Shaggy

'81 Gibson RD Artist bass, but had to wait for today. May need to pump some iron in order to last two sets with it - HEAVY!

[quote name='PauBass' post='108845' date='Dec 24 2007, 11:07 AM']Is this bass the one selling on Gumtree?

If it's the one, I contacted the seller and it smells fishy to me...I'm not saying it's a scam but read the reply I received from him and judge yourself:

[b]I`m curently located in Germany whit some bussines and the item is in ebay custody(England).Ebay have the item in their custody packed, insured and ready for shipping. They will contact you with all the details of this sale (they will send you an invoice ) and with the payment instructions. You will send the payment to one of their agents that is handling our transaction and after that you will send them the payment information so they can verify It. I will have to make you aware of the fact that i don`t know the agent name because they change it in every transaction for security reasons. As soon as they do that the shipping process will start. After you receive the item you will have a 7 day return policy (starting the day you receive te item), in this time you will have to decide if you accept it or not.So please give me your full name and shipping address so i can have them contact you regarding the transaction.
Regards[/b][/quote]
Our drummer just tried buying a '72 VW Camper on the 'bay, from Germany, same bumf as above. It was a scam - luckily sussed in time. So let's be careful out there!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='106987' date='Dec 20 2007, 11:45 AM']<<<<< My American Walnut Wal Custom Fretless. Have had this one since 1986 and have never moved on. Gigging with it tonight in Bury St. Edmunds (jazz piano trio). Sounds better now than it did 20 years ago (or is that just me?).... The other Status 6-string is a plank with wires in comparison (sorry, OTPJ, I just can't get it to work in a jazz setting).

My Wal makes me sound like me... what more can you ask of a bass?[/quote]
His!
In the meantime, I’ll settle for my ’73 fretless P

Not much in the claim to fame stakes – Boo Hewardine was guitar/lead vocals in my school band (in ‘80’s indie band The Bible and better known now as a songwriter), and I was recently in a South Wales band with the lead guitarist from Lone Star (‘80’s rock band).
However, a couple of years back was this close (hold fingers 1mm apart) to the “Carlsberg don’t do bands, but if they did…….” dream bass job. Temporarily in between bands I looked at the ads in the local guitar emporium, saw one looking for a “pro-minded bassist, own gear, for band playing 70’s-current covers, shortly about to tour”. I phoned the guy out of interest; he was rather cagey about the whole thing but said it was much as the ad said, with some fairly heavy finance behind the project, the band about to tour the North of England, and then possibly Europe. Well, I wasn’t too sure about the touring as I have on-call commitments at the hospital I work at, but he persuaded me too come and audition – the only formal one I’ve ever had. Which I passed, then he fills in a bit more details – the band was to support a troupe of 20 lap-dancers! I had to turn it down because of the length of touring even though the money was great. My mate at work said he’d cover all my on-call just to experience it through me and hear my stories!
Mind you, I guess it’d be like working in a chocolate factory.

Definitely my first ever gig, aged 16, which was playing bass in a school rock opera*, also my band played an opening and closing set.
The school hall felt as big as Wembley arena, and with my trusty Kalamazoo short-scale bass, and puny amp farting feebly in the background, I felt I had the world at my fingertips….

2nd favourite – a couple of months later playing at a friends’ 17th birthday party, with a pair of still-warm girl’s panties dangling from my headstock. Ah, rock n’ roll.

(*biographers’ note; the school opera was based on “Far From the Madding Crowd” which the artist formerly known as Shaggy had been forced to endure for English Lit “O” Level. The Stones track “Brown Sugar” was played as “Bathsheba” with the slightly dodgy lyric “Bathsheba, how come you taste so good……”. Half of the band stayed in the music business and hit it big in the ‘80’s & ‘90’s, the artist formerly known as Shaggy went to Uni, got a degree, and spent the next 30 years playing seedy pubs and clubs.)

+6

=142

Squier Jazz fretless really nice, and you could add a J-retro and upgrade the p/u’s later.
Mind you, if I was looking for a fretless with that budget there are two absolute crackers in the For Sale section right now – Rich’s Jaydee Roadie and Bassballs’s Warwick Fortress – both active, both luverlee!

[quote name='David Nimrod' post='103534' date='Dec 12 2007, 08:08 PM']Blimey, I haven't had one of those for *ages*

Is it true you get a fistful of hazlenuts in every bite?[/quote]
No - if the ads were to be belived, the squirrels used to stalk you if you had a bar and nick them first (squirrelist, I know)


[quote name='Rich' post='103693' date='Dec 13 2007, 07:38 AM']Anybody remember British Leyland in the 70s, and some of their ghastly cars? Remember how badly screwed together they were, bits falling off all over the place? Remember Alfa Romeo doing much the same thing in the 80s?
Was their quality control done by the Chinese?
No, it was just bad.
QED.[/quote]
I have a Triumph TR7 (convertible) which I love. There's a BL worker still sleeping in the boot I think.

