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molan
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Everything posted by molan
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I have to say that my AC has really made me re-appraise what I'm looking for in a bass. It's not the most stunning bass I've owned to look at - in fact I still struggle a bit with the headstock and, in my personal casen sunburst isn't my favourite finish. However I do think it just 'works' better than anything I've owned. My only current reservation is that I haven't had a chance yet to play it back to back against my favourite Spector. It's also made me think more about my Overwater J - a very fine bass indeed. The OW compares very favourably with the AC - certainly if you take the relative costs into accout. I'm woondering a different pre in the OW would bring it even closer. I have an Audere kicking around which might give me some different options to the J-Retro it currently has.
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Going to the USA and bringing a bass - bit of a dilemma!
molan replied to Mike's topic in General Discussion
I'd definitely go with the option of buying something out there if you really need one. Check the SF shops in advance & pre-order. Might find a decent used Squier for peanuts. Remove the neck on the way home & stick the parts in a suitcase (be prepared for US security to open your case though as it'll show up on the x-ray). Dragging something with you could be a right pain & you'll be worried up to the last minute on whether they'll let you on board or not! -
[quote name='carlosfandango' post='663465' date='Nov 24 2009, 09:10 AM']Hello neighbor! Hope all is well. That's a lovely bass! any chance I can come around and give it a play? Jakebass has got one and after have heard his I got seriously interested in getting one. You around this weekend? Cheers! Carl PS. Done a deal with Space and Time....do you know them?[/quote] Hi Carl, Yep, should around over the weekend - zap me a PM to arrange Vaguely aware of S&T - based somewhere out of town I think? -
Damn - thought this was sold but my buyer has pulled out
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I must admit that a good starting point might be to stop thinking of this as a '63 Jazz. If you think about it as something with a nice neck & body that you've grown to love plus some old electrics then all you're potentially tinkering with is something that has sentimental (rather than high monetary) value. If you're sentimental about the heavy body then just keep it & accept you need to buy one of the zillions of fantastic light weight basses on the market today. If you're not sentimental than hang on to the bits you like & junk the rest - plenty of lighter weight bodies out there to fit the neck to and your end result would be just as much a '63 J as your current bass. One thing to watch out for might be balance - if it currently balances really well then a lighter body could wreck this and make it neck heavy (although a set of hipshot ultralites could make a huge difference).
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[quote name='wateroftyne' post='658125' date='Nov 18 2009, 02:22 PM']It's about flippin' time! Glad you're finally up to it. That's good news. Anyway.. it's a GREAT bass. That pickup is as poky as they get, and the whole bass feels great. [/quote] Only issue I had was that it didn't balance as well as my AC or MTD (my 'reference' basses). However that may simply be that I was using an old school smooth leather strap rather than one of my Comfort Strapps which tend to support the bass better.
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[quote name='wateroftyne' post='658122' date='Nov 18 2009, 02:18 PM']*baits breath* [/quote] Opps - hit the send button by mistake - must have still been in shck from the joy of a '72 P last night
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So I bought WoT's lovely '72 P bass on a bit of a whim & have been mostly just playing quietly at home. However last night I took to rehearsals just to see how it worked in a band mix at loud volume (of course we rehearse far too loudly!). I sounded just great with such an out & out rock tone. There was a pick sitting on top of the bass amp & I just couldn't resist using it - despite having not played anything with a pick for years. Dropped the strap a few notches & I was in pure old school rock heaven Thin Lizzy bass parts kept popping into my head & I'm sure I managed to irritate everyone, expect my loud ex thras metal guitarist, by continually hitting everything really hard & playing far too many notes. . . Had a great time though - will ahve to try the '78 J next week in the same setting
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Had a couple of people very interested in this & I'd rather see it go to someone here if possible so I'm going to keep it off the Bay for now
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[quote name='lozbass' post='655098' date='Nov 15 2009, 11:58 AM']A very kind offer! I haven't even received the Celinder yet though. The Alembic is gorgeous but it's far too big for me - I can only cope with the tidgy four-stringers[/quote] Scale length is about 3" too long for you as well Lawrence
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Just a quick note to say that this may head to the Bay pretty quickly. All the interest I've had so far has been from mainland Europe - good old strength of Euro vs the £ obviously having an effect! With this in mind I may get more for it by opening up to a wider audience via EBay Europe & tomorrow is a free listing day
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sh*t - I thought I'd try & dig out some more of Larry Carlton's work & just read his autobiography. Had no idea he was a victim of 'random gun violence' right outside his studio a few years back & was shot in the throat, shattering his vocal chords! Had loads of therapy etc & still playing but that must have been one hell of an experience. . .
