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.

I think this is mostly true. It's a bit sad that the ridiculous prices and closed order book/4 year wait means that there are no (at least that I can think of) young/up and coming players playing Wals. I mean you can see younger players out there playing USA Spectors, Foderas, MTDs, Alembics, Ken Smiths, etc., professionally, but most of the new Wals I see (admittedly on Instagram so not necessarily truly representative, but it is a good indication of younger players' trends at least) seem to be going to weekend warriors of a certain age (over 50 is quite accurate) who have waited the 4/5 years (nothing against weekend warriors of certain age of course - they keep the custom builders in business). In the UK, Overwater seem to have the pro market pretty well sewn up, but go back a few years and there were plenty of players using Wals at the West End, on BBC sessions etc. (Rob Burns is one that springs to mind). Even Laurence Cottle seems to be using his GB more than his Wals these days (too valuable to play out perhaps?). This just all reinforces the stereotypes that Wals are collectors' items, antiquated etc., as you're not seeing them out there used for new music. Of course it's none of my business and Paul can do what he wants with his company, but he has really missed a trick in not finding a good quality manufacturer in Japan, South Korea or the Czech Republic (think Spector, Sadowsky, etc.) who can take up some of the manufacturing slack while still turning out a really high quality product which would get into players' hands and keep the brand alive, while keeping the UK operation as a smaller custom shop.

I noticed these as well during a visit to the Gallery a couple of weeks ago. At least half of the Wals they had in stock seemed to be fretless basses with a single bridge pickup. The fretted versions with two pickups were considerably more expensive. As in-demand as Wals are, I'd imagine the single pickup fretlesses are a considerably harder sell than the two pickup, fretted basses with the filter electronics (this may be unfair but I'd guess that the demand for Wals is driven a great deal more by Justin Chancellor, Flea and Geddy tones than any others) - and as much as I love the shop, they charge considerably more than other UK dealers and don't seem to mind stuff hanging around for years before it's sold (or quietly withdrawn) - every time I visit they seem to more and more stuff and less space. I'd love a fretless single pickup Wal but I wouldn't pay more than £3000 for it - and I'm well aware that to a lot of people that would still be silly money.

I have a Nate Mendel and although I think generally it's a great bass and sounds good, the frets are the one thing I don't care for. It's not that my bass suffers fret sprout, it's that the ends are not well rounded and can feel a little sharp. I also don't like jumbo frets generally, IME small/mandolin frets feel much better and I can't see the need for jumbo frets on a bass generally; I understand that one reason guitarists like them is for bending, but you generally can't bend bass strings anywhere near as far as guitar strings, and in any case, the 7.25 radius on the Nate Mendel would severely limit any extreme bending you might want to try.

Funnily enough, although I very much doubt that Rutger would have claimed this himself, there are some songs which are commonly attributed to him that he didn't play on. A guy called Mike Watson (who is actually a Brit, not a Swede), played on SOS, Mamma Mia, The Winner Takes It All, and Super Trouper, amongst others. An American session guy whose name escapes me did Voulez Vous.

We had a corporate gig last night right at the end of the Grand Pier in Weston-Super-Mare. Fun gig although a lot of hanging around as we had to load in at 4:30 with a first set start at 8:45. Our dressing room was next to the dressing room of another 'act' - 'The UK Pleasure Boys'. All I can say is that judging by the way they choose to position their Santa hats I'm we didn't have to share with them. First try out of my new (to me) 5 string and it performed superbly. It's sometimes not until you look at the photos that you realise what a nice rig you have.

More of the latter I think - it's definitely a persona (Donny Benet is not his real name), but I think he's serious about the music.

Aside from the nice basses (I can see a vintage Smith in the video posted above), he has a collection of rare vintage synths and drum machines, so all those early '80s sounds are really authentic.

This is superb - great song with a sublime bassline. It sounds like a late '70s Jazz to me - have been chasing this tone for a while.

I know - only a fool would believe Michael McDonald was on Slow Train Runnin 😉 I was trying to make the point that it would be a brave singer who attempts coverts to McDonald era Doobies.

You are absolutely right in what you say about Long Train Runnin' and Play That Funky Music. I would probably add Superstition into that group as well. I can only assume that when rock bands decide to do some funk without actually liking/knowing anything funky these are the songs that are acceptable to them (don't forget to transpose Superstition up a half step so the guitarist can actually play it). That, or they have been played by so many bands they just add them into their setlist without questioning why. The Doobie Brothers and Stevie Wonder have such rich back catalogues and yet these are the only songs of theirs people choose to play. I suppose to be fair it's difficult to find a vocalist who can do anything with Michael McDonald on it any kind of justice.