Russ

[quote name='XxBassMastaXx' post='587625' date='Sep 2 2009, 04:20 PM']Mine is the Music man stingray. Mainly cos flea uses it and it looks the best![/quote] Just as a matter of interest, in your avatar, Flea is using his Modulus Flea Bass (now known as the Funk Unlimited)... he hasn't used Stingrays for years, and rarely ever recorded with one.

Heard a few of the tunes off his new one, Of Fungi And Foe. Interesting instrumentation - Les on bass and vocals, a cellist, and a percussionist (lots of tabla, etc on there). Lots of Les's usual obsession with American redneck/blue-collar culture. Interesting. Not up to Primus standard though.

Looks like a knock-off of those cheap Tanglewoods (same body shape, headstock, etc). So, what we have here is a cheap knock-off of an already-cheap bass. I'd say avoid. You can pay a bit more and get a Squier VM Jazz which is a far superior instrument.

TFF are amazing songwriters. Their stuff has stood the test of time very well, despite the rather cheesy 80's-style production and tacky clothes/haircuts/Roland Orzabal's weird dancing. A lot of it was also surprisingly dark. So much good music was coming out of the UK back then. That's the big difference between pop today and pop back then - today's pop stars are products of producers and songwriters. Pop stars back then, more often than not, were also the songwriters and producers. Even the bands who got classed as "boy bands" back then (Duran Duran, etc) could sing, play instruments, and wrote their own stuff.

Hope Chi pulls out of it soon. Shared a couple of pints with him and Abe at the pub over the road from The Garage (where they were playing) a good few years back, lovely guys. Although, it has to be said, Deftones are great on record, but Chino just can't pull it off live. Seen them several times, and Chino just can't sing in key.

Wish it was a Primus show - I find Les' solo stuff a bit impenetrable. Still, I'll be back in Blighty by then, so I'll probably go anyway.

[quote name='thodrik' post='582071' date='Aug 27 2009, 12:40 AM']Not bass related but I would invent a silent vacuum cleaner first. Then I would take the previously mentioned 'talent boost' pedal and see if I could modify it for football purposes in order to be used on the Scottish football team.[/quote] I've seen houses over here with "central vacuum" - basically, you've got sockets in the walls (like plug sockets), except you plug a hoover hose into them, then you can hoover silently, since the actual vacuum machine is hidden away in the basement or garage. Clever, but, as with most things over here, conspicuous consumption at its worst. Anyway, for me, I want a special glove with eBows in the fingertips.

I think I mentioned this on another endorsement thread a while back, but, about 6 years back, when I was in my old band, I managed to score a Warwick endorsement. The band was doing pretty well at the time, we'd just come off doing a big festival, had the album coming out, and so on. We sent our press kit to M.A.D. (who were distributing Warwick at the time), they liked it, and offered me a bass at 50% off trade price. I ordered a Streamer Jazzman 5, played it for a couple of gigs, but couldn't really get on with it (yep, it was the horrible big fat neck). Ended up telling them "thanks, but no thanks", and sold the bass on eBay for double what I paid for it. Back then was quite a good time to approach Warwick if you lived in the UK - they'd lost a lot of their most visible UK artists at that point. Stuart Zender had left Jamiroquai and left the spotlight, One Minute Silence (Glen Diani was a Warwick endorser) had split up, Jack Bruce was being seen out with his old Gibson... they needed endorsees. The two guitarists in the band were also offered an endorsement deal with ESP, but they went along to the distributor's warehouse, and couldn't find anything they liked enough to promote, so they ended up doing the thanks-but-no-thanks thing too.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='573952' date='Aug 19 2009, 11:57 AM']Another on eBay - Russ' take on a Rumour (in that it's slightly differently shaped and has the modified headstock to allow for the dual hipshots)...[/quote] I'm gutted that I don't have a spare £1400 to get it again. I do miss my old Rumour! I think someone here should buy it, so at least then I'll know it's gone to a good home.

My old Bass 400+ could be adjusted for different mains voltages by simply swapping out a fuse. Not sure how their newer amps work, but it might just be a case of getting hold of some new fuses and a plug adapter - a couple of quid, if that. I'll second asking Mesa though.

In my experience, Celinders "feel" nicer, but Sadowskys sound better. I love the necks on Celinders - they have that awesome broken-in feel. Joe - I am so jealous of that M5-24.

