XB26354

Nah, cut round Lyme Terrace about 40m before the railway bridge by the side of the canal, turn right across the road at the other end. Saves you at least 2 minutes

Don't ignore the BTB series - lots of people here seem to love the SR's but I have always liked 5- and 6-string BTB, and the new thru neck ones in walnut are very, very nice for the money (even with the price hike due to the collapsed Yen-Sterling exchange rate). Massive piano like sustain and a richer, less stringly tone than (for example) the SR5065. Balances better too...

Port of Entry from Night Passage. If that doesn't give you a work out, nothing will.

[quote name='YouMa' post='414939' date='Feb 20 2009, 03:12 AM']I have learnt to set up my own basses its not hard,there is no way i would let some one else do it. I also have learnt about electronics enough to be able to build/service my own instruments/amps/effects. I would not let anyone else sharpen my sword and with the internet if you care about your instrument you can learn to. I would be suprised if the bass gallery lasted much more than a couple more years. I really am being honest here you can learn in a couple of weeks what they charge you a lot of money for,you are being taken for a ride.[/quote] I'd guessed this was a 3.00AM post because it don't make no sense boy if you were charging someone else to set up their instruments and it took, say, 1-2 hours, how much would you charge? £15 an hour? £20? Sure you can set up action and intonation but how many players have the skills or time to do fretstones, or check warped necks, or fill in cracks in a bass (or guitar)? If you have a problem that the Internet can't fix then what do you do? As 4000 said they make fantastic basses and also [i]sell[/i] basses, you know, like a shop! So I would expect that the bulk of the business lies there. If the Gallery were not to be any more it would be a massive shame, just for the wide selection of new and secondhand basses they have - better even than the Bass Centre was in its heyday. However they have a large and varied customer base from beginners to some of the best players in the business. If bass playing continues to happen the Gallery will, I think be around for a long time to come...

Something that gets me about today's "top" bass players is that they may have squeaky clean technique and be able to slap, pop, tap, double thumb and thump their way to the moon and back, but when they make their own music, why is so much of it a boring endless one chord vamp? It seems to be the fusion disease! It's also amusing in the first video Mike posted above that Victor says "expression is the key, the technique or tools you use are secondary." To me what he is saying in that short insert is that he has great time and can play one helluva lot of notes in Em/E7#9!

I don't agree with you there Rich. There is no such thing as "context". There is nothing to understand. To me that smacks of "well you're not intelligent/good enough a player to understand him". There is undoubtably talent there - someone who has been making music since they were 3 better have something to say - I can't see what all the fuss is about. If he stopped all the tappity slappity double thumbing stuff he would be listenable. I've seen him live and got a few of his solo records (as well as a few Bela Fleck ones) and when he just lays it down he's fine, but not exceptionally musical. I don't like his tone, and when bass players go on tour and take a bass player with them you know something's up

I think I've tried 14 Foderas (to date). Only one really felt special. A Squier is £200+. A new Fodera (neck through) is £5000+. Most people can afford the Squier, few can afford the new Fodera. As Mike said, Fodera can charge the big money because the people that play them - Anthony Jackson, Victor Wooten, Richard Bona, Matt Garrison, Lincoln Goines, Tony Grey etc... Just about all the top names amongst "players". The fact that the quality seems to be as variable as any other manufacturer seems to indicate that there isn't really something special about Fodera, other than the name. Sei, Overwater, GB, Shuker and ACG all build [i]custom made[/i] instruments of equal or higher quality for half the price or less...

It depends on the make and model. Most manufacturer's margins are better the more expensive you go so retailers can offer more off the higher end models. I don't think it is quite the same as insurance where you can shop around a lot for a bespoke quote with the cover you need. A bass is a manufactured item that cost a certain amount to make. The manufacturer makes his cut on the trade price and the retailer gets their margin from the selling price (ex VAT). I used to work in a music shop years ago and most people buying digital pianos wanted 15-20% off (not even for cash!). Guess what happened to the shop? I don't advocate paying the retail price for anything if you can get it cheaper. However, take a Squier. Some online retailers are doing models in this range for just over £200. They're making next to nothing on them. Shops feel pressured to price match or else they lose out on the sale, but they make little or no profit so it doesn't take a genius to work out that eventually the owner will give up or the shop will go under. This is what has been happening in MI retail in the UK for the last 15 years. You can't try basses out on an online store...

