Belka
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Posts posted by Belka
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Three years ago I bought a Precision because I had some money burning a hole in my pocket and thought, after watching various YouTube videos with Sean Hurley, that all bassists needed one. I put flats on it, as you're supposed to do, and enjoyed playing it for a few months, but after a while I just kind of stopped. Most of my gigs called for a 5 string and when I needed an approximation of a P bass the neck pickup on the Jazz was close enough, so I eventually sold it.
I'm currently putting together a parts P to give them another try. This time it's going to be with a maple neck and roundwounds; I think that to make P basses shine in a lot of modern live mixes you need them as bright as possible to be heard (of course I know that for recording this is different and flats sit very well in a properly balanced mix), and the Precision tones I like generally tend to be quite bright anyway.
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5 hours ago, Pow_22 said:
So the Rickenbacker is really not bonding with me (or vice versa) so im considering trading it it and going back to a fender (either P or J). Initial feeler searches have thrown this up locally@-
Ad states replacement volume pots and a refret. Doesnt seem to mention the pickups.
It's a shame they didn't take any pictures with the pickup covers off. They do give decent enough disclosure about the refret and the changed Japanese pots, so, I'd guess the pickups are original and they just didn't see the need to say anything. Definitely worth checking just in case however.
Interestingly, this bass could almost be labelled a mid-late '70s transition item. It has some features of earlier '70s models (the serial number and original knobs, rather than the Strat knobs), and some of the later '70s models (Fender-branded Schaller tuners instead of the bigger 67-76 Fender tuners and smaller headstock logo). Not that these features make it more desirable/valuable however, but definitely captures an interesting turning point in production.
The weight, condition and price (the latter is in line with Bass Bros, Bass Direct, Andy Baxter) seem decent for a late '70s Jazz - if the pickups are original and it sounds good I think it would be a good score.
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20 hours ago, peteb said:
To be fair, I'm not too sure what the thread is about and I'm not convinced that the OP is either! People talk about how they are busy 'doing sessions', but there is very little paid session work about. The old days of people being called to go into a recording studio to play on albums, demos, jingles and film scores has pretty much disappeared and the work that is around seems to be dominated by a handful of very experienced guys in London.
I do know a few guys who still regularly do sessions, even if it isn't normally their main source of income these days. They all have their own (pretty sophisticated) home studios and virtually all of the work they do is online. They are all knocking on a bit, varying degrees of eccentricity, great players and tend to have a bit of a reach / name in certain genres. There isn't a lot of work for bass players and even less for drummers (their parts tend to be programmed). I also know guys who have studios and make a living producing library music. Again, they may occasionally call in a singer or guitar player, but they tend to cover most of the parts themselves.
I think this is absolutely right, but these days, amongst younger players 'session player' has come to mean any freelancer who plays with more than one band, and is probably just as much (or even more) about live playing than actual recording.
The funny thing is, in the past, the great session players all started playing live constantly and then fell into session work - it was probably well-paid and convenient. The best players also still kept doing lots of touring, Anthony Jackson, Chuck Rainey, Pino, etc. These days you get people who actively want to be recording players primarily and are not as interested in live work. Without that foundation of playing with others constantly in different styles/genres they will probably never develop their full potential however.
Also, and with the risk of sounding like an old fart, these days the likes of Sean Hurley, great player though he is, have reinforced the idea that being a good sideman/session player is all about a P bass, short scales with flats, dozens of different DI boxes which all just sound like you're rolling off a passive tone control, 'taste', and vintage vibes. While I'm sure that these are essential things you need in the toolbox to have a career these days, it produces players who sound the same. You don't see a lot of risk taking/individuality any more. Back in the '70/80s you had lots of jazz/fusion players hired for pop/rock records, there was a crossover, these days you don't see that. If the likes of Hadrien Feraud/Janek Gwizdala got a few more of those LA pop/rock sessions for being great players, rather than just being able to bring a vintage vibe, they just might make the music more interesting.
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I remember someone posting about the same bass here back in 2019. It's sat there unsold for at least 6 years. Judging by the wear on the bridge it was played at lot by someone. Kind of sad it's not getting any use. The pawnbrokers could probably put it up on Reverb/Ebay at that price and sell it in a few weeks.
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I think pre EB MusicMan stuff has also gone up a great deal over the last year or so - it used to be priced similarly to Fender stuff of the same vintage, but the fact that they now have their Retro '70s/Pino basses sold new for over £3000 new means that no-one, shop or private seller, is going to take anything less than £3000 for any pre-EB stuff, unless it's modified/very bad condition.
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35 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:
I think one reason that could be because he gives really low prices for part exchange and buying in, I’ve known him for a long time and I know money has to be made but I haven’t been able to do any deals because of what he offers, quite disappointing sometimes
To be honest I've never received a decent offer from any shop for part exchange/buy in, and I think these days Andy Baxter won't accept any part exchange against a commission sale. However, when I sold through him his commission was 15% while a lot of other shops take 20%. It's swings and roundabouts I suppose.
