James Nada

Oh yeah.  Just the right amount of mojo.

Do you need to plug a dummy jack into the effects send to switch the loop on?

More evidence that Gene Simmons is an underrated bassist.  

I've recently acquired a Digitech Drop pedal and intend to use that as "back up" bass by setting it to octave down and using the band's common spare guitar.   It'll be good enough to get through a gig.

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Yep, sadly you can't bring a spare guitarist!

My band has just added a 3rd guitarist precisely so we do have spare.  We're an instrumental band so it's a bit more crucial when one of the guitarists is in more a "lead singer" role.

The Beach Boys - Wendy.

A loud cough in the instrumental break.  Once you notice it, you can't un-notice it

3 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

I don’t like correcting fellow bassists, but Diamonds was played on a Fender VI bass tuned the normal way E to E.

This seems to be a point of debate amongst many Jet fans - guitar tuned to D or a Bass VI.  I'm just going of what I've read in a Fender book.  

@grahambythesea what's your source that it was a Bass VI?  

Brilliant

PMd

I generally dislike white pickguards, however, I think it looks good on silver

The KISS nerd in me always liked the aesthetic Gene using a Thunderbird in the 70s

I'm very much looking forward to the release of this

On the positive side, the purpose of the box is to avoid direct damage to the bass, if boxes never showed damage we wouldn't need them.

Good luck all the same

3 hours ago, Bassman68 said:

Just thought of another that I’ve seen a price increase in...

Squier bullet basses
 

What’s going on there?

And there's one for sale BC right now.  Not mine, but I've been tempted by it.

Any idea what gauge strings are on these?

2 hours ago, stewblack said:

So what tracks would you JH aficionados recommend to showcase his style? 

Shadows - Man of Mystery - Jet walks his way around the chords through the whole thing.

Shadows - Apache - tastefully, musical and interesting (certainly for 1960)

Jet Harris & Tony Meehan - Diamonds - though not a bass track. Jet on lead "Barritone", actually a guitar tuned to DGCFAD by all accounts.

Jet had some interesting, obviously jazz influenced lines on those Shadows records.  Sounded great with both Shadows drummers he played with too (Tony Meehan and Brian Bennett).  Apparently had the first P Bass in the UK too.

A couple of his solo/duo (with Tony Meehan) tunes are pretty good too, lead instrument is often a Fender Bass VI or  downtuned guitar. 

@Natexxo I recently had the chance to play the Harley Benton side by side with a Squire VI, both strung with LaBella Flatwounds.  IMO ...

...Build quality, and playability are equal.

The Squire sounds sounds better, not necessarily more or less low end, mid or treb, just a more pleasant, more vintage sound.  Apologies if that's useless, I really struggle to describe sound.  It's worth noting the comparison was made through a guitar amp (Fender Reverb) and I was in a "VI as a lead instrument" mindset.  As a "bass" instrument through a bass amp the HB does a decent job.

More on the LaBellas, these strings really bring the HB and Squire to life, if that 60s tone is what you're after.  However, the LaBellas are not a good fit for the HB, due to the shorter string length requirement due to the lack of vibrato system.  

This may or may not help, but Squier produced a Jaguar bass with a humbucker a few years back.

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/squier-vintage-modified-jaguar-bass-special-hb-silver/44292

Yes, plug one into the other and be careful with the volume level.

There's nothing to stop you plugging a 450W head into a 200W cabinet, just be careful with the volume.

I'm assuming the head has a speaker output.  If not it would be a simple job to add one.

It's ironic that during that Unplugged show Kurt mocked the estate of Leadbelly for offering him a guitar for half-a-million dollars.

Very cool and quirky looking bass

5 minutes ago, rOB said:

Looks great. Any chance of some sound clips?

I'm not sure I have the tech to this @rOB, sorry.

30 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Thanks for the update. 

Can I ask a favour? Could you supply the following measurements:

Width of the nut.

Distance from E to E at the nut

Distance from E to E at the bridge

Thanks!

BTW if you want a decent set of Bass VI strings have a look at the Axion Bass VI  set from Newtone.

Sure.

Nut:42mm

E to E at nut (centre to centre): 34.5mm

E to E at bridge (centre to centre) 52mm

Thanks for the heads up on Newtone strings. 

I've found a Fender set 24-100 which I'll give a try:

https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/strings-c1/string-sets-c865/bass-guitar-c34/bass-vi-c819/fender-super-nps-250-bass-vi-strings-24-100-ball-end-p14790

Though I'd like some flats, but they ain't cheap

On 02/06/2020 at 09:35, BigRedX said:

This bass has been "Out Of Stock" pretty much forever.

It came up on another thread about Bass VIs about a year ago when the wait time was 6-8 weeks. I've been keeping an eye on it because the price is pretty good even if the string spacing is probably too tight for my liking, but AFAICS it's never actually been available to buy, during the last 12 months. Either it's not being made at the moment, or it has so many pre-orders that it is immediately out of stock again as soon as any become available.

This bass is currently in stock. 

I ordered one last week and it arrived here this week. 
I'm seriously impressed with this instrument for its price (~£177).
The only tweak I've made is to switch the way too floppy .084 low E for a .100 actual bass string I had in my parts box.
I've not had to adjust anything other than intonating it- The truss rod, string height and nut are all just fine out of the box!

EDIT: I have had to file the nut slots a little