Ed_S

"I normally like 'em old, dirty and lightly distressed from a life on the road... but I guess she'll do!"

From what I've read, it seems that buying older basses, you might well find significant differences. My personal experience over the last few years, however, is that it entirely depends which MIM you get and how good you are at tweaking it to personal taste. My two main gigging basses at present are a 2011 MIJ Classic 70s P and a 2010 MIM Mike Dirnt sig. P, and I can say that for £230 less outlay from new, the Mike Dirnt is just as well if not better constructed than the MIJ, just as good (if different) sounding as the MIJ, and has a rosewood board with figuring that neither of my MIAs can match (the MIJ is maple). The only problem with the Mike Dirnt was the setup - or lack thereof - which I suspect had kept it languishing on the wall at DV for long enough to land it in their clearance sale. Half an hour of tweaking and some new strings later, it was perfect. My last pair of gigging basses was just the same; two 2009 standard MIM Ps that both arrived 'a bit rough' but only took a set-up and re-string to get right. The MIJ, by comparison, was perfect right out of the box... but I personally don't take that to mean a better product, just better presentation.

Personally, I'm with the guys who went to 5 and then returned to 4. For a good few years a bass wasn't a bass unless it had 5 strings, but then I discovered the good ol' standard 4 string Precision, and so happy was I that all the 5s got sold, with the exception of my Surveyor 415 which I kept just in case it was ever absolutely necessary for a dep or session. I keep my hand in with the 5 so I can switch back and forth easily, but for the day-to-day they're too heavy for my dodgy neck, and the last couple of years has shown that a 4 is ample for 95% of what I do. The other 5% is covered by a cheapo Squier VM strung C,F,Bb,Eb for when the guitarists swap to C-standard for the heavy numbers

Yeah, don't risk feeling annoyed every time you look at the thing for the sake of £14. I'd just close the case, leave him fair but descriptive negative feedback and 1-star seller ratings as appropriate, then move on.

First bass: Yamaha BB-N4 'Go-to' bass: Fender American Standard Precision 'Your' bass: Jackson KB1 'Kelly' w/ EMGs

[quote name='janmaat' timestamp='1325193051' post='1480877'] Make sure you play asap after the band before you has finished, and make sure to talk to the organiser to kick their ass to finish in time [/quote] +1 ...and whatever you do, never let a screamo-metal band go before you unless you're a screamo-metal band as well. They have a nasty habit of clearing venues, especially those with no door cover, but a lot of music promoters don't seem to 'get' the fact that not everybody who likes rock and metal is into it as a style, so think nothing of putting one mid-bill!

Headlining on the pub circuit with originals bands is the second worst slot to opening up; that's why nobody wanted to do it. Best slot is always main support, because then you have anybody who's still in from the opener, your fans, any the lucky headliners have brought, and it's usually still early enough for passing trade too. When we get landed with a headline, I sneakily organise it so that there's a fairly comprehensive gear share for the night and consequently the other bands each have something expensive left on stage in use all night, hence keeping them and their friends around. And then if possible, call it a "joint headline" and offer to go first! Definitely do it, though!

I was in the same situation and bought the Kingman and a feedback suppressor. Soon became apparent that the amplified tone sat in the mix wasn't all that noticeably different to my Precision through the same amp. I came to the conclusion that it might look more appropriate to some to play an acoustic bass, but that's where it ends; just having the acoustic guitars is enough to provide the right sound. The Kingman's a nice bass for quiet practice etc. but for me it's certainly a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1325065482' post='1479453'] Ta for that. FWIW, the pre on the one I played definitely did stuff. Even set flat, switching it in really opened it up, and it seemed silent. Mind you, a shop isn't the best environment to check this stuff in detail. That said, I'd run it passive most of the time, I think... [/quote] Yeah, I thought that in the shop I do agree about leaving it in neutral and just using the toggle as a 'big switch' - that still works on mine, and when we'd turned off the fluorescent lights in the control room and pulled in a couple of bedside lamps instead, the interference dropped to the point where we used that as the tone on the EP. Just a shame that as much as they seem to be getting better of late, Fender still don't appear to excel at consistency or quality control, bless 'em! Still, I'll take perfect woodwork and buggered electronics over the reverse any day

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1325064354' post='1479446'] Oh - that's interesting. I must admit I only really checked the Solo'd P, middle & backed off the to bridge tones. i didn't pay much attention to what was going on between those points... Tell me about the preamp. I'm intrigued! [/quote] Not a whole lot to tell, really - I just think it's garbage. I've had plenty of active basses in my time and never once had to resort to the instructions to know 'which control does what' because my ears can't discern it. Not just me, either.. I took it along to the studio when our band was recording an EP and between myself and the producer we dubbed the EQ controls "bass, nothing, not much, and interference". Still, makes no difference to me because the plan was always to get a new, less busy pick-guard made for it (so it looks like a Precision again), pull out the preamp and wire it up fully passive.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1325025443' post='1479302'] I really like the new Deluxe Fenders. Can you blend the pups properly, or is it neck/middle/bridge? [/quote] [quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1325061690' post='1479432'] And Gareth - yep, the pickups are blended rather than switched. It seemed to work really well, i.e. the P really did sound like a P. [/quote] Strange that you should've found that - I've always found with mine (and indeed it was commented on a BC thread not long ago) that although it feels like a standard non-detented pot, there were 3 definite positions to it and no real 'blend' between them. Maybe it depends who wired it, when, and which bucket of components they were picking from! But yeah, despite being openly critical of the preamp in mine (another story), I still love it for the build quality and passive tone. I say go for it!

