Soledad

Got a new Sire gigbag off the bay, secondhand but it is genuinely 'new'. Sire make one bag for the V3 / V7 and P. Thing is, there is no way I can get my V7 in - I removed the velcro pad at the lower bout end, there is just no way. Can't find any reviews anywhere saying it's an issue or tight. Mine's beyond tight, it's a no-go. Anyone had problems, have I missed something (it's not a complicated thing). excuse the rubbish shots, my bass isn't orange)

Definitely interested, maybe not five grand interested The Godin sounds interesting and seems to get good reviews, player feedback. Thanks for the generous offer, I'll do more research and be in touch. I'm not really bothered about acoustic volume, but do want something of an acoustic sound when amped, otherwise what's the point. btw, I know thay ll have piezo built in, but has anyone just mic'd one up, or contact mics etc?

Excellent Bill, thanks from me too. Take me a while to get that speed I reckon, but it's good and very useful. I'm spending more time these days seeking out routines and progressions etc that force me out of the space I normally (subconciously) stay inside - break all those playing habits. Great stuff 👍

Thanks for all the feedback. Has it crossed anyone's mind there's the start of a user group fan club here for acoustics... maybe not. I still like the idea, or is it a dream. Watched the vid jbu09 - quite a big beast with a surprisingly punchy sound, partly played quite aggresive I guess. I have a chance to try a nice fretless reasonably local soon, need to do that I think. Maybe try a freeted too. I'll report back - must say if it ends up like a solid body when plugged, I have the Mayones already and that's a peach. We'll see.

I've fancied one for some time, and I may go the whole distance and get a fretless... in for a penny, in for a health check Some have truss rods, some appear not to have. Given bass string tensions should I be concerned? Bridges are fixed so how do you deal with action and intonation if at all? Many seem to use nylon wraps, but I read issues with piezo pups using nylons - myth or legend? Is scale length more of an issue, and is 34" still a standard? Any user experiences, insights most welcome.

A lot of good tips here - play to radio etc all really good. Hearing the chord (the defining notes) and being aware of the common chord progressions. Also whoever said call the guitar player out, he is very likely just rolling out the stuff he does at home on auto 👍 Years ago a really good player told me about his trick to build the link between what you hear in your head and what you can play spontaneously. He regularly played tunes he knew in his head - classical bits, folk tunes, hymn melodies, pop song vocal lines. All this stuff takes you to note sequences you won't normally uset. This massively helps you find any interval on your bass that your head hears. Vocal lines (any top lines really) are good because they are built totally differently to bass lines. It's one thing that changed the game for me - really opened up the fingerboard and to think an interval and go straight to it in the efficient position... worth trying (and sticking at) IMHO.

Youtube is an amazing mine of rich guidance and insight - at the moment i'm really keen on Joe Hubbard's vids. There is so much out there, but just now I am enjoying his insights and approach to some things. Scott is great but he does his thing and I sometimes just hear a lot of notes like wallpaper with too many flowers on it. But the resources available to players on tight budgets are really enormous - video obviously totally destroys all the old books, as a medium. I know these guys are selling us up to the subscription deals, but what they pass on for free is rediculously good.

absolutely right I think. I used to be actively into classic cars, and you can tell who's buying by the period of cars peaking. If you grew up lusting over an E Type, you'll buy one in your 50s or with your retirement pot. The money is in the buyers who are typically 50s - 60s. So work back to what they grew up lusting for and you are currently back to say 70s/ early 80s. In 15 years time it will likely be different.

Part of me frowns on it, the other part sees absolute sense. I collect Swiss watches, so why not instruments? With super-low interest rates, volatile stock markets heading towards another top-out, taxation on pension incomes, etc etc - having a folio of objects that grow in real terms is very smart. Tax free returns, plus the benefit of actually enjoying while you have them (a la Cetera).

Interesting - it's a key point I think. So the L has a passive/active, the M doesn't and (probably) can't. So are the Tribute pups different on the L & M? Have you played both? and is there a real difference in native (flat, say) sound?

