Ben Jamin

Thanks for the encouragement folks and sorry for the slow response!

It's arrived and it's glorious! I haven't played a Jack Casady model before, the impedance switch is really neat! Plenty of sonic variety between that and the volume/tone/playing style.

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Hardware feels solid and the pickup sounds really punchy. Plenty of thump and warmth, with great resonance, but very articulate still. The satin finish looks great and it has a lovely vintage vibe.

The neck feels really nice and I think I'm slowly getting used to the lack of frets! It sounds just like I'd hoped a fretless would, and neat touch that it ships with Chromes. Thanks loads for all of the tips, the muscle memory's there, just need to keep playing to get confident.

Here's a short vid giving a spin after unboxing it at the office, using some open notes to get around! Please excuse the very timid left-hand technique 😂

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIwu7DRqQif/

I'll get some proper photos up shortly!

Cheers!

4 hours ago, Sambrook said:

I would second the above thoughts about not being scared of the 'bare' fingerboard. Your fingers already know the correct spacing, even if your eyes disagree...

Thanks! Just hope the ears don't disagree 😅

10 hours ago, Linus27 said:

 

You're welcome and you might actually surprise yourself at how not so daunting it is. My first introduction to fretless was in 1998. I had just signed and we were recording our debut album. The album cost £120k which at the time was more than my sister's brand new 4 bedroom house in Preston and was producer was Mark Wallis who did the Travis, It Bites, Primitive's albums and engineered U2's Joshua Tree so quite serious stuff 😂 The studio was owned by the singer/bassist of the prog tock group Asia and the keyboardist of the 80's pop group, Buggles. We turned up at the studio on day 1 and in the live room on the wall was about 20 basses including a beautiful Washburn AB20 fretless. I thought, let's give this a go and I ended up recording the hardest bass line on the album on it. The intonation was a bit off so I put a few bits of a post it note in places to know where to fret accurately but it was fine.

 

So just go in with an open mind and play the bass lines like it's a fretted and you'll be fine.

 

This is the track in question.

 

 

Wow that's much higher stakes than our home studio! Really nice bass line, can see why the fretless was the only one for that song. Going to have to pick up a chorus pedal now (and maybe some post-its)!

1 minute ago, Linus27 said:

 

Just approach it just like a fretted bass, so don't try and make it sound like a fretless and do lots of slides and trying to get that mwah sound. It is no different to play than a fretted bass, you just have to be more disciplined with your technique and train your ears. Good ears and strong technique are the two key things you need to play a fretless well. Don't be scared of it either or think of it as different, just play what you'd play on a fretted and you'll be amazed at how normal sounding it can be. Over time, you'll then start to bring out the nuances of the fretless as you become more competent. The Jack Cassidy is also an unlined fretless so you either play ON the dots or in the gaps, it's that easy. Oh and buy an octave and chorus pedal, you'll thank me later I promise 😂

Thanks that's a very helpful mindset to go in with! It's pretty daunting as my band's in the process of recording right now, but I have no idea how soon I'll be able to play with reliable intonation!

Also thanks for the excuse to check the Effects For Sale section 😂

55 minutes ago, Ramirez said:

Yes. Melodyne is very good. I haven’t tried AutoTune yet 🫣

 

Getting used to it- I had a Harley Benton short scale fretless that sounded wonderful, but seeing as I’m trying to play upright bass as well, the jump in scale lengths was one step too far and the more I played one if them, the more out of tune I seemed to get on the other!

Everything seems to fall into place easier for me on the standard scale fretless. That said, playing along to other tracks still show that there’s work to be done!

 

One thing I find helps quite is to ensure that you’re playing your FRETTED bass on top of/just behind the fret - ie. at essentially the correct position for a fretless. Muscle memory becomes much easier then, as you don’t have to change your technique as much when switching basses.

Melodyne is a great and likely necessary shout 😅

Juggling all those scale lengths sounds like a feat! I'm not brave enough for upright yet, luckily everything I have is standard scale.

Thanks for the fretting tip! Muscle memory is a beautiful thing, guessing it'll take a good bunch of playing to get cosy with it!

Got the last one from Andertons arriving on Tuesday 🥳

A wee bit nervous as it's my first fretless! Any tips??

Don't suppose this is still available?? I have a pal who would love this, I could collect in a couple weeks time??

I don't know about aggressive but I've always felt that the MFDs accentuate some nice punchy mids that always seem to fit well in a wall-of-sound kind of mix. Probably the pick-up placement as much as anything too, quite close together in the sweet spot of a Precision/Stingray. Would be interesting to compare it to a 55-02!

