project_c

Really sad to hear about this, Jeff Andrews was the best. One of those rare players who could play 100% legit jazz on electric bass effortlessly. He was only 59.

Wondering how much difference there is in tension between HiBeams and D'Addario NYXL's, I have a jazz wearing dead NYXL's and I might need to put HiBeams on it tomorrow. My tools are stashed away in storage so I don't want to change the setup if I can avoid it, I'm thinking they're about the same tension, does anyone know if there's much difference between them?

Thanks for the reply, was wondering about the pickups, I’m considering Duncans but was curious what his own brand were like. What string spacing and radius did you go for on the Elwood?

I know there are lots of happy Marusczyk owners here, wondering if anyone here owns a short scale Elwood. If so, are you happy with it and play it regularly? How long have you had it? Are they stable? How often do you have to adjust neck / string height etc? Any issues / problems? I'm thinking of a simple 30" short scale jazz style build, nothing fancy, just want a classic Fender-style jazz with narrower spacing, flatter radius and shorter neck than the real thing. I normally play stock USA and Japanese Fenders, so that's the kind of ballpark quality I'm after. Looks like this on the configurator (neck length is normal scale on the pic so ignore that). Debating the mono-rail bridge, not sure yet but not too fussed as long as the spacing is narrow and I can set the intonation without too much hassle.

Sorry to hear about your injury. A bad setup won’t affect tension, but it might make you feel like you have to work harder if your strings are high. D’Addario tapes are great for getting your action really low and because they’re low-tension, they respond well to a light touch so they should in theory be a good choice if you have a hand injury. Not sure why you’re finding them high tension, what bass are they on?

D’Addarios are probably the lowest tension tapes you’ll find, you should not be finding those particularly hard to play unless you have a bad setup or an injury..

Not at all, that's great! That's a whole jazz bass waiting for someone.

I have a no name jazz bass neck, maple with black blocks, black Wilkinson tuners, it’s nice and fully functional, it even had a fret dress at the Gallery a little while back. I’m in the middle of moving house and rather than try to flog it I want to donate it to a school / teacher / worthy cause, so if you know anyone who would benefit from it please drop me a pm. It would need to be collected from North Greenwich during normal working hours.

Yeah, no disrespect meant to MIM basses, they’re really nice but it would be good to see a proper USA short scale Fender, a P or a J maybe. I love the Mustangs but the lack of access to the upper range of the fretboard is a problem. The chinese Jag they released a couple of years ago was much better for that but the neck on that thing felt like it was made of cardboard, it needed adjusting about twice a day. A properly built version of that with stable components would be great.

Awesome! I bet this is going to be good. There was a thread just a few weeks back where I mentioned EB should release a shortie, and there it is. I think it’s way overdue, especially when Fender short scales are all usually either made in China or Mexico. Fender also need to make a proper USA shortie. (Maybe the JMJ Mustang was MIA, can’t remember, but they’re usually relegated to the cheap end). Time for short scale basses to step up a notch. I play regular scale basses but the combination of being short and having to lug gear on public transport means I’m always thinking I should be playing a short scale. I’m well up for trying one of these, I wonder how the scale will affect the tone and feel.

I'd normally agree it's a little 'pervy' but it looks good when you see it in context. Having looked into it, it is an Alleva and I'm pretty sure it started life as a sunburst. It's Jeff Andrews, if he says snot-burst & tort is a good combo, who are we to judge.

Bit off topic but here's how a proper P with J pickups should look and sound, Jeff Andrews likes this configuration. I'm not sure what the green one is that he's playing right now (looks like an Alleva headstock maybe?), but in the video he plays a battered old Fender. I'm not a big fan of the fusion stuff he was known for but I love his playing and tone.

