Misdee

For my taste, Bowie's backing band during the George Murray-era was one of the greatest of all time, never bettered. George Murray was a major influence when I first started playing during that time, and all these years later I now know enough to understand that he's even better than I thought he was! Such a tasty and inventive player. Nowadays my main bass is a black/tort/rosewood Fender-style PJ, a bit of wish-fulfilment from watching George playing with Bowie on TV back in the day. An enigmatic bass guitar icon. Delighted to see he's doing so well.

Maybe it's entirely appropriate that these basses end up in the hands of collectors rather than players. If your a serious player then get Sadowsky to make a bass that accommodates your own requirements, not Jason Newstead's. The thing about fancy instruments (although this bass is actually quite understated) is that they don't wear particularly well. Once they get dinged up a bit they look shabby rather than glamorous, rather like a stately home in disrepair. A beat-up Fender, on the other hand, is like an ex-council house with some bevvied-up chavs having a barbeque in the garden. Everything looks as it should and no one bats an eyelid.

You can't go wrong with a Stingray for some good honest meat and potatoes bass playing. It'll give you the thump of a P Bass with some added clarity and zing up top, depending on how you play it and set your e.q. Simple but very versatile and so much fun to play. If possible it might be nice to keep a P Bass too, though, just for the contrast.

I've been doing a bit of research and I have good news in so much as there seems to be a lot of variation in the finishes of the individual basses. Sweetwater have got a few blackburst ones in stock and they are all different. One looks like the one at Bass Direct, the others look more like the images that Spector have been disseminating. The downside to that is those inconsistencies mean if you want to buy one you then have to find one with a finish that matches your preference. Not just the right finish but also the right rendition of that finish.

It's actually a pretty tasty bass, except for those skulls on the fingerboard. Not my taste. Apart from that this would be a very useful instrument in any genre of music.

I've been a fan of Gene Perez's bass playing since I first heard MAW/NuYorican Soul back in 1997. He's the master of this style of bass playing. I love the fact that he's not afraid to play in an aggressive and busy style despite the current orthodoxy that less is more ect. Thing is, hearing this style of music always reminds me of shopping for clothes in trendy boutiques back in the 1990's. I keep expecting some obtuse sales assistant wearing a beret and ripped jeans to sidle up to me and ask if I want to try anything on. I usually just look at the prices and then ask for directions to the nearest branch of Millets. Like Dad, generally speaking I'm not really a fan of music with the thumping big beat- reminds me of trying to get to sleep while the bastard students next door are pretending to be Pete Tong-but I take everything on it's own merits. If it sounds good then fair enough.

I should have known it was too good to be true. Just when I thought I had found the perfect way to dip my toe into the world of Spector basses and live out my darkest 1980's hair metal fantasies. The finishes on the CST basses in the shops are nowhere near what is on the promotional instruments. I will just have to wait and see if Spector responds by improving the finishes, but I doubt they will.

Whether he's skint or not we will probably never know. If you have money, especially if you have lots, the whole world is conspiring to find a way to take it off you one way or another. That's why so many successful people end up broke. Judging by the esoteric nature of a lot of what he's selling though, my gut instinct is that he's just getting rid of stuff to declutter etc. Black album-era Metallica was pretty iconic in the rock bass genre. Jason is a very smart player with an admirable taste in basses. But as people get older they can feel burdened by their possessions more than they enjoy owning things they aren't actually going to use anymore. Maybe Jason is just getting rid of stuff that he just doesn't find useful, appealing or really want anymore. Like a 10 string Alembic that weighs a ton, a double neck Rick ect ect. A lot of the stuff is pretty niche. He's giving someone else the opportunity to find out how useless it is. I haven't seen the complete list of what he is selling, but I hope he is keeping his best stuff though. Like the '81 Spector ect. Last I heard he was putting together a classic heavy rock-style band, and he might need some tasty black basses to do the job.

Was it a four or a five, may I ask?

On the five string, certainly. Drives me crazy.

I like your taste.

If Jason Newstead doesn't want them then I don't either. Don't let me put you off though, this could be your only chance to get that ten string Alembic that you have always dreamt of. And as for the three string Stingray, just get a regular Stingray and take off the G string. See how long it amuses you.

These basses look rather good to me. Very nice indeed.

There really is no excuse for this lot not to have a good wash and smarten themselves up a bit. Maybe they call themselves Idles because they can't be bothered.