I got mine from here! They do pop up occasionally. I think Andertons used to stock more but it seems they just have the Tribute SB-2 in now. Heard good things about the Tribute series though, I think the hardware and electronics are the same as their USA series?

Not sure if you can order from G&L? The CLF Research stuff looks great too.

+1 for the G&L

Got to A/B my L2500 with a Lakland JO5 recently. They're both great. JO5 is super smooth, the G&L just has a gnarly mid-range that I love. I've had mine for about 13 years.

The pre-amp and controls on the L2500 are super flexible if you take the time to get familiar. You can get some nice warm tones in passive/parallel mode and a bunch of power in series/active. And aside from the active switch (just an impedance boost and treble boost), the whole thing is passive, not dependent on batteries.

Grateful to have tried many weird and wonderful basses - owned a precision, a jazz and settled for a lovely USA G&L L2500 (going strong for 12 years)* - but have never held a Stingray!

How much am I missing out??

*although secretly the bass I play most is a Sue Ryder P with flats 🙌

I've used a TH350 with a Barefaced Compact for about 8 years (it's hard to imagine needing anything louder before you'd be plumbing into a PA system anyway)

It's been bounced around in the front pocket of my gig bag and never missed a beat. They're very well built.

6 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

I think Sue Ryder basses were just a one off block purchase, when they're gone they're gone, I would think by now every owner has removed the decal 😁, they were bought because they were a perceived bargain, but it's only a bargain if you really need it, would be interesting to see if anybody still uses one though,

Mine's still getting gigged with it's original decal proudly on show. 😎

Punters don't care, musos love it!

TC Electronic RH450?

I seem to remember these being incredibly popular - and then suddenly not so much. Was there a whole scandal over wattage?

I've owned this from new since 2012/13 and it's bomb-proof. It's big enough for a moderately sized pedal collection with cables etc - and It comes with a handy board for velcroing pedals onto.

Happy to offer to you for £50 plus postage, or I can drive a short way for a safe delivery/hand-off. These are £110 new from Flightcase Warehouse

Because it's quite heavy it'd probably be best to collect or arrange a hand-off etc.

Stickers are removable!

The EHX Attack Decay is probably your best bet for a pedal solution

See demo from about 2:40

https://youtu.be/fUmS4FLXMMQ

Dropped to £60

Dropped to £50

12 hours ago, Shroombass said:

Damn! Trade for a Source audio Spectrum?  

Sorry, it's just been sold!

3 hours ago, jebroad said:

Any idea what firmware it's on?

I'm not sure exactly what version - I bought it new in May 2014 and haven't updated the firmware since!

As far as I can see the two main updates are 2.5 (2018) and 4.14 (2019), both of which this won't be on.

Happy to update the firmware though if that helps?

1 hour ago, Shroombass said:

Are you interested in any trades at all? 

No sorry, I'm looking to clear out gear and raise some funds for other non-musical things! I can be flexible on the price though

21 hours ago, stewblack said:

I got 20 minutes into the video before my head started to spin!

Purchases are sale dependent at present or I'd be on this like a tramp on chips. 

I know it's a bit forward but:

13 hours ago, stewblack said:

"the only filter/wah you'll EVER NEED"

As a wah and filter addicted fool these words are worryingly exciting to me. 

The level of control is pretty incredible! The software is pretty easy to get your head around if you're familiar with filters

The only reason I'm selling is that I haven't gigged in a few years so I'm clearing out a bunch of gear down to just my bass and a pre-amp.

As part of a gear clear-out I'm looking to sell my Flightcase Warehouse Spider Medium Pedalboard Case!

I've owned this from new since 2012/13 and it's bomb-proof. It's big enough for a moderately sized pedal collection and It comes with a handy board for velcroing pedals too.

Happy to offer to you for £60 £50 plus postage, or I can drive a short way for a safe delivery/hand-off.

Because it's quite heavy it'd probably be best to collect or arrange a hand-off etc.

Stickers are removable!

Thanks for looking 

As part of a gear clear-out I'm looking to sell my Novation Bass Station II!

This is a fully-featured analogue monosynth with a two oscillators and a sub oscillator, a great choice of filters and a nice arpeggiator, amongst other things 

I'm the original owner and it's been stored in it's blue Novation soft case for several years, with only the occasional use!

I also have the original power supply and instruction manual!

Happy to offer to you for £250 plus postage, or I can drive a short way for a safe delivery/hand-off.

Thanks for looking