[quote name='attackbass' timestamp='1324995800' post='1478945'] What really pissed me off is when somebody asks me to use my rig because it's better than theirs and louder [...] a guy turned up with a combo then asked me if he could use mine as it would sound a lot better than his. I laughed and said no [...] he had a combo which was adequate enough to be used live. If he wanted a bigger set up then he too could buy one. Not sure how much he understood and I felt a little bit of a dick but the guy was quite rude about it so I thought F**k off! [/quote] Completely fair play if he was being rude to you, but personally I'd find that request many orders of magnitude less irritating than the ones who rock up and just expect to borrow something to play through with no prior arrangement. Number of times I've had people half-ask / half-tell me that they intend to plug into my rig when they blatantly have nothing of their own with them (not even a DI box), usually without even so much as a nod or a thumbs-up as they walk off, is untrue. I'd feel much better about letting them plug in had they clearly brought a gig-worthy combo with them, but came up and said "...yours is much better and it's already on stage, and since all I need is basic clean, do you mind?".

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1324833830' post='1478035'] Never used them myself as I like using open strings. I guess I would do it if I was recording something in segments and there were parts without any! Still, I once heard people refer to scrunches used in this fashion as 'fag rags' which made me chuckle [/quote] Last studio I was in, if you couldn't mute your unused strings, you found yourself with them duck-taped. This became known as "the tape of shame"! I didn't require the tape of shame myself (if only because I use all my strings) but our rhythm guitarist had a few inches of it to his name by the time we'd done

Can also be a quick fix for vibration caused by an insufficient break angle when there isn't enough string left to get any closer to the bottom of the post. But the other 99 times out of 100... as above!

I used to have a pair of BTBs (405QM and 406QM) and the tension was always fine with sets of (30),40,60,75,95,125 D'addario EXL NPS, which aren't exactly massive. Both came out of the box with much heavier sets of Elixirs on them originally, but not being able to stand coated strings I got rid of them rapidly, so I couldn't tell you how they felt tension-wise.

The reason I was very wary about the new breed of Squier basses when they started getting good press was my own past experience of the brand in its bad old mid-90s plywood days. Having heard of their return to favour I bought a VM Precision for a conversion job and was very pleased to find it was well finished and made of real wood. If I hadn't 'heard the news' and subsequently seen for myself the change in quality, I admit I'd probably still have a downer on that decal. As it is, I'm more than happy to gig my VM under its original name (although with a new pickup better suited to its C,F,Bb,Eb tuning) and explain to anybody who has enough knowledge to question it but not enough to join a community like BC, that they're quite acceptable instruments these days.

Having just had a leaf through the 2007 Fender catalogue, I can't see anything in there that matches.

I took that to mean "I also have this in admag, and if somebody calls me and says 'I'll give you £750 in cash and pick it up this afternoon' then I'll pull the eBay listing", but I could be wrong. Guy has decent feedback and the bass itself looks right, but my only link to it is that I had to check the serial number to make sure my identical bass hadn't been nicked

+1 for the DBX 160A if you're going for 19". I recall a sharp intake of breath at the price tag, but it really does sound good. The new-ish MXR pedal looks better than most of similar format in terms of its metering. Would be interested to try one some time.

Heh, well if you end up treating yourself to it and want the original 3-ply W/B/W plate that came off mine, it's sat here in a cupboard doing nothing. I'm sure I could be persuaded to part with it for not much more than a donation to the site. On the other hand, the seller might still have it and be prepared to throw it in. Worth the ask if you went for it.

Have a natural affinity for [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Precision-Usa-Bass-/140661588476?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item20c01581fc#ht_500wt_1361"]this one[/url], simply because I own its slightly younger but otherwise identical (including mods) sibling! Amazing how much difference getting rid of the original white pickguard makes to the Candy Cola finish. Anyway, looks legit and quite cheap at the moment.. thought somebody here might like to have a look.

My first ever gig was a set in a 24hr sponsored 'perform-a-thon' during our 6th form charity week. Without ever actually intending to, we ended up getting the slot over break time and consequently the whole school came and watched. Bit unnerving, especially since it was also my first outing on lead bass due to the guitarist being a chords-only kind of guy. But thankfully it turned out great and we even ended up inspiring the dance troupe who were up next to do an impromptu cartwheel-y thing at the front of the stage to 'total eclipse of the heart'. We were cheerfully held responsible for nearly the whole school being late for their next lesson due to watching us finish; cheerfully, because all the senior teachers were stood at the hall and dining room doors with buckets, demanding contributions for the extended break! Good times...

Completely agree - I feel the same about the jazz neck on my Kingman acoustic; it'd feel much more natural (and probably more like an acoustic bass) if it were a P neck. Guess it's like women.. too skinny just ain't attractive

When it's below the G, I've always seen it referred to as a 'tug bar', the idea being that you anchor your fingers by pulling up against it, and pluck with your thumb.

Although I've not yet used one myself, there seems to be a lot of love for the EBS Classic Session 60 at the moment. Reviews all seem favourable and EBS gear tends to be solid, so I'd give one a listen if I were looking...