molan

[quote name='Clarky' post='920699' date='Aug 10 2010, 02:49 PM']Think the stealth black Alembic may get its first punk gig airing[/quote] None more rock than stealth black

Gonna use the Willie Weeks - go on, you know you want to. . .

Personally I love that fact that there are a few people here on BC from overseas I've bought & sold basses & exchanged views with lots of people I probably would never have got to meet in the 'real' world. A lot of them have much better English than some people I know over here as well!

[quote name='Machines' post='919496' date='Aug 9 2010, 12:29 PM']What do they start at, what cost for options etc ?[/quote] [url="http://www.bassgear.co.uk"]BassGear[/url]Bassgear has three in stock at the moment - I know becuase I've played all of them I dropped off some of my basses for them to sell & Phil let me have a play with all the Foderas (which is going to end up being quite an expensive experience for me!). I had one at my house for a while and ran a few back to back tests on it against my 'reference' Celinder & an NYC Sadowsky. All three sound different (in equally good ways) but the Fodera certainly matched the other two in build quality & fit and finish etc. Really, really nice bass to play. in fact a friend came round and performed the same test and claimed the Fodera to be his favourite so that says a lot about how good they are. N.B. The build sequence for these is: Body woods supplied from the Fodera stock in USA Cut to shape, routed etc & finished in Japan (by three guys who were trained at fodera in NYC) Returned to USA for all hardware and electronics to be fitted Assembled by the same team that make the custom USA instruments and set up by Vinnie, Joey or Jason (the only people that set up any Fodera prior to sale) These guys really know how to set up a bass, each of the ones below was really nice straight out of the box! Also - I did ask about options and you can get a choices of finish, maybe three different pickup configurations (SC / DC / PJ etc), deluxe versions with quilted maple (like the red one below), different fingerboards etc. They are just not as 'custom' as the full on 'made to measure' range, lol.

Nice thread Bilbo - really got me thinking I am, at best, an enthusiastic amateur when it comes to playing bass but I've been generally fortunate enough to play with musicians who are more talanted than I will ever be. I remember in an early band thinking just how much better everyone else was & discussed this with the MD (who was about half my age!). I told him that I was contemplating leaving the band becuase I was, by some distance, the least able musician. He was really cool about it and said that he'd noticed I was improving every week and that, although I lacked the technical skills, he preferred playing with me than with his other bassist. His reasoning was that I was better prepared, turned up on time, helped to organise band stuff and, most importantly, played in time & didn't 'widdle', lol. Turned out the other guy could play some very clever stuff but his attention wandered and his timing would drift & he would frequently over-play and get in everyone's 'space' (this was a 13 piece soul band so finding your sonic space was quite important!). He taught me an important lesson about attitude and ability; being able to play alongside him improved my playing and understanding of live music immensely. He also passed on some other wisdom - never play in a band that you wouldn't want to be in the audience watching them. I've pretty much kept to this maxim ever since and it's stood me in good stead and really helped me to be proud of the bands I've been in and the music I've played. I've walked away from four bands that fell below this minimum requirement and not regretted any of them. It's meant I've played less gigs than I'd like but I'd feel a bit of a fraud standing up there going through the motions & not enjoying myself. Of course I am in the advantageous position of only ever playing for enjoyment and not money so maybe I'm not really qualified to be part of this discussion! I totally understand how different someone's mindset would be if they were genuinely earning a living (or loving) from music. . .

Calling Clarky

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='919258' date='Aug 9 2010, 08:12 AM'] It needs a badass.[/quote] Are you volunteering?

The quality of basses I own are of a far higher standard than my playing It's really never bothered me that I'm able to play on high end pro quality basses whilst having the ability of a bumbling idiot. I have [i]generally[/i] found that the better the bass build quality the more it enables me to play things I couldn't manage on cheaper instruments. I have nothing against lower priced, mass market basses and they can sound fantastic in the right hands The most recent example was a Fodera that I've had on loan for a few weeks. I thought I'd reached up to about the best I was going to get with a Sadowsky / Celinder / Spector / Sei string of basses & then this Fodera Victor Wooten came along: It's beautifully put together and I like the looks very much, however it's the sheer playability of this that just blows me away. I really can manage things & play more fluidly on this that anything else I've ever tried along with a great core tone and a very sweet on-board pre-amp that gives lots of tonal flexibility. Is it 'worth' twice (or even three times) anything else I own - almost certainly not. Am I selling all of those other basses in order to try and afford this - absolutely. . .

