gafbass02

[quote name='Merton' post='208069' date='May 28 2008, 02:54 PM']+1 (I've never knowingly heard you play but you must be good coz you used to have the patience to cart around a massive Trace rig!)[/quote] shucks!

yup, Cass Lewis, or me, probably me actually.

Is is me/the photo or is the action quite high on that lovely lightwave? nice pics dude.. On P basses i find that as i play right by the back of the bridge i really miss that bridge pickup, and that the sound on its own is just an unpleasent 'thunk' and they do always have a beginner bass vibe.....that said as ive got older ive started to quite fancy giving one a go! (still pref with two pups though!)

Yup, and that states mute switch too, so maybe it is meant to be a kill switch

Deleted cause I’m in a strop.

This just sorta turned into a review so i stuck it in reviews too.. I finally went and played the Spear 'Flex' P-Jazz 3 pickup green burst thing. (£199.95) It was, as we say....meh. Obviously as reported in the initial thread the first impressions of seeing a jazz style bass with a neck mounted J pup, a central P and a bridge mounted MM 'bucker all snuggled in an attractively swooping P style pickguard atop an apparently nitro finished body all for a smidge under two hundred notes seems like quite the no-brainer!, especially with my bass modders hat on. And so it was that i finally took the time to go and have a little shufty at said proposition.... The bass had a very fat, very chunky neck, reminiscent of the oft quoted baseball bat and overall it was very heavy, and would soon start making its way down through the clavicle on a mission to neatly cleave the player in two over the course of a long gig. The matte finished (nitro?) body was very tactile and pleasing to the eye (apart from the hideous green burst finish) and i suspect it would have prospective relicers groaning with delight within the first few rehearsals, as this thing will pick every single chip , knock and dent and wear it with pride. After hearing talk about how the standards are very high on these basses in relation to the moolah involved im sorry to report that the finishing was very poor in places in particular around the end of the neck and the truss rod access that was found here. There was large areas where the black paint inside the recess had simply missed and equally large amounts of splatter on the end of the fingerboard. The neck join itself seemed solid enough, and indeed, finish aside, the whole bass gave off an air of Tonka like sturdiness. The frets also felt poorly finished, and quite tarnished while the fingerboard erred on the anaemic side of pretty. Happily the tortoishell p bass style pickguard was a rather fetching brown shade, although the devil reared his ugly head again in the details in the form of some pretty nasty work around the cut outs for the three pickups. This brings us on this particular bass's 'USP' those three pickups, which represent an opportunity for some serious tonal tweaking and access to a range of tones outside the scope of any other bass in the price range. Things got off to a bad start when the mini toggle switch on the top horn refused to function. Instead flicking the switch resulted in the bass switching off regardless of which pickup was in play at the time. (unless of course this is the switched intended function which the salesman was unable to tell me, although i was rather expecting a coil tap for the bridge mounted humbucker!) The control configuration was simple, a volume for each pup and a master tone. Sadly each pup solo'd from neck to bridge resulted in a slightly less woolly version of the dull, uninspiring thud that had preceeded. The most useable sound i found was the centrally mounted P in conjunction with the bridge 'bucker, which hinted at potential for a powerful, punchy tone that would suit those of a funk rock persuasion down to the ground. However in this case its impact was stunted by the pervading lack of top end which really hindered this bass at every turn. The bridge and neck pups together sounded hollow in a not-at-all pleasent or useful way, and any purchaser would really have to factor in the cost of three new pickups for this bass to stand a chance of cutting through any sort of mix. On a plus side the bass had a simple but lovely Fender style bridge with brass saddles, possibly one of the Wilkinson models, and the tuners seemed stable enough with decent gearing. My favourite thing about the bass was the silver applique on the rather attractive hooked, Antoria style headstock, which looked truly classy and really demands attention. As a first or backup bass id still point anyone in the direction of the Squier VM series, but crucially as a bass to be modded and tweaked, id still be drawn enough by the shiny badge and three pickup holes to deem it worthy of another play one day, just to be sure, y'know!