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[quote name='MB1' post='654063' date='Nov 13 2009, 09:51 PM']MB1. ...A Lovable Rogue!..Sorry!.... i'll Get me Coat! [/quote] Ha ha. . . Mind you, at least I have consistently, and correctly, called it a Rogue - I've seen more than one of these up for sale in the past as a Rouge. Conjures up a very different image
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So here's a a seriously nice Alembic Rogue 5 string. It really is quite a spectacular bass but I'm not playing it enough to justify keeping it - and this particular one genuinely is a 'player's' bass. It was originally commissioned on Oct 16th '99 and has obviously been used as a genuine gigging bass & shows some signs of wear - nothing nasty just good 'old school' player wear which I always thought added some decent mojo to an already lovely piece of workmanship It's a great way to get an introduction to the higher end Alembic neck through basses and has the very desirable factory upgrade of the Signature electronics package as well (whilst retaining the original Rogue treble & bass boost/cut flick switches!). Playability is great, neck is perfect & truss rods are all working Ok. Electronics are all glitch and crackle free. Hardware is showing some age & use but all working perfectly as well - let's face it, Alembic build quality is second to none and totally built to last forever! The top is wenge with a natural satin polyurethane finish over a mahogany body and the accents are maple. Neck is also maple with a 35" scale & the fingerboard is a beautiful ebony with classic Alembic pearloid ovals The Signature electronics add an amazing array of flexibility & a huge range of sounds - coupled with the Rogue options this really is a Signature+ tonal option. if you've never tried an Alembic with the flexible Q options then it's really a whole new world! Current US price on one of these would be $8,300 and the electronics plus a wenge top must have added close to another $1,000 to this. That's about £5,500 worth of bass. . . The Rogue is about $500 below a Signature Standard but with the electronics upgrade it would actually come out more expensive than one of these. I've seen some Signature Standards selling for £3,500+ in the UK Comes with the original custom fit G&G case. More than happy to ship anywhere in the world really I'll consider trades for either something that's relatively easy to sell like a USA Fender or Musicman or something interesting (which would have to be a 5 string). Would also think about another higher end Alembic like a Signature Deluxe. Ok - time for some pics!
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I have an all maple NS5XL and I can't say I've noticed any drop in volume when playing hard although the Euro I had for a while was definitely considerably higher output & could easily overload my amp which would ahve lead to some natural compression. pics of mine here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=24492&hl=ns5xl"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=24492&hl=ns5xl[/url]
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[quote name='beerdragon' post='650709' date='Nov 10 2009, 03:08 PM']Yeah, i know people who don't like the Beatles.[/quote] That'll be me then - I find them almost unlistenable - if one of their songs comes on the radio then I'm heading for the change channel button almost immediately! In terms of the Dan - I love the idea of 'treating' yourself to a morning of their best work I bought the 4 CD box set a while ago & love it. I have some original albums but really enjoy playing through the whole catalogue in sequence. Apart from a lot of the stuff that's been said elsewhere in this thread I think it's the guitar solos that really stand out for me. So many amazing solos seemingly just dropped in and pretty much every one of them has something really listenable whilst also being bloody clever. I think Larry Carlton probably plays my favourite ones but I don't know each track well enough to know exactly who plays on which song. There's a couple of them in the middle of this sequence on Youtube (skip straight to about 1:30 if you want to miss Hill Street!)
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My old Esh had quite a complex set of active & piezo switching options but if you put everything in one particular setting then they were all bypassed, including volume, for a 'studio' tone. Not sure if it was a true bypass or not but it was actually my favourite setting!
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Nice one Dirk, You'll have to let us know what you think about the Smith -
A budget range of between £500 & £1,200 is pretty wide. Towards the lower end you're in good quality Fender & beginning to hit Musicman territory but once you go over £1,000 in the used market then you can think about serious high end basses that would have been close to £2K new. One relatively big decision that might help to kick off with is the core size & shape of bass. E.G. Would you prefer something smaller bodied like your SGC or a Fender 'clone' with a Jazz or a P shape? There is an amazing range of quality J shaped basses around from people like Overwater & Sei & £1,200 would definitely get you a nice one of these (there's a really nice Sei on EBay sitting at £1,000 at the moment). A lot will also depend on whether you're really after 'the one' bass to keep for a really long time or if you're prepared to try a few things and trade a lot. If you are going to swap things around then make sure you get something that's relatiely easy to re-sell if required. Simple answer to this is one of the nicer Fenders on the used market as these generally hold value well (although 5 string Fenders are a very mixed bunch). It really is way tougher to make a definitive choice up over £1K because there are so many choices, passive v active, exotic woods v painted, 'organic' wood v glossed, classic style v modern etc. As ever the thing to do is to try as many as you can get your mitts on
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My (first) wedding cake was in the shape of a white P Bass, lol. Must have an old pic of it somewhere in the family vaults!
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[quote name='steve-soar' post='648182' date='Nov 7 2009, 04:22 PM']Looks like Paddy McAloon, see my avatar. [/quote] That made me smile It also made me dig out my best of Prefab Sprout album
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[quote name='Platypus' post='646753' date='Nov 5 2009, 10:10 PM']Silver Fox with A/C alert came across this on YouTube: [url="http://www.youtube.com/user/roosjeetje#p/a/u/2/AzCV5ntbDWM"]http://www.youtube.com/user/roosjeetje#p/a/u/2/AzCV5ntbDWM[/url][/quote] Some good playing in the various bass extracts here I can't work out who the bass man actually is though - Paddy someone? Roger Happel is a keyboard player & singer as far as I know (I've heard of him working with Candy Dulfer).
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Hey Dirk - has this gone now?
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Wow this really is very pretty - I especiaslly like what Martin's done to the headstock on this one -
[quote name='Sibob' post='646135' date='Nov 5 2009, 11:56 AM']I definitly agree with that! I guess a lot of it is having a system in the room that joe bloggs recognises and is cheap and easy to replace. Si[/quote] I reckon sometimes it's simply that some people jsut want to see big old 'pro' looking rig in a rehearsal room. I've been to so many that have 300w+ bass rigs & 100w valve guitar stacks & everyone's cranking them up!