Linus27

Absolutely wonderful, beautiful tone and playing.

Good luck Andy, hope it all works out for you which ever way it goes. I hit 56 next year which means I've played bass in bands for 40 years. As I get older, I am becoming more reflective and less enthusiastic about gigging. I'm very happy with the bands I'm in, everyone is great to work with and on the same page but the fire is dying. I started out all those years ago, playing all over the country, building a following and eventually getting a record deal. Every pub and club had music and it was always a packed and enthusiastic night. These days there really is a huge difference with a general lack of interest in bands and music. There are less places to play and the foot fall is so small that it makes you wonder, why bother, it sometimes feels like flogging a dead horse. Even playing Glastonbury this year, I noticed some stages were very quiet and bands were playing to not many people which was depressing to see. Someone said earlier that as we get older, we realise that time is precious and I'm very much feeling that way. I'm fortunate to have lived out my dream and achieved more than most but after 40 years of being a musician, I have nothing left to achieve. I now feel that the years I have left, with good health and relative youth on my side, I want to spend the time I have building new chapters, memories and adventures.

Don't P-Basses have slightly wider frets or have I been believing something wrong that I was told about a long time ago 🤣

I must admit, I do love the look and the sound of a fretless Precision, there's something that is just so right about that combination, like apple pie and custard. However, in my hands, I much prefer playing a fretless Jazz. Not sure if its the smaller frets because I play all over the board, but I am way more comfortable with a fretless Jazz.

Nope totally different 😄 New Year Days bass is a black 70's fretless jazz with blocks and binding on a rosewood neck. The Live Aid bass is a sunburst jazz with maple board.

True, however, it turned out to be a career changing moment for them and considered one of the best performances at Live Aid. After the Live Aid show, all of U2's albums re-entered the charts and broke them into America. So it turned out to be a good thing for them.

Live Aid for me was the start of me taking up bass and getting into music. I had just turned 15 and was aware of music due to my two sisters constantly playing all the big groups of the 80's like Duran Duran, The Police, Level 42, Depeche Mode, Spandau Ballet etc. My dad was also into his big band Jazz and my mum was into her singers like Barry Manilow, Val Doonican, The Carpenters etc. So my childhood was full of music constantly playing in every room of the house. I hadn't at that time really gotten into music of my own as I was more into BMX and computer games but I came in from BMX'ing and sat down and by pure accident turned on the TV and saw the U2 set. I was blown away by it but mostly by Adam Clayton, strutting around the stage, with his black DM's, looking super cool, playing this beaten up Jazz bass and at that point I decided, that's what I want to do, I want to do what he's doing, I want some of that. From then on in, I got into music, took up the bass and the rest as they say is history.

After the Live Aid performance, U2 very nearly split up. The rest of the band were furious with Bono for taking over and interacting with the crowd which forced the band to cut the song Pride which was at the time a huge hit for them, especially in the States. They ended up playing a 12 minute version of the song Bad due to Bono going off to interact with the crowd which meant they didn't have time to play their current hit single and the rest of the band felt like they were just passengers during the performance whilst Bono did his thing.

It sure is and I will admit that I am a big U2 fan, or at least up until Achtung Baby. Certainly the music they were releasing throughout the 80's is for me absolutely incredible. There was also a bunch of bands that were universally liked at the time by young people. We all had our favorites but bands like U2, Simple Minds, The Alarm, Big Country were grouped together and then there were others like Echo and The Bunnymen, The Cure, INXS, Tears For Fears and to some extent The Mission were also very much liked by the same groups. Being a huge U2 fan, I was fortunate enough to work with the producer, Mark Wallis when we signed our record deal. He was chosen to produce our debut album and he was the mix engineer on U2's Joshua Tree album. He also produced the B sides on the album. I would spend many an hour discussing U2 with him which was also interesting. The one thing he told me which really stuck with me is something he said about Adam that sadly Adam is criticized for by other bassists. We were talking about Adam just playing 8's on a lot of track but he said there is no other bass player who can do that in time with as much consistency and drive that Adam. If you analyse each note, it is spot on in perfect time. Most other bass players waver in time but Adam is so accurate with his timing, which is why he does it so well. He is the same when playing 16's, for example on Where The Streets Have No Name. He said no other bass player he has worked with is as accurate or in time as Adam Clayton.

That was Greg Carroll who was Bono's mic-lead runner, band roadie and close friend. He was sadly killed exactly a year after Live Aid in Dublin riding a motorbike doing a courier run for the band. The U2 song, One Tree Hill is written about him as well as Victor Jara. When U2 were touring in NZ in 1984, Bono met Greg Carroll who took Bono to One Tree Hill. Greg then became the bands roadie. After his funeral in NZ, Bono was thinking about the funeral and the time be spent with Greg at One Tree Hill which inspired him to write the lyrics to the song.

I use a BC208 Cab with a Warwick Gnome 300 and it sounds incredible. I'm interested in actually trying one of the little TCE heads with it but the Warwick sounds so good, I'm reluctant to make a change.

Awesome news, welcome to the dark side 🤣

Thanks for the update. I'm still loving mine as well and have been playing it a lot recently. I agree, the stand is heavy but it's good quality. What tinkering did you do to the case?

That's awesome, I'm glad you liked it and it helped. Also, don't let anyone tell you that you get less mwah with flats, that recording was done using Rotosound Jazz flats

Thank you sir, that's very kind of you 😊

I had an Ash bodied natural Fender Precision with coated maple fretless board and it was incredible. It was so nice to play and sounded amazing. The below track was recorded using it and its one of my favourite fretless bass sounds I've recorded.

Not only do I prefer to play fretless, I actually find it easier. Its more natural and intuitive. Having played fretless exclusively for the last 10 years or so, going back to playing fretted feels really restricted and constrained.

Three months ago, all I owned was 4 fretless basses and had no intention of buying a fretted bass. However, an artist saw me play (fretless) at a gig in April and asked if I would like to play bass for them. It required a fretted bass so I had to pick one up. This led to playing a big festival gig so I picked up a backup fretted last month.

As a kid growing up in the 80's, fretless was right at the forefront for me, despite at the time not knowing it was a thing, I vividly remember listening to Sting and Paul Young thanks to my older sisters playing 80's music throughout the house day in day out. When I picked up the bass in the late 80's, one of my goals in life was to become a competent fretless bassist and these days, for the last 10 years, I've only played fretless. Only recently have I had to buy a fretted bass for a new project but it was super hard going back to a fretted bass with all those messy lines and dots all over the place, playing unlined fretless is so much easier. I've had 14 fretless basses in total and currently have 3 really good ones. Below are what I have or have had. Fender Japan 62RI Fretless Jazz x4 Fender Japan 60's Classic Fretless Jazz x1 Fender Japan 60RI Fretless Precision x1 Fender Japan Precision with Fretless Status Graphite Neck x1 Fender Mexican 70RI Precision with Custom Maple Fretless Neck x1 EBMM Stingray SR4 with Fretless Pau Ferro Neck x1 EBMM Stingray SR4 with Fretless Rosewood Neck x1 Warwick Streamer Jazzman Fretless x1 Limelight 60RI Fretless Jazz x1 Squire VM Jazz Fretless x1 Unknown Fretless Bass x1 I am super tempted to buy the cheaper Pino fretless as I think it would be fun to have in the collection. Here's a few pictures from what I can find quickly.

I wonder if the route that EBMM take if this bass seems popular from a sales point of view is they just make a basic fretless Ray24 using a range of limited block colours, basic hardware and a rosewood neck. Basically a £500 fretless Ray24.