DubDelay

If you’re buying in Ireland and use the Adverts app all the sellers have reviews.
 

Generally buying electrical equipment from sellers with lots of good reviews is a safe bet. Just ask them a load of questions so they have to explicitly state (in writing) that it powers up, pots are ok etc. 

I have an early 90s Mij Ibanez Sr800 that is very light.  Has active pickups and preamp though so they might not be your cup if tea.

Maybe some people hear it and others don’t. My missis just throws her eyes up as I adjust the knobs on my bass and expound on the nuanced differences in tone. Says it all sounds the same to her. 
 

In saying that I think the electrics are what matter for tone but we all love the instruments that feel good. Different story with an acoustic instrument. 

37 minutes ago, TrevorR said:

My thoughts as well. It seems to more of a semantic point than anything around a definition of the word “impart”.

Thinking through the potential physics at play I don’t necessarily buy the “the body wood can only subtract frequencies” premise either. The strings will transmit vibrations into the body at the nut and bridge. These will rattle and reflect around the body/neck materials in all sorts of random ways at different frequencies. Some will be, of course, absorbed and dampened (at different frequencies and different amounts) reducing the overall energy of the system. However, it’s just as plausible that at some frequencies interference patterns or even standing wave vibrations could be formed within the body increasing the amplitude of those frequencies at the expense of others. 
 

The vibrations in the body would then transmit back into the strings at two points (nut and bridge) creating more complex overtones in the string. However, again since these would enter the strings at both ends it seems plausible that interference patterns could be formed at certain points along the string, potentially enhancing some harmonics while dampening others. If positive nodes coincide with the sensing area of the pickups - given the short wavelengths of many of the harmonics of the fundamental that also seems likely - within the complex waveform of the vibrating string there are likely to be positive and negative nodes at different micro-frequencies with some, therefore enhanced and others diminished, without breaking the law of the conservation of energy.

But as others have said, a bass sounds good if a bass sounds good and it’s core tone is a sum of the various parts (including player and playing style). It’s not simply attributable to one single factor and the organic nature of wood and potential variation in physical properties within one species - or even one tree/plank/piece of wood - means the effects on sound aren’t reliably predictable purely on the basis of species name (the usual contention at the heart of most online tone wood debates).

This sounds right to me. Some bodies are very resonant and some necks are, they work together or not, and you can feel when that works and when it doesn’t. Those are the ones I end up keeping anyway. 

On 22/03/2021 at 13:07, pete.young said:

This sounds like a great approach to running a radio station. Is it possible for us to listen on-ine?

Yup. They are a cool bunch really. Incapablestaircase.com 

I should add they are always looking for new hosts, it’s all community based radio from around Stroud. I’m in Ireland and there’s people from all over with shows on there now. My mate got my involved he’s from around there. 

2 minutes ago, Dood said:

No problem! It's a collaborative playlist so if anyone has missed a great example, it can be added too!

Looking through it now, feeling like my meagre bass skills are improving already. Also there's enough in there to cover a years worth of shows. 

2 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

If doing it on a general radio show i'd go for bassists that majority of people might recognise or hit songs that have amazing bass lines.

Bassists like these that your audience will initially recognise the songs and you can explain who the bass player is.

Pino Palladino - Wherever i Lay my Hat

John Deacon -  Another One Bites the Dust

Bakitho Kumalo - You Can Call me Al. ( probably not a bassist most people will recognise the name but the song was a huge hit)

I guess it will depend on what type of audience you have.

Dave

The show and station are eclectic so can get away with nearly anything, I. usually try to start with stuff people know or relate to and then lead into the less accessible sort of material.

7 minutes ago, Dood said:

Thank you yes! Click on my signature link!

Perfect! Thanks so much.

10 hours ago, Skybone said:

You could simply fill the show with James Jamerson & Carole Kaye and not scratch the surface.

Add in a sprinkle of Paul McCartney & John Entwistle before you even get out of the 60's.

Of course, everyone has an opinion, and those opinions may vary.

Might have to make it a monthly special at this rate. Probably three Carol Kaye tunes at least. 

Lots of stuff to go down the rabbit hole with here. It’s probably going to take a few weeks to put it all together. Bit of a hornet through bass ahead. Cheers!

20 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Are you sure???

I suggest that if you put 5 bassists in a room you'd get at least 6 opinions. "Who is the best bassist" often leads to near fisticuffs - what I like doesn't translate to what you, or anybody else, likes. "My dog doesn't like slap" - though whimsical - shows how we are divided on taste and style.

You may have to pick a genre each week and consider the bassists who made significant impact in that genre...

 

Very good idea to break it down into genres, thank you. Could do the special and then go back to the idea every couple of weeks.

Thanks for all the answers so far, had a feeling it might kick off a debate of sorts.

Google does give a good overview but who better to ask than the patrons of bass chat I thought. 

Very interested in the song that stands out too. I'll give the forum a plug and say the suggestions came from here.

Cheers.

Pete

This is one of my first posts on here and just wanted to preface it with a thanks for all the info on here. It’s a great forum really.
 

