Kiwi

thanks to fifties goldtops being converted

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.

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

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.

It's possible yes. I started with Cubase back in the 90's and that was fine for both MIDI and audio, then I moved to Pro Tools and it was a PITA for MIDI. Currently waiting in the wings are Audacity and good ol' workhorse Ableton but it seems like a number of PC based DAWs have limitations of one sort or another. Which is yet another tick in the column for hardware based solutions.

I use mine for graphics, music, website administration, movie watching, music practice and teaching preparation. And I don't have the collection of rack hardware with me at the moment but when I do, I'll need to set all the MIDI connections and patches up within the DAW in order to access them via a keyboard or MIDI bass or whatever. So, like you, I tend to see the PC as a job for recording the bones of a piece once the framework is done rather than something for trying out ideas for a framework as they happen. But unlike you I don't have the experience or skill to form songs in my head. I need to externalise it first.

Mainly so I don't have to use a computer. The setting up to record saps my creativity and I'm firmly opposed to designed obsolescence. This is after having spaffed hundreds of quid on otherwise perfectly functional NI kit that became obsolete after 7 years simply because drivers no longer being supported. I want dedicated kit that I can turn on and muck about with ideas on without wasting time.

Looks like I'm going to join that club, then...!

I expect Morgan Roussel probably owns it.

I'm mulling over a drum machine purchase later this year. I'm looking for something that allows beats ahead and behind the tempo for that human factor...does such a drum machine exist?

The prices of stuff, both used and new are so out of proportion to salaries these days. I would feel like a mug paying some of the asking prices. Especially given that there are some really good instruments around if you want to stray away from the mainstream brands or even go back twenty years. It seems like COVID gave mainstream brands an excuse to hike their prices and they're keeping them there until salaries catch up. But maybe those lump sum pension payments are a better metric.

I've had quite a few bits and pieces off them over the years but for the first order I had to send them a pic of my serial.

Is the website still up? Im aware of most of the currently active ones. But the wayback machine can help with dead sites.

Yes, that was the Cricketers. I used to live not far away but it was about ten years later. I was going to try and write a bio on him but he was so private and unassuming that he didn't leave much material behind, apart from his music.

Dunlop Tortex 0.50mm (red triangles) because I have a fairly light touch and I find the flexibility forgiving of an occasionally errant technique.

It depends on the other ingredients, method of construction and string tension. I think tonewood also affects timbre more in basses than guitars.

It depends on the construction. Solid resin, yes. My Steinberger XL25A was tiny but weighed at least 4kg so they can be on the heavy side. But monocoque design (aka hollow shell such as used by Status and Basslab) are just as strong and much lighter. Short of snagging a monocoque 6 string Status Streamline or Stealth Mk 2, you will almost certainly be looking at a custom route and that can get very expensive due to the labour costs with creating a set of moulds. One exception, if you aren't wedded to the idea of just carbon is carbon wrapped. One thing to be mindful of is that a pure carbon composite instrument can be unforgivingly brittle sounding and very lively for many. Status injected epoxy foam into their streamline and stealth Mk2 basses to dampen some of those less pleasant resonances. Another way around this is to do a carbon wrapped instrument. This involves wrapping a light weight wood such as cedar in a pre-impregnated composite shell. It saves on labour because moulds are not needed. It's also less complicated to design. You could approach Jon Shuker with a request for a carbon wrapped instrument. He offers that option with necks on some of the JJ Brunel signature instruments so is very familiar with the technique. And, to my ears at least, the wrapped instruments retain some of the smoother treble and fatter mids of wooden instruments but with all the advantages of carbon composite. The other thing is that Jon could probably accommodate any quirky requests like onboard tuner, specific hardware and pickups, neck dimensions etc. I believe Simon Farmer at GUS uses wrapped wooden cores in his necks too.

Yeah, I'm not saying tracking doesn't work on two pick up basses, I'm saying it doesn't work as well. Best tracking with my Deep Impact was with a Modulus Sonic Hammer of all things, it was feeding lots of what the pedal needed to hear inspite of the treble content from the graphite neck (although it wasn't too bright) so there's no hard and fast rule. But the one pickup setup is still the most consistent in my experience.

Last time I tried an SYB1 it wasn't really a pitch tracking synth so much as a muffler which added a square wave to whatever midrange and low end it left in the signal. The Future Impact will track the best but only one pickup 'vintage' sounding basses like stingrays and p-basses. It needs to see plenty of fat midrange without too much treble.

Fair dos. I was the opposite with both my Modulus Q5's. The Bart soapbar equipped bass had a bowed neck though, and the EMG bass neck was too stiff. There was also an upper mid scoop which seems characteristic of all Q5's which made it hard to hear in the mix on stage which is what lead to me experimenting. I've played a Status Empathy though an SWR SM400 though and it sounded just as fat and clean but not brittle.

Classic Barts help dial back the bite a bit and fatten up the lower mids. As does putting the bass through an SWR400/500/900 or a Mesa Boogie Bass 400, there's something about the colouring that preserves the firm midrange but sweetens a graphite necked bass really nicely.

On a strat, it's all about the pickups. There are cardboard and concrete bodied strat shaped guitars out there which have three single coils and they all sound distinctively like strats. But it's worth bearing in mind that basses and guitars get their timbre in different ways due to string tension. Basses rely on body and neck for rigidity to a much greater degree than guitars so the dampening effects using different densities of wood can be manipulated to a greater degree. With graphite, it's about the constructed stiffness. Not all necks are the same. It's also possible to make a neck too stiff and that results in a brittle sounding instrument unless some of the attack can be rolled off by the electronics (and there are options ranging from pickup windings to extra capacitors to change inductance).