Misdee

 Lovely Mustang!

I too love a pale green bass, but different basses look good in certain colours, and I like the Talman in black. They all look good, but the black is my personal favourite for that bass. . 

I am thinking that, all things considered, I am going to plump for the Ibanez Talman.  It seems like it will be well-made and pretty versatile. The shape is pretty attractive to my taste, too. 

This whole exercise has been an eye-opener for me, though. I may well end up buying a less expensive bass for my own use in the near future. 

On 14/10/2020 at 18:54, P-Belly Evans said:

There is also the Harley Benton MB4 SB deluxe, if you fancy a passive Ray a like. Yours for 107 english pounds

I had a look at them on YT , amazing value and great sound,  but they are meant to be a bit on the heavy side according to some folks.

3 hours ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

.. and still they are going very strong (obviously helped by the pandemic and a large number of new hobbyists but still). 

https://www.nme.com/news/music/fender-to-sell-more-guitars-in-2020-than-any-other-year-in-history-2750069 

They have a very strong brand (quite some people prefer to read Fender on their headstocks instead of XYZ), come up with some "new" and "exciting" new features (i.e., copying what other companies have been offering for quite some time), some "new" names for already existing finishes (e.g., I read on TB that the new dark night finish was already part of the programme (under a different name of course) back in the late 80s/early 90s, rename their product lines every few years (e.g., Am standard - Am Pro - Am Pro II) to make it "fresh", a few tweaks here and there and that's pretty much it. Job done. I also doubt that their target mark is really open to too much innovation and change (Fender Dimension, anyone?). Quite a success story if you think about it. Two iconic models that have been around for 60 (J) and 70 (P) years without too much change apart from some small changes and a lot of marketing blurb. I mean you could put the 2020 Pro II into a music store back in 57 and it would not look displaced. Can't really say that about too many other products. Pretty amazing, don't you think?   

I take your point entirely, and yes, Fender will proliferate no matter what.

I just mean that there is no real reason why Fender can't make basses like they used to, just better . And Fender players mostly prefer their basses how they used to be at some point in the past. I am perfectly happy to have a new one, but they could incorporate the better things about the old basses with the best things about the new basses. Then I would be even more of a Fender fan. 

I will reserve judgement until I have played one, but it seems to me that Fender consistently shoot themselves in the foot by offering a "standard" range of American-made basses that, more often than not, are not particularly appealing both sonically and aesthetically.

Part of the problem is that they don't want to compete with their own Custom Shop, part of the problem is that they are not very in touch with what discerning players crave from a Fender.  All of this is compounded by their inconsistent quality control. 

The American Standard range was a lot more appealing than the subsequent American Professional range, IMO.  The Am Pro are perfectly ok, but just not very exiting. They should have stuck  with CS pickups , for my taste anyway. .

5 hours ago, TheGreek said:

The choice of "good basses" in your price range is a probably the best it's ever been.

As mention above, in "the good old days", "cheap" meant poorly made. Now you can pick up good basses for virtually nothing - the list is extensive - Revelation, HB, Yamaha, Sire, Squier, ad infinitum.

If I was starting over again I too would be overwhelmed with what to buy - lots of recommendations for most of this gear - just a case of choosing one and jumping in.

Yes , back in the day ,cheap basses used to be a waste of money. Now it seems you can get something very worthwhile for not a lot of dough.  Just another example of where the snowflake generation really don't know how well-off they are .😄

5 hours ago, hooky_lowdown said:

Get any Yamaha, the cheapest right through to the most expensive are superbly made, necks are lovely to play. Simply put, you can't go wrong with a Yamaha. 😀

I'm a big fan of Yamaha BB  basses, in fact I would say they are just about my favourite.

The sub-£200  Yamaha basses are not that attractive to me, but I take your point. 

6 hours ago, Big_Stu said:

What happened was at first the right channel kept cutting out, it would come back the next day but happened more and more often. Then it went totally silent. It still powers up etc and looks fully functional, apart from no sound.

Sounds fixable. Look for a specialist hifi dealer in your area ( if you have one) and ask if they have someone they can recommend who does repairs on audio equipment. As you have already found out, if  you have a CD63KI they will understand why you want to get it fixed. There are loads of old machines out there to provide cannibalised parts if Marantz can't provide the. 

1 minute ago, karrlander said:

I just bought a PJ74. Amazing bass for the money. The neck feels great and the setup was really good. I probably change the pickups, they are not bad, I just want a different tone. Found a set of half rounds that worked really well on it.  I can really recommend it!

As far as HB are concerned, I really fancy both the PJ-74  and the Shorty. 

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

If a Squier is out of reach, I don't think you can go far wrong with either of those.

I am finding it a bit hard to get my head round the idea that you can get a decent instrument in the sub-£200 range ( let alone sub-£100!). I came up in a time when cheap basses were truly awful. 

Funnily enough( ironically enough...) , the last bass I bought that cost less than £200 was a Squier JV  Series Jazz Bass, which cost me the princely sum of £185 in 1983.  Should have kept it, I know,  but hindsight is a wonderful thing. 🙁 No one ever suspected at the time that they would become so sought-after. 

"

11 hours ago, lownote12 said:

Revelation?

I've had a look , but they re a bit on the heavy side, apparently.

