P-T-P

I can totally relate to the "feeling fake" thing. Have had a number of vintage RI basses and as amazing as they were I always felt something missing. One had been refinished in a gorgeous gold, but because the refin wasn't an exact match for either of the two Fender golds, it bothered me no end. On the placebo front, I run the PA for the band and our guitarist always, without fail, barks a request for some (pretentious) alteration to the tone on his vocal mic - "bit more upper mids" kinda thing. Unless there is something clearly wrong, I usually just pretend to twiddle a control and wait for him to say, "Yeah that's better." Works every time, even though about a year ago I told him that's what I do most of the time lol

At what point do you stop being a hobbyist and start being a semi-pro? Our house insurance is due up in a month or two and this seems very attractive but I gig and get paid for it once or twice a week?

I would have to say it's this kind of situation that makes me get militant. Clearly the problem was the guitarists new amps, but the bass player gets blamed and worse, feels the need to go spend hard earned wad on something he didn't need. Dunno how many gigs you've done as a band but if it's more than a couple you should have just pointed out that your bass wasn't an issue at those gigs and that they should perhpas consider the possibility that it's the Marshall's that are the problem. Anyway, who's up for us bass players going on strike every time a guitarist is the cause of a problem in a live situation? We could have a number to call and we'll just collectively down-tools in the middle of our Saturday night gigs at stadiums, constitutional clubs and pub back rooms.

Fender Mark Hoppus P-Basses are a JB body with a single P-Bass pup (SD 1/4 lb) and a P-Bass neck and Badass bridge. Were made in a variety of bright colours (shell pink, surf green etc.) Fender Mike Dirnt P-Bass. '51 style P-body and scratchplate, tele type headstock, Badass bridge. Either of the above are probably gonna be easy enough to pick-up on e-Bay for around the £300 mark. Ibanez Destroyer - enormous explorer type body with a P pick-up (think some, or maybe all had a J in the bridge too). A difficult SH find but won't cost the earth either. I think Epiphone made a non-reverse Thunderbird that had a PJ configuration. I forget what the necks were like, but maybe a Westone Thunder? BC Rich probably made something that would be up your street too if you're looking for something a bit different. Lakland made this [url="http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equipment/bass/equip-entwistlegear-endorsements.html#lakland"]http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equipment/ba...ts.html#lakland[/url] shame it never reached production..'

Errr... has Geddy traded his tumble dryer backline for three rotisserie chicken ovens?

Paul bought my Warwick Thumb Bleached Blonde. A pleasure to deal with him and a nice and easy meet and exchange. Of course his dodgily pimped Vauxhall might make receiving money from him in a service station car park seem more than a bit suspect to any passing officers of the law! "It came like that from the factory constable," just ain't gonna cit it I reckon. Still, easy to spot him once you get there so it's swings and roundabouts I suppose. All the best, cheers for a good deal done good.

[quote name='OldGit' post='68132' date='Oct 1 2007, 01:40 PM']Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it through the Grapevine" .. Gladys Knight's orginal is fab but Marvin Gaye just got it spot on right ...[/quote] Hmmm but which came first, the chicken or the egg? I think Marvin's version was recorded before Gladys' version but they were released the other way around. And I don't think either was the original recording of the song, seem to recall reading that it had been kicking about for a while before either of these two recorded it.

Sinnead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U Nilsson - Without You Black Crows - Hard to Handle James Taylor Quartet - Whole Lotta Love

My perception is that it is mainly just Warwicks that are suffering when it comes to second hand sales and it seems to have been that way for a couple of years. I sold my (immaculate AAA flamed) Stage I about three years ago for about £900 and having kinda regretted it going ever since I've always kept an eye on Warwicks, the Streamers in particular. I can't recall many selling at over £700 and plenty of Stage Is going at <£600 with loads of LXs struggling to sell at <£475. A standard Corvette that fetches as much as £400 has done great for the seller nowadays. I think non-vintage second hand Fender prices have come down a bit in the past year or so - you can pick up a US standard jazz for under £500 now - but that's a reflection of the prices for a new instrument - can get a new one around £700 these days. Warwick's new prices don't haven't dropped much over time but the second hand prices have, and like a stone. I think it's partly due to the introduction of the Rockbass line - some buyers would always rather spend £350 on a new instrument than find the extra £100 for a superior but second hand one - and partly due to a fashion/image issue. Most of the current new bread of guitar bands we are seeing just don't use Warwicks and they are a little bit perceived as being a hard rock or funk bass. Then you get people like me who'd happily buy a second hand Warwick but only if the price was at the lower end of second hand scale just because they chop and change basses a lot and are concerned about re-sale values. There's a bunch of really nice Stage Is in the FS section which I personally wouldn't go near just because if I get bored of it a month or two from now I'd be concerned I'd be staring att a £200 to £300 loss. If I'm buying a Fender/MMan/Lakland etc. I don't really have that concern.

In defense of the engineer (sort of)... Assuming he wasn't just some studio lacky and was actually there at the band's request (possibly because he forms a team with the producer) with a general brief of helping the band get their album made/write something new/get a particular sound etc. it's possible that he may have needed to do the deed in order to get progress (or been instructed to by a higher power. It could be that the vibe JT was feeling was all in his head and the reality was actually a crap performance that just wasn't getting the job done, studio clock ticking, JT refusing to try something different and sessions getting nowhere fast. JT pops out for a cuppa and while he's gone producer instructs engineer to change the strings and force a new approach for the greater good of the record. There's a story that when U2 were recording the Joshua Tree half of the sessions were spent trying to polish up what the band felt was the nucleus of a great recording of Where the Streets Have No Name. They recorded, re-recorded, overdubbed, mixed, re-mixed, recorded more and on and on to the point where Brian Eno got so fed up he instructed Danny Lanois to erase the tape to force the band to start the whole recording of the song from scratch. As it turned out he got caught in the act and they eventually found what they were looking for ('scuse the pun), but the point is that in the case of JT's strings getting changed, it might not have been simply a case of ignorance on the part of the engineer.