Kiwi

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='428364' date='Mar 8 2009, 02:19 AM']Crazykiwi[/quote] Wow Nick, I'm flattered. My playing is very meat and potatoes. Thank you! [quote name='The Funk' post='428368' date='Mar 8 2009, 02:25 AM']But the guy who freaks me out with some of his playing is Dood! I think it's a combination of him being excellent and that his style's evolved from metal, which I haven't really ever been involved in (with the exception of some Sabbath-y stuff).[/quote] +1 Anyone who hasn't seen him play has really missed out on something. His technique is blistering fast, versatile and he's every bit as talented and skilled as John Myung. His playing is the equivalent of a barrage of cluster bombs, I'm sure there's nothing he couldn't play. Shock and awe baby, shock and awe. And I'm not even a fan of prog metal BTW.

I've seen some bass players use other makes of English valve PA head for a bass amp. You'll probably get a nice clean, powerful signal from it. I've never seen one for sale before so I can't help with a reliable price. But I'd expect somewhere between 400-700 quid, depending on reviews. Two hundred watts will be plenty for a gig though! Good score, especially if you plan on using more than one bass. Is it stereo or mono?

[quote name='liamcapleton' post='428232' date='Mar 7 2009, 09:11 PM']I hear they're the best, and I've wanted one for a long long time now. I think I'd be apprehensive about putting an order down on one at the moment because I'm torn between doing so and maybe getting a Sadowsky next... but I think I'll keep my eyes peeled in the next few months for a second hand one.[/quote] They have a good reputation but don't believe the hype. Try one if you get a chance and let the bass speak for itself. This is what the bass bashes were originally arranged to do.

[quote name='urb' post='428171' date='Mar 7 2009, 07:16 PM']Hi Steve The bass does look wonderful - big congrats BTW - I'm just hoping after all the above shopping list has been completed you get to play the thing...! A labour of love indeed - but hey at least you know what you want, hope you can get it all tweaked to perfection. Cheers Mike[/quote] Hi Mike, thanks! A lot of the above has been based on my playing already. The string spacing, neck depth and playability is pretty good. The balance is good, it looks stunning, and Jon did a great job with those electronics. As the instrument ages I hope it will get a little growlier as the neck relaxes and with a deeper sounding neck pickup I hope it will also sound funkier. Certainly the bass has potential and I hope that the electronics tweaks will move a step towards realising that a bit more. There's gob loads of growl when I turn up the mid control!

[quote name='ARGH' post='428110' date='Mar 7 2009, 05:17 PM']Yeah..its his old cleaning factory,I think he may have moved since...less than 20 staff actually building the instruments (we talk REAL Smith's here),and Ken doing the setups...and attitude.Nowt like the old days eh? Maybe I should have said Fodera or Bee or Nordstrand [/quote] Well the point I wanted to make was that the basses aren't really crafted in the sense that one instrument is made from scratch by one person as soon as the order comes in. Ken has a stock pile of bits and pieces that get assembled like a kit on an assembly line. The basses are sort of half way between being manufactured and being crafted, but admittedly that will probably help keep the prices relatively reasonable too. You do get very good quality at the end of the day. Despite my own personal opinion of the guy, I still think his instruments are good value.

Personally I prefer them to a Fender of the same age. They feel a bit more played in for some reason. The P-bass I have is particularly good but I suspect the sound depends largely on how soft and dense the body wood is. Some people on Talkbass claim they're the best modern equivalent to a preCBS Fender but I think they're still more hifi sounding. Our friends on the continent like Spinal Tap and Wombatboter have probably owned and played more than I have though. What are you planning to use the J4 for? If I was going to have one Celinder, I'd probably go for something like that black PJ5 for sale in the classifieds. You could probably cover quite a few basses/bases with that.

