Soledad

agree with all this, but can't see why the amplitude of a string would be less than its first harmonic? I accept there are points along the string where the is1st, 2nd etc amplitude will vary relative to fundamental, but stuck on the basic point. Another interesting point (to me) - headless basses. What is the view and bottom line re Headless v head?

Me too - way better. I think the tone is sharper / cleaner in the attack, and it forces accuracy as there is no give. Those soft ones are actually a bit inaccurate I reckon - got some no-brand really thick molded ones with indents for thumb / finger - great, cheap (I mislay them). I'm kind of back on using picks recently quite a bit.

It's Marmite then. see...

this has gone weird.

Good thread, important landmark place. I remember Barry. He sold 2 Fenders for me on commission, got an early Bass Collection from there, followed by an NT Thumb fretless, a Trace all-valve. Very hard to go in there and not spend, big time. And even harder to not go in there. Heaven in a shop. Re stairs (apart from the tube) I have some recollection that late in their tenure there, they opened upstairs...?? Had some guitars, Trace Acoustic, I was with someone trying a Telecaster there so I'm not imagining all of this. But for most of its life it was one big floor of goodness I recall.

Tasty - even sounds good on my laptop !

I use this to play a tracklist, could be quite a few tracks and I use it as a challenge to go straight in and play tracks I don't know, so for me it's practice that forces me across styles, chord progressions, pick to fingers etc. Re-tuning seems the obvious option but if you try living with that every single track, it is an absolute pain = and it breaks the non-stop flow.

Well done - it needed saying. The Jazz neck is not Leo's finest moment. P width at top then tapers a LOT to what feels live a Vee shape at the nut. So left hand form and position has to change significantly as you move around the neck. It's one Fender design you don't see many emulating - though my Sire V7 seems to have nailed the Jazz neck rather well I have a hunch that some day soon I may end up trying a P/J Hot Rod type P with P neck, back pup etc. I went from nappies to a Precision so it should feel homely to me. (I was a late developer, OK?)

here's my take - you cannot get or have 'heft' without shifting serious volumes of air. Lots of punchy mid-tone doesn't get you 'heft'. Top never gets it. And it's not about super-lows either. Just shift big air with pitch to it - so it has note values, not just a big breeze. That, to me, is heft.

que??

This sounds very promising - i'm going from Spotify playlists on my iPhone to a playback. I'll investigate Anytune - may need the bigger UI of a pad but sounds exactly what I need - also it's not the odd track I want to tweak. I often just run a dozen quite random tracks and aim to get into them quick. I think it's good practice to force me to play styles and lines that are outside my 'habit'.

Thanks, didn't think of that. I'm actually trying to not buy a bass - there should be a term for that condition - but a fiver keeps nagging at me. A Korean Pro 5 ash would be a willpower challenge.

How about I come at it from the other end - i mean pitch shift the bass? Is that possible. I'll look into it - it must be a very common issue, virtually no track is on pitch to std tune 440A, they are all over the place, just by a painful amount, like 73% of a semi...!! I can't be alone in this, if anyone knows a neat simple way, I'd love to hear.

That looks very handy, usually I'm only looking to shift +/- halftone, just in tune to me. If I was transposing a song I'd normally learn it in source key then transpose how I want, so this is just to tweak to be in tune. SO, help please - I'm generally using Spotify as source - does this require files on a local drive? Basically what do I plug together and how??

One of my favourite pastimes is playing along to tracks. But somewhere between the studio floor and my mp3 there has been a pitch shift. I'd say almost every time and never consistent even on one album. So I get in tune, and every track is out. On fretless I could adjust but it's bad practice anyway I think as it messes with muscle memory. On the fretted it's a nightmare. What's to be done?

Given your right hand (or picking hand) can't be everywhere at once, I know I rely much more on the left (fingering) hand for control / damping. The other thing is the right edge of hand (fleshy bit above pinky) - often used to get a full damped sound (like when Fenders had a pad under bridge cover, or like what Carol Kaye sometimes did with her basses) - use that back edge of hand to damp, but it's not selective, I mean you can't select one string this way. I think it's a really good technique to have, totally different attack sound to fingers, requires serious accuracy... so it's just practice. There are some basslines you just can't get the same any other way. I tend to use those really thick molded ones with finger/thumb recess - less chance of losing (only slightly less!), and so stiff you have no margin for error - the flexi ones make it a little easier but in turn the pin-sharp accuracy goes with it. Good things I reckon - IIRC: Chris Squire; Phil Lynott... and loads more.

Neat, are they 12"? - one cab in each hand, amp in pocket, bass backpack... away we go

Random thought came to me today, thinking about this bass - if I could ever have had one - I'd ask to call it a MAN-RAY (Dada / surrealist like)

Mention of TC, wondering how this compares with the TonePrint downloads for TC amps?

Neat Moonbass - quite technical, but neat Actually maybe not too diff either... thanks!!