Belka

It's worth saying that from sometime in the mid-late 2000s Fender Japan started using the correct '70s spacing on their reissues. These later basses are also a lot lighter than the '80s/90s versions, which get into boat anchor territory like the originals.

Honestly, listening to that on decent headphones, I preferred the sound straight into the soundcard with no DI box. The Reddi and the Minnow were fairly inoffensive, but apart from making the signal louder I don't think they improved anything, while the Caveman and the Bassrig seemed to suck all the high end out of your tone. Straight into the soundcard had the most dynamics to my ears. I can understand the use of these boxes when going straight into a PA without an amp, as they can make the signal less sterile, but as effects to make you sound better in front of an amp (or mixing desk if recording), IMO it's the Emperor's new clothes. I'd include the Noble in that category too. To be fair to the Bassrig, I have heard people demo it and it does sound good with some saturation/drive on it, but as a clean DI it's nothing special.

I don't know if any tabs for it exist, but to help you out I think the chords are the following: The introduction is all in F7, the verses go from F, Eb/G (you play G), to Bbsus4, to Bb. The chorus is Gm, C, D/F# (you play F#). The keyboard solo is like the chorus but it moves up to Bb (technically it should be Bbm but the bass is playing roots, the guitar is playing 5ths or power chords, and the keyboard is soloing, so there's no really strong/obvious minor quality to it) to Eb, and then, F/A. There's a kind of middle 8 which is like the verses, but you don't invert the Eb chord, and the outro is all in F again, before a chromatic figure down from F to D, setting up the chorus chord patterns again.

I've played this before. To me the home key is F - it's certainly the tonic during the verses. The chorus could be heard as being in Gm in but it's really a ii/v pattern, followed by a d in its first inversion. It's much better to interpret a song like this through more of a jazz approach to theory than the classical that most people are more used to and look at the functions of the chords rather than looking at the sharps and flats and assigning a key based on that.

I was at the Dog and Duck last night when I saw Charles Berthoud sitting in with a blues band. It was terrible - he kept playing so many notes and was slapping and tapping over everything. He was also playing a class D amplifier that had no heft. Nobody in the crowd was dancing due to the lack of groove. Eventually the band got sick of him and invited a Basschat greybeard onto the stage to sit in. From the moment he plugged his (modified) Harley Benton into his vintage '80s Trace Elliot everything changed. The power and heft of his whole notes and the tasteful use of minor pentatonic shapes (no matter whether over a major or minor tonality) had everybody up on the dancefloor grooving away. I later saw Charles outside pacing up and down nervously and chain smoking, a bit like when Clapton saw Hendrix for the first time. True story. There's a lesson for us all there I think.

Here's mine

That's actually a good point - I think a lot of producers/artists judge as much with their eyes as they do their ears. A variation on this is turning up with a nice reissue Fender and claiming it to be vintage - I doubt whether anyone could ever really tell the difference.

To be fair I think most pros would be able to predict this today, a lot less so in the late '90s when I presume this occurred. Sean Hurley famously tells a similar story about working for Robin Thicke with his 5 string Lakland, although he was given a P bass to redo it with rather than being sent home.

True, but from what I've seen of his social media he had a large collection of vintage stuff before he started working with Scott. I remember a story he told of how he was sent home from a session after turning up with a Yamaha attitude Billy Sheehan sig and being told to check out vintage gear. Strange as you would think that if he just played it on the P pickup it wouldn't sound that different to a vintage Precision, but that's another thing; I think these days a lot of producers and artists won't considering hiring someone unless their gear also looks the part (Lenny Kravitz reportedly sends 5 string players straight home at auditions). I'd hazard a guess though that a lot of his (and Scott's) recent purchases are vanity ones (Wal), as they seem to doing fairly well financially from SBL - nothing wrong with that of course - I'd certainly do that in their position.

