Misdee

The legendary status of these basses is due in part to John Entwistle saying that these basses had a raunchier, more growly sound than his regular P Basses at the time. And the fact that he played them during such a fertile era of The Who's musical development. I remember back in the mid-1980s Andy Rourke had one of these slabs when he was in The Smiths. I was chuffed because I had a Olympic White P Bass with a black pickguard at the time. I've never played one of these basses but I have a hunch that if I did, it would sound like a Fender Precision Bass. I am also pretty sure that if John Entwistle played it, it would sound like John Entwistle used to with the Who back in the day, i.e amazing. The prices of instruments like this is speculative, based on the notion that there are buyers who want to "own a piece of history". I personally just want to own a bass to play. Interesting to look at though.

Wasn't Lenor the original singer who Kajagoogoo unceremoniously sacked after the first album for having too much teenybopper appeal? Anyhow, I remember coming home from a night out in the late 1980s and putting the t.v on , probably to watch The Hitman and Her(best t.v show ever) and coming across some middle of the night music show featuring Ellis Beggs and Howard live in concert. I vividly remember Nick was playing a beautiful Warwick Thumb 5 string amazingly well, and he was absolutely everything I wanted to be as a bass player at that time. He's so inventive and busy in his playing, but his bass lines are so well constructed that they are never obtrusive or overbearing. A very, very clever player.

They only look young and happy because they haven't realised the amount of fret wear they are going to experience.

Great singer, great songwriter. Lived a full life, that's for sure! I'm sure he's at peace now.

Pangbournes are indeed rare and still sought after basses. I remember them well. The components in the preamp may well just be knackered due to the passage of time. A boffin might be able to fix it and enable you to keep the bass original, but failing that it might well be worthwhile contacting someone like John East to revamp the electronics. John's preamps are wonderful pieces of engineering and they sound terrific. That would be my choice if it were my bass( I should be so lucky...)

Reminds me of pictures of myself at that age around the same time, except I was much uglier.

I really liked Nick Beggs as a bass player as soon as I first saw/heard Kajagoogoo. Superb and inventive bass lines that really captured the zeitgeist of that time. There were lots of fancy dan bass players back then, but Nick Beggs had real substance to what he played. I've always thought Nick has a very distinctive tone, too. Lots of top end but mids to the fore as well. If Kajagoogoo had chosen a different name for the band it could have been a different story, daft as that may sound. It's difficult for a band to mature when their name embodies infantilism.

I like the strategically placed pack of Rotosound Swing Bass as much as I like that bass, and I like that bass an awful lot.🙂

Jeff Beck was a phenomena, a one-off. Like when Aretha Franklin died, there is no one comparable to take his place. I once heard Malcolm McLaren describe Jeff as the Paganini of the electric guitar, and I wouldn't disagree with that. Special talents like that don't come along very often. Jeff had his own unique voice on the guitar, and it was beautiful. There was always something challenging and edgy about Jeff's playing. All the way through his career that distinctiveness set him apart from most of his contemporaries. He will be sorely missed.

I think Rickenbacker have been using the aforementioned Caribbean rosewood for the past few years. Before that I know they had dabbled with jacaranda and bubinga for fingerboard wood, as well as traditional rosewood. I saw that Rickenbacker have recently stopped lacquering their fingerboards. That's a bit of a deal breaker for me. My experience is that to lacquer a board makes much more of a difference to the tone of a bass than the choice of wood. Maple boards with lacquer sound much brighter than those without. I expect that the lacquered fretboard has been a significant element of the Ric tone we all know and love.

I had to look twice at that ,too...

Well I never knew that!!🙂 I would have presumed Geddy was a low action kind of a guy. Then again, he did play Rickenbackers for years, so he probably had to adapt to a slightly higher action.

Laurel is a bit of a budget option in lieu of rosewood, but pau ferro is a completely different proposition. If I recall correctly, "Bolivian rosewood" was traditionally the preferred fingerboard wood for USA- made Spector NS basses, and "morado" is Roger Sadowskys' preferred choice for fingerboard wood paired with an alder body, in preference to rosewood. Some folks think that in terms of tone, pau ferro is an excellent amalgamation of the warmth of rosewood and the brightness of maple. I can't comment, never having owned a bass with that wood for the fingerboard, but I'd definitely be up for trying it, even on a high-end bass. I like the pinky colour and I'm sure it would sound fine on most basses.