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1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:
You know it’s how the vintage game works. Stick them up for mental prices and watch the rest of them rise up a few hundred quid in response.The laws of market dynamics don’t really apply when buyers are treated this way. (We have a classic imperfect market…)
To be fair, I think Andy Baxter has a more realistic experience of the market than some other dealers and knows what something is really worth. He tends to get in the extremely rare/valuable stuff perhaps more than others do, and it is often very expensive. However, refinished/stripped/altered basses are often considerably cheaper at his place than other dealers - just recently I've seen refinished mid '60s Fender basses go for around 4K, and early '70s ones for around 2-2.5K. Compare that with the likes of the Gallery and Vintage Bass Room for their '60s/70s refins and he seems much better value.
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The word over at Talkbass is that Fender has bought/is buying G&L.
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29 minutes ago, BigRedX said:
"The 80s" is a very broad church ranging from "New Romantic" and synth-pop via jangly guitar bands all the way through to acid house. Of course most people tend to forget about anything post 1985 unless the band had already had hits before then.
That's actually quite a good point, although it may be skewed somewhat by genre and geography. I would associate the early '80s a bit more with British pop and rock bands - the second British invasion as MTV might have termed it. In the later '80s British commercial music went into something of decline, and American hard rock/Hip Hop became a lot more popular.
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14 hours ago, kiat said:
Great to read all the comments, tips, experiences, memories and choices! Hopefully depping will be a bigger part of my playing life from now on for all sorts of reasons that many have mentioned already.
The dep setlist for this Saturday. A few days into a week's notice and seven basslines I already knew.
Looks like a fun setlist - good luck with it.
One thing to watch out for - with all those key changes I'd hazard a guess that the guitarist(s) is/are using a drop pedal/key change function on Kemper - from my experience they use the wrong preset, or forget to switch tuning at least once per gig - sometimes they realise and correct it, other times they don't - if they don't (if it's just one guitarist with no other melodic instruments to indicate he's in the wrong key) you might have to transpose on the fly.
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Couple of nice refinished P basses up at Andy Baxter at the moment - not collector's items but quite a cheap way of going vintage. They sound good too - the black one is very light and has that really woody hollow tone I often associate with early '70s P basses. The white one seems to have a thicker sound - more going on in the midrange (I think they have identical strings on them).
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3 minutes ago, TimR said:
@Belka You know that the vast majority of music was recorded by session musicians who listened to a tune once, did one take, and went home?
Yes, of course, and the very best session musicians, the likes of Chuck Rainey, Marcus Miller, Anthony Jackson, Pino etc., have/had the skills and theory knowledge to ensure they knew to create interesting lines which perfectly outlined the harmony, and could listen to what the producer/artist wanted them to play and interpret that appropriately; they didn't get gain their reputations by just being 'good enough'.
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Although this may be slightly outside the OP's question, from my experience of depping as well as playing with a lot of deps, I would point out that it's always good not to forget about your overall musical development/improvement. It can be exciting playing with new people all the time and flying by the seat of your pants, as one poster put it, but you run the risk of becoming a 'busker' who learns the overall form of the songs but never learns anything properly. Of course, when it's a last minute thing this is a great skill to have, but I've come across too many 'professional' deps who have atrophied musically and are only concerned about things being 'good enough' rather than doing things properly.
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I've heard of worse things than counterfeit guitars/amps from people in the trade about the Harrisons, but it's all anecdotal and you have to wonder how reliable these people are themselves. At the same time, I'm guessing that most Serbian gangsters would want more from a working relationship than a percentage of the proceeds of a stolen guitar, so perhaps there's something to it.
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1 hour ago, Jonesy said:
Fake your own death?
About three years ago I booked a last minute holiday, and agreed with my bandleader that I would find a Dep. Advertised, found one, and put him in touch with the bandleader - this was still around 6 weeks before the gig was due to take place. Anyway, after a while the guy goes quiet - not answering bandleaders texts. Bandleader shoots over a final message, just to ask if he's still interested or if we should look for someone else. A few days later a text arrives from the Dep's phone, supposedly written by his wife - the essence of it was he'd been in a terrible motorcycle accident, now in a coma in hospital, 50/50 as to whether he would live or not. Cue the standard commiserations, 'family more important than gig, etc, won't bother you again', from the bandleader.
When I got back from holiday I was suspicious, looked the guy up on Facebook and the whole thing had been made up - he was still gigging with his other bands and posting family stuff. I considered calling him out on his behaviour, but reasoned that for someone to do something like that hints at deeper personality/mental health issues, and it was better left alone - we are talking about a man in his 50s with adult children here.
