Bass Culture

Nearly finished the Nile Rogers one - what a treat! Really entertaining.

Absolutely love that finish. And the tort pickguard too - in fact, pretty much everything about it...except maybe for the spare string.

Most of the interviewees have a neat line in profanity too, I've noted. Rock 'n' f**king Roll - phew!

I suspect some may avoid the non-music industry Ian Le Frenais interview but he's really good value too.

That Eden stack looks like it means business.

I couldn't find a dedicated thread about this podcast already so thought I'd start one (someone's going to prove me wrong and link to one straight away now, aren't they?! 😁). I recently came across this when looking for something to listen to during my walk into work each morning. It's a really simple set-up - Guy and Gary talking to a huge number and variety of people they've worked with over the years (I think culled mostly from Mr Pratt's address book) about their experiences within the industry. The conversation is pretty unpretentious and pleasingly free flowing and they mostly do a great job of keeping out of the way and letting their guest do the talking. I've listened to about 8 or so of the 30+ podcasts available. Giles Martin was brilliant - insightful, enlightening and entertaining - as was Dave Crosby, to name just two. Very strongly recommended.

Lordy, this thread still bubbling away is it? Never thought we'd be able to drag it out again for 14 pages. I must pop in more often.

This is why my most recent bass purchases have all been custom builds - I know what price the components are pretty much and I know how much time the builder spends making the thing, more or less, and I have some sort of idea of the overheads involved; and I can take a view as to whether all those factors, combined with the ultimate quality of the finished instrument, means the bass is 'value for money'. As others have said, I know where I prefer to put my - in my case - considerably less than £3k.

Thanks for this - thought I was going a bit (more) bonkers for a minute there!

Might have been less then. I do seem to recall noticing it was significantly less than RRP at the time.

I'm kicking myself more now reading this thread for not snapping up a brand new Stingray I saw in a shop in Liverpool when I was over there for a meeting about 10 years ago. The shop had been struggling and were looking to just move stock on to generate turnover. I recall they were offering it for about £700. Fabulous it was, even had a slighter thinner than usual nut width - felt perfect for me. I walked away, thought about it overnight and called them the next day, by which time, predictably, a less procrastinating punter with a keen eye for a bargain had already snapped it up. And now we're talking £3k! What a d**k I was...

You could try the Aria Pro II SB Basses group on Facebook too. You'll find them a wealth of knowledge on all things SB-related.

Philistines!

Shergold Marathon and Guild B-302

I've been a member of Basschat for nearly 14 years. Now, I know I'm knocking on a bit but I'm pretty certain this isn't the first time this subject has been discussed. To save me the time and trouble of reading this whole thread, can someone tell me if anything's changed since the last time?

Or little devil on my shoulder.

Asking for a new Zoot build that's taking shape in my head.

Does anyone know what the precise nature of the QC issues is? Are we talking manufacturing or set-up issues?

I've got another Zoot custom in preparation at the moment so I'd be interested in this too. The last one had Jescar Evo gold fret wire, which I'm really liking - no idea what they're made of but they look pretty!

I think this guy is brilliant - plays exactly how I aspire to and fall so considerably short of. 😊

I never really get the thing about steels and fret wear. I mean, whatever strings you use (round wound anyway) there's going to be metal on metal contact and some wear involved. If you keep a bass long enough it seems to me a fret change every 10 years or so falls into the category of reasonable maintenance. Not using strings you prefer the sound of because of potential fret wear seems a rather self defeating deprivation to me.

I much prefer steels but now all my basses are medium scales (32") the choice is very limited in my preferred (stupid light) gauge. I tried the Roto medium scale steel strings recently but found them very rough, so just stick to Newtone strings on all my basses as they're made to order. I can't say enough about them, they're terrific.

Beatles /...Oasis? 😉

Actually, you're quite correct - I'd probably be just within the non-tapered part on the occasions I do wander that close to the bridge now I've looked a bit more closely.

Bloody love Roscoes. One of the dumbest things I've done in recent years was to sell a beautiful LG3000 I had to fund an ACG build. I know there's a lot of love for ACG here but I can't think of one way in which the Roscoe was inferior to the bass that replaced it. Anyway - what strings are those? It looks like the tapering starts well within the speaking length of the string. I address the string so close to the bridge sometimes that I think I;d be playing the tapered area!