48 minutes ago, Paul S said:

My nomination goes to the Harley Benton Shorty P bass.  A nothing-short-of-miraculous £80 new.  Stick on a blindfold and I'd be hard pushed to think a bass of this quality didn't cost £4-500.  I've had just the one gig since Covid and I used it for this, sounded brilliant.  Just like how an old school P bass should sound.  Short scale, weighs next to nothing.  I fully intended to change hardware/pickup etc but, actually, I don't need to.  The tuners aren't the best but they do the job.   

The only thing I am changing is the scratch plate as I don't like white ones on black basses, but that is me.

Cheers, I'm having a look right now!

3 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

That '74 looks classic n' classy ...

Yes, it does seem to tick a lot of the right boxes ie Fender style, decent materials ect. 

Can basses this kind of price be acceptable quality, that is the question I keep asking myself. I've looked at some YT  vids and it seems that yes, they can . 

2 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

I recently picked up a Talman bass for a great price (£80 Unused) and it’s wonderful for the price point. It’s a full-size bass and sounds just brilliant.

Cheers, very good to know that. It looks like a strong contender. 

I want to buy a relatively inexpensive but decent  new bass as a gift for someone and I want to make the right choice.  I am a bit out of touch with that end of the market nowadays  . On my shortlist so far  are an Ibanez Talman and a Harley Benton  PJ-74. Any other suggestions very gratefully received. 

8 hours ago, 4000 said:

Jon says he just chooses words for how they sound in context, which is different to most people’s approach. I really like the slightly abstract feel they have. 
 

Have to say, in terms of Genesis solo albums, I rather like Anthony Phillips’ stuff. 

For me, Jon Andersons far-out lyrics are offset by his down-to-earth strong  Lancashire accent.

Listening  back to those classic Yes albums now, it really strikes me how, contrary to their reputation as overblown prog dinosaurs, the band sounds edgy and raw , especially compared to equivalent acts nowadays. They may do a lot of extended tracks, but as musicians they know how to be concise and to-the-point. And Chris Squire's bass sounds epic. 

'

Back when I was a youngster  in the late  1970's and just starting out on the bass, Yes epitomised overblown pretentious prog rock. Or so we were told. 

Listening now without the fashionable prejudices of those days ( which still proliferate), at their best, Yes were super- hip. Tracks like Heart Of the Sunrise, Close To The Edge, Roundabout ect still sound fresh and fearlessly experimental. I would venture that if a new young band with a contemporary  image  came on the scene today and made those tracks they would be lauded as creative geniuses.  Modern bands like Muse or Radiohead cannot get close to the  virtuosity and invention of Yes in their prime, and back in the early 1970's  Yes were their  cultural equivalent. 

Jon Andersons' lyrics are definitely a bit strange though, I must admit. 

I'd like to see a preamp pedal that actually sounds like an Ampeg SVT, with  some semblance of the variable midrange frequency control. 

19 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

I always thought the 1025 and 2025 pickups were the same, but they have different part numbers and Yamaha’s spares dept were charging slightly more for the 2025 ones. They could of course still be indentical!

 As I understand it , the pickups on the 2024/5 are made in Japan, the pickups on the 1024/5 are the same schematic  made elsewhere,  probably Indonesia or China.

Some people have just got something special about them . Teddy Pendergrass was one of those people, it seems to me. 

Teddy was a magnificent soul singer, right up there with the all-time  greats like Marvin Gaye , Otis Redding ect.  It's a shame he doesn't get quite the same recognition, because during his own  lifetime he was an icon  in America . Such a stylish man, too. 

If you watch live footage of him at his peak both he and his band were off-the-scale in terms of tightness. A class act.

Stunning colour scheme! Lakland ought to offer them like this one. It would be a popular choice.

On 06/10/2020 at 14:25, Big_Stu said:

I have a defunct Marantz 63 KI Signature CD deck, a world-beater in it's day. It died a few months ago. Marantz customer care is diabolical, they referred me to some depot in Blackpool, who didn't want to know because they found it impossible to get parts off Marantz. I suspect the laser has packed in. Calls to many local hi-fi shops have all expressed sympathy for the loss, "great machine", "a classic" etc. but were unable to advise further.

A guy my brother knows builds his own hi-fi so I'll be paying a visit with the deck one I'm safe to stop shielding. In the meantime I have a Pioneer CD-R deck I can use, not as good a sound, but better than many. 

The CD63KI is indeed a true classic. It's still a great-sounding piece of kit twenty-odd years after it came out .

If the deck in question has started skipping when you are trying to play a disc, there is a  good chance that what has happened is that the lubricant in the transport has dried out. It can  usually be re-lubricated by an  hifi repairer. The  particular Phillips transport the the CD63KI used was very prone to that fault  developing as the years pass. 

I'm not that keen on this bass, but Cliff Willliams is a much underrated bass player, for sure. A  couple of years go I had to learn a couple of AC/DC songs exactly as they are on the record, and they were far from simple and straight forward. They play some really clever turnarounds , and make them slightly different each time.  Check out the bassline on tracks like Riff Raff- quite unusual and really busy.  Cliff makes it sound easy, but there is a lot going on .

The timing is pretty tricky too, especially if you want to make it swing like AC/DC do. The whole band are really clever. Superb musicians who feel no need to draw unnecessary attention their chops.  Big respect from me.

Definitely the best Lizzy album, along with Live And Dangerous IMO. 

I remember  buying the LP when it came out back in 1979. They were always a special band, and Black Rose was them at their best. Great playing and, above all, superb song writing. Phil Lynott was a superstar. Great memories.