geoham

Sounds like a familiar story! I think it’s partly familiarity and sentimentality for me. When I bought my Jazz, it was the most expensive thing I’d ever bought. I saved up my tips from working in a bar for AGES and traded in my old Tanglewood to buy it, and finally getting my own proper Fender meant hell of a lot to me. Now, I have a salaried job and also make some extra cash from gigging. I could have any bass I want (within reason!), but I’ll be sticking with my old Jazz for the foreseeable. I don’t dislike my Lakland... but it may well be looking for a new home before long. George

I have a MIM Fender Jazz that I’ve had since 2002ish and made a few modifications along the way. It was my third bass , but my first ‘proper’ one. I don’t know what it is about this bass, but I love it. I’ve owned a multitude of other basses over the years, and inevitably they are all shown the door eventually! I gig a fair bit and don’t keep basses that don’t get used live. For example, I currently own a Lakland 55-01 and this is technically better in every way compared to Jazz. I love the tonal flexibility, make use of the 5th string loads, love the idea of hipshot tuners, graphite rods in the neck and 35 inch scale.I always get a good sound too! However, I just get on better with the Jazz, and I can’t quite quantify why! So, I just describe it as better mojo... I know that a modern, active 5 string and a Jazz are entirely different beasts, but it’s been a similar tale for many others too. I’m a bit disappointed in myself, as this realisation has all but killed off GAS! Anyone else have this affinity for a particular instrument?

Around Christmas, I received loads of deliveries, only two of these were from Hermes and neither showed up. They were to only company I had trouble with. The first - a super-king duvet. Scanned on to a van, out for delivery and doesn’t show. Eventually classed as ‘lost’. It’s not like something that size fell down the back of a seat... Second - an expensive handbag. Scanned in to the local depot, but never scanned out on to a van. Took two weeks for the retailer to give up hope and refund me. Immediately after this, the bag showed as ‘left in safe place’ on the Hermes tracker... not sure what that was all about, nothing ever arrived! Such a ridiculous company with no idea what they are doing. They set delivery dates on their system, yet never bother to do anything proactively with things don’t get delivered by these dates. You’d think it’d be worthwhile employing an analyst to report on shipments that aren’t where they should be, then use it to hold people to account.

I wish I could take this view... most of my band colleagues couldn’t plug in a speaker cable or work a mixer if their lives depended on it!

This is all very interesting. If something similar could work with a Zoom B3n, it may tame my Helix GAS for a bit!

While the comedy value of this isn’t lost on me, I’d argue there is at least a little truth in it -though maybe less so than in days of yore when budget gear sometimes verged on being unplayable. If a shiny new purchase encourages someone to play more, surely that’s a good thing? The same logic can be applied widely... does your new gym clothes make you want to go to the gym more, or does your new camera lens encourage you to take more pictures? Many hobbies cost money - golf-club memberships, home-brewing equipment, entry fees to Star Trek conventions.... whatever your thing is, I’m sure there’s money to be spent. If you work hard to earn your money, and buying something doesn’t prevent you from feeding the kids or paying the mortgage - then go ahead and enjoy yourself. Obviously there is a pretty steep diminishing returns factor to consider, not to mention that people should be weary about getting in to debt to fund music gear. Finally, be thankful that we are lucky enough to play affordable instruments that are mass produced to a high standard. I know a violinist who has an instrument worth as much as my house, and a classical guitarist who was ridiculed while studying for his masters for not having a suitable instrument.His parents ended up shelling out a tidy sum for one. There’s undoubtedly a huge amount amount of elitism in the classical world, and you won’t be taken seriously without spending thousands. I don’t think we have the same problem with bass guitar. George

When I was a kid at school, I took bass lessons but spent more time playing Oasis songs on guitar - so most of my early bass work was for exams. I know I played Axel F and The Pink Panther for my Standard Grade music, so I suppose one of them would be the ‘first’. I started playing bass in bands at about 18, after getting frustrated at efforts to recruit a bassist who was at least half capable! So the first song of my own choosing was probably something by Oasis, or perhaps Hey Joe!

+1 For the lighter gear argument. Many of my gigs are in city centre venues, and it’s not unknown to need to park half a mile away. A 1x12 and a class D head make it a single trip!

Many years ago, I worked for a well known computer company. A business customer needed 16 CMOS batteries - each about the size of a 10p coin. For whatever reason, our service providers decided to ship each one in a box around the size of a shoe-box! The customer certainly wasn’t happy!

With the amount of gigs that the 13th Note put on, I’m surprised they don’t have a pool of sound guys they could have called upon. I’m sure they did in the past - a former band-mate’s cousin did it while he was at college, and I think he only did a gig or two each week.

Can’t knock service like that, I had something similar with Zoom and it definitely encourages a bit of brand loyalty. Its good to see they recognise that the cost of doing the right thing is worth it. One customer publicly singing their praises on a forum like this is at least as effective as shiny advert. Total contrast to Samsung for example, who weren’t interested in at all when an 18 month old TV just stopped working.

