be honest, as a die-hard Precision player my ears are tuned to the P-bass, so setting up a Jazz eq in the mix just never sounds right to me, I can`t seem to coax those great tones out of one as I`m just expecting the Precision sound when I play - that might be part of the problem here maybe? The Jazz tone is much thinner in comparison, I did find that the Seymour Duncan Hot Stack was a good Jazz pickup, didn`t change the sound, just bulked it out and gave more of the same.

Who knows what engineers can do knowadays?? I mean they put a time machine in an Delorian in 1985 for goodness sake 😱

Interestingly the main thing they were worried about was me being in other bands, the things most in my favour were the drummer felt he and I clicked (I agree) and the shitty amp we used (provided by the rehearsal room) sounded horrible and I was the only one who tried to get a decent sound out of it. The others seemed not to notice or care. So what I take from this is: obviously be thorough and do your homework, but more importantly pay attention to any and every detail, you never know what might sway someone.

If your jazz sounds too thin, stick some flats on it. You can thank me later

At home, I can get a Jazz to sound just the way I want it but have never quite got it nailed in a band situation. I've stopped trying in recent years and stick with my P basses.

Not really a gig, just the first band get-together for two years, and it went rather well..! I've not been playing at all in that time, what with one thing and another, so it was with some trepidation that I sat behind my drums again. No, it's not quite like riding a bike, but it does come back quite enough for our rehearsals. A dozen songs from our past repertoires (deUs, Bashung, Radiohead, REM, RHCP, Noir Désir, Chris Cornell and more..) Altogether two hours; we'll do another session next week. Tired, now, but it's worth it.

I can see how megastars like Adele have to put a 'no contact' clause up. First couple of times people want to chat to you it's fine - but after the fifteenth person wanting you to ring their mum and do a verse of Chasing Pavements down the phone you're probably pretty tired of it so you say no, and then they get upset because you were OK with the previous fourteen people asking you for it and go tell everyone you're a beach. Eventually you figure you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and institute the "no speaky unless spoken to" ban so they'll leave you alone. Then you go slowly mad through isolation, build a theme park in your back garden, invite a bunch of pre-teens for sleepovers, and your nose falls off. It's a weird business.

No

You practice?

Did you try to favour the neck pup over the bridge pup and set the tone control to 50%? It works for me.

If there;s no phase issue, wiring in a series/parallel switch to be able to switch the pickups in series (like the Fender S1 switch) might help make it sound more beefy.

I did three auditions last year for the first time in about 15 years, I always find them a very surreal experience, I managed to get two out of the three gigs so I was pleased with that. Just remember they are musicians, making quick decisions is not what they are good at Best of luck.

Just remember, sometimes who they pick has nothing to do with who's the best player. Good for you getting out there. Good luck.

Ah, so you were the t1t the guys were talking about when I went in! :-)

You can't beat having new screws to put the bass together. Somewhere that's really good for buying screws and other parts is WD Music. http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hardware-parts-c1 They also sell some really good necks. Not the cheapest, but they are good and no import duty to be paid on your purchase either.

I'd go for the FNA out of those 2. The weight would clinch it for me. Also, on the Jazzman, you can select the pickups to be the same as the Corvette. That said, the pre-amp on my FNA isn't as good as those I've had on Corvettes. But it might just be mine.

So your initial idea was a slap bass solo then ?

I look forward to it mate!

My questions about the 30 keys idea would be: Bach wrote two pieces as examples of each key for Well Tempered Klavier. Why are there 48 pieces, not 60? If an examiner asked me to play a C# major scale, which I did and then, when she asked me to play a different major scale, I played the same thing, but called it Db major, would I get a mark?

True, but it's how you consider it. If I see an F# major chord I'm not going to think Gb, it's F#. It's also how you write it, one's written with flats the other with sharps. And it's also contextual thing, one is Gb the other is F#. Just one of the confusions in music.

The Pro is a bigger more expensive pedal, the new mini one is simply the Tender Octaver MkII.

There are 30 keys??

bought a pedal from Patrick, fast shipping and all as expected! thanks!

Welcome Horrorhiker.

And now... "whacking two out on top of each other" i need an eye test and to flush my filthy mind.

Excellent.

