Kiwi

[quote name='Floyd Pepper' timestamp='1496858748' post='3314356'] ...and I can't help notice that they have added Sire Basses to their website. Not in stock yet but somewhere to try before you buy is most welcome [/quote] Hah! Really? I recommended them to Lee a while back! Nice. [quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1496831382' post='3314104'] Felt the videos used to be fairly quaint, but now not so much, they're just churning them out. I used to really enjoy the bass stuff when it was Lee Anderton and Nathan King; I'd sit through anything they put out as there was a degree of gooning about and definite chemistry between them, but the King/Voss ones (starting off with the Spector videos 7/3/17), all that kind of disappeared. [/quote] The King/Lee ones left me unengaged, shall we say. Nathan, bless him, came across as a bit tense and awkward so I stopped watching after a while. I've not watched more than ten seconds of the new ones with Voss.

Slightly off topic but they've become masters of social media marketing, completely hit the ball out of the park. Mind you, it's taken them 8 years, as it would anyone in their shoes. Occasionally I've contributed a bit of silliness to Lee's facebook posts and sometimes he's responded. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, which I'm sure is why they're doing so well.

PM replied. Basically: Moses jazz necks are rubbish in my experience. The Status ones are superby made and super stiff. This stiffness can mean brittleness if mated to an ash body - better to use softer wood like alder or mahogany and specify a wood fingerboard to dampen further. You could always reverse headstock a Status neck. Modulus necks aren't available atm although there are rumours that Modulus will return soon under new ownership. Another option (as suggested above) is to ask John Shuker to build you a jazz neck. However you can ask him to carbon wrap it and put a richlite (phenolic) fingerboard on. It'll have all the advantages of a full composite neck, look like a composite neck but have none of the risks of harshness because it's got that little bit of dampening with the cedar core.

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1483891709' post='3210896'] May consider this down the line. Sounds pretty lush to my ears without the upgrade of about one and a half times the cost of the amp �� [/quote] Get them to mod for saturated harmonics. I've been looking for the best alternative to a Rivera era Super Champ and a Super Champ owner suggested one of these after a bit of modification.

I've had my Alembic, Pedulla and Musicman Stingray I think for about 12 years after I went on a buying spree in 2005-6.

I was about to suggest a Yamaha APX...good choice.

These things bear more than a passing resemblance to the Yamaha Magi-stomp line of pedals. Would that be a coincidence?

I love the sound of them but they're very much one trick ponies.

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1494486463' post='3296327'] Given that his parents were, let's say, bohemian in their lifestyle he must have needed to be from the start. ...Nile's parents were indulging in far more damaging vices. [/quote] They were but he's never criticised them for it. He was also shipped back and forth across the country to his grandmothers place twice because he was struggling to fit in at his school in California. In some ways, the experience with his parents gave him a fantastic grounding for being a producer, if you think about it.

He's very, very grounded in real life - tells it like it is, and he's street wise. They say don't meet your heroes but I did and left even more impressed than before I met him.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1443118849' post='2872444'] Very anoracky stuff i know, but some of you may find it interesting. [/quote] Someone who prides themselves on making preCBS recreations told me yesterday that fullerplast wasn't the only undercoat used on preCBS instruments. Is that true? Did they use lucite as the undercoat in early instruments?

In planning, the principle of buying next to a source of nuisance and then complaining about the nuisance is called reverse sensitivity. It's not really defensible unless the nuisance activity doesn't have permitted development rights (i.e. permission under current or previous planning permission) or the activity contravenes existing policies/regulations. If the pub is playing within permitted noise levels then there's no case to answer. The neighbour also risks being subject to legal action for harrassment and abuse of legal process. If the pub has been louder beyond permitted levels and neighbours simply haven't complained then the new neighbour does have rights. Best thing for the pub to do is an independent noise monitoring check of its own. Square off with the neighbour at every step and neutralise or introduce reasonable doubt to each of their claims.