One thing I've noticed recently is that a lot of pros seem to also have large amounts of equipment. Back in the day you would associate pros with their 'signature basses'; Marcus with his Jazz, Bernard and his StingRay (although the first chic album was done on a Jazz and a Precision), Anthony Jackson with his career girl and then his contrabasses (ok, so that's plural, but when he received each new one he stopped playing and sold the previous ones), and of course Jaco and his bass of doom, Jamerson and his Precision, Carole Kaye, Joe Osborn, Duck Dunn, etc. These days, artists and producers are so into sounds and vibes that it seems to be taken seriously as a sideman you need to have a collection of basses in order to cover a load of different vintage vibes/sounds. If you look at the likes of Sean Hurley, Tim Lefebvre, Ian Allison, Dan Hawkins, etc., you generally seen P with flats, P with rounds, active 5 string, Jazz (sometimes 2, again, rounds and flats), vintage mustang (or if money is an issue the JMJ sig), Jack Casady sig (or if money is NO issue, the '70s Gibson version), various other short scales with flats/tapes; Hofner, Wilcock Mullarkey, Serek, etc., then maybe a Rickenbacker, pre EB StingRay, perhaps Spector - they seem very in vogue again. Plus others depending on the player. Dave Swift also has a huge collection of basses, although I would guess in his case it's more of a hobby than it is Jools Holland requesting certain sounds. All this is before you take into account their in some cases huge pedal/amp collections (Janek Gwizdala, Tim Lefebvre, JMJ, Juan Alderete). It might be a bit different in the Jazz world, or for people known for solo work, although Victor Wooten seems to have a huge collection of mostly Foderas, as does Anthony Wellington and Tony Grey. Hadrien Feraud has a big collection too. Andrew Gouche has a huge collection of MTDs. There are others too. These guys seem to have multiple flavors of a similar taste for want of a better expression. Does that mean we mortals need a huge collection too? Not really, but it makes it easier to justify if you get accused of being a dentist/lawyer suffering a mid-life crisis. Does this mean we should encourage up-and-coming players to focus on acquiring gear over skills? Obviously not, but if someone is serious about turning pro these days, getting the right gear for the job something they have to be aware of in this day and age.

Yes, I'm not exactly sure when they stopped shipping them with ashtrays but it was early '80s. I have no doubt that the bass is all original. I think the price is fair. Get over to Bass Bros and try it. He should have lots of other Jazzes you can compare it with to see how it checks out for you. Make sure you can deal with the weight though.

Binding with dots happened in two periods - around 1966 and again in around 1982. S8 and S9 serial numbers were used all the way up until 1983 so I'm sure Bass Bros are right listing it as an '82. Personally I really like 1976-1983 Fenders. Everyone says it was their worst period but from what I've seen the shoddiest woodworking/fit seemed to occur more around 73-75; that's when you see the worst cut bridge pickups routs/neck joints, etc. Actual fit and finish did start to improve on the S series basses and by 1982 I'd imagine it was pretty good as you get into the 'Dan Smith era'. Part of the reason why they get a bad rap is the weight- the example you listed is 5kgs, which is too much for many players these days.

Exactly. I remember hearing stories from Rufus Philpot and Janek Gwizdala going to Wal as up and coming young players to order their basses. Could something like that happen now? I don't think so. It's true for the pop world too. The likes of Nick Beggs, Martin Kemp and Mick Karn were all very young when they picked up their Wals. I doubt they had to wait 4/5 years for them.

I noticed this too. I don't the real reason why this might be exactly, but the only thing I'd hazard a guess at is that Overwaters are designed to be a Swiss Army knife/blank canvas kind of instrument - use the electronics to sculpt any tone you want - perfect for a pit player/touring musician who needs to be able to access different tones very easily on one bass. To my ears at least, this comes at the expense of the instruments not having a core, recognisable tone that jumps out and appeals to people - people don't buy them for their sound, but for the flexibility/quality, so perhaps outside of the pro world they don't have that much appeal. I could be wrong - I mean I've played a few of them but you've owned three so probably have a much better idea than I do.