TrevorR

Big big fan of the Audere preamps. Got one in my Frankenjazz. Really well voiced with a distinct lack of unmusical settings. Definitely one to put on your shortlist. Mine is the three band Z series which allows you to load the pickups differently for different core tones with a little toggle switch. Mine came mounted on a plate with solderless connectors. So simple to install.

Well, let's see... I bought this bass back in 1992 for 500 quid...

...and it's been my No 1 bass ever since. So I guess that my answer to the original question would be a pretty definitive, "NO!!!" That said, I have played a load of really, really nice basses but none that's likely to supplant this one in my affections. 

What happened to my first bass - a 1982 Aria SB700?

Well, I can pop upstairs and check… still got it and using it after all these years. Lovely little bass it is too!

Recording one of those “record it on your phone and stitch it together later” videos in lockdown last year…

On 21/07/2021 at 20:21, Big Rich said:

@TrevorR Trust me, I have been but I don’t think their passion is there, I won’t back down though and I’m going to continue helping them.  They’ve been playing for a couple of years and they’ve never used the D or G strings 

Yikes! Keep up fighting the good fight. 

4 hours ago, Big Rich said:

I must admit that after playing bass for 32 years, having to play acoustic guitar whilst someone murders the bassline with out of time, out of tune and over plucked `booms' is becoming more than I can handle, I've actually started to incorporate bass lines into my acoustic guitar playing to try to rescue the song.  I would love to hear what they hear in their head 🤣

An opportunity to mentor them and help them improve perchance?

On 09/07/2021 at 09:40, cetera said:

I'd love to do something but. in all reality. I sadly have to agree with Silvia.

Also, not sure we would get the go ahead from the school in the current 'climate' anyway....

On 09/07/2021 at 09:32, Silvia Bluejay said:

The above, 100%.

However, @silverfoxnik, we know that even in pre-Covid times, even with attendance lists and promises, not everybody who said they'd attend would attend. We always got enough people, but sometimes the event did end up looking a bit depleted.

Numbers matter, both for the general atmosphere of it and to avoid you guys ending up having to shell out instead of being able to contribute to the school and a charity of choice. In this instance we already have a number of previously regular attendees who say they're not up for it. And that's those who are being open about it. Plus there will be people who are gigging that day/night, or will have gigged the night before, etc. who will 'try to be there' but, as often happens, not make it in the end.

What hope do we have, in such situation, of getting a full house? Perhaps better to simply wait for 2022, when people will have [been forced] to recognise that we must live with this by now not very pernicious virus the way we live with flu and other infectious diseases, and get on with our life.

I really wish I didn’t agree but sadly I do. I’m also double jabbed but with underlying medical issues, an elderly family member we’re supporting through cancer treatment, the almost certain need to head back onto a commuter train in September/October and a kid with special needs…  this autumn still somehow feels too soon. Doubly so with the transmissibility of the current variants.  

I would also have voted for next year. 
 

And @silverfoxnik, @Hamster, @cetera happy to help out when it does come around to pulling it together (as part of the North Surrey massive).

Hasn’t it been on display there for a few years now?

7 hours ago, Cat Burrito said:

Well I was Today years old when I found out that was a cover!

Has more that three chords… OF COURSE it’s a cover! 😉😛🤣

These are two of my fave songs. Never realised they were covers for years…

And then there’s also this… sorta…

…one of my fave ELO songs but it’s Jeff covering a tune he wrote and recorded 7 years earlier with The Move (and covered by Todd Rundgren)

On 25/06/2021 at 13:03, Noisyjon said:

For me it was Step On by the Happy Mondays.
I was gobsmacked to hear it was a cover!:

 

I know the person well who co-wrote it with Kongos. He’s the leader of the church I go to!

On 14/05/2021 at 12:34, cetera said:

Hmm.... which one next?!

Bernie and Manzanera were both really interesting. Sharlene Spiteri was fun, and very poignant when she was talking about Ally McErlaine’s horrendous brain aneurysm and the aftermath on him and the band.

There used to be a Queen cover band called “Magic - A Kind Of Queen”, which I always thought was rather clever.

Also saw Queen B at a festival once.

By Jovi is probably my all time fave, though.

For me it’s probably:

• Velvet Underground
• The Doors
•  Captain Beefheart
• Frank Zappa.

Heard just enough of each to know I’ve heard enough of each!