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='427301' date='Mar 6 2009, 04:11 PM']Oh yes, straight online m8! Not sure whether the boys stock anything like that - will ask 'em! Cheers[/quote] Its ok, I've taken care of it now, but thanks OK update on the bass. I spoke with Andy at Wizard and he was a diamond, just said stick something in the mail to him and he'll tell me what can be achieved. I put a set of Elites from Nick dad's shop yesterday and we both commented that the bass has quite a distinct stingray character but with more upper honky mids and less lows. One of those things that made me go 'hmmmmmmmm...' I might send him the pickups from the red Celinder as well. I also updated the firmware for the Axon AX100 today. The editor interface has proven to be a bit unreliable through the MAudio Delta 1010 I use and I corrupted the firmware the first time I tried. So I repeated the same steps again but used the slow update option and it seemed to work. I also got a Roland JV1080 in the post yesterday and when I opened it up my heart leaped as I found an expansion card had been left inside and it was actually the expansion card I'd been told to look out for - the vintage keys module. So I might end up selling one of my EMU units (the Vintage Pro). I had a quick whizz through the JV1080's patches last night and there are some really nice ones, especially for bass. Gorgeous fat, warm, synthy sounds. So I'm in two minds about letting the Yamaha CS6R go as well. The good thing about the Yamaha is that its been designed for trance music so there are some really long evolution times possible with pads when I get my head about how to exploit it best... ...anyways. I've agreed with Jon to carry out the following modifications: 1) Reduce the width of the neck at the nut further so that its more like the Spector 6 - reason being is that when I stretch for the E-string my left hand has to make an awkward adjustment in angle when I change from positions on higher pitched strings. This is because the neck is too wide for the length of my fingers. 2) Rewind the neck pickup so its fatter and deeper 3) Consider routing a chamfer directly under the bridge units to increase the break angle of the strings over the transducer elements. (The strings can sound a little uneven in volume at the moment) Jon will need to take a view on this because the central issue is that the transducer elements aren't big enough for bass strings. 4) Install an extra battery cavity so we can run the 18v preamp. 5) If it's ready, install the 3 band Shuker sweep eq so I can nail those frisky mids 6) Swap the acoustic and MIDI vol knobs around 7) Replace some of the knobs with small ones 8) See if there are any black switches available.

the great thing about muntered finishes is you get to a certain point where extra dings actually start making the bass look better...

[quote name='ARGH' post='427837' date='Mar 7 2009, 08:25 AM']same with Ken Smith...[/quote] I don't think so. Have you checked the factory tour video?

I don't know what my Alembic would have cost new in 1979. New Series 1's are something like 10k but mine has a graphite neck and I don't know how much extra that would have originally been. Alembic don't know either. I'm not going to stick up for Alembic's new prices either, they're massively over inflated for some options. However what you do get is no holds barred service and membership of a very exclusive club. For most players they wouldn't need the Series electronics anyway. And even if they did, there are plenty out there second hand for half the cost and less. The 70's Series basses are ofter VERY reasonably priced secondhand and I know some Alembic players who even prefer the late 70's models. But I can't see any need to buy a Series bass other than out of a desire to collect unless a player is doing a lot of sessions. The series basses are studio instruments more than anything. Anyways, there's more out there than just Alembics. What about basses that use 30,000 year old wood?

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='427243' date='Mar 6 2009, 02:55 PM']Having just spent some time with Steve in my studio, this bass has to be seen to be believed! Superlative (or should that be `shukerlative'!). Nice to see you again m8! Nick[/quote] Bloody hell Nick! Did you dive onto the PC just after I left?! Oh blimey, forgot to ask you about whether you had and cheap MIDI interfaces in stock too...

I thought about it John, yes. But I think it might actually be cheaper to get Andy at Wizard to rewind the neck pickup given I'm happy with the sound of the bridge pickup. Playing the bass, the A and D strings seem a little more compressed than the other strings, I'm inclined to think this is the wenge effect, although I couldn't discount the settling in process yet, either. Jon's also going to reduce the neck width at the nut a little more, in line with the Spector so there's not quite so much stretch to the E string. I've also installed the AX100 software editor on my desktop and although its a little buggy, I've been able to adjust the sensitivities a lot more easily than if I'd used the tiny LCD display on the unit. The bass tracks surprisingly well although I don't think Billy Sheenan will be out shopping for one any time soon. Still undecided about its live potential though. I'll probably need to play around with it a little more, I think. However the split string facility is a total riot, there's one standard setting on the Axon called 'Jazz Trio' which has an upright bass and hihat/snare accents on the lower 4 strings and a Fender Rhodes on the top two strings. So its possible to sound like a trio by alternating between accented bass notes and melody. I just need to find a cheap MIDI interface for the laptop now...