Scoop

I can understand people having a preference for the necks on Ps or Js, I suppose, but it simply doesn't apply to me. My attitude is simply this: It's a bass neck, get on with it. I prefer the sound of a Precision in most circumstances but don't dislike the sound of Jazz basses. I have both (two precision types and one jazz type) but only one is a Fender and that's a '51P re-issue - so isn't what you would recognise as a common or garden P-type anyway (and which actually sounds the best of the three of them).

I have some really lovely basses which I paid an arm and a leg for and I have an ACG, built to my specs, on order as we speak. Between 2002 and 2004 however, despite having a fab array of basses available to me, I gigged a Peavey Dynabass (in red, lovely it was) over 120 times simply because I loved the way it played and sounded. This set me back £159 brand spanking new... or about a 20th of the list price of my Roscoe. Eventually, however, this utterly wonderful little creation began to flag under the pressure and bits began to fall off, and pots began to crackle, and it stopped sounding so lovely and it stopped being so easy to live with. And there's the thing. It didn't matter with that bass that it got maimed. It does with my others. Now, I gig ALL of my basses on a "what's at the top of the pile, today" sort of rotation - I frankly don't care if this bass sounds different to that one at a gig - variety is the spice of life and woe betide any band member who might suggest that my Rickenbacker or my Status isn't suitable for a particular song. Express a preference, yes. Diss a bass, no. Anyone who plays an Ibanez Jem DARE not talk to me about basses not sounding right, not if they don't want a Wizard II where the sun don't shine. I've got nice basses and I know that gigging will, eventually, maim them. That's why I rotate them, it shares out the hurt so none of them takes a complete pasting. As a consequence, I have a local reputation as a gear snob because I have many and , supposedly, "flash them around". Bollox to that. I want well made basses so that gigging doesn't hurt them too much, I want a good number of them so that I can rotate them, and finally and quite frankly I love them in the way that some people love paintings or porcelain or VW camper vans. I can spend hours just gazing lovingly at my basses and, often imho, the most aesthetially pleasing to my eyes tend to be the ones with the expensive wood grain tops. Snob? I don't think so. Do I care if I have the label attached to me? Not in the bloody slightest.

That's starting to look a bit special. Nice one.

Alan's been busy - this is where we are up to at the moment... Ain't she looking swell?

Hello mate, welcome aboard.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='171387' date='Apr 7 2008, 01:22 PM']are you looking for work around liverpool? [/quote] me? no. I'm looking for someone with a developed sense of humour around London.

You'll be getting a really well made [US made] bass for not a lot of money and they sound like thunder recorded with an AKG valve mic through a 2k Bose rig. They have a HUGE sound. They also weight approximately the same as a small planet. I've owned two of these in years long distant and have cursed the forebears of every banker who put me in the dire financial straits that forced the sales. Great basses. Lovely things, but get a wide and well padded strap - oh, and work on your muscles.

[quote name='budget bassist' post='170983' date='Apr 6 2008, 09:21 PM']Yeah same as the above post. Dunlops all the way, i've never used schallers but i had a look at my mate's once and they didn't look that safe to me. Try [url="http://www.axesrus.com/"]http://www.axesrus.com/[/url], that's where i got mine from, not much more than a tenner if at all, they're £8.90 on there with free shipping. When i bought mine the day i got them one broke so i complained and they said don't even bother sending the broken unit in and sent me out a replacement right away. Great service. Other than that though they're pretty solid.[/quote] I suppose it depends upon how dilligent you are. My preference is for Schallers but I check that the nut is tight before every gig or practice session. They're a far better design than the dunlops in just about every respect. Yes the nuts may loosen over time but so long as you're not the sort of bassist who's too lazy to check your gear, then schaller every time, no question. I've got experience of the dunlops with Warwicks (two of them, one of which I still own) and Schalers with every other bass I have (seven of them) and I chose to put the schallers on all them. Dunlops are good but if they fail you're screwed, seriously screwed. With the schaller design if the lock fails then at least the strap button is sitting in a support cup and won't allow your bass to simply plummet to the deck.

