Kiwi

3 hours ago, Machines said:

 

18, to be precise.

 

And that natural finish Spector did the rounds amongst BCers.  But it's now mine and a keeper.

I've not been that impressed by the Octave videos Ive seen so far. Theres not a lot of that growl.

Unfortunately that's not a feature that exists within the current standard forum software.  But we'll investigate the feasibility for future bespoke improvements if they don't affect upgrades.

55 minutes ago, Sparky Mark said:

I wonder whether the long sustain and note clarity of NT Thumbs is the result of the vibration energy remaining in the strings rather than being dissipated by the bass body resonating? My experience has been that my lighter weight basses seem to resonate louder acoustically than those made from denser hardwoods.

There's always some selective filtering of the highs when wenge is part of the construction.  Wenge with maple laminates is my favourite combo because the wenge adds midrange growl but the maple keeps some of the highs.   Both seem to have a decent amount of bass.

I have been gassing for a Status Series II recently but after swapping out the electronics in my Series 1 have managed to get well within spitting difference of the same sound and, in some respect's it's more refined.  So I was also looking at a Moon MBC5TN which, like the Thumb 5 is a through neck with wenge laminates but walnut instead of bubinga.  Slightly different sound and significantly cheaper and over half the price of a Series II these days.  So I've started asking myself whether a Thumb 5 might be do-able.  But whenever I've played one acoustically it's sounded and felt a bit dull compared to what I'm normally used to.  So I don't know...I'm still in two minds.  I do like how they sound on records though.

Horses for courses. 

I like 15mm spacing for five strings if I'm playing with fingers.   If I'm playing with a pick then 18mm or wider is better and preferably a four.  Most of the time I play fives and they all have 16mm or less spacing.

On 22/06/2020 at 19:50, nilebodgers said:

Isn't she just. There's some killer little fills in her line too.

I think she overplays in a couple of places (e.g. 1:42 and 2:27) to the point where she not only loses the pocket but misses the downbeat - the Andrew Gouche effect.   That second fill at 2:27 could have been half as long and lost nothing in terms of impact. Also, her left hand keeps shooting up the neck after playing a lower register note only for her to pull it back to hit the next note.  I'm not sure why but it's a bit distracting.

But her phrasing and note choice for those fills is pretty awesome.

On 22/06/2020 at 13:02, Burns-bass said:

It’s a whole big bag of cliches, but my daughter (4) likes this song so I sometimes play along with it while she’s dancing.

The bass player here is a monster and doing a great job. I certainly can’t play it cleanly and with the confidence he does. And he plays keyboard too!

Yeah mine (4 at the time of release, now 6) too! lol

1 hour ago, crazycloud said:

Mine were, and for good reason; none of the opamps used were low power designs and there were lots of them used. When I was on the Alembic Club, I saw many comments about how Series basses when played on batteries and not the DS5, ate through them very quickly, like 10s of hours, not hundreds.

 

I seldom used mine on anything but an outboard supply, usually my own design as the factory unit was pretty average.

OK but I have changed the batteries only once in mine after 12 years of ownership.  Not that I play it every week but still...much more than twenty hours in total.

48 minutes ago, crazycloud said:

Alembics are current hogs, at least in the Series.

Mine's not noticably thirsty compared to other basses I've owned. 

19 hours ago, monumadha said:

Hey! I wonder how it goes.

Can you me a logical and fully referenced 2500 word essay on the topic of spambots and their impact on effective digital marketing? 

15 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Glockenklang on board preamp has the treble control at 18k or something- so it being higher isn’t completely crazy. 

Given the absolute limit is 20Khz...and that decreases with age...it doesn't clarify much unless the bandwidth is huge.

On 05/04/2023 at 02:13, Passinwind said:

I got a headache looking at it and quickly gave up trying to make sense out of it, in all honesty. Have you managed to sort it out though?

Different thing, you were working on a passive filtering circuit for bass and had given it to a buddy to test. 