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Just wanted to write about my recent experience with Bass Direct. I've been wanting to check out an Xotic 5 for a while and on Thursday evening I noticed they had 4 of them in stock. I drove up there yesterday and tried them out. I have to say, I really like the new pre-owned showroom. Tried out all the basses through a decent amp, the new guy working there is very nice and helpful, they even let me change the strings around to find out which had the better B string. In the end I came away with the oldest and heaviest of the lot (it just sounded the best to me, although the lightweight one in surf green was extremely nice too) for a very reasonable price.
I've been coming here/buying online since 2018 and can say that they have really turned things around in the last two years or so. Really pleased with my purchase and my recent interactions with them.
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Preamp pedals. The likes of Nobel, Cali, Caveman, Jad Freer. I mean, if you're at a venue that insists on a silent stage I can see the point of something like this, although you could use a plain DI. Every time I used one of these pedals though, it just seems to make my sound worse; fewer dynamics, less top end.
Generally, using the DI out of the back of a modern amp will sound just as good if not better, give you far more control over the sound, you can always mute the master volume if it's a silent stage situation, and you'll save £100s.
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7 hours ago, 40hz said:
Absolute winner is the phrase 'upgraded' to describe modified basses. 99.9% of the time it is not an upgrade either. I want a bass stock, not someone's interpretation of one.
Yes, I know a lot of people here love the idea of modding basses, imagining themselves as some kind of mad Frankenstein in a shed putting together a monster that they think will slay USA Fenders or boutique basses, but having a shed and a screwdriver does not make you the bass world's equivalent of Colin Chapman.
Harley Bentons/Squiers are fine for what they are. They don't need USA Hipshot Ultralites, Babicz bridges, Kiogon looms or Warman pickups. If you want a £250 bass, buy one and play it. If you want to spend £1000s, there are plenty of great options off the shelf already.
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What do you all reckon of this? Personally after wading through the florid AI assisted text, and looking at the pictures, I think whoever is selling this is a very naughty boy/girl. It's obviously a '72 neck bolted to a '74 body, and even then I would have questions about that 'genuine' Fender pickguard, as well as the cloth wiring, which I thought had changed to plastic by 1969.
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25 minutes ago, peteb said:
This one on eBay is inviting offers for his 78 P bass.
I wouldn't know where to start putting right what ever the hell he's done to the paint job. Apart from that, I dunno. Its got an old Badass, which I think is pretty cool, but apart from that there might be a decent bass in there, even if it currently looks like a dog's dinner. It's not silly money, but still too much for the condition (to me):
It looks like the very worst attempt at a 'custom colour over another colour' I've ever seen. And the fretboard looks filthy. Personally, there's no way I could own that without refinishing it, even if it's just back to natural.
At that price, once you factor in the £500 for stripping/refinishing and a good setup, you're looking at around £1800-2000 all in. You see decent condition original 77-81 Precisions for those kind of prices all the the time now at places like Bass Bros, so not really worth it.
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It looks mostly genuine, but I'd agree with Hellzero in really not liking the look of all the cracks on the bass; all over the body, and that one on the headstock/neck too. It's probably not about to fall apart, but that body has had some mistreatment over the years. It is very cheap for a '64 but for that money I'd much rather get a late '60s CBS in good condition.
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Individual string bridges - I can understand their use on fanned fret basses, but they just look wrong when the frets aren't fanned. And even the most skilled luthier can't seem to make them line up properly:
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It's funny, listening to the original track, I would also presume fretless StingRay, but isolated it sounds more like a fretted two pickup bass (the Alembic he used around that time perhaps). The high levels of compression and (I presume solid state rather than tube) distortion really kill the tonal nuances of whatever bass it is, but it still sounds great in the final mix.
I also have to say, if it is fretless, his intonation is really quite good.
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46 minutes ago, Mrbigstuff said:
I played the jazz version at New Kings Road and honestly didn’t understand the hype at all. I AB’d it with a real ‘63 and they were nothing alike.
I would agree with this from my experience and what a lot of other people have said - I think the re-issues that came the closest to the originals were probably the 2013-2017 AVRI line.
I'm sure these are good basses but the pricing on them at the moments feels extremely speculative, especially when you can get decent late'60s/early '70s models for less money.
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Do I reeeally need a Precision..?
in Bass Guitars
Posted
I think there are probably some gigs/sessions where a player will be told to use/bring a P bass (Motown revues, certain bandleaders/producers that request it - I've heard this from more than one pro player), but I'd guess it happens a lot less than the SBL and other Youtubers' 'The TRUTH about why the P bass SLAYS everything else' content suggests.
It's funny, but some of the P bass sounds I really like were in situations when it was no longer a particularly fashionable bass - Steve Harris, Andy Rourke and Freddie Washington in the '80s, Pino when he brought it back into fashion around 2000 - I don't think any of them were using one because they felt they needed to or that the producer had demanded it.