[quote name='ahpook' post='171093' date='Apr 7 2008, 12:09 AM']well, i can't really complain...i've been using elites on my basses years. but i think i got a dud set...restrung about a week ago, played one gig and practised twice, and the e-string sounds like a washing line. ugh. the other three strings are fine...still zingy. thing is - i hate brand new strings and we're playing on wednesday... so..restring, or put up with it ?[/quote] I think you have to restring, at least the E. Do it sooner rather than later and play the bejaysus out of it in the meantime to lose a bit of that (and I agree with you here) horrible twangyness.

Alternatively, take out a smaller loan for a deposit, and ask ACG or Shuker to build you something to your specs and you can save for the balance in the six to eight months it takes to build it. Keep your specs relatively simple in terms of the tonewoods you want and you can have a custom build for anything between 900 pretty basic and 1400 quid with whistles. I have ACG building me a bass right now and the quote price astonished me when it came in. Custom builds ARE within your price bracket it you have a grand to spend. You owe it to yourelf to at least consider it.

In a fair competition I'd go for the Spector every time, but this isn't a fair competition - The Spector has a Schack pre-amp. And this means I'd go Sandberg. Schack make great basses - their woodworking skills are fabulous - but, sadly, their preamps are woefully awful. They break down regularly, in my experience anyway, as I've had two and I thought the problem with the first one was a one off - it wasn't. I'd have another Schack bass in an instant - fine instrument - but I'd get their preamp out toot sweet for an aggy or similar. If the spector you want has a schack pre then choose the sandberg. No question, Sandberg make brilliant basses too, not quite US spectors in my view, but great basses never the less. And they don't come with schack electrics...

[quote name='lwtait' post='169938' date='Apr 4 2008, 06:08 PM']thats the most true post yet on this thread. are these two parts refering to me? i have no problem with other people playing six strings. i never once said that i dont understand why other people feel they need them, i just i dont feel the need for them myself. and although i said jaco played with four, that was simply to support the fact that i only feel i need four strings. i never said you shouldn't be allowed more.[/quote] Not specifically referring to you - I had to use inverted commas so that people didn't mistake the comments for my own opinion. The "quotes" were not direct quotes but, rather, a summation of the sentiments I have encountered here (and elsewhere for that matter). As I was not specifically referring to you I'm not trying to assert that wouldn't allow them - perhaps I would have been better using the expression "that's all you should need" as most certainly that is the mindset of many 4 string bassists I've encountered with my 5 and my 12 and I have assumed is the mindset of many here. I'm not attempting to put words in your mouth and I apologise if that's how you read it.

Well that's ten minutes of my life, ten minutes that I'll never get back, wasted reading (with one or two notable exceptions) the haves and the have nots re-entrenching their positions. I don't own a six string bass. I do own a five. I also own a twelve. Do I want a six string? No, I don't fancy one. Does it "offend me" in some puerile way that some bassists use them and love them? No it does not. Do I play a "real instrument" when I play one of my numerous fours? You better believe it coz if you don't believe that then its tantamount to telling me I'm not a musician. I picked up my first bass over three decades ago and I would have issue with you on that. Indeed I would. Do I agree with Jake that a high C would sound sh*t? - Yes; In my hands, almost certainly it would, but that is not to say that others may not make much better use of it. And Jake and I have both played with a guitarist named Carlo Bowry, God bless him, and I really, really wouldn't play in a register that he considered his territory. I'd just make it sound, well, sh*t, because Carlo is very much not sh*t. It seems to me that what we have in the six string camp, not exclusively but by and large, is on the one hand a genuine snobbery "mine's a real instrument like a grand piano" (sorry if that offends you mate, but that's how I see it) and on the other hand a sort of bitter defensiveness. Why? You play a valid instrument same as four and five string players do. In the four string camp we have ignorance "I just don't understand why you feel you need them" and a sort of non-aggressive Ludditism "Leo made them with four, Jaco played them with four, that's all you should be allowed". Get over yourselves, you might just as well be arguing about why you feel the need to eat oranges when "apples are all I've ever needed" or "Now I'm eating oranges, I feel like I've got a proper fruit". FFS... Bassists. That's all. Bassists. Good enough for me... no matter how many bleedin' strings you have.