Found this by accident. Suzi Quattro talking about her basses: “I’ve gone back to Fender; as you do when you get older, you come home. I take two Jazz basses on the road. The neck is a tiny bit slimmer for when I do my solo. “I use the Precision in the studio because the Precision is the only bass that exists - and I mean the only bass that exists - that you can plug directly into the board and it’s perfect. The thickness of the wood, the shape of the body, and that thick neck, and shame on you if you play that bass with a pick. Shame on you! I never mastered a pick; even when I tried it, I didn’t like it. I like the sound and the feel of the skin of my fingers plucking those strings. It’s magic. You have so much texture." I love that coming home quote. Don't agree re pick, but otherwise good stuff. I've heard this a lot over the years - the P drops into the mix like it was made to fit. Having gone back to a Precision myself recently there is a thing I notice and I don't think it's my imagination. A lot of slim-neck basses suffer from that dead spot somewhere around B to D. My Precision doesn't (maybe a tiny bit but not significant). I'm sure it's the thicker stiffer neck causing that resonance to reduce and maybe shift. I believe Lakland put graphite rods in the neck to counter this. off topic - once owned Suzi Qs Mercedes 280SL, that she'd bought from Mike Chapman. Cool car, that Back with pics of my '97 P soon, it's settling in very nice. And my Trace Twin Valve has been located and will be got back soon too. (sorry, rambling now)

No wonder he plays it quite a bit, got skin in the game (as they say) - nice bass. I like his vids too.

Joe Hubbard playing a really nice Bass Collection Jazz - looks real quality and is that an ebony fingerboard? Nice. Don't know, is this an SGC Nanyo?

Don't know if anyone remembers the old Dan Armstrong graphic head. I got an early one (at considerable cost) - absolute disaster, could never get a useful sound at all (P bass). I then discovered he'd done a solid state pre and valve power. I believed at the time you want the valves in the pre so you can control overdrive, then use a clean power amp to get up to level. I think it's generally right though to just see who uses what and how they sound - according to the reputations I should like Trace (I do), Ashdown (don't know ), Ampeg (I do)... you get the idea. Here's the 'thing'

Just for the sake of sharing experience - what I've tried, what might work, what doesn't etc... I mentioned above about practicing without looking at the fingerboard - nothing to do with any md54 'rite of passage' but it's a really interesting thing to do. We're making music and one sense that we don't really need is sight. If you just look away I think your attention to pitch accuracy is more acute. Also it forces you to concentrate more on what your left hand position feels like. I just think it's worth a try (and a bit of tenacity). I do wonder if the main reason I look at the fingerboard is habit - that's how I learned from the very start cos I had to. I also stir my coffee clockwise - at least some of all this is just deep-rooted habit. Re vibrato and slides I said forget them - I don't mean for all time, it's just I think that developing fingering for pitch accuracy is more important early on - the artistic use of slides and vibrato can be added later 'to taste' as it says in the cookery books. This is a good thread (in the main) for us fretless pretenders (haha) - just wanting to share some things I have tried.

Nice to hear of a Twin valve user ! I'm hoping to get mine back soon (from a mate). There are a lot of variables here, but the first thing I think is perceived volume is frequency-dependent and the mid-range apopears to us to be loudest. The basic sum is diaphragm (cone area): pi. r . sqd (can't find the symbols on my Mac) - so the area of a 12" is approx 700 cm sqd (each). A 15" is about 950cm sqd. So for a given diaphragm amplitude the 2 x 12 will beat a 1 x 15 by a good way. The 212 will sound louder anyway as it's punch is at a higher frequency than the 15" (probably, again all the other variables will affect this). I'd expect a 212 and a 210 to be really good with a Twin Valve. I've had a few Trace combos wiith 15" in, and the speaker is the limiting bit by a way. I once hooked a 410 onto it and it was really loud but I wasn't sure the onboard 15 was contributing very much - i think the Hartke 10s were more efficient so doing all the heavy lifting. The easy thing would be borrow a decent (efficient) 212 and disconnect the onboard 15, run the 210 and 212 and see what happens - my guess is loud and ample bottom end. IIRC the Twin valve has only one speaker output so you may have to faff a little to connect the 2 cabs but there should be a way. I suppose they both need to be 8ohm too. Love the Twin Valve - not many around and they were way more expensive than the GP7 combos at the time, but what a sound !!

Just researching here...According to G&L site M2000 : NECK PROFILE: G&L 1 5/8" Medium C with 9 1/2" radius Any owner of an M2000 able to confirm this please? I have a hunch I may acquire one someday next few months and I like the 1 5/8, I'm no fan of the 1 1/2 (it's just that I grew up with an old P 1 3/4).

Totally agree. Midway through my bass life I broke off to study and play flamenco - for difficulty I would personally mark that 5* (out of 5) - the great players were born into flamenco families and started when they were 6. We have kids at school given a violin or 'cello to learn - they aren't scared of the fingerboard. OK it may not be pretty at first but where did all the orchestral standard strings players start? So, regarding fretless there's sound advice here to check your fretted L/H technique for precision (pardon pun), forget slides and vibrato - work on accuracy. And one of my favourites - look away, turn off the lights, play blind. It does come. Playing on pitch doesn't make you a great musician, but the great musicians have had to put the work in to make the sounds they hear in their heads. There's no magic or particular gift - it's just graft. (all IMHO of course).