My question is - I have a weekly community radio show about music and am thinking of doing a special on essential bass players and their tracks (or track) that really shows off their style and talent most?

All very subjective of course but very interested to hear who people would suggest.

If it’s been asked before my apologies!

I have an old cheapo les Paul that sounds nice but it’s a bit wonky.

It had a similar problem and it was one of the machine heads was a bit damaged. The machine head off the D string created a similar sort of noise as you’re describing when I hit the E string. It took me ages to figure it out and now I just have a tiny bit of blue tac on it, can’t even see it.
 

If you try holding the E, D and G machine heads one at a time it would eliminate that sort of thing. It’s probably not the problem but no harm in checking. 

My Arbour Les Paul weighs a ton and sounds amazing. The specs on a Hohner spreadsheet of models online says it’s laminated Baltic Birch. Pretty chunky boards cross laminated as far as I can tell. The pickups aren’t original someone changed them but it’s sounds amazing and plays nice too. 
 

most of my guitars get upgraded sooner rather than later but whenever I think about selling the Arbor I have a go of it and decide it sounds too good. The body doesn’t resonate much when you strum it hard so I think the kinetic energy stays more focused?

for context I had a loan of a 90s standard sg for a couple of years when I started playing guitar about five years ago so I have been hands on with a great guitar. Usually the guitars I like most resonate like crazy but not the arbor. 
 

so I would agree with the comments here stating it’s the construction. I think people think of chipboard when they hear the word ply. I would imagine chipboard makes a fairly poor guitar or bass.

Some instruments have mojo and other don’t. The better the manufacturing process the better the  guitar usually I’d say from having obsessively bought and sold 40+ cheap and mid priced guitars in the last five years.

I have an Vester strat with an Alder body and it’s so good I’d buy pretty much any Vester I could get my hands on but you don’t see them much in Ireland. There’s a nice minty looking Vester jazz bass on Adverts.ie right now if anyone was after one. The wife would hang me if I bought it in the next few weeks. 

Interesting info in the link. Thanks again. 

16 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

He had a valid question, whether playing bass through a guitar driver would damage it. In fact you're less likely to damage a guitar driver with bass than with guitar, because it will sound horrid at power levels well below the voice coil thermal capacity. As for excursion, exceeding xmax doesn't hurt drivers, reaching xlim does. Guitar drivers tend to have xlim to xmax ratios in the vicinity of 4:1, because they're intended to be pushed past xmax. Bass driver xlim to xmax ratios run around 2:1, so you're more likely to mechanically damage a bass driver by creasing a cone. One manufacturer was well known for their drivers creasing, because the driver xlim to xmax ratio was only 1: 0.6.

That’s some good info, thanks so much. Going to google all of those terms now. 

9 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

I would have thought you would have plugged in a bass and gone ''dang this thing can't satisfy'' before posting the thread.

Ime of guitar amp bass I tried the guitarist's 50w Marshall with his 412, at his insistence. We turned it up until it distorted, at which point it was making 1 mousepower. Ymmv.

Getting a bass amp with a 15 inch speaker appeals for sure. Not to the better half though.

Guess I don’t really need a bass amp then as I don’t gig. You read stuff online about the lower frequencies destroying guitar speakers, but not at low volume. And as pointed out all the old bass players were  using guitar amps, which was sort of how I figured it. I can use the mid cut on my Sr800 to dial out some of the classic 30 honk,  great with a strat or les Paul the honk is. 

I sometimes run the fx loop out on the Classic 30 into the fx in on an old 80s solid state I have. I might try that as the classic 30 has pretty saggy tone. Thanks for all the insights. 

34 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Only concern is providing the proper cab impedance to the amp.

That’s what’s I figured. Thank you.

Hi.

Having been on the lookout for a cheap practice amp for playing bass at home I just had a thought and maybe someone here would have tried something similar.

I use a Peavey Classic 30 as my main guitar amp at home, the volume is actually fairly manageable, even in an apartment. The Classic 30 is modded with a 1983 Celestion G12-65 speaker and it sounds unbelievably good.

Don’t want to blow my vintage speaker by playing bass through it so could I disconnect that speaker and get a bass cab and run it from the speaker out on the Classic 30? This would save money and space and keep the wife happy. 
 

Cheers

Pete 
 

On 16/02/2021 at 12:01, Bassassin said:

Thanks - and great detective work!

For anyone with a passing interest in this stuff, the 'sold' gallery at https://best-vintage-guitars.de/sold.html is a great resource for comparisons, ID and (usually) accurate basic age/manufacturer info. The galleries for individual instruments are stunningly detailed too - an indispensible bookmark if you have any interest in old MIK/MIJ stuff.

Thanks for linking that site, lots of great info/guitar porn. 

2 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

If you managed to get yer man down from 350 she should be buying you dinner tonight 😂

260 in the end. 

5 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

Complete bargain. They're massively undervalued for how good a bass they are. You got a lot for the money, for sure.

I'll tell the missus. Might help...