PatrickJ

Another video that again reinforces my feeling that there's very little difference between the different flavours of P's. To my ears (which I acknowledge will not be as tuned as many on this forum) the 90's MEX, USA and JAP were all sonically pretty close to each other (the JAP less so I guess). In a full band mix I think the subtleties would be completely lost, especially to average Jo down the dog and duck. The 70's P had a really nice zing to it and it did stand out from the others. It's not the tone I'm after for my VS4 which has confirmed I want a 60's voice pickup as opposed to a 70's. I tried to order a Classic '65 last night but the website wouldnt let me. Annoyingly I was being forced to create and activate an account before I could finalise, but the activation emails were not coming through, and still haven't, so I couldn't place the order. Tried with 2 email addresses. Will give it another go tonight, if still doesn't work I'll be off the Bassdirect in the morning to pick up either the Nordstrand NP4 or the Delano PC4 AL

So after watching this YouTube video from the bass whisperer (posted by chris_b) in the Scott's 30 Basses thread I realised that I could hear barely any difference in the Dimarzio's vs. the Nordstrands vs the Fender stock pickups. With the differences so damn minimal it seems a little pointless in forking out £100+ on a NP4 or Aguilar 60s pup when the DiMarzio area P, Delano PC 4 or the offerings from the Creamery come in well under that mark.

I got the first two from the bassline publishing website. I'm not sure where Santa got the 3rd, hopefully the same place else the elfs may be up for a copy write infringement law suit

I just had a listen to the Isolated bass ones, the only difference I could really pick up on was between the basses with Rounds and Flats, but even that was surprisingly minimal. You almost found a permanent cure for my GAS affliction. Fortunately there are many other aspects to buying basses; weight, neck profile, aesthetics, play-ability so still plenty of things to debate here on Basschat.

I have all three, those along with my Helix FX have led me to some of the most fun I've had on the bass all year

They all sounded exactly the same!!!

I've never owned one but the Sire's have got to be worth a look. Andertons have some Jan sale offers on them, plenty of fivers there around the £500 mark.

Yeah amazing tone. I looked it up on Bass Direct's website and was surprised to see it had a Mahogany body, Makes me wonder with an Active instrument how much the body impacts the tone or whether it's all in the electronics. There was a thread about this a while ago, and Scott even recorded a little video just for VC to respond to it. Its quite interesting to hear his perspective, but ultimately it's a path YouTube has driven content providers down due to how their algorithms promote videos - and I imagine YouTube is one of Scott's primary sources to drive new subscribers to his academy.

A few bassy bits from the family this year: Jamiroquai Bass Book Vol 3 published by the awesome @Stuart Clayton Money for a pickup upgrade for my VS4 And tickets to go see the Tedeschi Trucks Band @ Wembley in Feb

Most of the J type basses, which is good as my custom is a J Bass type 😀. My top picks were the : - Fodera Emperor J (@1:57) - Sadowsky Satin Series Deluxe (@3:54) - Alemebic Custom J (@3:22) - Ken Smith BSR 5 (@4:32) - MTD 534-24 (@1:32) - Mayones Jabba Mala (@3:01) - Roscoe Century STD+ (@3:47) A couple I really disliked were the Status Kingbass and the Warwick Infitinity.

That's a great video. I listened back to the video with my eyes closed and made a note of the Basses I really liked. In some ways I wished I'd seen this befor ordering my custom, based on my analysis I may have made a few tweaks to the design. I have a lot of time for Scott, I know in the past few years his YiuTube videos have become full of annoying click bait but he's just playing the YouTube game and his paid content is really good.

I was hoping you had some insider information

The P looks alright, but by Skyline pricing does that mean they will be around the £1k region? Will they be built in the UK or Asia somewhere? I assume this being @Ashdown Engineering the pickups and electronics will be of their own design but any information on tonally how they'll be voiced, or details on woods, weight etc.?

I have a MXR Bass Octave Deluxe for sale for £90. PM if interested, I wouldn't have said the circuit was noisy but since I'm selling the pedal I suggest you look at impartial reviews Like Mr @Al KrowI bought an HX effects and am now using the Bass Octave effect included with that, I believe it's modelled after an EBS Octave pedal.

Michael League seems to rate them: "These are the most badass basses I've ever played in a studio context. Super warm, cut like a motherf*cker, and are a real joy to play." - Michael League I had a bit of GAS for the 40th anniversary edition PJ for a while, never got to play one though http://www.fbass.com/blog/article/82/40th-anniversary-pj/

I wasn't a member when the whole Rickenbacker thing happened. What constitutes a "fake", was it directly cloning the body and headstock shape? If so are these sufficiently different that they are not in infringement of any copyright. And if that's the case can they be bought and sold on this forum??

This is where being a consumer of music streaming services pays off somewhat. I really like the Chili's, but if I'm completely honest I can't think of a single album, including BSSM, where I like more than 2/3rds of the songs. Therefore I have a Chili's play list in Apple Music that just has the songs I like from each album including the post frusciante era, though I confess the Getaway only contributes 2 or 3 songs. I don't know why One Hot Minute gets such a bad rep, there's some really cool tunes on there and I like a lot of Navaro's playing and layering of guitars. A very different sound to John.

Stadium Arcadia grew on me. Hated it the first time I listened through, mainly because of Anthony Kiedis' vocals. Came back to it a few years later and enjoyed it more (mainly for frusciante's playing) though completely agree only about half the tracks appeal to me. I dumped them into my RHCP play list

This is kind of one of the questions I asked in my original post, the Fender sound tends to be described by era, for the Precision it's the 50's, 60's and 70's and for Jazz it's the 60's and 70's. However, from reading up various articles on vintage basses back in those days there were significant differences in the sound from any number of instruments made in the same year as there wasn't necessarily great consistency on how each pickup was wound. However, to generalise it seems to be: - 50's voiced: a warm, muddy tone - 60's voiced: a hollow, woody tone (whatever that means). The classic Jamerson soul, R&B, funk tone many chase. I believe this is what the EMG GZR's are based on, and countless others. - 70's a tighter, higher out put grundy tone. probably suited more to the rock player. I guess in the 80's and 90's Fender's endless cycle of re-issuing basses based on those era's started and so they didn't get their own unique voicings.

I'm sure it's a weird me thing, but I may as well have bought a fender if I'm going to retrospectively fit Fender OE parts into a non fender bass.

Love the design, great job @Ashdown Engineering