Doctor J

That was a really good read, thanks for posting the link

I quite liked the first album, Follow The Waves in particular was a fantastic tune.

Give it another 10 years, it's got nothing at all to do with quality, just got to be at least 30 years old and American made. When I started playing the general consensus among older players I knew (who would have started playing in the 70's) was the 70's Fenders were junk. Bear in mind that this is the era of the lawsuit bass, of Japanese instruments taking huge chunks of the market while Fender's (and Gibson and many other US maufacturers who had let quality plummet through the 70's) sales suffered accordingly. Has anything changed? Has time made a once poor instrument good, or is it the exclusivity and the whole "riding another man's ass groove" of a kid playing an instrument made before he was born which is mojo'd, has a story to tell, however you want to describe the lure of an aged instrument. It's funny how that point where good became sh*t keeps creeping... staying thirty years or so behind. When I started playing in the late 80's, the pre-CBS were good, anything after was bad, then all of the 60's were great and all of the 70's were sh*t, black and white. Then good crept back to the mid 70's now it seems the early 80's ones were good. Funny, I don't remember anyone saying that in the late 80's. The legend of the 83 Smith strat, when finally enough was enough, strat design got back to basics, no more cutting corners, yet that horrible plastic control plate Jazz came out around the same time. Ahhh it is amusing. Look at any FS section and an early 80's US Fender will be two or three times the price of the Japanese Fender/Squier/Other which was clearly the superior instrument of the era. A 70's Fender also seems to be part of the Indie uniform, which will help to stimulate demand. When the full on 80's revival kicks in all of a sudden we'll be back to bright green BC Rich's and and Kubickis! For f*** sake, even pancake bodied Les Pauls are desirable now, any old crap will sell once it's 30 years old and Made In USA

Popping and slapping gives funk a bad name. There, I said it

13 posts on funk P-Bass and no-one has mentioned Paul Jackson?

[quote name='Marky L' post='1023948' date='Nov 14 2010, 08:51 PM']Was just watching a bit of Motorhead live on youtube (2010, Rock In Rio - Portugal) and noticed in a shot how high Lemmy looks to have his action. I grabbed a pic and you can really notice it on his E string (can't recall the song but he was battering away at the A and D). Does it make hammering away at chords on a Ric easier?[/quote] That's not high action, that's the string recoiling from him beating the sh*t out of it. Look at the G string, were the action as high as the E string suggests it wouldn't be that close to the edge of the frets in a picture taken at that angle.

It's pretty good. To a Cheap Trick novice it's a bit rockier than I was expecting, a bit more Beatles-ish than I was expecting too, but I like it, I must say.

I was browsing the music mags today and noticed Classic Rock magazine has an album of theirs for free, what a great coincidence. Picked it up, will have a listen tomorrow.

Try putting something with a straight edge, like a ruler but shorter, long enough to cover three frets, say on 6-7-8, see if it will rock when you put weight on either end, then 7-8-9, same again. See if there is a notiable gap on 9 if you put it on 8-9-10. Put it on 9-10-11 and see if it rocks when you put weight on 9 and see if it's fine on 10-11-12 That will let you know if the frets are the problem - ie if 9 is low or if 10 is high. You don't want to file a bit off 10 and then have that buzz off 11.

[quote name='silddx' post='1021310' date='Nov 12 2010, 12:46 PM']What lengths [/quote] Let's say 2 metres, blind test, who's in?

[quote name='neepheid' post='1021250' date='Nov 12 2010, 12:07 PM']Heh, was idly trawling eBay and stumbled upon the Godin Shifter: [/quote] That is actually quite nice. Might have to investigate that. Nice one!

[quote name='silddx' post='1021292' date='Nov 12 2010, 12:36 PM']Um I would posit that your cable makes more of a difference to your tone than paint ever could.[/quote] Silk Road vs something good, sure. Do you reckon you could hear the difference between two high quality cables though? Do you reckon Steve makes sure the mic leads and PA cables are the same, to ensure his tone isn't tainted by non-Steve Vai brand cable?

