funkypenguin

You've certainly an eye for picking lovely pieces of wood!! Your shuker was my favourite bass that Jon's produced, till the 5 string uberhorn thats on his homepage came along Looking forward to seeing this develop!

[quote name='paul h' post='1350660' date='Aug 24 2011, 07:54 PM']I saw Hiromi with Steve Smith and Anthony Jackson at Ronnie Scott's a while back. Great gig. Steve Smith was simply incredible.[/quote] How was AJs playing? Im jealous, i couldnt afford to get down to London to catch this gig i WILL catch her next time she comes to the UK

I'll be looking at between 2 and 3k when i eventually comission Jon Shuker to build me something...i wouldnt mind spending more for the right bass though

For the Hiromi/Tony Grey/Fusion fans out there. A whole concert from (I think!) the Time Control Tour! Hiromi and Tony IMO, play exceptionally well on it on this gig

That has to be the nicest roscoe ive ever seen!! gorgeous woods!! hope she plays as well as she looks

Depends what music you're listening to. Modern pop merits a particular sound, and the producers are there to make records that will sell and be radio friendly, not to be creative or ground breaking with the bass sounds

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1348783' date='Aug 23 2011, 10:42 AM']I think a look through the Build Dairy Forum followed by the For Sale Forum will show that this happens quite often. If you pick your luthier carefully and spend time considering what you really want out of a bass then at the end of the process you should come away with a bass that right for you at that time. What happens though is that people change over time and what you want out of an instrument now might not be what you want in a few years time if your musical tastes change. It may also depend on your financial situation. I'm lucky in that I don't have to sell one bass before I can buy another otherwise, my Sei fretless which is a fantastic bass would have been moved on by now as it doesn't really have a place in any of my current musical endeavours. However that's not to say that next year it won't be exactly the right bass to be using again. For instance my Overwater which hadn't been getting a lot of use since 2000, is now my main bass for my covers band.[/quote] +1 Picking the right luthier and you both being on the same page requirements wise is crucial. Knowing your sonic requirements and playing style is critical, especially if you're going to go with something out of the ordinary. The amount of choice regarding woods, electronics and pickups is vast, so going into the build with firm ideas/requirements is essetial. Oh.....and based on the experience of someone i know at uni....being willing to listen to the luthier if he advises against something/recommends something different is usually a good idea

+1 to seeing a teacher. I saw Scott Devine and its completely re-invigorated my playing. On the composition front, if all your grooves/riffs are turning out to be in minor pentatonic, force yourself not to use Minor pentatonic, maybe use modal or diminished flavours?

My band has a similar setup (minus the bass bins) and we can get the drum kit, backline and PA set up, cables run and soundchecked in an hour....your guys need to up their game, especially if your client is being kept waiting to cut the cake...

Ok, I would recommend heavy gauge roundwounds, either D'Addario Prosteels or Warwick black labels. Go for a 100 or 105 E set

Beautiful playing Mike im not usually much of a fretless fan but that sounds lovely

what sort of band/music do you play? what sound are you going for? whats your playing style like? answer these and we can start recommending brands/gauges/winds(round/flat)

my bands are either 3 or 5 3 - Kit/Percussion, Guitar/keys, Bass. vocals covered by these 5 - Kit/percussion, keys, guitar, bass, vocals or 5 - Kit/Percussion, keys, vocals/guitar, trumpet, sax

I use a 6 string on pretty much every gig i play, from pubs to theatres. I get the occassional idiotic comment about the number of strings but by and large people are cool with it im really lucky in that all my bandmembers are open minded and like what i do playing wise

I usually get asked the old favourite "I thought basses only had 4 strings" rather than anything to do with my playing... My gear is relatively expensive but i use it every gig i play