In a word, no. However I played a 6 string Emperor (I think) and it was the nicest, best sounding bass I've ever had in my hands in 25 years of playing (and I've owned a few boutique basses - Wals, Status, Warwick NT, Ken Smith, Sadowsky etc). At £4.5K secondhand, you'd have to be very rich or eat beans for a few months to afford it. After all you could get a top quality bass, rig and enough change for a holiday If money were no object I would own a 6 purely because they feel just right, never really played another 6 string that came close. Stupid money though! $17000 for an Anthony Jackson Presentation anyone?

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='413588' date='Feb 18 2009, 08:26 PM']I thought it’s pretty standard to get up to about 10% discount in a music shop on instruments. I pretty much never settle for the price on the tag – if you don’t ask you don’t get. I wouldn’t expect much discount on cheap things (under £50), but I once got £20 off a £150 second hand guitar in Sound Control about 3 years ago. When I bought a cheap acoustic from a guitar shop in Derby it had a few very minor marks on it and the strings sounded a but dull, so I asked if there was anything the guy could do about the price to reflect this – he threw in a couple of packs of Martin acoustic strings and a £20 gig bag for free, and the guitar only cost £100 in the first place. Generally I don’t ask for money off effects though cos I’ll just accept the high street mark-up or buy online – instruments are different I think, as I’d never buy something new without trying it in person first. I reckon it’s pretty f***ed up if retailers aren’t prepared to negotiate a little on price, let alone in the current economic climate, and especially on something like musical instruments. I think that could be a pretty good way of losing future custom and spreading a bad reputation about your business. Would you walk into a car dealership and accept the price in the window of a used car or accept your first insurance quote? You’re a mug if you do…[/quote] The logical conclusion in the current climate will be that the only place you'll be able to buy a bass will be online, or the odd cheap squier in a general music store. I can see both sides - musicians are often a bit short of money so every penny counts. At the same time if retailers are only making £50 profit here and there they'll be out of business soon enough. I see no problem in getting a bit off a big ticket item as the margin is usually bigger percentage wise, but ask for 20% off a £200 bass and just maybe next time you visit the shop it'll be gone. Then who's the mug?

Which partly explains why the technical difficulty of most reasonable classical pieces is way beyond most "rock" players - we don't tend to play this kind of stuff and even some fairly straightforward pieces (like Bach Cello Suites) are a big challenge technically. That's even before you get to expression and dynamics. But then again these are not common everyday requirements for Bass as a function.

Well I know what you mean about MusicMan basses - I just bought an SR5 purely because it sounds, feels and plays fantastic, everything I have never had with any previous MM basses. It is definitely in the eye of the beholder though - I hate Status basses, never liked the horrible dated shape, and graphite might be bright and punchy but it sounds flat and soulless to me.. if I had to own a graphite neck bass Modulus wipes the floor with them imho. And yes I've tried plenty of Status basses, even owned a couple of S2's.

Er, yeah, just about every great rock album had at least some Fender on it. Jazz? Not that many modern Jazz players using Fenders. Foderas maybe... Despite my whinge about cost cutting on my MIA deluxe, it is still a fantastic instrument, and stands it's ground with a Sadowsky Metro. I know as I've just played them side by side. Thanks to the Yen/Dollar the Fender is now £500 cheaper and you get a proper hard case. Just seen the prices for the new roadworn MIM series, a joke? £969 for a Mexican Jazz???

Tried em several times, made every bass I put them on sound crap. I had an epiphany when I bought my first set of DR HiBeams years ago, D'addario EXL also very nice. Rotosound? Not even if they paid [i]me[/i] Then of course it is personal taste...

