faceman

My band are about to undertake a cover of Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles - it's a huge undertaking as loads of the parts are sequenced on our keyboardist's Phantom workstation so timing is going to be interesting. Anyway, the bass line is fine and I'm happy with playing it. What is the notes being played for the fretless fills at 0:05 or the fourth bar if I am correct? None of the transcriptions mentioned it, I think it's something in G. Any thoughts?

I could write about this ad nausem as my favourite bases at this moment are my Rickenbacker and my Squier Classic Vibe 60s Precision. I'll write a bit more once my dissertation is finished but I love them both. The Rickenbacker is harder to play, the neck is huge and body hurts your arm, while the tone can be enormously satisfying at times. However, I'm finding at the moment my P is just much more fun to play and noodle on. The neck is so easy to navigate and with flats, the tone is exquisite. It's deep, throating and drives the music along. It's making me want an American Vintage '62 as Rich knows but I'm upgrading mine with a new pickup and electronics for the meanwhile. It plays like butter!

I was wondering this as well but I've spoken to Rich and it seems that the Mexican 50s with a new pickup might be a better bet! The Japan ones seem to vary in quality and they are around £500 for a used one (see fareastguitars.co.uk). I'm going to look at 50s Fiesta Red tomorrow and will report back!

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='817558' date='Apr 24 2010, 08:36 PM']'62 is 44.5mm (1.75") at the nut Agreed. I think the Precision is actually very good at cutting through but start at flat and definitely a little VLE and VPF before anthing else. I think you may not need much eq.[/quote] Cool thanks guys! I know from experience that Jazzes can be harder to cut through the mix but I can't wait to give the CV P a go. I've seen something about Japanese reissues and Mr OldGit. Could you enlarge either here or in a PM? Thanks!

*Will not spend student loan on AV Precision* How do the '57 and '62s differ, apart from the neck? Also what price do they knock around for second hand? Also, how do P-basses cut through live? I'm going to be giving mine a go with my LMII and Ampeg 15" cabinet and am wondering what sort of EQing will be needed to get that beautiful deep growly sound through the mix.

Nice one Clarky, I was listening to my Fleetwood Mac mix CD in the car today and was thinking - I wonder if there is a cheaper Alembic that gets 'that tone' and looks sexy. You seem to have grabbed one! Seems it was a good price, how's the tone compared to your Fender babies? Does anything come close to these babies in terms of tone?

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='811116' date='Apr 19 2010, 10:29 AM']Wiring Kit from ebay: £14.99 Seymour Duncan Vintage style pickup: £45.00 delivered. You can do it yourself otherwise a shop will charge you £30 for a half hour labour. All in all you are looking at £60 top or £90 if you have it done by a shop. The result is very satisfactory, if you are someone that can appreciate what's what in a bass you can't fail to notice the extra body oomph you get from these simple mods. The problem with the pickups supplied by Squier is that they are neither here nor there, they don't cut through well in a real band scenario and don't really translate the sound faithfully, everything else on these basses is spot on, ok, I forgot to add the tuners are a bit cheap but replacing these for decent ones can be expensive and at the end of the day we've all got tuner pedals so what if after a 5 song set you have to retune again? We do that normally with the high end gear anyway, don't we??[/quote] I've ordered my wiring kit from eBay and going to get an upgraded pickup. Where did you get your Seymour Duncan from for £45.00? Cheapest I have found is £56.00 from GAK but guessing it might be cheaper elsewhere The reason I'm upgrading? I love the weight, colour and feel of the bass. The neck is sublime but I think upgraded electronics will really help. It has a little more something to it than the MIM standards in my opinion!

Squier Precision Bass, which I soon swapped for a Squier Jazz Bass with a Fender Rumble 15 amp. I sold the amp soon after for an Ashdown combo and sold the bass last year. The Jazz was awful neck, heavy and pretty crap all around. I believe my progression from there has been Fender MIA Jazz --> Fender MIA Precision --> MusicMan Stingray --> Lakland Duck Dunn --> Fender Geddy Lee Jazz --> Lakland Darryl Jones --> Rickenbacker 4003 --> Rickenbacker 3001 --> MusicMan SUB --> Squier CV Precision All of them were traded but my god I must have lost some money! Thankfully student loans...

