paul_c2

So, after toying with the idea of buying a PJ (two pickups) Precision, I realised that the Squiers didn't really do it for me, and that it was worth the step up in price to a Fender. And it was going to need to be a Jazz. Frustratingly, although understandably, there just aren't that many secondhand MIM Fender Jazzes around. I searched for quite some time, I guess they are really decent instruments and if someone has one, they'll tend to keep hold of it rather than selling (what would you upgrade to, for example?) This contrasts with the numbers of secondhand Squiers out there, and of course there is the frustration of searching for a Fender and it returning loads of results for "Fender Squier Affinity" stuff etc etc. My local music shop had a MIJ Fender Jazz, not quite in the right colour (it was a turquoise - reasonable colour but I really wanted something a bit more subtle) and it was wonderful to play. It was one of those basses that you knew was "right" within the first 5 seconds of playing it. However the price was a little high and it had a terrible - although I was assured, fixable - electrical issue. So, I put an offer in (it was a commission sale) and waited. The seller declined it, and to rub salt into the wound, didn't even drop the £20 or so the electrical repair would have cost - so in effect the total price to me would have been £20 above its £519 price. It was in cosmetically "reasonable" condition (rather than being brilliant) but that's a non issue, I'll be using the bass quite a lot so it didn't really matter. And no plans to sell it soon. So with my local options exhausted, I searched and searched on the internet and found a Japanese Fender Jazz for a bargain ~£300, plus duty and shipping which brought it up to around £500. It was cosmetically excellent condition and in the right colour for me. So I bought it. And......(despite having a rosewood fingerboard)......arrived from Japan in only a week or so. Of course, being from Japan I was unable to play it and had to trust the Fender brand name and my instincts - I don't think I'm disappointed. It has that distinct Jazz tone, not so much low end punch as my previous bass but I have a graphic EQ pedal and also a graphic EQ on my amp, so a simple tweak can make the sound "right" for the situation as relevant. Its not flashy, its not high spec, it just does - very well - what I want it to do, so hopefully this is the one bass I'll predominantly play for the rest of my life, with the luxury of my old one as a backup (might send it in for repair to get a number of its issues sorted out). Pics on their way....

[quote name='bazztard' timestamp='1500349408' post='3337078'] Personally I'd go used MIM. I think my 2013 MIM P is really really good My MIA is only better due to the hardware and electronics and the rolled board edges. [/quote] [quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1500366865' post='3337194'] If I was looking at a budget of £350, I'd probably go for a second hand MIM. Or try to stretch to a CIJ 62 reissue (might be too much of a stretch, given the consideration of the Affinity) [/quote] I thought about MIM but didn't recommend it, basically because I believe a secondhand MIM is nowadays a significant step up in price from a new VM Squier. And a Japanese Fender is probably another step up again. I recently bought a new (to me) bass and found that the idea of picking up a reasonable condition, reasonable price MIM is basically a bit of a fantasy now. However if you can step up in price, then its worth considering - but its a step up in price and opens a whole new world of other basses too, of course.....

It depends firstly on how much, and what kind, of use you're going to give it. And secondly, on the individual bass concerned - as others have explained above, no two guitars play the same, although they'll be similar there will be differences, and its an inexact science - the cheaper of two guitars could sit in your hands and feel perfect for you, where the more expensive didn't. Given the above, I'd say try out as many as you can. So, that means as well as Squiers, have a peek around at other makes/models in the price range, you never know. And if you have a bass already (I'm not sure, I didn't look at your other posts) then take it with you too, to do a back-to-back comparison. I dislike going to music shops to try out instruments, although I much prefer it to buying "blind" - well not blind, you can see photos, but getting something sent from a distance is always a risk in my eyes. Fortunately on the past two occasions, as soon as I had the instrument in my hand, I knew within the first 5 seconds whether it had that "wow" factor for me.

Wouldn't both pickups at 50% be the correct thing? The reasoning being that 2x 50% = 100% volume, and you'd WANT the blended sound to be the same volume as either pickup on its own, not twice the volume. Thus, the blend is a blend control, the volume is a volume control and the tone is a tone control. If the blend was 100%x2 pickups, then it would be a blend AND volume control, and you'd need to adjust the volume control to compensate, thus negating the actual advantage of VBT?

[quote name='JimBobTTD' timestamp='1499879849' post='3334296'] Warmoth will sort out the necessary certificates for export. As I shall be importing, I shall need to sort out the import certificates. [/quote] What import certificates (perhaps Germany is different to UK)? I didn't do anything, except order it and pay for the customs tax/duty once it had arrived in the country pending final delivery to me.