In Dad's defence, one of the privelliges of aging is getting to say the kind of things that grown ups used to say when you were young. Just an observation, a lot of so-called dance music is extraordinarily boring and self-indulgent. Some of it makes prog rock sound like the Ramones. And yet the creators get away with it because of the cachet that the genre enjoys. As is so often the case in popular music nowadays, people are listening to a narrative rather than the actual music.

That's fair enough, but isn't it interesting that the safer we have apparently become as a society, the more fearful we seem to be. Let's just hope this country doesn't have to go to war in the foreseeable future.

Absolutely this.

In recent years the best bit of Glastonbury TV for me has been the new and fairly unknown bands. Unfortunately couldn't watch much live this year and such acts not featured much on the BBC iPlayer. Just like every year nowadays, the worst thing about Glastonbury is the relentless Glastonbury fascism we are subjected to every year. I really don't need or want to be told at every possible opportunity about the transcendent magic of the Glastonbury experience. The BBC has paid a huge sum for the broadcast rights and they are hellbent on beating the world into submission that Glastonbury (along with the FA Cup that they have similarly paid over the odds for the broadcast rights) is the most important and best thing ever. From a musical perspective, festivals are not usually a good venue to see a band. From a historical perspective, I preferred festivals when there was as an element of risk involved in attending. How much risk depended on which festival you went to. No cash machines or Vietnamese noodle bowls back in my day. Just a burger van and a couple of St. Johns Ambulance men. The only shower you were likely to get at a festival was if it rained or if someone threw a bottle of piss about in your vicinity. Both were frequent occurrences. I remember when Glastonbury was for people who were too frightened to go to Stonehenge and who would have been bullied by bigger boys at the Reading Festival. It was a era which would have left the current generation of festival-going influencers and poseurs clamouring for therapy and whining about their "mental health" on social media. It was magnificent.

Thanks. As long as the bass plays well and isn't a boat anchor I will be quite happy. Like I mentioned previously, I can always run it through an external preamp if the sound needs a bit of extra juice. General consensus seems to be that the stock pickups are okay. Mostly I'm just looking for something decent to have around to keep my chops up to scratch on. I've got a touch of arthritis in my right hand nowadays and I am determined to minimise its effect on my bass playing.

It's very sad when you see someone's life reduced to lots in an auction. I think Del was a bit of an afficionado when it came to gear. I'm not being at all critical of Del's family doing whatever is necessary, by the way. It's just that it's so hard when you have to sort through the possessions of someone close to you after they are gone. It's hard to part with things, and it's hard to keep things and be reminded by them. No easy way to deal with it all.

That's a lovely pair you've got there. USA Laklands are top quality instruments, no doubt about that. The necks are indeed pretty fabulous. Also, interestingly enough, they are very varied in profile. Just like old Fenders in that respect. I have owned four different 4 string USA Lakland basses with Jazz Bass necks and all of them very different to each other. All very playable, though.

Something else to consider is if the seller is looking for a quick sale. To get maximum money for anything you are trying to sell, be it a house, a car or a bass, you usually have to wait a bit longer to find someone who really wants what you've got. If, on the other hand,there's some expediency to get the item sold then the seller might be more disposed to entertain offers under the asking price.

A passive Sire bass appeals to more than an active version partly because for not that much more than the the difference in price I could buy a Sadowsky external preamp that I could also use on my other passive basses if I wanted to. That said, to be honest with you I usually prefer my Fender-style basses passive anyway. So many preamps(such as the Sadowsky) add bass and treble, which inevitably gives the effect of recessing the apparent midrange frequencies. Thing is, I like a mid-focused sound on a Fender bass. (I do have a Sadowsky bass but it's a Will Lee model with the mid-boost preamp.) A passive Fender-style bass through a good amp and cab is the sound I like best, most of the time.

Thanks chaps, you've all given me some food for thought. I need to make a decision, and the question I am asking myself is, if I'm going to buy a new inexpensive bass, if not a Sire then what else? I had previously thought about getting myself a Bass Centre Bruce Thomas Profile Bass or Norman Watt Roy Blockhead bass but then I remembered the Sires and thought they might serve me just as well for less outlay. If the Sire P Basses are inherently lighter then I will have to have a rethink. I automatically gravitated to a Jazz because of the Marcus Miller association. It also depends what is currently in stock with retailers.

I'm mainly going to be noodling unplugged so in some ways it doesn't matter if it's a P or a J. I have been looking at the Sire passive P Bass and it's another contender. I love P Basses anyhow, by the way, just thought a Jazz might be more versatile. I've already got a 70s Fender Jazz but it's got flats on for reggae ect. Thought a V5 with rounds might be something different to add to my arsenal.