mcnach

Then maybe I misunderstood you. So your only problem is with someone SELLING an instrument with the wrong logo, right? It would be indeed deceitful... UNLESS stated. For many 'replicas' the logo seems to be part of the visual aspect that makes them attractive. I personally do not care one way or another, I am a bit of a reverse snob in that I take pride in showing the headstock logo when I play a 'lesser brand' and it works and sounds great. I recently had a neck made for me for my old Squier Jazz (maple and wide nut, as opposed to the original rosewood narrow nut on it) and I asked for the original logo to be replicated. It shows Squier Jazz and even the same serial number as the original neck. What's your view on that? Am I being deceitful merely by playing it? It's no longer a Squier bass after all as the neck was made by somebody else. If I chose to sell it in the future, would it be wrong of me to advertise it as a Squier even if I disclose the origin of the new neck, in your view?

Are they a deceit when advertised as a Squier with a Fender logo? We already can report ads that are deceitful, and action is taken. If a Squier is advertised as a Fender, see what happens.

I did check the links on IP you posted, is that what you referred to? If so, you're over-interpreting terribly. I have a stronger position accusing you of defamation if you call me a criminal than you have if you see me at the Tickled Trout playing a bass with a fake logo and you report me. After 5 pages... it looks to me you like cornflakes for breakfast so why would anybody else have bacon and eggs? Cornflakes is the healthier choice.

You insist on how it is *illegal* to use a logo for brand X on an item not made by brand X... but is that really the case? I very much doubt the police would show any interest whatsoever if I tell them my neighbour's guitar has a Fiddler logo when it isn't really a Fiddler. I think the crucial point is deception: passing something as something else in a commercial transaction. Which is why you see these Ford Fiesta 1.0 with twin exhaust and racing/turbo logos on them... and there are even body kits to pass a Honda Civic as some kind of sporty BMW. It's only illegal if you try to sell it as something that it is not. To tell someone that he's committing a crime while playing his Fender-logo Squier is... ridiculous, in my opinion. I sympathise with the notion of making it difficult for those who try to sell A as being B, but I don't think the ban you propose is sensible, as its target falls far from its intended objective, the way I see it. Unless you personally don't like the 'incorrect' logo on instruments and feel so strongly that you'd like to force everybody to do as you do.

oh no, I'm good, thanks I bought 3 of the Sue Ryders in its day!!! One was stripped and heavily modified, another I kept as it was (pickup change only) and the third one is the fretless one (fretted originally). In the end I just kept the fretless.

Oh yes! It doesn't see a lot of action lately, I admit... but I almost got into a Police tribute band and that would have been my bass. Dimarzio Model P and black nylon tapewounds... mighty sound!

The real reason is not that, but to ensure certain Mr. H. doesn't hassle the people in charge of the forum.

Indeed!

Good point about the amp... The OP may just not be getting *the sound* using his practice amp at home. I'd wait until you use your 424 with the band, at high volumes with a beefy amp and see how it feels. It would be nothing like you're experiencing with the practice amp. As for the 'Orange Sound' not being ska-friendly... I don't know... a local music venue provides an Orange Bass Terror and 410, and it works very very well.

It looks like you just want a new bass That's a P/J like your 424! (nothing wrong with wanting more basses, by the way... ha!)

I don't know, a 424 looks like it should be just fine... I would recommend a Precision, so a P/J like the 424 is in the right territory. If it's too bright, I'd be looking at strings... as long as you do like the bass and have no other reason to look into getting a new instrument. I play a lot of ska and reggae in the main bands I'm in, and mostly use a Stingray. It works. You can make pretty much any bass work, and if you look at what people use in the genre you'll see that the variety is large, but the Precision figures there heavily... just because it's everywhere, I suppose! I'd say try different strings. I do like roundwounds, stainless steel... but they are very bright to start with and it takes a while until I'm happy 100%. My favourite ones are DR Fat Beams. When using a passive bass, having the right electronics helps a lot. Using 250K pots as opposed to 500K gets you a slightly darker tone that to me fits better, especially on a Precision. But also the right capacitor is the difference between having a tone control that gives you 2 sounds, or multiple useful ones. The good news is caps are cheap: it's worth buying a handful (pennies) and try them until you hit the right one for your taste. My Classic 50s Precision is just right, and you go from very bright to a thumpy mid-rich, fat sound that works beautifully for ska. With 2 year old Fat Beams I love Labella White Nylons too. Not cheap, but... they feel great (low tension), smooth, and have a beautiful sound: gets you very defined bass, yet fat, and no undesirable 'zing'... That's the kind of thing I'd try. I think a P/J bass is a great bass for ska. edit: after reading more and seeing what you're playing through... I'd say stick to what you have, don't change a thing, and wait until you play at band volume with the band, with a larger amplifier, and see how the 424 behaves. Chances are that all you need to do is roll off the tone control a tiny bit.