I don't think it should matter whether it is better than a MIM, MIA, CIJ or whatever, it's how each individual one plays. I often find instruments of each class come in dogs and winners. I had a MIA Jazz three years ago and it was awful - fat neck and just crap to play on. I'd say that my CV Precision beats it hands down but others may disagree. To me and others, it's a winner because it feels good, looks great and has *that sounds*.

Thanks lee4, I always look for sound samples when I'm trying to buy a bass so thought it would be helpful. I've just weighed mine on the bathroom scales it is comes out at 8.8lbs, so it's about that. The temptation to replace the electronics at £120 is growing. I've found a mate who is excellent at soldering too and will do it for free

Squier 50s Classic Vibe Precision or the Fender CIJ 51 Reissue Precision would do for the single-coil telecaster bass. Otherwise, think that a HW1 would be a good call!

A live performance of Jerry with the bass - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gxfm6PeS6Y"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gxfm6PeS6Y[/url] Seems to have a slightly Danelectro growl to it but much more solid. Is this a Doors knock off band or the remaining members?!

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='804628' date='Apr 13 2010, 10:15 AM']Hi there dude, congratulation on your bass, I have bought the very same bass, (actually to be precise), I have bought all 3 of the Classic Vibe ones: the Jazz, the 50's Precision and this one in the same colour as yours, officially this is Fiesta Red, but I like to call it Salmon Pink, to me that is the colour in real life despite what it looks like in pics. I agree with everything you say about playablilty, sound, neck feel and action. But I am a restless so and so, and I have carried out some minor improvement modifications to all 3 of them. Having hanged around for most of my life with between bands, music workshops and repair gurus I have come to learn that the heart of the sound in a Fender electric bass (or any copy of it) comes not only from the wood but mainly the pickups, the wiring, the pots and even the capacitors.[/quote] Thanks for the extras dude, this could be the definitive thread on these basses for future buyers. How much of a difference to the tone have the upgraded electronics made? Judging by the recordings, I'm pretty happy with how it sounds now. I'm only interested in a superficial changes

[quote name='Waterboarder' post='804581' date='Apr 13 2010, 09:28 AM']Nice review, I've got a Sonic Blue one. Agree about the strings, they are really heavy on the frets too! Just one question - I was looking at getting some DA Chromes for it but saw that they only do them in Long Scale so didnt think they'd fit. Is that the ones you have?[/quote] As Dave said, that's right you want long scale. Short and Medium are for basses with 30" and other shorter-than-usual basses! I did snip them a little, as to not have too much wire around the tuners.

Thanks guys, you are right they've got some great lines. Florescent Adolescent rings a bell as well as a few others. They tend to really drive the songs along, in the same way Pete Quaife of the Kinks did! Nice spot on the Futurama DVDs, you get a nice little glimpse into my small DVD and larger music collection on these photos. Brownie points if you can spot any other particular albums or movies?

I think I might be falling into this club - I've just posted a review of my Squier CV 60s Precision that I have owned for just a few days but am loving already. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=84210"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=84210[/url]