Yeah true. I think they were looking at things like that Olinto P-bass and the Spector Coda and maybe G&L and some higher end Japanese stuff (Moon etc) and thinking they could do something along those lines, Fender-ish but a bit more fancy, but the design skills are not quite there. If you’re going to come out with a Fender copy, there needs to be more to it than a splash of gold. Either go full vintage, or full high quality super-j, but this seems like it’s just going for bling and a bit of novelty with the pickups. Maybe it’s nicer in real life than in the photos. That new tube amp looks very nice though, as does the compressor.

Actually that J/P combination is something I'd be really interested in, I love the idea of a traditional P body with 2 J pickups. The gold styling and the ugly headstock are not my cup of tea at all, but the J/P thing works really well for people who like J basses but don't get on with the body shape.

Tapewound literally has nylon tape wound around a normal string. It has a very different sound to metal strings, no clunk or fret noise, it’s a woody / thumpy tone with much less sustain that either flats or rounds. Perfect if you play jazz or anything that needs a dead / muted tone. They’re not for everyone, but I love them. If you want to try them I’d recommend the D’Addario tapes, nice tension which is close to thin rounds and after they lose their initial crispy tone, they last until the end of time.

Joe Hubbard has an excellent e-book on his site, I preferred his approach to the Ed Friedland book back when I was learning. They’re not vastly different but Joe Hubbard’s approach is so easy to internalise that I worked through the whole book and got it into my playing really quickly. Eventually once you get the basics down you’ll need to transcribe lines to add to your vocabulary, but the Hubbard book is a great starting point.

Agree with Frank’s list above, I would add Walkin by Miles Davis just for Solar, and Page One by Joe Henderson for Recorda Me.

Yeah I’ve since put it in a different place on the desk and it seems to be fine now.

Hmm, I bought one, and it's a little temperamental, basses are slipping. Is it working for you?

Explore the whole area around Szimpla, there are a lot of similar bars in that district and they’re all great. If you have time, go to one of the natural spring baths, they’re amazing, especially when it’s cold outside. Do drink Palinka, but don’t drink Unicum.

The scarlett has 2 inputs I think, can you not use one for mic, the other for instrument?

I’m ashamed to say I had a Sadowsky I didn’t like about 8 yrs ago. Sacrilege. It was a beautiful PJ, there was nothing wrong with it, I just couldn’t get the tone I was after from it. On retrospect it was most likely because of my lack of playing ability and lack of knowledge about setups at the time. I’m fairly sure I could get it to do everything I need if I had it today, I probably just wasn’t ready for a Sadowsky yet. Classic case of ‘all the gear and no idea’. I can get a tone I like out of almost any Fender-style bass nowadays so I definitely blame my ignorance rather than any deficiency with the Sadowsky. I wonder how many basses get the blame when the culprit is bad technique or a bad setup?

I need that too, it’s perfect for my studio desk. Do you have a link for it? (also if I buy this, will I break the rules in the ‘no bass GAS purchases in 2019’ thread?)

I have a TF fretted and it’s great, very well built and stable bass. Gets played almost daily. But saying that I also put together a fretless PJ, I bought a ‘90s USA fretless P a few years ago and didn’t like the rosewood board, so I sold the neck when I found a ‘78 fretless maple neck for it, which made a huge difference. I then eventually got it routed for a J pickup in 70s position and installed a Quarter Pounder PJ pickup set, and that’s when it became the bass I needed it to be. So from experience I would say get hold of a legit Fender neck if you can, it made a big difference to me.

I’m down for this, mostly because I have to be. I’ve just bought a flat in London, and then my car died, so I had to get a new car too. I’ve just paid for a new bathroom, new windows for the whole flat, some loft flooring, some kitchen appliances, some built-in wardrobes, a new boiler, and I still have a long list of things to buy before we move in. I’m paying rent in the current place and the mortgage on the new place for the next couple of months. So my bank account has had the beating of a lifetime. Definitely no bass related purchases for me for at least a year. Is it cheating if it’s out of necessity? I can’t see it being too much of a problem if the disposable money is not there.