NickA

Tom Kennedy and Gary Willis ... two superb bass players I'd never really heard of (shock!). Got to say Gary Willis' technique is very neat indeed; hand position, position changes everything; thumb firmly behind the neck. Likewise John Patitucci (though he's usually playing way up the nec with six strings so has no option). Anthony Jackson too. So far I conclude that technical Jazz bassists play like classical guitarists with the thumb at the back of the neck occasionally swiveling it round to the side of the neck when playing near the nut. Rock players and funk players don't seem to care so much - but not sure what they gain from the bass ball bat grip. You have 280 basses and made a fortune out of space rock?? Wow!! NB: not wishing to diss Mr Lee I used to like Rush aged 17 or so (hemispheres / permanent waves etc), though an an ocassional play of Spirit of Radio is all I need these days. He wrote some good songs and he pumps out some good bass lines, in tune and in time .. I'd be happy to be able to do that. But he might be even better if he kept his left hand in order :¬) :¬)

Whilst (supposed to be) working at home ... keep watching vides of people playing basses. There is one chap who does Karaoki style play alongs to Rush tracks (not my thing but interesting to watch) and he plays with his thumb hooked around the fingerboard as if holding a tennis racket. Well, I though that didn't look right so had a look at Geddy Lee playing the same tunes ... blow me, he also holds the neck like a bat a lot of the time. So what about actually really good bass players: Tech Wizz and Tutor Scott Devine = never seems to move his thumb off the back of the neck and his lessons explain why Jaco Pastorious = very occasionally moved his thumb to the edge of the neck but didn't hook it over Victor Wooten = mostly plays with his thumb at the back but it does come around to the side now and then Stan Clarke = often grabs the neck bat style, especially when playing slap, puts it round the back when playing strings of notes - but his hands are so huge he's lost for somewhere to put them Marcus Miller = bassball bat, seriously, his thumb is hooked or up in the air and rarely goes round the back Lawrence Cottle = even Lawrence will put his thumb round the side, now and then (but mostly not) John Entwistle = hooked to the extent he's using his thumb to fret notes. Mark King = a hooker, definitely a hooker Having strived to keep my left hand mobile and hence my thumb behind the neck (as I was taught when learning the 'cello and double bass) is this a good thing ... or does it really not matter? Or is there some special occasion when it's a good thing? ... or am I spending too much time in front of a PC avoiding work ;¬)

Floating thumb ever since I bought a 5-string. It was never an issue on fretless 4-string.

Double bass and electric bass = quite different instruments for me. 124 on the double bass with the occasional "Rabat" extension. 1234 "OFPF" on the electrics. It would be quite nice to use double bass technique on the electric bass but it just feels "wrong" somehow; it's a waste of a finger, my 3rd finger is stronger than my 4th and the scale is a bit short to "lose" the 3rd finger anyway. I can see the advantage when playing near the nut, but then, at what position would you change to 1234? Bunches of bananas and bass-ball bat grip strictly forbidden ... pure snobbery probably.

That is likely the truth about the Delanos and the MECs in my Warwick ... doesn't leave much space between the (fat) pole pieces to fit in two lots of windings; but if you put in big enough magnets you don't need so many turns of wire! Kent A told me his were stacked ... but seriously, who knows without a destructive examination! Wal's pickups have a separate winding around each of the 8 (or 10, or 12!) pole pieces, then the four in each row are added in series. One row is reversed compared to the other so could be added in series or parallel - always series I think on custom/mk1/mk2/mk3 active basses - and still buck the hum. They "could" have reversed the phase half way along each row (on 4s and 6s anyway) and provided a single coil output that was still noise free.... may suggest that to Paul Herman ... but seriously, those basses have quite enough knobs and sounds already!

I'm not taking my Delanos apart to confirm that! But the "no magnets" coil must still pick up a bit of the magnetic field from the "got magnets" coil as they are stacked one on top of the other; so there will be a bit of signal cancellation as well as the near total noise cancellation .. but the output is still pretty high and they work fine in a passive bass. My Warwick has a single MEC active J-type pickup at the neck and a double version (humbucker) at the bridge. That bass is also silent in any of the six pickup combinations (neck, neck and 2x bridge, neck and 1x bridge, 2x bridge 1x bridge) - probably has similar winding inside each coil to the Delanos ... the output is much lower though and needs the active electronics to bring it up to a useful level.

They did that Rosco Beck one with HH pickups too. Same thing as the dimension in a different package? Fat Jazz bass as you say; they sound really good (in a Fender plus sort of way). Fender dumped that one too. To quote someone on talkbass: "No matter how good a new bass design is from Fender, they have a real uphill battle to get acceptance. People don't typically look at Fender when they want something different than the "normal". The bass that Mr Beck really wanted Fender to make was this one: Much too radical for Fender.

My "Jazz bass" type bass has standard "single coil" shaped Jazz pickup that are actually humbuckers. Two coils wound in different directions but only one set around the magnetic poles; so no hum when using just one pickup (it works, they're silent) but still the narrow aperture that gives the less fat sound and clearer harmonics. Mine are Delano, but I think they are quite common - I remember Kent Armstrong (the man himself) offering me a set in 1983 when all I could afford was a re-wind.

In the case of my old trace ( now sold on) it had a huge transformer; I think the fuse went if you hit the mains switch at an unfortunate part of the supply voltage waveform ( transformer inrush ). Worked fine for 20 years otherwise ... gone now.

Novel? In pickup options, it looks strangely similar to an HH Stingray to me. How does it sound? Stingray like or quite different?

Indeed, Should have auto voltage selection in this day and age ( my Chinese made American pjb kit does ). Still, check the fuse. I had a trace combo that often blew it's fuse on startup for no obvious reason.

Could ... Just be the fuse gone? Also check if there is a 110v / 230v selector switch on the back and if it's set to 230v.

Tried to buy this beauty today... Beaten to it. Bit of research shows Alan was selling it a couple of years back, then it was £2600 on reverb ( with a dfm pre amp) then bass direct sold it this week ( with a u retro pre amp, by the look). for a mere £1300. How can that workmanship come at that price and then halve in value over two years??? Anyway, unless I'm missing something, seems a very good deal for the lucky buyer! I shall have an ACG one day.

About how much is "not the least expensive"? Electric wood quoted me £600 to refin a Wal Custom. I wouldn't subject it to the least expensive job, but £600 was a bit much for something that wouldn't change the sound. I passed, I'm sticking with the "gigged" look for now ...but y'know, shiny things.

It's ..... a basse de violon what once belonged to Dragonetti. Sort of super sized cello precursor, tuned in fifths but quite a long scale. https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/trails/music-in-the-royal-collection

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Not mine, but the only p bass I've ever had gas over:

I've been working on 5-string for a year now. The extra string issue goes away in time though my smallish hands still struggle a bit with the extra width of fingerboard. Harder is learning to play in all the new positions it opens up instead of slipping back into first position and open strings. You CAN play it as a four with extra deep notes, but I think that's not the main point. 6 weeks to learn a new instrument is perhaps a bit short? Especially if you're and old dog (like me) doing new tricks.

Is that: a walking bass-encyclopedia or a walking-bass encyclopedia? Love the workmanship on that Smith btw. Tempted to buy one just to stroke it. Incredible value for the quality of work.

" ^^^ that's just showing off " I've an unstained acoustic too but forgot I had it.