[quote name='JimBobTTD' post='560503' date='Aug 4 2009, 05:40 PM']Would it be cheaper for you to buy a Warwick at retail price, have it sent over privately and pay all import fees than buy one locally? I'd be well interested to see if it really is the same the other way, although the European brands do not have such a huge market share as their American counterparts. And exchange rates have been all over the place this last year. As for amps and the like, there is the different voltages, so I can accept a different price. But sometimes I feel that manufacturers subsidise their US markets by skanking the rest of the world![/quote] For the amps I mentioned (Marshall and Markbass), the voltage thing is trivial - on most Marshalls, it's as simple as changing a fuse, and, on Markbass gear, all it takes is opening it up and switching over a jumper (I guess they did this to make life easier for international touring bands). As for Warwick and so on (oh, how I want to punch Americans who pronounce it "war-wick" instead of the correct "warrick"), the exchange rate with the Euro is not in their favour, but the likes of Guitar Center have volume purchasing power on their side. I doubt it's cheaper to go to Europe and buy one, but only just.

It works the other way around too - in Guitar Center, anything imported from Europe (Warwicks, Marshall amps, Markbass amps, etc) cost a f**king fortune, way more than the US-made stuff. I guess we've got to remember that, for European stuff, we've got it pretty good.

There's only two basses I regret selling - firstly, there was my "pseudo-Sei" - this was made by Chris McIntyre back when he worked at The Gallery, from a neck-through body blank from Brandoni. It ended up with a totally reshaped body and neck (my design), a flat transparent black finish, a Bartolini MME pickup and Schack circuit and a Kahler trem. I loved that bass. It felt great and had a very unique sound. It also got me through some very low periods in my life, but I ended up having to sell it to get me through a particularly low period. I wish I could track it down, if it's still out there somewhere. The other one was my custom GB - the tone didn't quite work for me, but I miss it because it was no normal GB - it had a custom body shape (based on the design of the pseudo-Sei), a redesigned headstock (to accommodate two Hipshots) and various other tweaks to the typical Rumour design. I miss it, but apparently Bernie still has the design we came up with, so making another one sometime in the future isn't out of the question. If anyone sees either of these basses for sale, please let me know! The GB: The "pseudo-Sei":

Limp Bizkit... great musicians, awful band. All the instrumentalists are fantastic, but it's ruined with stupid, juvenile vocals and imagery. Props to Sam though, very good player.

[quote name='Captain Bassman' post='548713' date='Jul 23 2009, 10:22 AM']Yep, I went to quite a few of their gigs in the Croydon area. F***king awesome! In fact, I still have a copy of their "7 Song Demo" on cassette tape in the car. It still gets played regularly! Dave Colquhoun was their guitarist. He also worked at RB and has also played in Wakeman's New English Rock Ensemble with Lee. I think Dave won the Guitarist of the Year competition many moons ago too. Very talented guys - glad to see they've managed to get carreers in the biz. For a while back in the early 90's I played bass in a band called Skittle Alley - it was kind of the Rockbottom 'house band'. Lee kindly got me the gig and was the only one in the shop, along with Dave C, who wasn't involved. Luckily for me it wasn't his kind of thing![/quote] Last time I saw Dave (ran into him in Bromley a couple of years back), he was playing guitar in the We Will Rock You house band. He's also married to Jay Aston, formerly of Buck's Fizz! Yep, saw Moondigger at the Cartoon loads of times. I've still got several of their demos, as well as their 423 album - still gets the occasional play, but I actually think the tunes on the old tapes were better! There was a great tune called "Dreams" that had loads of different parts (including a slap solo), and then there was that period where they had a lead singer (some bloke called Huck) - with him, they did a tune called "Family Song" that had an awesome picked bass part that was part of my warm-up routine for many years!

Flea also used an Alembic Epic to record most of "One Hot Minute", although I don't think he ever played it live. The Modulus is a great bass, but the all-time best Flea tone has to go to BSSM - the Wal. The bass tone on that album is amazing.