I bought a Japanese bass with a rosewood fretboard and it arrived in about 10 days. No mention of the rosewood, or CITES, and no issues. I've seen other listings of Japan instruments where the seller explains due to CITES, that they need to apply for the exemption once its sold (it can't be done before its sold) then it will take 2-4 weeks, but mine went through okay.

Personally I don't think there's any benefits (of VVT) but its the simplest wiring on a Jazz bass with passive pickups and I'm used to it. I am glad its possible to adjust the two pickups' outputs finely and never quite understood why a Fender Strat has the more restrictive selector switch which only allows 100/0, 50/50 or 0/100 of each of the adjacent pickup pairs. (No doubt there is some aftermarket wiring mod available for strats to give VVVT control).

The bass guitar, followed by electric guitar, are the easiest instruments to transpose on - you could ask why bass/guitar players struggle and moan when asked to transpose something!!! Joking aside, the fact remains that a singer's "instrument" is quite limiting in that for most people, it has a sweet spot of not much more than an octave, with most decent singers able to extend it another octave or so without too much trouble, but beyond that and it becomes challenging. Sure, good talent and good training can extend the range and enhance the quality outside of the normal range, but its difficult, hence why singers would want to stay within their comforable range. In fact, most instruments have a "sweet spot" which isn't that great - tessitura - and its only a handful (piano/keyboard, to a lesser extent guitar, accordian, etc) which are the same/not-too-much-harder to play in a wide range. Ask a trumpet player or french horn player to play something a fourth up or down and they'll be saying "nope, can't do it - give it to someone else if it needs to be in that key".

Another update. Realistically there was only one guitar I found in the local area which ticked all the boxes. I decided that a Squier didn't really do it, I think they're overpriced new and in any case, the music shops in my area didn't have any. And that it needed to be a Jazz (not Precision). So the one guitar I could try out, was not my favourite choice of colour, had an electrical fault, and the buyer wouldn't shift on the price. Once it was opened out to taking a chance on a guitar shipped to me, it broadened things quite a bit. I get the feeling that people hang on to nice guitars in the UK, so there wasn't much choice and I sensed they were poor value for money too. After looking on eBay, reverb.com and other sites, I found a number of others albeit located abroad. Even with high postage, the prices were competitive with those available in the UK. I'm in no particular hurry so its not a big issue, although it would be nice to have it before a few gigs which are coming up. So, I found a secondhand MIJ Fender Jazz - in Japan - and bought it, fingers crossed it will be on its way soon and turns out good.

I also say "no" but I think I understand what you mean, and why you'd think this. We are faced - daily - with lots and lots of things which might influence us and naturally, the vast majority of these are filtered out and forgotten about. So, you tend to only conciously remember those things which rise up above the crowd and are notable for some reason or another. And I think you've noticed some musicians who have followed a similar progression as you have. Jazz is completely avoidable should you choose to. Having said that, bits of it are quite alright.

Just for clarity - can you confirm which way round? The bass in the car, or the car in the bass?

I will go for a Fender(/Squier) Jazz, in one form or another. I think if I bought anything else, I'll always be wondering "what if.....". I don't know what it is, but there's something about the feel and playability of a bass that's "right", that you instantly know in your hands. Whether its down to learning on one kind, possibly an imperfect technique meaning others don't feel right, or actually something definable and physical about the guitar, I don't know. But I know when a guitar feels "right" in my hands. I've played Precisions before (although not for an extended period) and I owned a different bass a while back too, so its not like I have an irrational preference for Fender Jazz. If this Japanese one falls through, I'll keep my existing for now and be on the hunt for a secondhand VM or Classic Vibe Squier Jazz, or a MIM Fender Jazz, or possibly another MIJ Fender/Squier. They're out there, its just finding the right one etc.

I would have thought it would be an advantage for a right-handed teacher to teach a left handed player, because they could sit facing and simply copy the hand position, techniques etc etc. I am left handed but do a few things (knife and fork eating, for example) right handed. When it came to guitars, I tried both ways on a right handed instrument and chose right handed becaue it felt more comfortable. I did play the drums for a little while and I did that right-handed too. Apparently on drums, there is a distinct advantage for a left hander playing right handed since they can do more complex stuff on the snare etc. I got my own back eventually though - I can now play the French horn left-handed too (think about it....) Another advantage is if ever someone asks you to play golf, you can say "I can't, I'm left handed".