So I decided to add a third bass to my collection recently and have ended up with the Squier's 2010 addition to their lineup. I was going to for something cheaper that could be bashed around a little (a gigging bass) and with a different sound to my current one. I purchased this from the great staff at The Bass Gallery in Camden, London, in return for them selling my Musicman SUB on my behalf. I was enjoying the SUB and hope to own a StingRay in the future at some point in the future. The Teal Green wasn't my cup of tea at all. It was at the slightly hefty price of £349, it can be found cheaper online for around £329 I believe. It came as-was, with no case, strap or anything, but I had the case and strap from my SUB I'm guessing it hadn't been in the shop too long, as these only came out recently and all the wrappings were in tact. It's your standard Precision Bass. Two knobs, one pickup and comes with standard Fender roundwound strings that didn't do much for me. After several days of playing around and being fairly impressed, I splashed out for a pair of D'Addario ECB81 Chromes 45-100 Flatwound strings, at the great expense of £39.99. However, it was all worth it and has made the key difference. [b]Sound[/b] It's true what they say about a Precision bass and flatwound strings - a match made in heaven. As soon as I started playing, I knew this was something else. The sound was growly, thick and deep. Exactly what I want my bass to sound like. You can see straight away why all the great groovy records from the 60s and 70s used Precisions to get that tone. I just [b]love[/b] it and I must say, it pretty much kicks the crap out my other bass. Playing along to all the records I love and having that exact tone is just pure bliss. I was going for the Duck Dunn, Jamerson and Bruce Thomas vibe and have certainly got there in one shot. I've no idea how it will stand up live and how well it will cut through. My band and trio are on breaks for Easter but I'll report back in the future. I've plugged it into my Ampeg 15" cabinet through a Little Mark II but it was too close quarters to make any judgement. It sounded...large! [b]Playability[/b] I'm used to the 'tree trunk' of my 4003, which is wide and deep, pretty much the same dimensions as a cricket bat. In comparison, it felt wide but thin at the same time. Very nice at first play, and one of the reasons I chose this over the Classic Vibe Jazz. Thanks to the Rickenbacker, I can navigate very easily most bass without problems. It feels extremely comfortable, and the body also for that matter too. It's much lighter than my 4003 but not too light that it affects the tone. The action is rather low and has no loss of clarity around the neck. All in all, it's great to play. [b]Looks[/b] It looks pretty fantastic, up there with my blueburst Rickenbacker. It's offically called Fiesta Red but there seems to be a controversy over what colour it actually is. It's rather bright and glossy (the finish me thinks), more than photos would have you believe. The pick guard complements the body very well and the colour was one of the reasons for the extra dosh. It may seem mad to pay extra for the Red over the Sonic Blue but I didn't really want two blue basses. Probably going splash out on Fender chrome bridge/pickup covers for the authentic 60s look. I pulled up the pickguard to look at the state of the wiring and grounding and it all seems to be solid. The soldering seems to be clean and tidy unlike many of the other CV series that I have seen around here. There are some little stains on the first few frets but it doesn't affect how it sounds at all. [b]Sound Samples[/b] I've recorded four of my favourite bass lines with this baby - it's simply plugged into GarageBand and recorded along with the songs. They are in the background to act as a reference point. Ignore any mistakes in playing, it should give you a sample of how great it sounds. Slow Dancing is what I play with my acoustic trio so it's a little more busy than the recorded version because we have no guitar. [b]Do It Again - Steely Dan[/b] - [url="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1480908/PrecisionBass/DoItAgain-CVPrecision.mp3"]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1480908/PrecisionB...CVPrecision.mp3[/url] [b]Fake Tales of San Francisco - Arctic Monkeys (with pick)[/b] - [url="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1480908/PrecisionBass/FakeTalesSanFran-CVPrecision.mp3"]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1480908/PrecisionB...CVPrecision.mp3[/url] [b]Slow Dancing In A Burning Room - John Mayer [/b]- [url="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1480908/PrecisionBass/SlowDancing-CVPrecision.mp3"]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1480908/PrecisionB...CVPrecision.mp3[/url] [b]Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding[/b] - [url="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1480908/PrecisionBass/DockOfTheBay-CVPrecision.mp3"]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1480908/PrecisionB...CVPrecision.mp3[/url] [b]Conclusions[/b] For around £300, this has been the most enjoyable bass I have owned so far. Compared to my Rickenbacker, it's easier to play, it's more comfortable and it sounds better. It sounds better off the bat and is a design classic. It's not as unique but with the chrome, I think it'll be pretty snappy. I'd never get rid of my Rickenbacker but I could see it taking a back seat during gigs, simply due to weight and playability. Compared to my first Squier standard, it's a whole other league. It's better than my old MIA Fender Jazz and Precisions I owned in the past, and more fun to play than the SUB. So that gets a hearty recommendation from me. Do try them out at your local music store and post below if you have any questions or if there is anything I have missed.