[quote name='artisan' post='402714' date='Feb 7 2009, 11:39 AM']if you bought your Fender new it comes with a tool for adjusting the truss rod without removing anything.basically its a 3/16" ball ended T handled allen key,fits right in dead easy,these come with all American standard & deluxe basses.[/quote] I got mine just before Christmas, and it didn't come with this, it had a normal silver allen key. I have the T handled one anyway and it doesn't work with the deluxe because the allen bolt channel is too shallow and without removing the scratchplate it is at too steep an angle. Wouldn't have to mess around with this nonsense with a simple MM style truss rod.

Well I've got 3 Fenders and I think that the quality of build is good across the board. The MIA definitely feels more expensive though - the carbon rods in the neck means a quick tweak was all that was needed on arrival from the US and the setup was next to perfect. I've got the CIJ Geddy Lee with a Badass and tbh can't tell the difference in tone or sustain compared to the regular bridge. The MIM P-bass feels good but you know it is a cheaper bass because the tone isn't as smooth or rich. However... for an instrument that you cannot now buy new under £1300 the MIA dlx 5 shows a lot of price cutting. 1. Three piece body on a sunburst finish. It might have been good enough in the 70's but unacceptable with the most expensive non-custom shop Fender Bass you can buy. The benefit is that it is the lightest 5-string I have ever played. Neck heavy though. 2. want to have the bass without the scratchplate a la Jaco? Nope, because there is a massive rout under the plate between the neck pickup and the control plate. This is 2009 for god's sake, cut the control cavity out of the back of the instrument!!! 3. Thirdly your battery(ies) have just failed mid number, no problem, just flip up the battery compartment and... oh hold on no you've got to go and find a screwdriver. 4. When you want to make said adjustments to the neck, how about just popping that allen key into the truss r... no hold on, you've got to take the scratchplate off because the cutout isn't large enough to fit the allen key into... For those of you that believe a large company cannot maintain quality control standards, we are talking about a £1300 bass here, not a £500 one. Woods cost about £100, hardware about £50, electronics about £20, there is a case and the cost of manufacture and the "highly detailed nut and fret work", which is a euphemism for finishing the bass off normally. Fender are making plenty of money out of these instruments (well, they were in the UK until the £ nosedived). Compare however with MusicMan. I just got a natural Stingray 5. Different kind of bass, but same price bracket (actually slightly cheaper). Like my MIA Fender, 5 strings, maple neck and board, 3-band eq and a hard case are included. 1. The body is stunning natural ash, [b]two-piece[/b]. This is a £100 upcharge but is well worth it, and the resulting street price is still the same as the Fender 2. Same issue but removing the scratchplate on a MM would make it look weird anyway, and you won't need to access it because... 3. Flip top battery compartment! If £300 Korean/Indonesian basses can have a $2 flip top compartment then tell me why Fender cannot... 4. Spoke wheel truss rod adjustment - stick a screwdriver into one of the holes and turn. Same as Sadowsky. Costs a couple of dollars more, a million times better than the stupid allen key in the neck job. Beyond this, the whole instrument feels like a custom made boutique bass compared to the Fender. If MusicMan, a large American company, can make this good an instrument for the price, then why can't Fender? They're making too much money, that's why! Having said all the above, the Fender is a Fender and feels right. I spent years playing Status, Wal, Warwick, Modulus and all other manner of fancy basses, but they all had problems for me. Thin sounds (especially on the G), often heavy with poor ergonomics, and in my eyes a good Fender really looks the part, because they are the history of bass.

One other thing I notice with a lot of SR5s is that the G is very close to the edge of the fingerboard - on some I have played it was 0.5mm from the bevelled edge of the fret. If you play very light and don't "shake" the string then you may be all right, but I found the string kept falling off the fingerboard. I have seen this on several SR5's and believe it is a minor design flaw. It certainly does happen with an SR4. The one I got above is about 7 years old and uses an older style nut (not the new Buzz Feiten style one). The G is cut 3mm from the bevelled edge of the fret and 4.5mm from the edge of the neck - feels so much better whether I play lightly or heavily (it is strung with DR 45-130s). Of course it may be no problem to you, which is why for the amount you may have to spend I would strongly advise playing one before you buy.