I still have a Sue Ryder one, fretless It survived several other fretless basses. And they said we'd burn them within a year! (well, JTUK did ;)) Merry Christmas, Tom! (and everybody else!)

Yup, just Phaser and away you go. I get very very close with an EHX Small Stone, the Phase 90 on the Zoom would be ideal.

I agree with the issue about the pictures. Using somebody else's pictures without permission is not cool. But it's a pretty minor offence if it represents the very same item. Once I found a guy using the pictures of my bass to sell a similar one... a similar one that turned out to have a completely different control layout (his had 3 knobs, passive, mine 5, active...) so I contacted him and gently told him off. Turns out he wasn't a crook, just a lazy seller... and he posted his own bass' pictures straight away. But the price... look, the 'reasonable price' was there for one person only. You missed out. What does it matter if the new owner sells it on, plays it, puts it on display untouched, or burns it when he's cold? If you were the one grabbing the bass at lower than you'd expect to fetch, would you contact the seller with "here's £100 because I think your bass is worth more than it fetched at auction"? Didn't think so.

It doesn't set a precedent: an instrument sells for whatever other person things it's worth. If the price is truly ridiculous, then chances are it won't sell: it would be the seller's problem and nobody else's. Asking price is one thing, whether it ever sells at that price is another matter. Frankly, I don't understand why you'd have to contact the original seller or the new seller with a £350 offer, adding "that's what you bought it for". To me, THAT is pretty bad taste. It sounds like you missed on a good deal. I sympathise... I know how it stings, and it does sting more when the buyer just wanted to make a profit out of it... but ultimately nobody did anything wrong and it's not your business to call anybody a 'crook', in fact it's just wrong.

The better bass is the one that you like the feel/sound of best. Both are probably decent instruments at least, so it comes to personal preference in the end.

I don't see a reason to use or avoid that works for everybody. I generally avoid, because I prefer the sound of their fretted equivalent, especially the higher in pitch you go, as the fretted counterpart sounds fatter. I also prefer the feel of fretted notes... However, sometimes open strings are just either very convenient or they sound just right. In other words: whatever works best in each situation.

That sounds great!

apart from the 'sander relic', I like it! I like the double J pickups at the bridge especially. It looks like a big burly biker of a bass

Youtube only gives you a very very very rough idea of the sound a bass can make. It's unfortunate, as sometimes you just can't get to hear a given instrument in person... There are lots of terrible reviews on youtube.

While that's true to some extent, Cort makes instruments at all quality levels: they're able to make fantastic instruments, or very basic entry ones, essentially they build to order whatever a company asks for and with a budget in mind. Just because two basses look similar and were both made by Cort it doesn't mean they're similar. Having said that, Cort doesn't really make bad instruments, just like Yamaha. They're pretty safe. Although Cort's choice of electronics can be a big let down on the lower range of instruments.

The Affinity can be ok, but I find the electronics lacking in general, while every VM series I've played was a bass that I'd be happy to play *as is*. I'd go with the VM, especially if you buy online as you stand a better chance to get a decent instrument, in my opinion. Don't dismiss the amp as just a box to make the bass loud: a meh amp will make your bass terribly uninspiring. The good news is that you don't need to spend much to get a small amp that sounds good... but I'd definitely go around trying amps until I find one that I really like.

Judging amps/cabs at rehearsal studios may not give you an accurate idea of what they're like. At least where I am, most amps are pretty much battered to within an inch of their death and they rarely sound great. I got my "ugh Trace Elliot" face from those experiences, but then I tried Trace Elliot rigs owned by people who looked after their gear and I've liked a lot of them...

I was a bit of an OLP MM2 fanboi not that long ago... I bought one as I wanted something looking like a Stingray but wasn't prepared to pay for a MusicMan (I thought these basses were hideous :lol:) and loved it. Ended up putting a Seymour Dundan pickup on it and a 3-band preamp and it became my main bass for a while. At one point I think I owned up to 5 of the things! I made one fretless... Some of those OLPs were dogs, but most were at least decent and a proportion of them were very very nice. I regret selling my black/maple one. The seller wanted £120 and I was ready to pay him when he said "well, the strings are pretty old and action high so just give me £100"... who was I to argue? 30 minutes later I was at home, put a new set of strings, tweaked the truss rod and saddles a bit... and it was a beast.

Indeed... it got me very confused on my first one, someone less cautious than me might have created some damage!