The circuit i drew up was for guitar and yes not only completed it but added a locally sourced switchable mid boost (+25db @500Hz).  The first draft of the new diagram is a rats nest but I know how it all works now. 

2 hours ago, funkle said:

I’m amazed someone in China hasn’t already done this.

Maybe they will now the hard work has been done for them! :)

Generally, the chinese factories wont bother copying anything technically complex, especially if it involves research and development.  This is from a chinese entrepreneur i know.

4 hours ago, Passinwind said:

 I can start a design from scratch today and have a finished build by the end of next week very economically, no problem.

How's that passive circuit we discussed coming along?

3 hours ago, funkle said:

I also have in my hot little hands another full Wal preamp schematic from another source, that may be of interest. Will try to upload it today. 
 

The person who made this second schematic has also made their own Wal preamp clone, and I have this as well. 
 

That is going to be the next few videos sorted…

Using a printed circuit board?  Hobbyists don't do that.

3 hours ago, OC-2 said:

Hmmm, claims… 🤔 

Hmmm, dismiss it as you wish if you're cynically inclined. Like I said, best of my recollection.  Besides which searching for the post is going to take time away from things that are more important to me.  

6 hours ago, OC-2 said:

 the pink one is MIA

Someone on the jaydee fb group claimed to know what had happened to it.

6 hours ago, GeeCee said:

You can but ask, though John is essentially retired, so it would be up to Mike and Andy as they would likely be the ones that would have to make it.  Hard to say, they don't do as much non-Jaydee work now and the model choices have narrowed somewhat.  Pretty easy to replicate though, 62 jazz copy, no scratch plate, plain ebony fingerboard, active EMG pick-ups (battery on back), and black hardware throughout (machine heads, control plate, bridge, etc.)  Would look like this:

A basschatter and jaydee collector owns one of the jaco jazzes as well as a couple of other jaydees

7 hours ago, joe_geezer said:

Apparently noo one knows what happened to that pearl blue Jaydee or the pearl pink one.... 

It's known but i cant recall clearly right now. I think the blue one went to charity. The pink one might have been given to a roadie.

2 hours ago, joe_geezer said:

What are the chances John would make me a recreation one of the Jazz basses that were being shipped out to Jaco? I wonder if it would be too far away from their current line up for it to be even possible?

he did a custom jazz for me once, it didnt look like the jaco one though

9 hours ago, 3below said:

 

At these prices soon to become like sunburst 59 Les Pauls "Gibson made around 1,500 sunburst Les Pauls between 1958 and 1960, but today, only 2,000 survive".

thanks to fifties goldtops being converted

4 hours ago, Owen said:

Tone is tone.

And two thousand quid for fifty quids of material and labour is two thousand quid for fifty quids worth of materials and labour.

It's the law of shameless opportunism vs cash rich pensioners. 

11 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

 

I am pretty sure only 25 were made.

Ah, maybe there was a typo between the year and the total number in my source then.

12 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

 

Still, gives me yet another opportunity to kick myself for selling mine (pre-internet days so I had no idea it was so rare).

Ouch.

Just a thought but I wonder if the body on this bass was original?  I mean, given how many JE smashed up and all that in the late sixties...

Also, I thought there were 66 rather than 25 made...?

22 hours ago, joe_geezer said:

Jaydee bass owners:

 

Can you let me know what your Mark King slap settings are? Especially how to set the EQ and tone - I wonder how much of the tone was coming from his Trace EQ which was scooped?

Very little came from his EQ.  He used the EQ like a ersatz crossover between both the MkV heads on the Live at Wembly DVD.  Most of his tone came from finger strength over the bridge pickup, the dominance of mahogany in the Jaydee and the Trace 4x10's.  The Mk V amps were pretty flat sounding - something that changed with the Series 6 that followed.  His 0002SA and 0003 basses were fairly mid-growly in comparison to the other instruments he used.

If I had the space, I would be reacquainting myself with a full electronic kit but needs must with the drum machine.  It's also hard to punch in when I'm also playing.