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1493281083' post='3287041'] I'd fancy you are right kiwi. He tells the story of how he came to have that guitar in his book. Bernard talked him into trading his Gibson jazz guitar in for it, and he wanted to sound like jimi Hendrix so went for the strat. If I recall, it was red and he had it repainted white when he bought it. So the story goes, when they were getting ready for the '59 fender agreed to buy a whole bunch of ash off a farmer, and when the went to collect it, it was right at the top of a mountain. Due to the high altitude it was particularly less dense than normal ash, and as a result, that year seems to sound a lot more thin and trebly - Niles signature sound. He admits that none of this was intentional at the time, he just wanted to be like jimi so bought a strat... fate is funny sometimes!! [/quote] The story I read from Fender's custom shop, when they were measuring the original for their Hitmaker replica, was that the body wood was alder and narrower than the standard. They got a bulk load for a great price off a farmer but (perhaps because of the hill) the shipping costs were far greater than they expected. Leo instructed them to mill the slabs a few eighths of an inch narrower to keep things even per instrument financially. Apparently the Hitmaker has one of those bodies. Original strat pickups are pretty weak and need a bit of gain to sound chimey. Fender's custom shop also speculated that the chrome plated pickguard might have had an influence on inductance as well but who knows. They could have been clutching at straws to justify making the things in such low numbers. The original pickups in mine were slavishly faithful to the 57 originals and I hated them so they were replaced with Fender Noiseless Vintage. The guitar sounds very much like the original (at least compared to live recordings). These are mine BTW. My Hitmaker replica has a chrome plated brass pickguard too: and...FWIW (the Hitmaker replica was made afterwards unfortunately, or I would had it signed instead)

He does sing! I haven't heard him yet though.

The roundback ovations are classics in their own right.

His playing is incredibly vocal - I think that's what other guitarists mean when they say 'melodic'. He's throwing in double stops to add emphasis which I've only ever heard Pino do in the past.

[quote name='bassjim' timestamp='1492783184' post='3283221'] Our guitarist can't do the Nile thing either on Thinking of You as well as should be.[/quote] I'm a sh*t guitarist and if I can do it, it can't be that difficult. Everybody Dance is way more difficult. Neither Nile nor Bernard have been particularly into their gear. Despite the mythology he's conjured around The Hitmaker, I suspect his pre-CBS strat is a bit of a dog. PreCBS strat pickups are terrible sounding things - very anaemic and scratchy. Apparently he used Tokai strats quite a bit but I've never seen him with one in a photo so suspect they were used in the studio more than anything.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Ifd3xkR04&t=80s[/media] Coming around here with his stunningly beautiful, articulate and sensual melodic playing, his flawless switching between improvised harmonies using 10ths and searingly explosive lead runs. Well f*** him. He's not going to make me give up my djenty power chords and high gain. Never. No.

[quote name='No. 8 Wire' timestamp='1492842094' post='3283538'] Thanks mate. What counts as expensive? [/quote] I can't recall individual costs but anything with a replacement value of over £1500 has to be declared separately from the umbrella coverage. (And there I was at the time with a vintage Alembic, a vintage Stingray, a Shuker 6 and a couple of Celinders...) Total cost was north of £6000 and that was 10 years ago. Hate to think what it will be now but I sold the Celinders prior to the second shift.

Good luck with the move to NZ. Be mindful of the insurance cost for shipping expensive gear - mine was more than the cost of shipping...!

He was one of my musical heroes. His band leadership skills were astounding. I don't think we'll see anyone as dedicated and talented as him for quite a few generations.

[quote name='Mickeyboro' timestamp='1491827402' post='3275627'] Ah, Christchurch - the only place I've ever eaten breakfast in a shipping container! [/quote]

Paul Reed Smith has been critical of the CITES requirements. He says the Indian rosewood he uses comes from salvaged trees auctioned off by the Indian government after monsoons. Failing that he uses plantation grown rosewood from Indonesia. The point he's making is that there's no shortage of rosewood and there are plenty of sustainable supplies available so asks what's the point of the regulation? [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzhjOTEbNxU&spfreload=10"]https://www.youtube....xU&spfreload=10[/url] Skip to 54:30

[quote name='Bassnut62' timestamp='1491855940' post='3275967'] If you're talking stock Fender pups, I agree. They often sound both harsh and bland to me. Luckily there seem to be some highly respected pup-upgrades. I only have experience of Lindy Fralin Vintage Hot pups for Strat and they are sweet and toneful, with a little bit of bite when dimed. [/quote] I think anything faithfully specc'd for a strat. I had a set of obsessively constructed 50's single coils in my Hitmaker-replica and they were TERRIBLE. No reflection on the maker or quality of construction but the sound was just awful. So I threw a set of Fender vintage noiseless in and haven't looked back yet. Neither of my strats are particularly chimey though, the Chandler is more of a crisp, low noise studio tool (EMG's) and the Hitmaker isn't supposed to be too chimey (it does the Nile Rodgers thing really well.)