Re Ashdown; never tried them, but they do look very cool

[quote name='dub_junkie' post='100638' date='Dec 7 2007, 02:00 AM']congrats...I love the look of the pre EB Sabre basses.I once owned an '88 EB Sabre f/less and always wondered how it would sound against one of the Leo era ones given the different switching but never got the chance. I still havent heard/played a pre EB one and I guess I wont either as they're rare birds these days. I'm guessing they're not too disimiliar to an early L2K?
enjoy the bass![/quote]
Peter Gabriels's "Sledgehammer" has Tony Levin playing an old fretless Sabre, and James Browns' bassist used a fretted one in the '80's.
Hope the bass has arrived OK! How come someone so young has such great taste in basses? (ie; late '70's Americana)

And another PM!

You’re going to be one happy fella! Definitely one of the most underated classic basses ever. Mine was chocolate brown before the previous owner had it stripped – I always meant to refin it in either black or sunburst but never got around to it.
Don’t worry if the “bright” switch doesn’t appear to do anything – it’s not broken, it just doesn’t do anything

My old Listerud had MM style Bassculture neodynium pickups with flamed maple covers - having made a couple of customs I'd have loved to have used something similar instead of the usual black plastic SD's or Barts (ebony covers on one, maple on the other). Be pricey, I guess.

That 3TS maple-neck is absolutely stunning - nice one Chris!

Joe, judging from recent scary Bass Gallery prices and the fact that Sabres are rarer than hen’s teeth I’d say that was a good buy – but obviously try and haggle. Truss-rods can break on any guitar, and personally I wouldn’t find a replaced/repaired one a big deal.
I’ve played all sorts over the last 30 years and after getting the Sabre a few years ago never needed or wanted another fretted bass – it’s like a cracking Jazz bass AND a ‘Ray rolled into one and funks like a b@stard!

PM'd re Melody Maker

Marky, that avatar terrifies me every time!

Didn't the "Adam & the Ants" bassist have one of these?

PM sent

Good thread!
Placebo effect? Dunno. I've only ever bought one brand new bass - an Ibanez Artist Musician - and didn't bond with it at all. I like old basses (/cars/motorbikes), the way they sound, their quirkiness, the patina of use on a well-looked after (ie; not shagged) instrument. Plus a sensibly modded old bass is always more interesting than a bog-standard one.
Until very recently I thought the whole relic-ing thing total crap. Then last week I saw the Joe Strummer signature Fender Telecaster (guit*r) in my local guitar shop. Basically looks like its been painted with grey primer, given to a blind-folded gorilla with a power-sander, then left out in the rain for a month. It is a thing of utter presence and beauty. You could hang it in the Tate with the simple title "Rock n' Roll" underneath. Yes, it's artifice, but rock music has been self-parody ever since Elvis made it big.
As for the "Skoda" effect, the only guy not giving a toss about the label on the headstock is probably some 80-year old blues player somewhere in New Orleans. As for me, going to check out that Wal in the For Sale forum again.................

Can't believe this is still for sale. If I didn't a trio of fretlesses I've have this in a heartbeat.

Teal Blue, surely? Or am I colourblind?

Not especially interested in the bass (cracker though it is), but if you’re into custom building, I have the neck and hardware off a 1968 Kalamazoo (Gibson’s budget brand at the time, but US-made), basically a copy of a Fender Mustang, with short-scale Fender style neck in maple/rosewood, and the hardware straight off a Gibson EB-3. In good nick, but minus big neck pick-up (stuck on a Jazz bass in the early ‘80’s!). Only mention it as short-scale necks are hard to come by, and this has a bit of history and mojo at least.

True jazzers would laugh at this, but a good one to start on and give you that jazzy feel with a bit of a solo is "Nivram" by the Shadows. Jazz doesn't need to be avant-garde or virstuoso stuff to sound good!

Gotta say I find this discussion about recording (I won’t say “argument”), really interesting, worth a thread in its own right.
From my limited experience of studio recording – which I dislike intensely – I find that whatever bass sound you try and create the engineer just whops the bass EQ setting up and it’s lost.
I hadn’t really thought about active vs passive in a recording setting but I guess its true – the last time we recorded I took my active MM, but the slight earth hum that I can’t be arsed to suss out and usually mask with a bit of noise gate was highly audible when recording. So the engineer lent me his passive Wal Pro-bass – lurvely! – which to me sounded woolly, but in the mix was absolutely spot on. I’ll take the Precision next time!
I think the gist of the thread is that if you find a P-bass playable then it’s a hell of sound to have in your arsenal, although versatile it’s not (in standard form). Also should have said before that upgrading the stock pick-ups (to wizards, SD’s etc) makes such a difference – same sound but with hi-fi definition and clarity.

Contact Chop-the-bass on this forum - top bloke, fantastic luthier, and has all sorts of bits - supplied most of my Jazz custom 5 parts including neck & body.