HeadlessBassist

1. I visited Franz Liszt's house in the Weimar Republic in the late 80s while I was a music student. Yes, yes, I know. He was out. Saw his Piano, though. Anyway, did you know that he totally knackered his tendons by taping wooden blocks in between his fingers in order to try and gain an even wider hand span? (Eejit!) 2. Also, is this the five minute argument, or the full half hour..?

If a potential buyer has the required £4500 and likes how it plays/sounds/looks, then why not? Mark & Co at Bass Direct have obviously done their due diligence, so it's up to the potential buyer. Not my cup of tea at that money, but then again, I would never buy a vintage Fender. I like the newer, more reliable ones. 😁

The Mexican Fender plant at Ensenada is putting out some lovely quality instruments these days. Obviously, try before you buy still applies to all Fenders if you can get to a dealer. As for the Player/Player PJ Mustang, it's a nice bass overall. But... Don't expect it to sound like a Mustang. It sounds like countless other full-scale PJ equipped Precisions. Basically, like a much larger, more generic bass. In order to get the true Mustang sound, you need the smaller Japanese split coil pickup used in the Mexican Vintera II Mustang and the American Performer Mustang. So back to that Player II PJ Mustang... Yes, it's a nice bass, but that big split coil makes it sound like a full size Precision. If that's what you want, then go for it. There's a nice satin Surf Green American Performer for sale in the BC classifieds, and a friend of mine has an Aubergine American Performer, a Competition Burgundy Vintera II & a Cherry Burst Player PJ for sale, two of which I previously owned for a short time. If you've got the budget, the one I've settled with is the American Performer. It's a great bass (and a real Mustang.) Hope that helps!

I have a question... Did anyone here actually put their money where their mouth is and actually buy a Pino Signature Stingray yet? (Just curious!) 🤔 Btw, don't look at me - I already bought a couple of eye-wateringly expensive instruments earlier this year. I was considering ordering a new bog standard Stingray Special in 'Brulee', but I think I'd be hard pressed to better my '95 Aguilar equipped 2eq Stingray which sounds amazing.

I think you might be surprised. I see a lot of people set everything to 12 o'clock and then maniacally overboost the output stage. 🤦‍♂️

Maybe it's an age thing - I grew up in the Trace Elliot era when we learned to set the gain to a level where it just started to peak, and THEN added the output volume. That also gives a much more faithful sound of your bass.

Loads of answers here. I only have one 5-string these days - my Status KingBass Mk-II. It has quite simply the best B-string I've ever heard, and that's on a comparatively light 125 gauge too. Of course, with the scarcity of these, the prices are going to be a lot higher than £2.5k, but a graphite neck'd 5-string will definitely surprise you with it's clarity across the board. There's a nice all-graphite Status 5 (which I've briefly played) on GumTree at the moment in the Leicester area for about £2k. Nice guy who I've traded with once before. https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/status-all-graphite-5-string-bass/1499697344 One other 5 which surprised me was the Hils Next Bass HNB5. That had a biblical sounding B. All for under £700.

Bartolini Mk1 pickups seem to be coming up a lot. They're basically a really flat, polite and clean sounding pickup. You often need to boost the bass a lot in order to get anything meaningful out of them, but barely any treble boost. They're just tuned oddly and need driving, or at least they are in my Cort Space 4. They're not gnarly or characterful. Just honest and polite.

In principal, I agree with you totally, WoT. If I had been the 'jaGuar' CEO, I'd have canned this rebranding before it ever saw the light of day, but the truth is that they needed to do something, because the past twenty years of trying to beat the Germans at their own game had clearly not yielded good results. Anyway, we're getting off-topic here. It was just an example of a brilliant way of getting people talking. Engineered outrage, again.

🫣

Absolutely correct. Social media was originally created to supposedly 'bring us all together'. The truth is that when you give everybody a voice, it creates separation and division. Outrage will give you more views than simple, peaceful joy. I'm all for people like Charles Berthoud expanding what the instrument can do, and it was touching to see Victor Wooten naming him as the 'Heir Apparent', commenting that he was the player that took things further than he ever could. Hopefully that inspires a new generation to be even better. But yes, I don't get many opportunities to showboat. My money is mainly earned by being a bass player, supporting the music, holding everything together and making the people at the front of the stage sound great.

Another day, eh? I'm likening this to the "jaGuar" marketing late last year. People were up in arms, because of the totally un-Jaguar woke nonsense marketing campaign, and the tv advert that didn't even have so much as a concept car in it. The truth was that it was a hugely clever marketing campaign which got EVERYBODY talking about the forthcoming new jaGuar and the new direction of the company. And we're all sitting here being outraged while Sapko walks off with his YouTube earnings and that girl continues to mime badly. Maybe outrage was the whole point, because they've certainly got us all talking about it.

I watched Anthony's video the other week. They're undoubtedly good value, and great basses if you want to play in a 60's/early 70's outfit. Nice to see they've fixed the awful bright yellow "vintage" neck tinting they were doing a few years ago, too.

When the drummer gets sacked and needs must...

Not forgetting the CNC cutting machine!

Congrats, Highfox. Looks lovely. I've been hanging my nose over these for a while. I trust it's suitably punchy?

Astley was a cunning Master of Disguise - real name, Lola. 🤣

It just proves how gullible Joe Public really is. As we know from being performers of various levels of ability, Joe Public just likes a nice tune, usually a nice tune he knows. It doesn’t matter if you’re terrible or amazing. They don’t know the difference. You can have perfect technique, sound and chops. It doesn’t matter to them. You can have the most horrendous technique, terrible sound, and no chops and they’ll still love it when you play something they know. They’ll love it even more if a young lady flashes some pretty flesh. How’d you think Stock Aitken & Waterman made so much moolah in the 80’s? I always remember the two old hecklers at a Thursday night Jam in Carlton, Nottingham several decades ago. If you were good they’d shout, “Play something we know!” If you were truly awful, it’d be “Play something YOU know!” As for Sapko, I’m left wondering who’s taking the urine out of who? After all, he’s making plenty of YouTube money out of hot air and fake outrage. Good luck to them all, I say. I’m off to watch Hoovie’s Garage. “Wiiiiizard…”

Very nice playing, WoT

“He’s behind you, Mr.Crocodile!”

With the pattern drawn on the original piece of Sapele, I thought you were making a Flying V for a moment! The body shape looks excellent - are you doing it all from templates? The curved edges look really good.

I've only heard good things about them to be honest. They're made in the Indonesian Cort factory, so quality will obviously be pretty good. The standout feature seems to be the ceramic pickups, so they have a brighter sound than the more expensive Player II's.

I'd have a look around for one of the 40th Anniversary Squires. They punch well above their weight. Talking used, I'm just in the middle of a deal for a mint condition (never gigged) CAR 2016 MIM Standard Fender Jazz. They are around, but you have to dig a bit. Sires, as others have said, are always consistent, and now they all have those lovely curved neck edges. If you like Music Man, the new Ray 2 passive Stingray looks a lot of bass for the money and sounds great in the right hands, as well as the last of the JHS Vintage V96's - @Mike Brooks says the 'Reissued' models sound scarily like the real thing.

Same here - I recently swapped a lovely Nate Mendel Precision for [yet] another Jazz bass.