Deep Thought

Oy, leave off the Victory! I love Victories, always had a hankering for one-one of the few basses I still have a desire to own, and the only Gibson bass I ever liked the look of. One day I'll get myself a black one, preferably a Custom.

They've been trying to sell that for ages-I remember seeing it a good year ago-surprised it hasn't flown out the door!

I had the standard export version in black. It was my dream bass for a while, but when I finally got one it just didn't do it for me the way I was expecting. Didn't knock me out either for sound or playability. The bound edges soon got on my nerves, and although I admit mine was a less-than-pristine Ebay aquisition, not a new one, it had an annoying earthing hum. I didn't take much persuading to move it on in favour of an Ibanez SR500, which was much nicer as far as I was concerned. Actually I've seen quite a few in music videos over the past 12 months, and when I was looking, everybody was terribly keen to point out that it was 'as used by Duff McKagan'. The non-export versions with scratchplates are much nicer IMHO.

Chap I know has one of their semi-acoustic guitars-gorgeous thing, very Art Deco.

Definitely not the ziricote. Either the macassar or the rosewood of your choice.

Nice bit of knotty pine :-)

Keith Chegwin turned up on my doorstep 2 years ago and gave my wife a cheque for ten grand (now all gone-very easy to spend ten grand!) Lovely bloke-as is anyone who turns up on my doorstep with a large cheque, but he really was a nice guy.

I've never liked Gibson SG's in any form-those little battle-axey horns just bug me. In fact I can't think of a symmetrical bass I've ever liked-there's the old P-bass traditionalist rearing his ugly head again! The only Gibson bass I've ever liked is the Victory-that's a bass I'd still like to own.

This has connections with a thread I was thinking of starting a while back-'bands you like with uninspiring bass players'. There are a few bands whose stuff I really like, but whose bass players are fairly straight down the line types-not bad, but nothing to get excited over. An example for me are My Chemical Romance-the first band for years that I have really gotten into, but old Mikey Way is no JJ Burnel-and yes I was one of those who took up the bass after being blown away by JJ onstage. Actually I'm struggling to think of bands that have done much for me lately to continue with this analogy-notable exceptions are The Killers as previously mentioned, and The Fratellis whose bass player isn't backward in coming forward. I don't mind some of Kasabian's stuff, but I can't even think what their bass player looks like!

My band is a 4-piece, lead vocals, drums, bass and guitar. We don't have a keyboard player and are unlikely to be able to find one. What can we do to get keyboard-type sounds into the setup? I believe it's possible to do with our setup, but haven't a clue, in my ignorance, what's required. I assume we need something where we can set up patches/samples and then one of us (probably me) triggers them at the appropriate moment. Anybody give me a clue as to what I should be looking at?

Westone Concord 1-1983-ish, my first bass and still going strong!

[quote name='The Burpster' post='123106' date='Jan 18 2008, 08:33 PM']^^^ urrm you can order it with black....[/quote] Yeah, you can, I tried to, I was told that if I order one with a black scratchplate there was no guarantee that it wouldn't still turn up with a white one-this came from the Fender rep. It was easier to buy the one in the shop with a white one and order a black scratchplate. Straight up.

I wish they'd get rid of the white scratchplates on the black/maple ones-mine came off like a shot to be replaced with a black one. The S-1 is no loss, at least not on the P.

There's the little 'F*ck!' at the beginning of Green Day's 'Good Riddance'.

Having just acquired a used Zoom H4, I currently don't have the serial number for the Cubase LE that comes with it. A quick trawl through the forum reveals a general consensus that it's not much cop anyway. What else are people using? I've got Guitar Tracks Pro which I've struggled with, and will probably have a go at Audacity. I'm not looking for millions of features, I just want to be able to get what I record onto CD with the minimum of fuss, mainly songwriting ideas that I can pass on to the drummer and guitarist for them to learn. Any other suggestions?

Is that a bass or a can opener?

Just bought a Zoom H4 from Steve, all went very smoothly, no hesitation in recommending him. Splendid fellow.

Again not New Romantic, but of that era, Stuart Morrow of New Model Army and Chris Thompson of Screaming Blue Messiahs spring to mind.

I hope this won't be regarded as heresy but I don't like that headstock-lovely looking bass, I really like that Shuker body shape but the headstock always seems rather squat and out of keeping with the sleekness of the body-in fact I can say this about a few of the boutique basses I've seen pics of-really nicely-shaped bodies with a sort of shapeless headstock which reminds me of the flat bit on the end of a squid's tentacle. If I were ordering it myself I'd be asking for a different headstock-then again I am a bit of a traditionalist! Each to his own I guess!

[quote name='dood' post='113972' date='Jan 5 2008, 11:56 AM']Excellent post a +1 here. You did a better job of explaining what I wanted to say![/quote] Aw Shucks...t'wern't nuthin'.

I have a fascination with Vintage Fenders, but in the same way as elephants, very nice to look at but you wouldn't want to own one. I tend to regard a bass as a tool, a thing to do a job with, and I wouldn't be happy gigging with a pristine vintage Fender-I haven't been able to keep my '07 P in perfect condition despite the utmost care. It's picked up three or four minor dings and a bit of scratching on the back, and I've been ridiculously anal about looking after it. It'll soon reach the stage where I don't care any more and really start knocking it about. I'd hate to do that to an old one which are almost becoming bits of history now. I prefer to have a modern one where a bit of abuse isn't such a big deal-I'd hate to have a lovely pristine vintage bass which had survived 40 years intact, only to be knocked around and damaged by my cack-handedness. A similar situation exists with vintage flying jackets, a hobby I've been involved in for ten years now-many people are reluctant to wear 60-year-old WWII jackets on a regular basis, so the reproduction industry has evolved as people look for a repro that has the flavour of the old jackets without having to damage a historic original. In terms of value I think Fender have a bit of the Harley-Davidson thing going-it either does it for you or it doesn't. If it doesn't you won't understand why people are daft enough to pay that sort of money, if it does no explanation is necessary. There are better ones out there that do the job far better for a lot less money, but they just aren't the same thing.