I blend all magnetic (piezo bridge) full bass, treble about 10% mid about 1%, just ever so slightly forward of the detent.

Thanks guys, a chiroporactor seems to be the way to go. Playing by the bridge is such a fundamental part of my style that i dont think i could change after 15+ years. I do play for several hours most nights so i might back off for a week and then if no joy get myself chiropracted!

[quote name='wizbat' post='203389' date='May 21 2008, 12:14 AM']An 18 wheeler parked along side the stage with a trailer fitted out as a multi tier guitar stand with ev,ry kind of bass you can think of, just because i could afford it! :-) With a fully chromed Kenworth C510 at the front![/quote] You think like me...

I will do, hope its short lived!

Today for some reason all the knuckles on my right (plucking) hand ached from the minute i woke up, despite me not playing any more than usual lately (few hours a day). Just now i was playing and started to get shooting pains down my first finger on the same hand and now the knuckles on my other hand ache. Am i broken? ..and do we have a sticky anywhere on bass health issues like posture etc?, couldn't spot one? I play pretty tight back to the bridge, here is a of pic of me which shows my right hand position pretty well. Am i just getting old?

[quote name='tauzero' post='202660' date='May 20 2008, 10:07 AM']Can't you jam along to stuff you don't know, or don't the guits like that?[/quote] I can but if its a known song id rather it be heard properly than have me whose never heard it before noodling away hoping it sounds like the original, they play lots of new chart pop stuff ive never heard, mainly 'haircut' bands with names like 'the gongles' and 'the retros', you know the ones, the rickenbacker with a plectrum 18" driver, plunky sounding brigade. Id rather play nothing than ruin someones else song/jam or look like a kn*b. They tend to sing about shopping a lot!

refused to support the Towers of London just based on the safety of our gear!

My wife is awesome, she knows my bass playing is the biggest part of what makes me me and fully accepts and encourages it. She knows if im not playing i get grumpy and over the last ten years has learnd a great deal about basses too which is cool when she points out a p bass or whatever. She has strong opinions on the looks of certain basses, and adores my black sparkle ray and really loved my old green status sixer (boy do i miss that now!) she even encouraged me to buy my squier VMJ as she realised the bargain-ness and the great sound! Def a good find, now if i could just find a case to fit her and fit a badass bridge and shed be spot on heh heh

are the boss and the jamman longer?, also how many layers can you add?

Im after something which i can easily live drop layers on layers, so a percussive beat then a bass part, pseudo guitar part and then noodle. But all in a pedal not rack, am i asking too much ive looked around on here and tb but am still at a loss!

Im also looking at loopers, does the headrush allow you to build up a few layers and then solo over them? Or would I be better off with the boss rc2?

[quote name='mikeh' post='201599' date='May 18 2008, 04:44 PM']The one on the right, was that the prototype Bongo? Nice VJ...[/quote] No i think its just a bog standard one!

sweet, thanks guys

Ok, so since moving to Cheltenham i spend a lot of time in open mic nights waiting and hoping for a chance to play something i know, which is fairly rare having never spent much time doing covers, and quite often the guys who know the same songs as me are unavailable, etc. But i like to keep my hand in playing and performing so i was thinking about branching out and doing some solo bass stuff as i have some bits and bobs, but need to write some more and expand a touch. Do any of you esteemed lot have any suggestions?, should i be looking at a looper pedal or would a delay suffice, what about a GT6b? Id keep it short so as not to get boo'ed off but im getting bored of trekking to the pub with my bass to either get ignored/bumped (as per last night, when i said id do a solo slot only to keep getting bumped cause Jim/Dave/Phil wants to play, and presumably i rate lower as a bass player than a guy with a guitar) or to play the same songs as last week cause thats all we know in common. So what should i be looking at, and listening to im thinking Jaco and our very own Monsignor Lawson?

basicly...yes!