You could try speaking to some local bikers or a bike repairshop. They often use custom-made vinyl self-adhesive lettering for helmet customisation and for replacing bike lettering after a re-spray or accident repair. The results are fabulous, cheap, and every bike repairshop in the country will know how where the local specialist is.

The three classic Leo designs. Nice collection...

[quote name='jwbassman' post='166583' date='Mar 30 2008, 09:56 PM']Hey Scoop Nice collection you have going there - and soon to be enhanced with an ACG I've seen the Roscoe in the flesh and it's superb [/quote] There's three more that I didn't bother photographing today [Fender, Status, Dean 12] as the heavens opened briefly but heavily and by then my David Bailey aspirations had vanished. I can't wait to get my hands on that ACG!

I got a few basses out today for a fettle and a restring and a fret polish and, as the weather was nice (for about three minutes) I decided to get a few pics of them. And, yes, I know the back wall needs pointing... Here's the Roscoe SKB3005. Exhibition maple on swamp ash and the fingerboard is African tulipwood (with a sapwood streak). The depth of the figuring in this maple is astonishing. [attachment=7105:IMG_0101.JPG] [attachment=7106:IMG_0102.JPG] [attachment=7107:IMG_0103.JPG] Here's my Rickenbacker 4003 Blue Boy. Blue Boy was a limited edition colour during, erm, 2002, I think. See? I'm an expert on my gear... [attachment=7096:IMG_0104_edited.JPG] [attachment=7097:IMG_0105_edited.JPG] Right, just one pic each of the next three coz I'm losing the will to live. This is my Lakland Skyline Bob Glaub which went through the "shop" at Chicago before it went to a US-based endorsee as a backup to his US Glaub. He pretty much never used it so when it arrived with me it was 10/10 immaculate. [attachment=7101:IMG_0108_edited.JPG] This is a Ken Smith Design Jazz with an EBS pre-amp modded for me by Bernie Goodfellow [attachment=7102:IMG_0110_edited.JPG] And this is my 96 warwick Fortress One. It's fugly as sin but it sounds and plays great. [attachment=7103:IMG_0114_edited.JPG]

[quote name='jakesbass' post='165856' date='Mar 29 2008, 02:05 PM']I know Carl from old and toured Europe with the Muffs in the early nineties. Say hello to Carl for me. Jake Newman[/quote] I'd be glad to pass on your best. Carlo's had a bad week this week (I'll PM you on that) and I imagine that might cheer him up a bit. So who else do you know from the Muffs? Roddie, obviously... but Rhino? Jumpy? Bammo? Steve Belger? Andy Frizzel? Martin "Tina"? My God, there's been so many of them... Tilo Pirnbaum? Did you get to play with either Ike Willis or Jimmy carl Black? I've gotten to know JCB reasonably well through Carlo and Frizz and he's just a brilliant bloke.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='165813' date='Mar 29 2008, 12:16 PM']It wasn't the Muffin Men by any chance was it?[/quote] Nope. I play with Carlo Bowry the guitarist from the Muffs (now ex-guitarist I suppose) on a quite regular basis. Well over 200 gigs with him in the last decade, I guess. There was another ex-Muffins chap involved last night but it wasn't the Muffins [i]per se[/i]. The band are called Trout Mask Replicants.

Went to my local tonight to see pals of mine in a zappa - beefheart type band. Great band and I've kind of envied the bassist in this lot for a while coz it's a great gig. He's a mate and I know him well but I'd still kill him, happily, for this gig. Anyway, the poor sod has a barium meal test tomorow and took laxatives before the gig to clear his system out - not expecting the effect to be almost immediate. He got a third of the way through the first set and unplugged, lobbed his bass at me (a frankenfender precision), and sprinted bogwards clutching his buttocks. After I'd finished laughing I got up and made a complete arse of myself attempting to improvise material I thought I knew but obviously didn't. Still enjoyed the bits I got right, mind you. I dep quite a bit and I like to think that I have reputation as someone who will give their all at a moments notice - but this is the first time I've ever answered the "is there a bassist in the house?" type of call. It was a bit stressful to be honest and I didn't exactly rise to the challenge as I hoped I might - but when all is said and done I still had a blast. So unexpected, so challenging, so sphincter quivering - and such good fun.