Mokl

15 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

Is that true?  Certainly, it feels like it at times.  Last nice, I was rubbish at my rehearsal, but others thought it wonderful.   I was careful to play in time, but the chord charts were clearly wrong and thus, my note choices were too.  However, nobody seemed to notice.

 

That's jazz, man.

For anybody interested, or may stumble across this post in the future,  I sent the pickup to Armstrong Pickups for repair. Was returned in just over 1 week working perfectly.  The repair cost was extremely reasonable too - highly recommended! 

3 hours ago, Boodang said:

Don't get me started on the price of Foderas!! 

As far as Wal's are concerned, and I don't know why it irkes me so much(!), I just can't see why they are prohibitively expensive. Bolt on neck, solid body, excellent hardware and quality materials but really, 4.5k starting price new.. where's the money being spent?!! 

I had a Sei bass made to spec, ebony & wenge, ABM hardware, thru neck, compound radius neck profile, umpteen coats of lacquer, leds for side dots... 2k (including a full flight case) and the craftsmanship is second to none. Where is the extra 2.5k going on the Wal? The easier bolt on neck construction?! 

It shouldn't bother me, if people want to pay then fair enough, but I just think it's taking the p*ss slightly. 

As for the price of classic Fenders..  well again, if you want to pay, fair enough but it might be an investment rather than good value for money. 

To be fair,  you'd be doing well to get a new Sei with that spec commissioned for £2k these days.  They have always been great value for what they though.  

You could make the investment comment about the Wal. My first one (used) cost me £900 in the noughties. Shortly after I bought a used Sei for £200 more.  I lost money on the Sei...

4 minutes ago, Boodang said:

By comparison, the upright I currently covet, and madly thinking of saving up for, is the Nick Lloyd Double Bass as used by Ben Ezra. At 45k it is considered a bargain in the upright world.

By contrast the electric bass I'm currently considering is a Vigier passion, which at 3k is considered top endish in the bass guitar world. 

Don't even get me started on the price of bassoons.

I think the law of diminishing returns definitely applies, but can't you apply that to pretty much anything?

Having worked in music retail for nearly a decade, I can say that the cheaper basses are better than they've ever been, representing amazing value and choice.  Have I ever played a £400 bass that sounded or played as good to me as one of my personal basses - no, not even close, if I'm being honest.  Whether that's some internal justification going on I couldn't say,  but my main basses despite being in the "high end" category  have been in my possession for long enough as not to owe me anything, so I'd like to think not.  In fact if I could find a £400 bass that sounded and played as well, and I knew would be reliable and consistent year after year,  gig after gig, I'd get it and recoup some of my original investment in current no. 1 for what I suspect would be a small capital gain! 

Regardless of if it cost £100 or many times more,  I'll take any bass that will allow me to indulge in my passion; it's just given my personal set of priorities, the value I place on the pleasure I get from music,  and to be frank - without wishing to sound like a tosser - my reasonable competence on the instrument, the ones that work for me best simply  happened to cost much more. 

"Value" is so subjective that it feels completely aimless trying to define it on a bass forum! I guess it's fun to try. 

16 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

I’m not technical but could it be rewound to fix the issue 🙂

Thanks, yes I'm wondering if this might be an option.  Any links/recommendations gratefully received  

 Really annoyed! The neck pickup on my De Gier Bebop is an Aguilar 70s Jazz. I bought the bass used,  and the pickup was actually dead on arrival.  Cue disappointment and to and fro with the retailer.  I was keen to hold onto the bass as I loved everything about it,  had the control cavity off, poked about a bit and for some reason it same to life - happy days! 

3 months later,  at band rehearsal last night,  it suddenly decides to give up again, having been faultless since the 'fix'.

I've run a soldering iron over some of the connections, including the pickup terminals in the hope it's a dry joint.  I have had the pickup out completely,  put the wires into the relevant portions of a Jack plugged into my amp and tapped the poles with a screw driver (not very scientific,  but ime you can determine if the pickup is working this way.. ). So it seems the pickup is dead. 

When I have more time over the next few days I'll try connecting the working  bridge unit to the neck pot to double check, but I don't have much hope. 

I have no recourse as the bass was second hand but am not really in a position to shell out for an AG70s set Anybody have any advice/ experience they can share?! 

Sadly for us bass players, Michael Pedulla retired a year or so back.  Still regret not jumping on a well-used MVP4 on eBay with a buy it now of £650 some years back 🤦‍♂️

Nice 🤘

13 hours ago, fretmeister said:

 

No.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=883528155620074

 

 

 

And on his Instagram

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CULlb9DsuWl/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

 

 

 

And the big thread on the other place

 

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/doug-johns-endorsing-sandberg.1527260/

 

 

Ahhh, I'd actually clocked that on the 'other site' , and liked the playing in the vid there but hadn't realised it was the same bloke! 

 Stumbled across this dude on Youtube. Cool chops, lovely feel and just love the tone. Is he well known and I've just missed him?!! 

Wow, that's a lot of ebony!

Just to add my 70s Jazz is now very close to needing a refret - it's a great example of the type!

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

I normally play jazzes and I only like 100% original fenders, but I’ve seen a 72 precision and  it’s had a re-fret, do you think this devalues it if I was to re sell it 

I see refretting as a necessary part of maintaining an instrument as it gets older, so if done well it wouldn't bother me. As suggested ime it can be a good sign that the bass is a real "player". From a collector's perspective I can see how it might affect value though. 

What's your monitoring like for rehearsing?  We've done it at times when we've been drummer-free, and it was OK, but no substitute for the kinda stuff we play. Being able to hear a drum machine well whilst rehearsing was half the battle for us.

No, not a chance! 

Beware rose-tinted spectacles! I get wistful for basses I've parted with from time to time, but generally there's been a good reason for moving them on. Some have been truly incredible instruments that just didn't quite work for me.  That looks pretty fantastic though, maple board too -  exactly what I'd want. 

Hmmm, thanks for the input everyone, I'm  maybe having 2nd thoughts now.  The fact the set up was so bad didn't help. 

This bass is definitely passive. We had one very similar back when I worked in the music shop all those years ago, and annoyingly  I can't remember much about it playability/sound-wise, but I was 5 string averse at the time! 

Thanks, I was in music retail about early 00's and never thought much of the US Fenders tbh, but you'd get the odd gem come along.

I've a feeling this one might be a player with a good set up,  so guess it might be worth a punt at the right price.  

 I've come across one of these,  looks like it's from 2001 judging by the serial number. It's the version where the machine heads are all in line,  not 4 + 1 like the current models. 

It would be an American Standard I guess (passive).

Tje set up is shocking, but provided the truss rod is ok,  I'm tempted. It's light and seems nicely resonant. Overall condition is pretty good.  Anybody got any experience,  good or bad of this era Jazz V,  before I take the plunge?

Any idea on value would be helpful too! 

That looks great 👍  very reasonable price too.

Outstanding!

Really like the look of these.  If they did a 5 string Jazz I'd be all over it!

A P-bass with a Batman sticker on the pickguard, and oddly mismatched pickup pole pieces?! 😉

.. and the Sadowskys too!