Doctor J

I was supposed to fly to Desertfest in London tomorrow and to see Cory Wong with Metropole Orkest in Amsterdam at the end of the month.

Yep, and that was my point. Is greatness technical accomplishment to a specialised audience or someone whose music and playing resonated worldwide? I feel they couldn’t decide and their list is deeply uneven as a result. There are players in the list who even a lot of bassists will never have heard, never mind the public. Is greatness having the milkman whistle your bassline or some jazz dudes snapping their fingers in appreciation? At what point does technical virtuosity overcome the gift to communicate with non-musicians? The list doesn’t come close to clarifying this and just comes across as a mess as a result 🙂 Don’t worry, I didn’t for one second, expect to find Tony Choy or Sean Malone or Doug Keyser or Dan Berglund or Colin Hodgkinson in there. I do understand the difference between my personal favourites and bass greatness, thanks for checking 😉

I don’t see the merit of additional stress on the neck so I would vote “Supported from the derrière up” were it available.

The list had lots of technically superb players of selective appeal but omitted lots of bassists whose playing has communicated to the masses. Is greatness playing lots of notes gracefully and with sublime skill or is it playing something which resonates in the hearts of millions all over the world?

I had a 3 band Stingray before and, to get the best out of it, I always felt a little mid-boost was required. Personally, I would set the input gain on the amp to just below where it’s starting to clip, set all the amp EQ to flat and use that as a starting point. I always find amps sound best with the input gain set that way. Then, a subtle mid-boost on the bass with a gentle roll-off of some treble and follow your ears from there.

Bernard Edwards also used a BC Rich Eagle during Chic’s metal phase.

It's fine. Your pickup functions as a magnetic pickup in the normal way all the time, they just usually have a lot less coils than passive pickups and are far less prone to picking up background noise as a result. It contains an active pre-amp which boosts the output level to roughly what we accept as a standard. When the battery is flat or disconnected, it's only the pre-amp which stops working. A vibrating string over magnet and coils will still generate a quiet signal and that's what you're experiencing. Edit -> Think of them as really, really low output pickups with an active circuit used to bring them up to an acceptable output level.

And everyone should SFA’s Welsh material a go

This would be a banger in any language Shouty punk is fantastic aus Deutsch.

Unloftify it and hang it on a wall. That is art as much as it is an instrument. It should been if not heard.

Sounds like sheeet

New players who use Rotos on their 50 year old instruments?

I wouldn't say there is a metal uniform (outside of a black t-shirt and jeans, of course) when it comes to instruments. I think for every radical new instrument you see there will always be someone with a P or a J or a Strat or a Les Paul. Metal seems happy for the new and the old to co-exist, however, in ways that you don't see in a lot of other genres. Would Guigsy (insert alternate mainstream band bassist as applicable) have played a Dingwall? I'd say that's unlikely. Dingwall are right to promote themselves in that market because it will work for them. Outside of metal you could argue that session guys and jazz cats might get away with them but, elsewhere, they might struggle to be accepted alongside or in place of the instruments the player's grandad's might have played. Let's not forget the recent kerfuffle over a particular Jackson guitar 😉

The P-bass-‘n’-flats crew aren’t going to go for a Dingwall no matter what it looks like. Rock and metal bands tend to be a little less... let’s say “precious” about the aesthetics of the instrument compared to a lot of genres where conservatism has become the uniform.

A Bongo is one hell of a start, very nice.

I'm stuck on 37 😵

Those early 90’s Eggles are great guitars. The BC collective have great taste.

Indeed. I saw he had a really nice wenge-necked guitar in stock in the webshop a few years ago, which I lusted after, but I didn’t have the funds at the time.

Very, very nice.

Forgiveness, please Eggle TI Legend - their short lived Iommi model based on the Berlin One of two Warmoth-necked, reverse headstock strat home-builds tuned down to B Bacchus old strat replica - can’t remember the model but a really nice vintage strat replica Bacchus G Player - very tasty strat in white-burst The other Warmoth-necked, reverse headstock strat home-build tuned down to B Bacchus Empire - twin humbuckers, Floyd, superstrat heaven Hamer Centaura - another really nice superstrat Steinberger GR4 - Newburgh era. Violated by the previous owner but such a nice player Bacchus Duke Master - Dual P90 oil finished LP Tokai ES130 - MIJ 335 style

A lot of my most recent gigs have been on guitar, sadly. I have Eggle TI Legend - their short lived Iommi model based on the Berlin Bacchus Empire - twin humbuckers, Floyd, superstrat heaven Bacchus G Player - very tasty strat Bacchus old strat replica - can’t remember the model but a really nice vintage strat replica Hamer Centaura - another really nice superstrat, this one HSS Bacchus Duke Master - Dual P90 oil finished LP Tokai ES130 - MIJ 335 style Steinberger GR4 - Newburgh era plus a couple of Warmoth-necked, reverse headstock strat home-builds tuned down to B. One is SSS and one has just a single humbucker.

My ESP 400 Series became triple-stacked a few years ago when I added a Noll TCM-3 to it. It’s now vol (top) + pickup blend (bottom) bass + treble cut and boost mid cut and boost + passive tone (activated by the volume knob being a stacked push-pull pot)

EBMM used poplar quite extensively for a while on solid coloured instruments, IIRC. You don’t hear of people complaining about their poplar Stingrays - in fact, I’d say lots of people don’t know they have have a poplar ‘Ray and can’t hear any difference. It’s a fine wood. I have a poplar-bodied Charvel JP which is a nice instrument for sure.

Are the pole pieces exposed at the bottom of the pickup? Run a strip of copper tape along the poles, solder a wire to it and earth the other end.

Surely the quality of the instrument is the important bit rather than some ill-conceived negative bias against far-Eastern manufacture? Remember when Japanese instruments were looked down upon? I’m sure even Indonesians can build high quality instruments given the appropriate platform to do so.