[quote name='Captain Bassman' post='547494' date='Jul 22 2009, 12:52 PM']Lee Pomeroy, who recently toured with Take That and has played bass for Rick Wakeman for several years now, is another left-handed upside-down genius. I remember many a Saturday afternoon spent in Rockbottom watching him do stuff I could never hope to play right-handed and the right way up! Absolutely awesome...and a thoroughly nice bloke to boot![/quote] I was a Saturday-afternoon Rockbottom dweller for quite a few years, and I must admit that Lee is probably the person who inspired me the most to get better back in my early days. Some of the stuff he used to play was mind-boggling. Did you ever see his band Moondigger, back in the day?

[quote name='dannybuoy' post='541372' date='Jul 15 2009, 02:39 PM']I agree with many of your points - whilst I said image isn't important to me, I know it is to others. Thing is, in the type of venues I'm used to playing in (i.e. London toilet circuit, unpaid gigs and no-one giving a sh*t), I'd much rather please a small amount of audience members who actually got into the music than try to impress the type of people who are more interested in my shoes![/quote] Why not impress all of them? The way you're thinking now, you might be leaving some of your crowd unimpressed! I did the London toilet circuit for years, and you have to use anything at your disposal, in addition to the music, that'll make you stand out from all the other bands doing the same gigs. It's an overcrowded scene, so you do what you can to stand out. Remember, it's all about selling the whole package. The more complete the package, the more chance you'll have of selling it and moving up in the world. It's about the music, for sure. But it's also about the performance and the look. It's only ever just about the music if you're playing to a room full of blind people and guide dogs.

I've found that the Modulus Flea/FU basses sound a bit cold when played by themselves, but completely come alive in a mix - they sit under a band perfectly, and cut in all the right places when you want to be heard. Having said that, another option would be to get a Stingray and a Status neck - you could have a Flea-beater for under a grand - Sterling Ray34 (every bit as good as the real thing, trust me) - £700-ish, Status neck - £300.

This is something that is an unfortunate fact of the music business - as a live, performing band, you're not just selling music - you're selling a product that, by definition, has a visual element, and therefore an image. A band's image is, in my opinion, just as important as their music. If anyone says, "but (xxx band) doesn't have an image", they're wrong - their image is their apparent lack of image, and it's probably been meticulously decided by image consultants and record industry people that they should look like that. The wrong image can ruin a band, and the right image can take you to another level. Do you think Marilyn Manson would have sold all those records if he looked and dressed like Gordon Brown? Having said that, even though it's important, don't let it overshadow everything - all it really involves is being identifiable and having something that makes you stand out visually from other bands. You don't need a stupid haircut or bondage gear, just something uniquely "you", something that will stick in peoples' memories as a visual to accompany the music. Have some fun with it, and don't worry about stuff like "this isn't me" or other such thing - nobody is the same person on stage as they are at home or at work. Don't be afriad to occasionally become your rock star alter-ego, and to look the part. It's fun!

Got a few friends playing there this year (I played there back in '03). Should be awesome. Is Vince still running things, or do they have someone else now? Best of luck with it - watch out for Inner Eden and Godsized while you're there.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='509923' date='Jun 10 2009, 08:42 AM']No updates for a while, so I thought I would chuck this one from the archives out in the open. A bit different this one... not prizes as to why. Loads of builds on at the moment so there should be some fresh untapped porn in the forthcoming months...[/quote] I played that one back in around '94 when Bernie was still working in West Croydon, and was still operating under his own name (before he started using the GB name) - he used to sign his headstocks in silver pen instead of putting a logo on. Lovely, lovely bass. The Bartolinis sounded great with his circuit (Bernie and Dick were still working on their own pickups at the time), and that myrtle burl top looks far better in person. Only thing I didn't like about it was the neck - it was wider at the nut than a Precision and a bit too chunky for my taste.

[quote name='barry44' post='509147' date='Jun 9 2009, 03:34 PM']eric avery - janes addiction[/quote] I saw Jane's (with Eric) last Friday night. He's still got it (even if he doesn't rock the blue dreads anymore). He's mostly playing a Jazz these days, but he did break out the old "Brahms" Precision for a couple of tunes. A good night for bass, actually... Nine Inch Nails played too (it was billed as the NIN/JA tour), with the awesome Justin Meldal-Johnsen on bass.

I managed to snag a black J24 5-string before they were discontinued. Great bass, Basslines pickups with big super-J tone and a nice wide, easy-to-play neck. You do see them around second-hand on eBay occasionally in the UK, and there's a bunch of them on the US eBay if you don't mind the cost of importing.