LukeFRC

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1371766584' post='2118025'] It's all about the midrange! A decent monitor is designed with the focus on delivering good, clean, evenly-dispersed midrange in the nearfield. Very few bass cabs have the same quality of components in this area. Mind you, a really decent monitor is more expensive than most bass cabs for a given volume level. [/quote] yeah, it was the mid and top end that sounded sweet. Might have to look see what it was next time I'm there. Smallish thing, the inputs on the back, one for instrument and one for line too..

Bass.... di.... desk... wedge.... maybe they have got compression and eq set on the FOH but i know that the foldback mix is all taken out pre EQ, and I doubt compression as we just turn on enough to run the fold back to practice through. This isn't us playing with a sound guy sorting us out, this is us turning up, turning on, playing for 2 min and then getting something that sounds good enough to practice with.... it's just the tone... and the fact that it's also giving me a bit of most the other musicians . I'm right there in the middle of them all, next to the drummer and.... it sounds great. Well the bass tone is good, the general sound is pretty bad cos we don't spend much time sorting it out beyond being good enough to practice with. You know it's kinda making me think I should sell my rig and buy one of those wedges and a di box!

So i've quite a nice and lightweight rig, with a good tone to boot. More than happy with it. Now I'm in a band at church, and we practice at another church's building (big inner city church, big sound system etc) we get to use their backline and stuff - first time we practiced I pulled out their old trace elliot amp out the cupboard... and it sounded like a underpowered trace elliot (not a tone I like much, though I don't hate it) but it was all a bit odd. So next time I took my P bass, and wondering how the churches' bass players played with the cab in the cupboard plugged into the the behringer DI box in front of me, and lo and behold when the PA was fired up I got a lovely P bass tone coming from the powered wedge in front of me - and it sounded great! And i could control the tone with my hand and the tone knob The next time I took my Jazz bass.... and it was brilliant - again an amazing jazz tone - spot on. The next time I took my Warwick with the ACG preamp - and again my tone sounded spot on and amazing - the thing just sounded like my bass guitar and I had so much control of the tone with the preamp. So I have a very nice and lightweight rig - why on earth does this powered wedge sound better than pretty much any bass amp I've tried?

my friends (banjo, guitar, f vox) played all the trees in the field will clap their hands by sufjan stevens

One thing I have noticed though.... people are spending less generally.... but more folk seem to be using bass gear, bass direct etc and selling on commission.... if this is happening rather than it all goung through basschat... that might be a good thing for us UK based bass players?

oh and personally I took the £20 fee as a sign that I should stop swapping basses around so much!

I have a feeling that actual sales possibly hasn't slowed down much on basschat - I think it's been slow for a while. If you looked before you had a lot of stuff going up but most of it seemed to be cycling around not selling. Now a few years ago the prices would have come down till they shifted BUT I've a feeling as people have been feeling the pinch they havn't been dropping their prices as much as they would have done when we al felt more confident about the economy. Plus as the forum gets bigger you're less likely to see the basschat-special type low prices! So before the fee my feeling is that things wern't going quickly and people weren't dropping their prices much - but what they were able to do was list stuff they weren't sure about. "Hmm do I prefer my Jazz bitsa or my JV squier? I dunno i'll stick them both up and see what sells" - which now costs money, and while a small amount it's that wee pause to think that will convince you that it's not worth listing them. So we get less stuff go on, and less stuff cycling around. I also think, with people not dropping their percieved value, most the deals of value are going to be trades at the moment - people don't have as much spare cash. Mind you what I found really really odd with when I stuck my JV squier up for sale... I pitched it at around or just below what other similar JV were being advertised at - and would have probably taken less for it.... but I didn't even get one lowballer - not one. I kinda missed that! [quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1371398743' post='2113345'] If I saw an interesting bass on Feebay, from somebody who obviously didn't know about Basschat, I would point them in this direction. I don't do that now, because of the fees on here. I probably put 15/20 new members our way last year. My Alembic is on hold to a guy from Bumtree who is coming back next Saturday with the cash. If a very good conditioned Alembic doesn't go on here for £1000 it perhaps shows hard times? I did have A LOT of offers for exchange here, but the only suitable offer was another guy from Bumtree. Perhaps most of us on here have filled our boots anyway? [/quote] why that alembic is still in your house is a massive mystery to me.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1371291412' post='2112183'] Fraid thats not me. Straight-laced, nearly 50 y/o. Unlikely to change! [/quote] fair enough. Try the "yes your bass and £2850 for my precision" trade?

stop being so polite?

my playing sounds better once you get far enough away you can't hear it.

so I was looking at that... thinking, that looks nice but I don't like something... is it the neck, what about the neck.... is it the tree of life.... no don't mind that too much ..... but the headstock... going to do anything with that?

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1371149867' post='2110616'] Might just be a case of good ones /bad ones? I've played a few not so good pre CBS guitars and basses, wood will always be unique so there will always a bad example out there. Plus, it amazes me just how many guitar shops have basses on the wall that seem awful as they need a set up or simple truss rod adjustment. So many guys in guitar shops (and bands) these days can't even adjust a neck, it's not exactly rocket science!!!! [/quote] maybe, could just have been a duff one. In my limited experience the good instruments tend to resonate and feel alive as you play them (unless they specifically are built not too) whereas cheaper instruments tend to feel more dead and plastic like - which isn't to say they can't be ok instruments - just i'ld expect more difference between a £1800 bass and a £280 one. but yeah - could have been a differ. Poorly trained staff fiddling with truss rods.... hmmm

