HeadlessBassist

Ooh, Chorus Pedal? Best used with your dual single coil bass - solo the bridge pickup and turn the tone down to 50% and hey presto, you magically embody the ghost of Jaco Pastorius. Anyway, just off to buy a sunburst fretless Jazz... (Only joking!) A thick wha..? I don't recognize this word. Plectrum? (Oh, is that the device for people who don't know what their fingers are for, who love to make those horrid clacky clanking noises?)

Lovely 'Tiny Desk' mini set. Jerry Barnes is killing it on his Jazz as per usual.

Now that's what I call trading up. Better.

I'm guilty of that one too - Kept an early Warwick Alien for over a decade and probably used it for two one-off Jazz gigs. It's now gone and after a few trades, has been replaced by an American Performer Mustang. Better. And if a Jazz job comes in, I've got Double Basses, or plenty of Jazz Basses to palm mute on.

I've been guilty of hearing about press releases (either on forums or on't'internet) featuring new instruments I've wanted to try, and duly travelled to a dealer to try them... where I'm usually disappointed, as they're badly set up examples, or have dead strings from other customers playing them. The worst one is when a serious player demos them on YouTube... like when Lars Lehmann demo'd the Music Man Classic Sabre all those years ago. I did buy one and it was a lovely instrument, but it sadly didn't work out for me live. I sacrificed one of my favorite basses ever to get it, too. 😢

Luckily, anyone who knows anything about music sees past your personal dysmorphia and thinks, "Nice bass playing!" However, Joe Public McAverage thinks, "I like a nice tune... Oh, we know that one... Let's dance!"

Of course, there's another very dangerous connotation linked with the word, "spare"... BC'ers may be inspired to feed their GAS addiction with such heinous thoughts as, "I could really do with a backup **insert name of piece of equipment here** "THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN THE NEXT 30 SECONDS..."

Very true. Yes, on a few preamps (depending on the frequency ranges chosen by the circuit designer) you can run them flat out, but most sound awful at ten tenths. Agreed re the 2eq Stingray preamp (I've got the OBP2). If you turn the treble control back down a little from your 'sizzle' point, the bass frequency richens and increases automatically as if it's filling the gap while the treble drops. It also reveals that massive 70's style Stingray punch.

Went to a friend's studio to train up a new trio drummer, and wondered for two hours why my TC Electronic Plethora Tone Print pedal was bypassing fine, but silent when switched on... I'd got the input and output cables plugged in back to front. Duh!

See what I did there..?

Nice... Great. 😎👍

You play wrong notes? Fascinating, Jim…

I know exactly what you mean - I was brought up on the glassy clear tone, but not because I'm a crazed slap addict - Mainly, it's because Singers, Wind & Brass players all pitch from the overtones/upper harmonics that occur naturally from the bass. If you have a 'cupboard full of blankets' worth of flats, or dead, old and lifeless strings, they have nothing to pitch from. Having a clean and bright (but also rich and bassy) sound is essential for me. * Your blankets analogy made me laugh out loud! 🤣🤣🤣

Remember, he who dies with the most toys wins!

Definitely sounds like the neck is too straight. Did you recently change string gauges? Set the bridge saddles to your desired string height, then try adding loosening the trussrod a quarter turn at a time. Some necks like a little more relief than you'd think, especially if you like quite a low action (around 2mm at the 12th.)

Au contraire - I love new strings. Zingy and clean sounding. Woooonderful! A guy came up to me on a gig last weekend and commented that it was so refreshing to hear "the clear articulation and individual bass notes". I rest my case, your Honour. 😁

In order to love the Jazz bass you need to love its scooped burpy sound. I loved the punch and scoop of the 2008 standard models, and was dismayed in 2012 when I tried the 'new' model with the Custom Shop pickups. They'd flattened out the scoop and made it sound very generic. Luckily things got better in 2016.

When Scott Devine goes on and on ad infinitum about being 'in the pocket'. Ugh! I assume you mean playing together, tightly and rhythmically? My keys and wallet are in my pocket. I play in time and right in the middle of the beat. When playing in a Big Band I play on the leading edge of the beat to pull the brass players along. We don't need silly buzz words and catch phrases.

Now we're talking!

That's a nice and happy ending to the story, Neepheid. Imagine the new owners actually honoring the bankrupt company's previous orders?! Looks great too. Now all you need is a stupidly large Joe Dart-style rotary control... They're just so 😎👍

Having followed and contributed to the epically brilliant "Irrational Hatred" thread, it got me thinking and wondering what gear people have bought or acquired, simply because they thought they ought to, due to peer pressure, or because of 'herd following' received opinion? Maybe you subsequently found that you simply don't need, or like the item and wonder for the life of you why you ever bought it? I can think of three... Precision Basses - I've tried repeatedly, many times to like them. But they're just not my sound. No producer, MD, or Artist(e) has ever asked me to use one either. Flatwound Strings - Lovely sounding things, but they feel as if they're driving channels into my fingers and somehow feel 'sticky' within those channels. (I know @Rich agrees with me on this!) Also, as soon as you play with other musicians, your sound magically disappears into a big sonic hole. 5/6 string instruments - I have one 5-string only and it was only because it's a very rare instrument and just happened to be a 5. I recall using the B-string in a couple of shows (playing DB/doubled up Cello parts), and one song in our set of hundreds of tunes in the trio. 99.999% of the time, four strings are ample and contain plenty of notes for me to be going on with.

Not in this heat, Ainsley... 🫠

No feathers ruffled whatsoever I feel the same way about flats. Luckily, we're all different.

So that Curly Claro Walnut headless Status KingBass with the MK-style ultra short strap, DI preamp pedal & the top shelf Inner Ear System we were going to buy you for Xmas would be unwelcome gifts, then?