diskwave

Jamersons story is a damn sad one. Early 70's and everyone in LA where he'd moved to was getting into rounds for more snap and bite and I think was Chuck Rainey gave him a pack and he binned them.. it was from that point on that work dried up and his decline started. A signature P bass per se wouldnt be much good. It was a standard 60's P bass with around 5/16ths at the 12th....virtually unplayable but as an upright player he found it easy.

Complete opposite here. Played a Ray from 80 to 89.. was never happy, always seemed lacking somehow. Took a break for a few yrs then bought a P bass and its been P basses ever since. A Ray does what it does but for me it lacks that final bit of heft, especially once u get ur technique sorted. My CV 70's wearing dead Chromes is a thump and punch machine all day long.

And there it is, exactly the reason its all gone to pot. Back in the day you had to prove to an established old school producer/publisher you had something special. I was in a prog rock band back in the late 70's and we had some really nice tunes.. demos the works but could we get a deal.. nope... Truth was we just weren't quite good enough, couldnt quite write the catchy single they all wanted. So, all that work, expense... 1000's of gigs and it all added up to zilch cause we just didn't have it. Yet nowdays as you say anyone can "launch" an excuse for a tune.. Trouble is "anyone" ...........aint got it either.

Even 40 odd years ago unless you were prepared to be out every nite all nite, making money from this game has never been easy at all. The only peeps who ever made money from music were "pop stars" successful producers and the impressario types who made it all happen.

Tha FGH tone is pure ole school P bass and SVT Peg, tho I spect its an app or something nowdays, but yes about as far away from ur lush bedroom tone as its poss to get..with very little boom.. works a treat. Anyway this thread has drifted somewhat, still a good read. As you were.

Around 85-86 a lot of jazzers thght they'd have a go at being current with the crowd so they stated cranking the snare drum.. the very worse case was a Chick Corea album I bought where the snare dominated in the most awful way (that album disappered from view and Ive never heard it played since) and thats exactly what we have here. Loud snares... so irritating.

Yep that was me...haha. I dont know what they use but they do play a lot of old tunes too, and as Ive said before its really noticeable. Anyway yes Im an old winge bag stuck in the 60's/70's but then so is Rick Beato and he literally has millions of peeps agreeing with him...and that includes young people too.

Ive wrestled with that question for years and Im not sure it holds up very well. My parents were brought up on classical and jazz, plus they were kinda a bit Victorian anyway. When Elvis hit they were appalled....and they remained appalled with "modern noisy pop" for ever. I meanwhile was brought up with 70's pop rock and punk music that was genuinely modern, noisy and dangerous, and yeah I listen to todays stuff and it just sounds flat to me, not dangerous or noisy, just not very musical.. there you go. Put it this way. yet again Im hearing more and more TV/internet ads aimed at "young people" and using pop music from the 70's in the soundtrack. Where's the Adeles, Sheerans, latest boy/girl bands in all of this? Im not hearing them. Ad peeps aren't stupid, theyre using these old tunes cause they are bloody good, simple as that.

Say that over on TB and see what a to do it'll cause. 'They dont it up em Mr Mannering'..haha

I'll take technique and experience over just about any tech/materials, all day long. For eg, when I started playing P basses 45 years ago I couldnt get them to work at all... mushy, boomy, indestinct..I couldn't make it work. I play a VM P bass now with its stock PU and I can make it punch and grind like crazy. Technique/experience.

Dont know about killer but the walnut CV 70's P bass I bought two years ago and tried a couple of times only, is back in its delivery box. Superb instrument but I dont really need it and it makes sense to keep it mint. I cant sell it tho as they are still making the darn things. Have to wait till they drop the line I guess.

Interesting thread. Thing is there's backing vox where you all sing in the same key and then theres Harmony singing.. two different animals.

Same here tbh. . For me the Ray killed the P bass dead. In 1977 I got an early one and played it all thru the 80's.

Even it wasnt a scam and they were a nice ole pairing...Id still be feeling weird owning it for such a low amount.

Very good indeed and that 70's vibe is cool as heck. Reckon the name did for them. Pity.

Good grief. Ive had a few over the years and there's nout any of them can do that for 250 quid my CV 70 cant do better.

Recording is a very precise animal and not many can do it well. Some of the most famous bands in history arent all playing on their best recorded tunes. Theres no easy answer. I found out the hard way many years ago that Im simply not quick enough and not precise enough...I can read a chart but Ive always had a bad habit of going off piste so to speak much to the annoyance of everyone else.

Ive 'watched' hundreds of bands, big, large, local, amateurish, great, crap....etc over the decades and in my mind there are two basic generic bass tones. A generic lowish thud and the Jaco burp. Im not much of a Jaco technician and the P bass drone if you will suits literally everything I play...ha I can even manage Durans "Rio" without sounding too dull and boring, suffice to say not one single musician in 45 yrs has said... 'That Fender bass sounds awful mate, got one of those whizz banger models?, Thats what we need'...Not once. Anyway getting this thread back on track. Reading some of the above. Whether the "Iconic" P bass is any good or not Ive simply noticed not many are for sale...which must be telling us something.

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Goodness your brave. If the game starts going the wrong way get yourselves and the gear outta there asap.

What sounds good at home on ur boom box or on the radio wont always sound good live. Just noticed ..'Call Me' above. Thats the type of thing that works live, well written, danceable and drives hard. Its a very tricky thing putting together a really good set which keeps people entertained... been there a million times and it never got any easier with the years. Its that thing when u look out and the crowd are totally ignoring you then that tune has to go. You gotta be ruthless which can be painful when ur fav gets the chop.

Here too. Have to admit after decades of playing them and a few other types which didn't last long, ... a P bass just feels like an old pair of shoes.. it just fits so well... so darn easy to make work whatever Im asked to play.

Ok. Id say there are way more Jazzes and derivates of, than P basses for sale at any one time, yet I get the sense that J's are more popular which would mean more peeps would hang on to them, or maybe not.

Yes I know another P bass thread, however I dont want to know what they're like, make comparisons etc dont need to, played them for years. Seems there are so many brands and styles out there yet you look in the classifieds and there are so few P basses for sale, yet the vibe I get, especially around here is that they are just not that popular, you have to search high and low to find one. Just got me thinking.

Agree and mines a P bass. If have to twiddle even one little control half a cent then a bass is no good to me at all, probably comes from my cello playing where it literally is all in the hands and technique. Remember seeing Steely Span a while back (great band) and watching the bassist twiddling his J bass all night long, he might as well have been playing a scaffolding plank with some twine nailed on it for all the good it did. Anyway I bought my Squire CV brand new off the internet, superb bass, good as or better than any of the Fenders Ive owned.