pineweasel

Sandberg California TM4 Superlight, under 7lbs, great playability and sounds.

I’ve dipped into the Dead over the years. American Beauty and Workingmen’s Dead are the only great studio albums; most of the rest are a mixed bag. Overall I prefer the live stuff. The Cornell 77 concert is considered their best live show by many https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_5/8/77 One of my favourites is this 1990 concert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Up_to_Find_Out with Branford Marsalis sitting in. I also like this compilation of their songs by a bunch of more contemporary artists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead_(2016_album)

I play gigs with two bands and have always had one favourite bass that I use for everything. That favourite has changed every few years; a couple of Jazzes, a Precision and now a Sandberg. I enjoy the familiarity of playing one good instrument which I know really well, and the simplicity of just grabbing it for practising, rehearsals or gigs. I have a few others, such as a fretless, an 8-string and a cheap spare Jazz, but they just get played at home occasionally.

PM'd

This is still available

One of the hot topics when I looked in yesterday was “I put roundwounds back on my P and I’d forgotten how great they are”. Meltdown assured?

I like their website. It has decent info on the main model ranges, and the configurator does a great job of showing most of the options without being over complicated. They could make it clearer that extra choices are available, but I bet they find a lot of interest is coming from Facebook and Instagram these days, so the perhaps the website takes a back seat.

XTC’s psychedelic incarnation, the Dukes of Stratosphear

Sire should have something suitable, I would think?

I think Hiscox basically do just this one: https://www.hiscoxcases.com/collections/bass/products/precision-jazz-standard-bass-hard-guitar-case I have one for my Wal. It has various shaped pads that velcro in to hold the instrument in place, no matter what its shape is. Very nice, high quality case.

That’s a good looking bass. Can I ask where you got the replacement knobs?

Shaun Ward of Floy Joy?

If you have a smart phone there are quite a few decent drum machine apps to try, either free or pretty cheap, on iOS or Android. I use DM1 on my iPhone.

Also check out Firehose, the band formed by Watt and Hurley after D Boon’s death

I'd not heard of this. Very impressive. Looking forward to having a go later.

Some of the Sandberg models have 24 frets, and they have adjustable spacing from 18 to 19.5mm

Interesting comparison video featuring the Double 4 and 801

I’m on Warts n’ Audience, Ian Dury and the Blockheads live at the Brixton Academy, 1991. I enjoyed the show but despite picking up the LP in a sale I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it!

My iTunes stats cover the last decade or so. The top three are Bill Frisell - East West, Grateful Dead - Wake Up to Find Out and Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum. But back in the old days it would have been Seconds Out, Livestock - Brand X and Night After Night - UK

Heh, first band I ever walked out on, Imperial College, 1982.

Yes, I have a couple like that, but the ones that can also be operated passively have a passive tone control of some sort

This doc explains the controls, on page 5. https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10001/014361_Deluxe Jazz Bass V Active Service Manual.pdf It seems that none of the tone controls will work unless you put batteries in, although I find that a little surprising. The active basses I’ve owned have always had some sort of passive tone control.

Often these are guitar songs (Sweet Child O Mine, The Boys are Back In Town, etc) where the original band detuned a semitone. In these cases my band just plays them in regular tuning, as long as the singer is happy with it.

I've been playing covers for years using a Precision fitted with a drop tuner, and I've been really happy with it. The Hipshot drop tuner is a marvellous thing, and I've never found it too confusing to use, as I would employ it only for specific songs that I'd learnt in drop D. The only issue is forgetting to reset the E string for the next song! For Uptown Funk I used an Aguilar Octamiser, which can produce a fat, organic sub-octave. I have other octave pedals but that was the best one for that job, and it was OK playing it like that. However... with lockdown scuppering all foreseeable gigs, I took the opportunity to buy a decent 5-string and I have to say that I really like it for playing the typical covers repertoire. No need to mess about with tuning or pedals, and the ability to play some songs more efficiently thanks to the extra fingering choices is useful. I've learnt quite a few new songs on the 5 now and plan to use it when I start gigging again. It helps that my 5 is a high quality instrument which is a pleasure to play. The caveat to this is that I have yet to do any serious rehearsal or any gigs with the 5. It might all go wrong, and I'll go back to the trusty Precision. Hopefully I'll find out later in the year.

Seems to be a lot more activity on the Shergold Facebook group these days