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1021174' date='Nov 12 2010, 11:27 AM']Over the years I've met hundreds of people and read thousands of posts from people who can look at a guitar and once they know what it's made from can go on and on about how their super human ears can tell things that are undetectable in a lab my instruments many times more sensitive than the human ear. I have never met a single person who can only listen to a guitar or bass and tell me what kind of wood is used or anything about he finish or metals used on it. Over the years I've met hundreds of people and read thousands of posts from people who think they are psychic or have supernatural powers... These claims are so often beyond ridiculous it's like people saying they can see molecules. Anyone care to listen to a clip and tell me what woods & finish are used?[/quote] Steve Vai has a signature cable, you know. Can't get that tone without it. I hear he's got signature solder on the way.

I picked up a SR1300PM last week for about the same price so I'd say do it, definitely. That should have EMG's too. Just check the neck is straight before you commit to anything.

A friend of mine has a couple of Fujigen guitars, a strat and a Les Paul, very decent they are too. Not mindblowing, but a good standard of build and good parts, got them both for around €500 each 2nd hand off Ishibashi.

When I got my first Bacchus, an oil finished Standard 5 model, I was stunned by how well it projected sound unplugged. I've picked up a few more Bacchus' (Bacchii?) since, a mix of nitro or oil finished guitars and basses, and to my ears at least they definitely have something extra compared to a lot of the more established and popular brands I've owned. That being said, it's not just the lack of a poly coat which shapes the tone of an instrument, everything has an influence but it is funny when people bang on about maple fretboard vs rosewood fretboard that the effect of the thick poly coating on the maple is rarely taken into consideration. And then there's graphite... If you think of the sound of a P bass and the sound of a Stingray though, can you hear the character of the fretboard wood or do you hear the pickup? And I'd really like to meet the man who can hear the difference between a wooden pickup cover and a plastic one.

Now - football on Five live Next - Atheist's new album Jupiter

Really nice work there, looks very nicely put together!

I'm fortunate in that I couldn't be arsed about pedals or effects and my old ABM head works and, as long as it does, I won't be investigating potential ampage. I've got an ABM 2x10 and 1x15 which I can't see me ever getting rid of so I don't share your pain on a lot of this stuff. On the bass side, things are different. I want a BB2024X and a Wal MkII and I justify this to myself because they're not similar to stuff I already have. Though I have nine basses now, since I picked up the SR1300PM last week, I have no problem adding these two beauties to the family... it won't happen until I magic up some money, though, so that's how I control GAS. Prior to getting the SR, it had been 17 months since I bought or sold a bass. Good luck holding out for a year, it's a noble pursuit, but as long as you look at FS sections you'll find it hard. I pretty much stopped looking ad the FS sections and gumtree and the likes. It was when I did that I saw the SR and my resolve crumbled

The Lomenzo Yamaha is quite tasty, wish they'd put that into production

I expect it'll go for a hell of a lot more. Given that he died in '65, that's a hell of a lot of wear for five years, unless someone else has been playing it all this time.

Nice bass. Very 80's... I mean that in a good way

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='1017998' date='Nov 9 2010, 07:19 PM']As to what to listen to; if you like your pop rock a bit rawer,[/quote] Yes I do. [quote name='warwickhunt' post='1017998' date='Nov 9 2010, 07:19 PM']I'd suggest the first album (the 77 self titled album not the 90's one) or for the definitive Cheap Trick try 'In Color' or 'Heaven Tonight'. I'm sure that you could get that pairing of albums on a nice price deal in HMV.[/quote] Nice one. I will pick that up at some point.

[quote name='risingson' post='1017878' date='Nov 9 2010, 05:56 PM']I think most jazz funk is pretty awful, minus a lot of Herbie Hancock and maybe a few others. I love playing playing funk, but the term itself is a buzzword amongst musicians and particularly bass players, most likely because most funk tunes have a prominent bass line and drum part. Realistically I find the fusion of jazz and funk most of the time pretty annoying. Just my 2p though.[/quote] This. To me it lacks testosterone, no balls, no... oooomph. It's like plain wallpaper. It's takes the blandest parts of both genres and mixes it together to get something... bland. It's not crotch-thrusting enough to really be good funk and it doesn't have the edge that is great jazz. So that's a no from me then.

Interesting. Looks good, though I wouldn't be a Bongo fan in any way. Just make sure there are no sharp edges, cut yourself on that and you'll be getting tetanus shots for months