Another “can’t unhear it” is Keef’s distortion pedal on “Satisfaction” - every time he switches it on for the riff there’s a huge, audible click on the track. You don’t notice it until you hear it but then it’s there forever.

On 13/05/2021 at 13:22, cetera said:

 

As the owner of two... I hope so!

 

As the owner of two... makes no difference to me. I ain’t selling!  

Sad news if you were dithering about pressing the button on an order...

On 19/04/2021 at 11:11, linear said:

Just wanted to check: I haven't read a single post in this thread, but I assume the conclusion was that tone definitely doesn't come from wood?   I mean, anyone who has spent more than three minutes of never ending research with a bass guitar would have to be pretty daft to think otherwise, right?

The definitive conclusion has been that tone doesn’t come from wood, except on those occasions when it does. Or it might have been the other way around.

Well, I was a teenager in the early 80s after all, so...

On 16/04/2021 at 19:55, Nail Soup said:

In general I totally agree about OTT histrionic singing - can't stand it.

,..... BUT sometimes someone can make it work:

 

 

Really love the instrumental mix of this song. Remember it as the theme from Radio 4’s Weekending satire show. Vocal version, not so much!

So after over 10 years since I last  tweaked, I decided that it was time to upgrade the pickups for my Frankenjazz bass and some side-by-side Jazz humbuckers sounded like they fitted the bill. Having Googled a bit and read some comments here (not least from @ahpook ) I rather fancied the sound of Catswhisker pickups. Hand made, British, custom made... perfect. So I ordered a pair of their side by side (two poles + two poles) humbucking Jazz pickups after some very helpful emails back and forth with the guy who makes them, Allan Price, checking out exactly what I wanted, specs, sizes etc. Made the whole ordering process hassle free and full of confidence that they’d fit and work properly. Amazingly the cost was only about £120 including postage - which is about half the price of Aguilar or Seymour Duncan Jazz humbuckers. Result!

They arrived after about a week - over the Easter break - and to my eyes look really nicely made. Well packaged for postage. Very neat and tidy. Popped them in the Jazz tonight - the solderless connection on the Audere preamp that I’ve got on the bass made that the most doddly of doddles! Got some nice black screws off Amazon for a bit of a stealthy look too.

Having hooked them up the sound is lovely. A real step up from the stock pickups which were on there. Very open and airy sounding while retaining real solidity and punch on both pickups and all settings. And absolutely silent too. Very very impressed and very very chuffed. Just can’t wait to get out and try them out in anger in the real world some time. Bet they sound great at volume through a proper amp. But dead chuffed with them and now top of my list should I need some bass or guitar pickups at any time in the future!

https://www.catswhiskerpickups.co.uk/bass.htm

2 hours ago, Killed_by_Death said:

Resonance in a solid-body stringed-instrument actually removes vibration energy from the string, so unless there's an anti-Resonant frequency, I don't think there will be any Constructive Interference from the wood.

And when that body vibration (with certain frequencies attenuated) is transferred back into the opposite ends of the string? What will be the effect of that on the harmonic content of the vibrations in the string - where you agree you are likely to see both  co strict I’ve and destructive interference? It is, after all, the string that is being sensed by the pickups.

3 hours ago, Killed_by_Death said:

Re: Conservation of Energy

Is there really though?

I mean, it's losing energy immediately after being plucked.

How can we discern a standing wave that increases amplitude of frequency X from just the attenuation of adjacent frequency Y?

Sigh... no one is saying that the volume of the output is increased. The reference was to constructive and destructive interference between sound waves in the body and string. The references were to relative changes in the intensity of different frequencies within the vibrations of the string and hence subtle changes in the spectrum of frequencies in the sound sensed and outputted by the pickups. Irrespective of the overall volume output of the instrument which, of course, decreases after initial plucking of the string as dampening effects occur.
 

As to how two waves of the same or different frequencies interacting can increase or decrease the amplitude of either frequency (or indeed, interact to create other frequencies)... I’ll just leave this infographic here. 
 

On 02/01/2021 at 21:46, Raymondo said:

Always used fingers, Never could get on with a pick.

I failed an audition for a Status Quo Tribute band once because I didn't use a pick! 

Ironic given that neither does the longest serving bass player with The Quo!

Just now, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I thought you were unfollowing this nonsense? 😂

Hiram, and now you’ve just drawn @Geek99 back into the thread you naughty boy! And so have I, slaps own wrist! 😂

There it is...