SJA

I've had good results recording mine- but with a mic'd amp (it's on the tracks "look to the skies" and "deep love" on the soundclick player on my myspace). I like it mainly for easy transport to rehearsals (I carry it in a guitar gigbag) and no need for a stand. the string spacing is closer than on a Fender (a bit awkward for fingerstyle sometimes), and the strap button position makes the first fret a bit of a stretch.

his basslines were a lot more upfront in the John Foxx era eg. "dangerous rhythm" "I want to be a machine", but "reap the wild wind" from the Midge Ure era is a great line.

Sei do 24 fret jazz-types- a 2nd-hand one might fall in your price range.

playing lots of octave-skipping lines helps to strengthen the little finger- eg. disco stuff like Chic's "dance, dance, dance" (which will give your right hand a good workout too) articulating between your ring finger and little finger is hard to get to grips with (eg. to get the quick high A/Bb bit in the intro to Megadeth's "peace sells") but really helps open up your fluidity of playing scale-based lines using all 4 fingers. in Phil Soussan's bass vid he shows an exercise with 1 finger-per-fret (find a comfortable area of the neck if the stretch is awkward near the nut) and playing continuous 8th or 16th notes articulating between any combination of fretting fingers eg. 1-2-1-3-1-4, 4-3-4-2-4-1 Billy Sheehan shows something similar in his on bass/bass secrets vids.

vocals need to be higher in the mix, and the parts of kit could benefit from being panned apart; the snare needs more volume possibly some compression, the performances are all good.

4 new songs are up from my band New Morning Blues- [url="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=108498"]http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=108498[/url] recorded on the Warmoth through an SWR head & I think a 6X10 cab + DI at Cowshed studio in Wood green, Teo Miller engineering. Josephine is a blatant Jesus & Mary Chain pastiche the bass tone is a bit rattly, squeaky for my liking, but the singer/bandleader is happy with it.

[quote name='Peter Train' post='452156' date='Apr 2 2009, 09:23 AM']It's OK for slapping but for finger style it was really difficult to play the e string. There was a large gap between the string and the pick that made playing very awkward and no where to rest your thumb confortably.[/quote] I'm guessing they use the same pickups on the 5 string version. it's something that bugs me too sometimes- I'm used to P and J pickups and the thumbrest position they provide. funny that Leo got it right 50 years ago- even when he intended the pickups to be covered up, and the instrument played with a pick or thumb-plucked...

"Brianberger"? yikes! I guess the problem was the visual design of the bass was so distinctive that its visual appeal could be ripped off easily using wood without the expense and time-consumption of graphite moulding. I read that Ned also designed the Spector NS body shape- which Warwick licensed. interesting that Rickenbacker manage to shut down production of nearly all Rick copies. must be a more expensive way of doing things than licensing copies.

another idea for solving the problem- put a Status graphite replacement neck on it.

dunlop pick holder by the bridge on my hohner cricket bat, and on the scratchplate of my warmoth P (used to have it by the bridge but I kept catching my right hand on it) that way I don't have to worry about songs needing a pick getting called out on the fly and taking me by surprise. meanwhile, the guitarist is always scrabbling around to find where he left his capo...

I remember a BGM interview with Nikki Sixx in which he said he loved his new warwick bass- but was going to get them to make him a Thunderbird-shaped one.

Billy says he got his first tapping influence from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top- he mentions that in the Bass secrets or On bass video- he saw BG bend a note up, then hammer on with his right hand. he got the idea for false harmonics from BG too. also there's a solo from his Talas days in which he plays Eddie Van Halen's intro to "meanstreet", so i reckon EVH was an influence on him, not the other way round.

V&R= Veblen & Rip-off?

I'd have thought that it wouldn't be that hard, as when playing simple piano lines either hand can be melodic while the other stays fixed. it'll probably take a long time to master though.

the top horn on the 5 string (putting the strap button around the 12 fret?) probably made it easier to reach the nut-end frets of the neck

[quote name='BigRedX' post='434828' date='Mar 14 2009, 07:53 PM']The closest I've heard to what JD could have produced next would be Dragons:[/quote] yeah, they sent me an add request on myspace (I guess they added everyone on Joy Division's friend list). but i guess their record label didn't have the promotional power/budget to do a blanket-bombing plugging campaign like Universal did for White Lies, hence somewhat lower chart placings...

[quote name='Clive Thorne' post='432647' date='Mar 12 2009, 05:30 PM']Something I mentioned in another thread: Fender stating that the jazz bass 24 is their first 24 fret bass, which it isn't. Both the Stu Hamm Urge models have 24 frets. The Mk1 has been around for at least 10 years, and the Mk2 is still listed on the Fender site.[/quote] also the old Fender Performer bass had 24 frets, and so did the Fender/Heartfield DR. a case of the marketing people being slick with words but patchy on the geeky details. both Bassist and Bass Guitar Magazine have been riddled with errors- eg. in BGM they had an interview with Killing Joke bassist Youth- but put a pic of the other KJ bassist Raven with it

[quote name='YouMa' post='434519' date='Mar 14 2009, 12:12 PM']I always wonder what would have happened if ian curtis had lived and gone over to the u.s.[/quote] didn't he join Interpol? ...and his kids are in Editors, The Rakes and White Lies.....

they should do a Squier JJB sig- just take the daft bat logos off the Pete Wentz sig, add a black scratchplate and a tone control- voila!

I've played it tapping the two parts , but I've got a Lou Reed live vid and Fernando Saunders plays it the sliding tenth way.

only 20 frets? how will he be able to play the high bit in "By the way"? (IIRC that goes up to the high F on the 22fret Modulus)

whatever you think of Sting, the verse of this song is an impressive bit of vocal & bass coordination- [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnnUDGLnUzE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnnUDGLnUzE[/url]

maybe he's lying, and there's actually a massive Buzzard-style headstock lurking at the end of the neck.

Rickenberger- [url="http://www.members.shaw.ca/wilkatguitars/DV_Rickberg.html"]http://www.members.shaw.ca/wilkatguitars/DV_Rickberg.html[/url]

"Magnificent seven" on Sandinista was Watt-Roy. I remember Simonon mentioning it in his interview in Bassist.