Steve Browning

Pure guess and no idea of cost but, if the bass is perfect in every other way, can you get a luthier to reshape the neck to B profile? It must be possible in theory and you should preserve everything you like about that instrument. One of those factors would be how compatible the neck and body are and replacing the neck is always something of a gamble, even if it fits perfectly.

Hi. I reckon you want a bass with a B profile. These were prominent in the late 60's and early 70's and is my favoured neck. Just a bit wider than a Jazz and less than a full blown Precision like yours.

Bought a valve pre-amp from Fionn. Sent out immediately and arrived superbly packaged. Great comms and great guy to deal with. Steve

[quote name='Jus Lukin' timestamp='1492455285' post='3280434'] He seems like a lovely guy and quite the player, but we should be careful of the deification of folks. There's a logic in using lines to aid intonation, but there's a hell of a lot of logic in improving your ear and muscle memory too. [/quote] This was sort of why I replied as I did. We all play as we play. No-one can play like me as well as I can and, similarly, I can't play like anyone else either. That's just as it should be. In truth it doesn't matter either way. I happen to prefer the look of an unlined (and both of mine are unlined) but that's just me. The fact that I could never get the hang of slapping led me to tell anyone that it wasn't a valid way of playing a bass. Maybe I should change my username to Devil's Advocate.

Naked. Just because Scott can't play without lines doesn't mean you can't.

Have to agree here. The Walkabout and M-Pulse 600 are similar and sound superb. Why bother? Because the sound is just immense. Not a lightweight solution but lighter than the full valve experience. Very much IMHO of course.

You just want a bog standard Precision fretless. None of this Tony Franklin business. There are a number of different types. I have had a rosewood board one and now have a natural with a maple board. I think you may be looking at a second hand one rather than new but then I am not hugely up to date. I don't know how you stand on lines (cheating :-) ) as they seem to be lined these days.

A hugely talented singer.

The SKB FB4 case is brilliant for Precisions. I junked all my other cases for these. About the only case I have come across whre you can shake the case and not feel the bass rattle around inside.

Met up with Mark Palladino at a gig and he told me how his brother compares his gig with the Who to his gig with D'Angelo. Let's just say they were polar opposites.

Don't let that put you off. The instruments are superb and they look stunning.

I have changed the pickups on mine. They were a bit weedy as standard.

I am, leaning nonchalantly on a wall at said seaside town. I think the video was pulled from YouTube for some reason.

All interesting but my main difficulty is having 3 basses on stage. I would want 3 packs feeding the same frequency to one receiver.

About '89 to '95 roughly. There's a story to this. I used the slab on Play With Fire while in the band but, they got the 70's lineup together after recording was finished and dumped those of us making up the numbers. Wally redid all my bass parts and so my version is not on the album. If you have seen the video for Eve Of Destruction, that's me sporting an Epiphone Rivoli poncing around on Dungeness beach!

There is a site somewhere (you'll have to Google) where you can get the tracks for various Queen songs. John Deacon is DI'd and then mic'd on a 12" speaker and an 18 in his Acoustic cabs. Very interesting to have a play with those and hear the difference in the sound. I always DI and mic after listening to those tracks.

I have a couple of the Precisions and the body is chamfered (like a double bladed axe in section) and I do not find I even touch the body of the bass. The Precision is the same pickup configuration and is wonderfully versatile.

Interesting to meet previous owners of the slab. Strange how these things happen. I mentioned some of the story of my 66. As I said, I bought it in Tiger Musoic and financed the purchase by selling a 78 Stingray to a guy that had, as it turned out, been the previous owner and had put it in the shop to sell. The bass had the initials SD scratched onto various metal parts and I was gigging (in Worthing) when a guy I knew, who followed the band, came up to me and said "that used to be my bass". The guy was Steve Davey and he played it in a band called Steampacket. They had had some success in the 60's and he had played it with the likes of BB King and many other of the Blues greats. The slab, I think, I had put for sale in Vintage and Rare. I sold the slab and the 53 through them. I won;t again. I got the minimum I had said I would accept and the 53 was featured in another book with a photo credit for them (and some money presumably) which never came my way. I have maintained an embargo against them since then. I didn't gig it because I found the body would cut into my forearm after a while but I did record a song with it during my time with the Pretty Things. I know there is much debate over these basses. Having had this one I can certainly say it seemed to have more 'oomph' than my other Precisions but I couldn't really say why. Thanks for the number Baz. I will contact you soon and you can really rub my nose in it!! :-) Steve

I gues I would like to still have the slab bass. It was a great bassto record but th others weren't that great. The 53 was a bit of a pig to play, the E string on the 61 was almost dead and th 62 was an ok bass but nothing compared to the later one. It did teach me that the pre-CBS thing is utter cobblers and I do smirk to myself when the purists drone on about it.