Not sure if anyone else has been up to Phil's BassGear HQ in Harrogate recently? I was there two weeks ago & he's got a couple of new AC basses in This baby really caught my eye - amazing metallic flip-flop kinda finish. I've never seen anything like it on a bass before. Picture doesn't really do it justice but you'll get the idea hopefully:

With a £900 budget you've got a great range of options if you are happy to buy used. Pretty much any Fender up to the American Reissue series, Lakland Skyline series has a range of great basses & you'll easily bag a Stingray at this budget (some have dropped right down to £650 recently). Personally I'd look around that that £600 - £750 market as pretty much everything mentioned above will be affordable used. The range which I think almost always throws up amazing consistency is Lakland. I've owned a few and never played a bad one (unlike Fender which can sometimes be patchy - much more consistent since '08 onwards though). My favourite Lakland is the Darryl Jones Signature but the Joe Osborne / Bob Glaub / Duck Dunne basses are all great in their own individual ways The other good thing if you keep in the sub £750 bracket is that you should always be able to sell on again easily if you don't get on with something.

I always take 2 basses, spare leads, strings and my little outboard Sadowsky pre-amp. I've only ever had one bass 'failure' & that was only an E String that suddenly popped - it was my fault, bass was headless but you could clamp regular strings rather than using double ball end. I'd been a bit 'over enthusiastic' with my clamping technique & had virtually snapped the end of the string off. Had an amp blow a fuse & the Sadowsky was a life saver, just went straight into the foh instead with a little bass through monitors. Worst thing that happened to me once was when a lead inextricably failed just as we were about to encore. I didn't carry a spare and the only thing I had was a 1 foot patch lead. Had to play the two encore songs with the bass up around my ears at a crazy angle whilst jamming myself up against the amp & cabs. The band thought I was just 'showing off', lol.

I was listening to that album on Friday night whilst cooking and wondered if anyone was at the gig Sounds like a good 'un . . .

Love it Pete I recently drove up to Harrogate & back & loaded my Steely Dan box set onto the iPod for the journey. Every time I go over the back catalogue I find another song I'd missed previously, lol. Saw you in Reading a couple of years ago (at least I assume it was you!). Often look out to see if you are coming back this way

[quote name='Ricardo' post='904207' date='Jul 24 2010, 06:16 PM']Mick's first album "Titles" is now selling around the £50 mark, I can't believe how quick people are at making a fast buck from other peoples misfortune, this I had on vinyl and so thought I'd download it from iTunes. I checked out that it was avaialble and it was for £7.90, I needed an iTunes card and when I went back on they'd removed it so no doubt Apple will be cashing in on this too, needless to say I 've sent them a snotty email.[/quote] I got quite excited when I saw this as I have a pristine copy of the album on vinyl & thought I'd EBay it & send the money to the appeal. However I've just looked on EBay & there's a copy sitting at 99p with only 6 hours to go & plenty of other copies at £4 - £5 on BIN Only heard about Mick's plight this morning (inspired to hunt out some 80's fretless playing after listening to some John Giblin late last night). I saw on his site that the state health system has agreed to treat him over in Cyprus now (he didn't have an approved medical card when first diagnosed apparently) but this doesn't necessarily mean he's any better off financially

[quote name='RhysP' post='918537' date='Aug 8 2010, 08:45 AM']I'm a big fan Of Giblins playing too. However, in both the live videos you posted that's not John Giblin playing, it's Alan Thompson. He didn't play on the first Kate Bush album either. On "Wuthering Heights" it's probably David Paton. Kate used a wide variety of bass players - don't assume any fretless playing on her stuff is Giblin, it's just as likely to be Eberhard Weber or Del Palmer. It's definitely Giblin on "Babooshka" & "Breathing" though. Both absolutely brilliant bass parts.[/quote] That'll teach me to go YouTube hunting at 2 in the morning, lol. I always think of Danny T on upright bass and thought that Giblin was out live with John Martyn around the Grace and Danger era - of course the live vids could have come from any time.

ooh - I'd forgotten he worked with Kate Bush. I love his playing on Breathing. Here he is live with John Martyn again: EDIT - This actually Alan Thompson but it's so good I thought it was well worth leaving here He really does have a great way of weaving around the vocal without over-playing & getting in the way of the melody

I've never really been a fretless man but I just love John Giblin's playing with John Martyn. My all time favourite has to be Hurt in Your Heart. Studio version: and live: EDIT - my mistake, this is Alan Thompson playing John Giblin's lines and John M talking about the song in '07: I really miss the old bugger. . .