I think bass players worldwide would like to hear you unleash this beast in a video! The bass looks good too, by the way.

Stunning example. If it's an Empathy it will have a sweepable mid control with a three way toggle switch, from what I remember. I had a headed Empathy from this era and I remember it fondly. I remember playing a proper Status Series 2 like this one for the first time at the Bass Center at Wapping and being surprised that it wasn't as light as I had expected. For some reason my youthful self had assumed that all graphite basses were lightweight. Not so. Not that these basses are excessively heavy, by any means but they are usually over 9 pounds. And yes, they do look the business with that two piece brass bridge.

I probably watched this the night it was on! Great band, excellent bass player, lovely bass. Paul Webb was/is a tasty player, for sure.

Funnily enough, I remember Fender basses being much harder to come by in the 1980s. New Fenders at the time were not very nice and ones from the Seventies and earlier were not as numerous as they are today.

It just shows how old school I am that a five string bass is extended range to me.🙂 Those big basses never really became a mainstream trend though, did they? If Flea had adopted one it could have been a different story. Maybe.

I am really interested in how this turns out! Keep us posted. 🙂

Extended range basses really started coming to the fore in the late 1980's, not the 2000's. Maybe in the 2000's they reached a different audience with the advent of progressive metal players adopting them. I remember the Ken Smith 6 string being a game changer in so much as it had wider spacing so you could actually adapt to playing it without spending several months in seclusion trying to adjust to 15mm spacing. I remember the first ones arriving at the Bass Center at Wapping around 1987-88 and they were selling them like hot cakes. They were all either spoken for or sold within a few days. And by the late 80's/early 90's five strings were de rigueur. You had to offer an excuse or explanation for why you didn't have one. For me, in the 2000's the main trend was mainstream bass players going increasingly retro, leading to the fetishization of all things vintage that we enjoy today. In the 80's/90's a trendy bass player would have spent his money on a brand new Trace Elliott stack and revel in its clean power. The same bass player today would spend his money on a vintage Ampeg B15 and marvel at its historical authenticity. Presumably also when it's authentically knackered and being repaired again.

I haven't played a CS Pino, but reading your previous post about favouring late 60s/ early 70's P Basses( my favourite era too), I would draw your attention to the much wider nut width on the Pino, and earlier P Bass reissues in general. If, like me, the primary reason you favour late 60s/ early 70s Precision Basses is because of the narrower nut widths Fender started to offer as an alternative to the 1 3/4 inch that was previously standard then you might well struggle with a bass with a wider nut. I don't particularly enjoy playing 4 string basses with a 1 3/4 inch nut, and if you are the same then I would steer clear of any P Bass with that dimension. If you're spending that kind of money make sure you get something you like, not something you have to adjust to, because you probably won't, if you see what I mean. Most decent P Basses sound fairly similar, in my experience, ie like a good P Bass. Boutique examples offer a better playing experience rather than a radically different tone to a fairly standard Fender. In terms of tone I have never heard a Custom Shop Fender that was incontrovertibly better than or particularly different to a regular USA- made Fender, so I wouldn't stress too much about the sound. Find a decent CS P Bass bass that suits you and chances are it will sound Ok.

According to Freud, the compulsion to collect stems from toilet training and an unwillingness in the infant to relinquish their faeces. That is the psychology behind collecting anything, if you accept Freudian psychology, anyway. Regarding collecting basses, my own experience is that I have often bought basses that I absolutely need to own, but in practice don't particularly need to play, if you see what I mean. I must just like the reassurance of having those options available should I choose them.

I think the Bongo is a beautiful bass. It's also a wonderful instrument in use. I remember when they were first unveiled and I thought the EBMM were going to be inundated with demand. I couldn't wait to get one myself! I still find it hard to understand why so many people object to the look of the Bongo, and I'm sure most detractors have never actually seen one in the flesh or indeed played one. The three dimensional chamfering is very attractive when you see it up close.

Funnily enough, not so long ago I found the old (or should I say"vintage") pair of BHS underpants I used to use to polish my first ever Fender bass that was my pride and joy about forty years ago. It's a strange thought that if my music career had gone slightly different ( i.e if I had had one) they might be worth a few quid as memorabilia, especially if I had a road case for them that could be auctioned as a separate item.