It’s actually not the worst idea... one P can sound modern and bright, another can have a more smooth, dark vintage tone. You may want to have ‘twins’ and string one with flats, or perhaps have one in BEAD tuning. And that’s before you even get in to how they look, fingerboard materials etc. Hopefully this will help cure your illness! George

Here’s how I would approach the situation:- - List the songs you already know, and confirm you know them in the right key! - Categorise the rest based on difficulty. You might get lucky and have many songs with simple, repeating chord sequences where you can get away with root notes. - By focusing on the low hanging fruit to start with, you’ll probably end up with a far shorter list of songs you need to work on. Some other tips that have helped me in the past:- - Put all the songs on to a Spotify playlist (or similar), and listen to it while commuting, working or whatever. You may be surprised how much your brain takes in subconsciously. - Focus on what’s important in songs. Unless there is a recognisable bass part, then just playing the root of the chords could be enough to get you through until you learn a song properly. On the other hand, take the time to learn any important or recognisable riffs. - Don’t let getting the ‘right sound’ get in the way of learning a part. Playing the correct part with a clean P bass sound will normally go down better a badly played part with the right sound. - Keep an eye on your guitarist or keyboard players left hand if you get lost! More than anything, enjoy yourself. Good luck! George

I had a Mag 300 head and matching 2x10 cab. I did really like the sound from it. Just straight in to the amp with no effects and it was easy enough to get a great sound. However, both components were heavy, far from ideal when playing in city centre pubs where you are lucky to get a parking space within half a mile! Also, I found I had to really crank it on occasion - like when auditioning with a really loud band who played covers in social clubs (not metal!). Anyway, I eventually replaced it with a TC Electronic rig. A BH550 head easily fits in the same bag as my cables and effects, and a single RS112 is enough to do the job pretty much everywhere I play. It’s about a third of the weight and at least as loud. However, I do miss ‘that’ tone, along with the Ashdown aesthetics. If I had a roadie, I’d definitely have a big Ashdown rig. While I’m shifting my own gear - the lighter the better.

A Town Called Malice, but The Jam. I never get any complaints from the band, but I never feel like I can get the right feel and fluidity to it.

One question from me. I will be attending with my guitarist friend. Will a bass ticket also get us access to the guitar event?

I reckon a solution like this would work well, it would totally transform how I use the pedal - really simplifing live usage.

When I was a lad, I named my first band ‘The Eccentrics’, after the line in She’s Electric by Oasis. A great name I thought....we played a few school shows before going out separate ways.

I do love the sounds of the B3n, but there’s a few things that drive me a bit crazy. I’m trying to convince myself that I don’t need to buy something Helix-y! I’m keen to hear other people’s views. - Double-unit effects in stompbox mode. If I want to set up a patch like a mini-pedalboard, say noise-reduction > compressor > octave > Sansamp > chorus, I’d ideally like to have the last three visible and assigned to the foot switches. However, the double unit Sansamp takes up two footswitches, even though I’d never use the 2nd - making it pretty annoying to use live. It’d be useful to be able to hide the 2nd half of the pedal. - Poor expression pedal configuration. It’d be useful to be able to just the expression pedal as a master-volume, or be able to change parameters of effects like you could on the original B3. However, you need to add the expression pedal as an effects unit - again adding to the first issue above if you for example want to place it before a drive unit a a volume pedal to control the gain. I’ce found myself making a tonne of presets to overcome these issues - which has become quite a time consuming process to manage. Overall, there are definite improvements to the original B3, but it frustrates me as much as I love the sounds. Something like an external midi controller could help if someone could figure it out. Or Zoom could probably do it with a firmware update! George

That may have been the problem with mine too!

I bought a MIM P a few years back (maybe 6!), and I was pretty happy with the build quality. However, I found the pickup to be pretty harsh sounding and also much louder than my other basses at the time. A Tonerider was much smoother, warmer sound. Enough rambling.... what do the new ones sound like? Can anyone compare to any other Precisions? I don’t see a huge amount of difference in spec between those and the US made Performers, but a fair jump in price!

It’s a good point. I was in a celtic rock band before, and our violinists day job was playing in orchestras. Her violin was worth as much as the estimate on Gilmour’s black Strat, but was owned by a trust who had loaned it to her. Side note... she didn’t use this for live work with us! Her electric violin was a much better fit!

I wonder if this is his way of telling us that he’s finished with music? Or maybe he’ll just buy a Harley Benton, keep going and still sound like Gilmour! Anyway to me, those two Strats are among the most famous guitars in the world, the black one in particular is a proper piece of rock history. I imagine they will go for crazy money, probably never to played again.

I do my own setups - I learned when I could barely afford picks never mind paying someone to set up my bass! Now I could afford it, but still do it myself. I’ve also done loads of other work myself - changing pickups, bridges, neck shimming etc. However, I’ve always been terrified to touch my frets. My 17 year old Jazz Bass definitely needs a bit of fret work now, the first 7 or so frets are pretty worn where the strings contact. You may have inspired me to give it a go...

Wow! I love the colour but what a price!