Update: I've finally been able to get to the shop and try out the basses I wanted to. Unfortunately they didn't have a Jazz to compare against but I took my own too, for comparison. The split pickup (P type) indeed is noise cancelling in itself, which is good. But if you turn up the J pickup then you'll get noise. So, with a PJ bass with both pickups turned up, it still has some noise. It was a bit frustrating really because 1) they didn't have a Jazz to compare against, neither did a different music shop in town, 2) they had a Squier Affinity and Squier VM Precision (both PJ pickups) but the Affinity had strings so new the trebly overtones you get in the first hour/day or so were overwhelming. Neither felt quite at home with me, but were reasonable. They had a Japanese Fender Jazz (not sure on the year) secondhand, much more expensive but after a fruitless walk to the other shop to try out a Jazz, I returned and tried it. It played perfect, much more at home, but it has an electrical fault which results in tons of noise and almost no output - so I've put a counteroffer in, subject to successful repair (it was took apart, it had no earthing from the jack to the pots or any other components) and I'm waiting to hear on that offer, which will be a day or so. I also searched around beforehand, somewhat fruitlessly, for a Mexican Fender Jazz (there's one on eBay for £325 the other side of the country - but not much else) and also looked at new Mexican Fender Jazzes, but they're getting pricey now too.

It occurs sufficiently often in classical music that it has a name - hemiola. Its 6/8 but there's definitely 3 over 2 polyrhythms involved.

I've kinda held fire on trying/buying a new bass, but last night (at a rehearsal) the noise issue irked me. So, I came home and ran through a bunch of tests again and its the bass. I tried my guitar (a Fender Strat) through the same setup and it too produces noise - although not quite as much - on pickup positions 1 3 and 5 ie one pickup selected. And it produces much less noise on 2 and 4 (where it combines the pickups). I know that a Jazz bass with standard setup can do this too - it combines both single coil pickups to cancel out noise, effectively acting like one large humbucker. Does the Precision's standard (ie neck) pickup, being split, also have any noice-cancelling inherent in its design? And does the wiring of a (standard, whatever that is) PJ configuration do noise cancelling, or does the fact that one pickup is split enhance or mitigate this? I can imagine, if owning a PJ Precision, that a valid use of it would be to turn up only the neck pickup to get as close as possible to the original Precision sound - how close or wide of the mark this would be, I guess comes down to lots of factors including the precise location of the pickup(s). Also I guess, that noise or the amount or absence of it, comes down to the quality of the wiring and the pickups (I remember Fender's top end models boasting "noiseless single coil pickups", for example - and have no reason to doubt its at least partly achievable); but also many other factors such as mains power quality, amplifier, leads, connectors, the other wiring within the guitar, in fact everything in the signal chain, pedal power supply etc etc

I must be doing something wrong. I sit there, playing the only bass I own, through the one amp I own................. [size=2]while alongside me are two other bassists playing exactly the same as I am.[/size]

Budget - not much, say £300 or so max, maybe more if really necessary but I can't really afford it. I'm not 100% on Fender but the times I've tried basses back-to-back and compared to a Fender/Squier I've always preferred them. Something says to me the safe bet is a Squier VM Jazz but I am open to other decent suggestions and I kinda understand the whole "Precision sound fits in better in the mix" thing too, hence why I'm looking with interest at Precisions - albeit with the flexibility offered with 2 pickups.

I have an old Antoria Jazz bass, which is kinda showing its age. People might not know, but its fitted with 2x humbuckers in the usual (Jazz) locations. A while ago (like.....30 years ago) the bridge pickup failed, so it was replaced with a J pickup, and it kinda sounds good with that unusual combination. But recently, I've noticed there's quite a bit of noise from the guitar, its not the leads, amp, pedals, pedal power supply etc since I've tested and eliminated all that and its the guitar itself. Now, humbuckers are supposed to be noice-cancelling, and J pickups when both together do a similar thing....but mine doesn't. In addition, a few screws have snapped, including one of the pickup height adjustment screws; and the J pickup is installed directly onto the body ie can't be adjusted in height. And there's various buzzes and dead spots, and certain notes or open strings sound out of place compared to the rest. Its served me well, but I think its due for either a major refurb or more. Also bits fell off the bridge a while ago, and mix & match screws have been used to replace some of the bits that fell off. And I'm convinced the neck is slightly banana shaped too. So, I could get it properly looked at, possibly the pickup(s) replaced, but it will cost a bit, and some of the issues might not be 100% solvable. It still basically works and makes a nice sound though, as is, just with "quirks". I looked at a replacement bass a few months back and after trying a few Musicmans and 5 strings, I decided I didn't really need a 5 string....then I looked at Precisions....then Jazzes....then I concluded that if I bought another, it would be quite close to what I already have, so it wasn't really worth buying another for the sake of it. But time's moved on and the noise issue is becoming more and more of an issue. Also, every time I pick up and play either a Fender/Squier Jazz or Precision, I can sense the quirks not there, the consistency of tone and they seem more "comfortable/playable" if that makes any sense. So I was thinking of.....a Squier Precision with PJ configured pickups, or another (probably Squier) Jazz bass. In an ideal world a cheap Mexican Fender Jazz bass will be out there, but I've looked and looked and not found one yet. Squier Vintage Modified seem ideal (and I much prefer rosewood neck too) but I've seen a Precision PJ which I guess must be a Standard or Affinity? Are these a definite step below VM for quality, longevity etc??? I know....I guess I should actually try them out, including taking my existing bass and playing them back-to-back, but I wanted to listen to opinions first, from here. And yes there's tons of reviews and comparisons (and no doubt an amount of debate on Precision vs Jazz!!) but specifically I'm comparing a PJ pickup Precision with a "standard" Jazz here. I like the tone of a Precision but prefer (its a slight preference) the Jazz, does that exist with the PJ configuration or must it be Jazz all the way? Also (I am not sure of this) is a Jazz bass body contoured where a Precision isn't and is more slab-shaped? I seem to remember seeing the PJ Precision with contours, but other Precisions without?