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1371115985' post='2109913'] I keep seeing 'I bought a Stingray for £600' everywhere. If you did, and its immaculate/not modded, that's fantastic. I hope I see one! The market will be forced to change as a new Stingray 4 H is now £1600. The prices are across the board with virtually all shops. A 5 HH, with an uprgraded guard, will cost around £1800-2000 now. Add a matching headstock, and it's a little more. I was lucky to get my collection just before the prices went up, but if I wanted my Ray 5 HS with Tort guard now, its about £1800 or more. The Ray 5 is an industry standard 5 string for a reason. IMO, its a timeless design. One thing that I like about the Musicman 5 string basses is that the B is so tight and defined. It just appears very powerful, and even. This is probably because its usually a massive HB near the bridge allowing the pickup to pick up the tighter vibrations of the string. [/quote] doubt 600 would get you immaculate, but I don't mind play wear at all. actually the more the better

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1371148505' post='2110589'] lol, I know, crazy prices eh?!!!!! Seriously though, the 1960 Jazz Bass was insanely good, (best bass I ever played, period), the wood Fender used between 59 and 61 was something special for me, but 18k special? Only for the rich i think. That Jazz Bass inspired me to get my 1964 Jazz Bass, which was a refinish. I got it in 2004/5 for £2200 but sold it 2 years ago for £3500 to buy a flat. I wish I still had it, especially at that price! Thing is, I now have a 63 Custom Shop which I got second hand a few months ago for £1000. The CS and my old 64 are very different basses indeed, but they are equal in their magic and quality, just in very different ways. When you can buy a Custom Shop Fender Jazz new for £1859 (Coda) why would you pay a little less for an American Vintage? I'm not saying that the AV is a bad bass, I just don't get the price! NKR Guitars all the way for me, they have some stunning stock at times and are the last real old school rock n roll shop left that i know of. [/quote]AV = not bad, absolutely nothing special. Seemed a step down from the older AV range which i quite liked. Who buys all the nice resonant timber or are we just running out?

well it's real as in it exists. Doubt it's what he's half pretending it is.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1371047140' post='2109063'] Don't disagree, i personally wouldnt pay £2500 for a late 70's Fender, because i don't want one, and think there are better basses out there for that money, both in playability, and also from an investment perspective. But, if I'd always dreamed of owning a vintage Fender Jazz, and now found myself in a position to buy one, for whatever the reason, and had a budget of £2500, then I would want the best bang for my buck. At the present time, that would be a really nice example of a mid 70's Jazz. if they find a nice one, then its still a good buy. Are there better basses out there for that money?, maybe, but will they scratch the itch you've had to own an old Fender?, No. [/quote] talking of which did you ever score yourself an old jazz bass? [quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1371060512' post='2109361'] The original post talked about an investment and I quote 'The idea is buy it for as close to 1k as possible then sell it in 15 years for 10k ;-) In 1999 I worked in Rose Morris in Denmark Street and sold a 58 P Bass for £3200.; I sold one for £7000 10 years later in another shop. In 2000 I worked in Two-5 in Denmark Street and sold a 57 Strat for £5,000 which I though was super expensive then. In 2008 NKR guitars sold one for £25,000 when I was working there. In 2006 when I worked in Regent Sounds in Denmark Street I sold a 1960 Jazz Bass for £10,000. In 2008 the exact same bass was sold in NKR guitars for £18000. Now those are what I call investments, but those margins are most likely to never be repeated again, guitars and huge margins have had their day. Saying that 70's stuff will go up accordingly is bizarre, did 70's stuff increase that much too, answer is no. The build quality is poorer, there are way more out there and they are not as desirable to collectors, and unfortunately collectors push up prices. You can still buy one for a grand if you look hard enough, you can still find a joker selling one at £3200. The market is so false now due to people misunderstanding why the right stuff goes up in value. Everything goes up though, so has late 70's gear. Petrol goes up, cans of beans etc. I cant believe a 60'sRI Jazz Bass is over £1700 these days, wtf?!!! People price vintage gear at silly prices, not always prices to sell. They hit and hope, because people have bought into a myth that may earn a few quid more than a crappy 2.5% ISA, but won't be what the original poster requested. [/quote] I think you maybe prove that NKR guitars are good at selling, if nothing else! But I do think it's daft that the new RI basses are over £1700 new - I don't understand why anyone would buy them, I tried the new 70's jazz (74ri??) and... it was... well it wasn't very good at all.

Two thoughts.... do you not think the pickups would look a bit more stable on two rails instead on one? and... isn't it refreshing to have a "sig bass" being something some pro actually wanted and was excited about rather than just a slightly different from stock bass?

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1371075655' post='2109651'] They normally go for around £700 on eBay. My mate got his for £680. They are good functional studio basses but they look way too '80s for gigging. [/quote] really?

hmmmm nice jazz bass he doesn't have too! and lots of high end bikes all of a sudden....

as with any bass you have to balance the pickups. [quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1371052751' post='2109201'] Regarding the tonal imbalance between the P and J on a typical PJ bass , it is an inherent problem , and a pet hate of mine , but some designs deal with it far better than others . Unfortunately , the ones that deal with it best tend to be pretty expensive . Two that spring to mind are the USA - made Lakland Bob Glaub PJ and the Yamaha 2024/25 Super BB's . The Lakland uses a specially designed for that particular PJ model linear humbucker in the Jazz position that seems pretty even in relation to the P pickup , and the J - style pickup on the Yamaha is so beefy it would match any Precision pickup . [/quote] mind you I'm sure you could get a set custom made for you that would do the same without the cost of a US Lakland or Yamaha 20xx!

have you just described the East U retro? or are you wanting to build something yourself? there was a load of guy on talkbass who designed a modular pickup- think it was vairable Z preamp, active blend, bass treble and mid sweep, and probably a few other options. TB11 http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f38/tb11-preamp-project-669517/