Russ

I don’t have a Z3 (yet) - was thinking of picking one up as a modding project, specifically to put one of these necks on!

Probably no worse in terms of build than an old Washburn Status. The electronics are going to suck though - they always do. These Chinese instruments tend to be quite nicely built in terms of woodworking, but they always have bloody awful pickups and electronics. But at least the pickups tend to be standard size so they're easy to replace.

@Kiwi What's the headstock shape, standard MM style? Also curious as to whether the neck length, size of the heel, etc would be compatible with a Sire Z3...

If you listen to that isolated track, there's some fills around the 3-minute mark that definitely mark the bass out as a fretless. It's not super-mwah-y, but the smooth slides give it away. Skip ahead to about 3:20, the end of that chorus has a few bits of slightly dodgy intonation! It's definitely a Stingray too - that sound is extremely distinctive. And, to my ears, the tone sounds like it's coming from a studio valve compressor - an old Neve or Drawmer or something like that (probably a Neve, Drawmer were never particularly popular in the US). Flea did quite a few guest appearances back around that time, and apparently he rarely used an amp - another track with a very similar sound was Freeway from Porno For Pyros' second album (which also featured Navarro).

It was a fretless Stingray, and I don't think any amps were involved - I remember reading a BP interview with Flea around the time that came out, and he talked about it, and that he went straight into the desk. In that isolated track, you can definitely hear that characteristic Stingray "thwp" when Flea hits his dead notes. I don't think it was as quick as they suggested though, because they didn't have much to work with - a basic arrangement, chords, drums and a vocal track, so Flea and Navarro had to work out the parts on the fly in the studio. Knowing Navarro, he was probably at the studio long after Flea had left, doing overdubs and fiddling with reverbs and delays. Most of the rest of the album was Lance Morrison, a prolific LA session player, on bass, but Chris Chaney played with her live for quite some time.

Well, not just basses. Used to have a couple of them, but they ended up getting lost, left at gigs or whatever. I went to get another one not all that long ago, and they're impossible to find now.

Was always fond of the venerable Catch-O-Matic. But I don't believe they're being made any more (unless someone knows differently - if so, post a link!).

For years, I coud sing, or I could play bass. I could do these things individually quite well, but putting them together was a different story. For me, it's all about subdividing rhythms. Learning which beats the vocal parts and the bass fall on. If you're just plugging straight eighths on a simple progression, you should have no problem since there's a bass note on every beat, but, once you start making it a bit more rhythmically complex, with gaps and different length notes, you have to start thinking about where the bass part and vocal intersect and diverge, and you practice the hell out of those bits. Just to get the basics down, play ham-fisted, thumb around the neck, and use a pick since it's a bit easier to keep the rhythm. Then refine from there - put your fretting hand into the proper position, drop the pick (unless you don't want to), and start putting the gaps in, while keeping the vocal part consistent. Don't be afraid to look at the neck, but not all the time as your head won't be in a good position to sing (chin up, loosen that jaw!). I'm not there yet, and I'm still far from Geddy territory, but I'm much better at it than I used to be, and this is what's helped for me.

FGTH played Two Tribes, with more or less the same arrangement as the recorded version, on John Peel in 1982, before they got involved with Trevor Horn and ZTT. The band, outside of Johnson and Rutherford, did not play at all on the album version - it was all session players.

Yep. I've got a Squier Contemporary Tele for when I feel the need to do the skinny-string thing. Looks, feels and hangs like a Tele. But it's got pretty hot HH pickups so it sounds, to my ears, like an SG!

It's a brilliant bass part. It's a shame the album version of the track had synth bass instead of a proper bass guitar track. It also reminds me of how many people were influenced by the whole post-punk/goth thing - the P-with-a-pick midrangey tone, the melodicism, the high-register fills, etc - straight from the Hooky and Gallup school of bass.

Steve Howe played on the original album - him and Trevor Horn are long-time collaborators, even before the short-lived Buggles/Yes "merger". He does look a bit out of place here, sitting down and playing dobro though!

Always had great experiences with Ashdown, going back to when I had my first ABM in 2003. I've had several of them since, and on the rare occasions they proved not to be completely bulletproof, they've always been fantastic in either replacing or repairing them, and doing it quickly. And Dave has always been very responsive.

Not bad. It's very Stranglers.