[quote name='danonearth' timestamp='1496371426' post='3310883'] [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]-----------2-4-5- -----2-3-5------- -3-5------------- ................... ---------------4-5- --------3-5-7----- -3-5-7------------[/size][/font][/color] [/quote] Slightly-off-topic: its great to be able to play the same thing in different places on the neck, your major scale example has a third variation: [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]-------------1-2[/size][/font][/color][b][color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]-[/size][/font][/color][/b] [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]---------2-4----- ---2-4-5-------- -5--------------[color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]-[/size][/font][/color][/size][/font][/color] [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4][color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]Note that unlike your first example, you need to shift* to play this. (Your second example also includes 2 shifts).[/size][/font][/color][/size][/font][/color] [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4][color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]* A shift is a departure from one-finger-per-fret. Obviously, high up the neck you can stretch further than one-finger-per-fret, but at the "normal" end its "normal" to play one per fret. I learned ages ago and use it right down to the 1st fret, but more modern/better technique, and similar to double bass, is to use 1-2-4 fingering for 1-2-3 frets at the lower end of the fretboard/fingerboard.[/size][/font][/color][/size][/font][/color] [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4][color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]In fact depending on the actual music (not just playing scales....) you could use the fingering 4-1-2-4-1-4-1-2 so the shift is done by realigning the fingering with different frets, to allow the next note to be more easily played. Its good to be aware of when you shift (or not) because in quiet bits on roundwound strings it can produce a scratchy noise as you shift. Obviously music with stacatto, or rests in between notes, etc you can lift the fingers off to shift so it becomes less/not an issue.[/size][/font][/color][/size][/font][/color] [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4][color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]But anyway, returning to the question, if you analyse what finger plays what note on what string to the nth degree, you'll see that using the pinky is fundamental with a lot of the variations, thus (for me) its a thing I'd do all the time and I'd not particularly avoid it - I'd probably avoid shifts more; or stretching too far; or playing too low down the fretboard for comfort. [/size][/font][/color][/size][/font][/color]

There's 15 keys because there's (in diatonic stuff and related) 7 notes in a scale, so the range of possible keys can be 1-7 sharps (7 of these), 1-7 flats (7 of these) and the one with no sharps or flats. 7+7+1 = 15. The reason you don't see music with more than 7 sharps or flats in the key signature is convention - by convention, keys can only contain up to 7 sharps/flats, thus don't need to use double sharps or flats. BUT certainly music can be in a "key" with double sharps or flats if it modulates from one key to another. For example, a piece in Gb (6 flats) modulates to the fourth (Cb), then again to the fourth (Fb, which includes Bbb), then Bbb (which includes Ebb), etc etc without changing the key signature but by using accidentals. I would expect a piece that changes key and key signature, such that it might end up with >7 sharps/flats, to go from eg having lots of flats, to having lots of sharps (or vice versa). For example a major-minor modulation might take you from Db major (5 flats) to C# minor (4 sharps).

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1490286671' post='3263980'] With regard to the "only 3 or 4 keys" part of your post. It might be an idea to brush up on what accidental are in each key, and just remember them. That way if you're playing something in say E major, just knowing that each C, D, F and G are all sharp helps loads. [/quote] If anything, learn the circle of fifths - and how to apply it to 1) knowing the order of sharps and flats 2) knowing what sharps/flats are in what key. Of course, the circle of fifths will help with many other aspects of music (theory) too, so its something worth learning by rote once, then being able to apply it in various situations.