[quote name='BigAlonBass' post='1277181' date='Jun 21 2011, 03:30 PM']Everyone seems to want to 'pigeonhole' everyone else these days, so here's my two penn'orth. I don't get out too often, so when I go to see a Band or other Musical entertainment, I want to enjoy myself. The above picture gives me three separate reasons to walk out of the Gig before the Band even strikes a note. 1) He's [i]staring[/i] at the neck. This, to me, equates to self-indulgence, and to heck with the audience. 2) He's playing a single-cut Bass. Nobody has [i]ever[/i] played any music that appeals to me, whilst wielding an SC. 3) He's hitching a lift. As soon as I see the 'slapper's thumb' come out - I'm long gone. Naturally, this is only my opinion, but I find most SC players tend towards the 'highbrow' end of the Musical Spectrum, and that kind of stuff just doesn't appeal to me. I'm not alone in this though, having heard comments on the lines of "Single-Cut Bass? That f*cker's really up himself!" and on one occasion "He came to the audition, pulled a Single-Cut Bass out of it's case, and we told him to p*ss off before he even plugged in!". Pigeonholed maybe, but I can't see anyone in a Punk or Rock Band wanting to use an SC, so the 'divide' becomes really evident. Perhaps there's a hint of "I'm better than you, because I use one of these" in there somewhere? (Quick aside to cytania's comment -"Accept you're playing Bass" Most people who buy these seem not to want to accept this. They get them to 'widdle' on.) Once again-My opinion and conception of the usual owners of these clumsy-looking things. [/quote] You're missing out on one of the true greats of the instrument then...and thats pretty daft really, to turn someone away based on what bass theyre slinging before theyve played a note.....

[quote name='urb' post='1262488' date='Jun 9 2011, 11:47 AM']I've played Dave Swift's recently acquired one - see pics link below - and it is very nice - but it's an absolute beast, I honestly don't know how AJ gets around the neck without major muscle strain - and since he's such a monster on the low B - no one plays a low B like AJ, he's the king of the low end, end of IMO - but the 36" scale is crazy huge, he must be wiped by the end of a gig... I'm more of a wussy Matt Garrison 33" scale man myself [url="http://www.daveswiftbass.com/pages/basses/Fodera-Anthony-Jackson.html"]http://www.daveswiftbass.com/pages/basses/...ny-Jackson.html[/url] M[/quote] 36" does sounds huge indeed! how does Dave Swift get on with it? i know his dingwall is his main bass, does the fodera come out to play much? anyway, my personal favourite AJ track with Michel Camilo is From Within. Started playing this in my trio recently

Horses for courses as always........im really looking forward to what they've produced with Mike Mangini as their drummer, so long as he's been 'Mangini' and not 'Portnoy'....

I play trumpet too so im fluent in bass and treble clef. It really helps if you're reading leadsheets since most are in treble clef (already been said i think) and i use it for transcribing anything in the upper register, such as solos, chordal passages etc. (John Patitucci does the same thing), mainly because with the number of ledger lines at the very top end, the manuscript can get really congested and hard to read

If you're thinking of ordering custom, Shuker if one of the very best ive seen, up there with Sei, Alembic and Fodera, i'll be comissioning him to build me something at some point in the next year or two. I wouldnt be taking resale value into consideration though, as a general rule their resale value will be terrible in comparison to mainstream instruments. Custom instruments should be for a lifetime IMHO. If you're going down this route, check out some of shukers basses for yourself, then make a decision. He usually has some in various stages of construction at his workshop so maybe arrange a visit?

For a bass to be great for me, its all about playability, sound, versatility, projection, materials and cosmetic details. My main bass is worth around £1300, and with all things considered, for me it blows any fender ive played out of the water. The better construction, wood choices, electronics, playability and cosmetic touches make it worth the money in my eyes.

+1 for Salford, Studying with Ollie Collins has improved my bass playing out of all recognition. The performance oppertunities in the uni and round manchester are endless, if you put the work in, you WILL get the rewards/work. Salford doesnt seem to have the best rep at the moment but there are some really incredible musicians here.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='1110637' date='Feb 1 2011, 09:05 AM']Attack and fretnoise tends to be most heavily influenced by the fingerboard in my experience. I don't think the refret would solve much. The pickups are already passive, unless you mean dispense with a preamp which I'd be reluctant to do. If I was going to design the bass again, I'd put as much mahogany in as I could before the neck lost stiffness. That way the bass would sound warmer and growlier. Update: I had a discussion with Klaus over some improvements to his parametric preamp and he's made me a couple of custom jobbies with passive bypass. I'll do a full review once I've fitted them. But in brief the changes were: passive bypass gain trimpot so I can match output to other basses adjusted freqency bands so the 250hz sweet spot is accessible by the mid sweep control The four MEC concentric pots are deeper than most pots but the active/passive bypass push pull concentric vol/pan pot requires a particularly deep control cavity. OK for both Spectors but not so OK for the Shuker so I'll fit the original preamp instead which is currently in the natural spector. I'll have to get a control plate arrangement or deep insert socket for the backup Spector too.[/quote] yeah i was thinking take out the preamp and revert to all passive. Its a shame its not worked out quite as you had hoped, especially after the long wait for it. you gonna go ahead with a replacement fingerboard?