I think that's a good call. If you haven't already, you might want to take a look at my (non commercial, completely free) open source onboard preamp design on Talkbass. I'd be happy to send you the LTSpice model to play around with, but the schematic is already available in the project WIKI over there. Here are max treble cut curves for one particular build: But I've found that how you set up resonant overshoot/damping at the response knee makes a great deal of difference in play feel, and there are quite a few other interesting nuances to dive into. Looking forward to seeing and hearing what you come up with.

Really like the look of that. Looks like a decent case too. Great choice.

I've been a P bass player since about 1988. I always go back to my old '73, despite owning loads of other basses BUT, since the arrival of my Flea Jazz bass, I haven't gigged a P bass. It's got custom shop 64 pickups IIRC as standard and they are cracking

After going through many different basses over the years, its the precision tone I like and settled on, I've owned a few jazzes as well, but to me, they sounded thin, and I guess I just didn't like the tone, but on a whim, I recently purchased a road worn jazz from a fellow B/C'er, and I'm blown away at the playability and tone, it certainly isn't lacking in depth, and the output is comparable with all my P's, I've gigged it and the drummer complimented me on how great it sounded throughout the set which was mainly classic rock. Maybe as others have suggested, could it be down to dodgy wiring/pots etc?

That's because you weren't ;-)

Certainly didn't feel like I was being treated like an idiot! I can handle a bit of banter - round here if a mate doesn't call you the naughty c word you're not a mate! But hey, it's the internet, so if you want to feel put-out on my behalf there's not much I can do to stop you. There aren't too many companies that come on here and take the cr4p Ashdown does and I do respect them for that.

Sorry!!

Welcome, and glad to have you aboard! I play a Warwick too, great instruments.

I think you just did!

Chromes are flats though.

Hello and welcome. Id say if your happy with the feel Of the bass, just pop in a new set of pickups. Sounds easy! This is where the fun starts. I’ve used Delano, Aguilar, Bartolini, Fender custom, and Lindy Fralin. I like them all. It takes a bit of research. The other option is to fit a new preamp. The John East preamps are excellent. Enjoy the search!

I didn't expect a response from Ashdown in the thread. That's what I call customer service!

Given that a string that's made as an "E" string, on a bass of 34" scale length, needs to achieve a pre-determined tension for it to put out a note that will be an "E". I find it hard to see how this can happen, unless the string is faulty, or you're tuning it to an E an octave lower than the actual E that it's meant to be putting out. Either that, or the tuning head isn't keeping the string to tension.

It's got valves in it and sounds like your genitals, apparently. Assuming you're male, that is. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nobsound-Vacuum-Preamplifier-Digital-Control-Silver/dp/B0711RVJN8/ref=sr_1_33_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1517914164&sr=8-33-spons&keywords=headphone+amplifier&psc=1

Thanks, Charlie. I find that using a good compression driver (with the right horn) in a bass cab makes a huge difference. Unfortunately, good ones cost nearly as much as the bass drivers themselves. On the rare occasion that I pop over to the dark side, I am always impressed by what Duke is getting up to. He's virtually the only person in the business who continues to push the envelope and provide practical solutions to the problems bassists have with their cabs. The particular problems that this new design tries to address are: 1. Hearing yourself clearly in front of your compact cab without having to raise it, tilt it or stick another cab on top of it. 2. Hearing the same sound you are sending to the audience (how else can you balance your sound properly?). 3. Producing a sound that does not change when you move around the cab. 4. Producing a sound that is balanced without needing a second cabinet to boost the bottom end. 5. Producing a sound that "throws" into the audience and retains clarity (i.e. doesn't become boomy) at a distance. 5. Having a flat frequency response cabinet that doesn't need endless fiddling with your amp's midrange controls before it sounds right. I can see that these are the kinds of things that Duke is also takes into consideration in his designs - so I feel that I'm, in good company.

Hi All! Just got a Realist copperhead fitted to my upright. It sounds nice, if a bit like an electric fretless! I would like to add a mic and blend the two (possibly using a Headway 2 channel pre) to hopefully achieve a woodier, more natural tone. Looked at options from Schertler and DPA but interested in hearing some opinions! What do you think? Cheers! D