Boodang

My two fav basses; a Squier VM Jazz fretless which cost £200, and a custom jazz which cost considerably more. The difference between the two... well the Squier is awesome but the custom is sublime. All the tiny niggles on the Squier, because it wasn't made specifically with me in mind, are not there on the custom. So, to go from almost perfect to perfect is a lot more money. Is it worth it? Well for me yes. Does the audience notice? Well, not really the right question, as playing the custom is more enjoyable and because of that I probably put in a better performance. But of course, if the little things I find irritating on the Squier don't bother you, then you've found your perfect bass for not a lot.

My best mate at school was an accident so his brothers were 10 years older than us and we spent our spare time listening to their records instead of doing homework. Their tastes were rock based so it was the usual mix of Hendrix, Deep Purple, Rush, Led Zeppelin etc but the one that really got to me and made me take up bass was Yes and Chris Squire's unique approach.

To change up my practice I bought the Janek Gwizdala books and have been working through those. It's challenging and a different approach to the run of the mill. Suggestion 2; sell the gear gathering dust and buy a drum kit! Nothing quite like a new challenge and it'll have the side affect of improving your bass playing.

Yep, my favourite strings are the Galli Synthesis flats. Nylon cored and smooth as butter. I play rounds when the session demands but they suck @ss!!

Mostly because rounds sound different to flats and having a fretless doesn't mean you have to put flats on it. I've got a fretless with flats for that classic sound, and I have one with rounds, an ebony board, and when eq'd with scooped mids and boosted highs has a great slap tone. Why would I use this instead of a fretted? Well, I prefer the expressiveness I get from a fretless.

Well, a few points in their defense; Mwah sound is not compulsory. I've got a fretless strung with roundwounds which has an ebony fingerboard, with a scooped eq you can even slap it. The point of them? Well, to my mind they're more expressive than a fretted. Cello style vibrato and slides being the most obvious. And unlike a fretted the whole board is available to use not just the bit behind the fret. And as for white fret lines, Jaco and Mark Egan were/are on training wheels for a very long time.

Apart from the sound, for my money, a fretless is more expressive. Lined fretless is a good place to start. If you can find one, get a s/h Squier vintage modified jazz fretless... it has a lined resin fingerboard which is glassy smooth.

Most bass rigs don't do well below 100hz, you'll often see -9db or more at 41hz. So although mids will cut through the mix more, boosting the bass on most rigs isn't very efficient. I've started using a rig with a dedicated sub, but as it's the Mackie DLM it's smaller than most rigs anyway. I find I get a cleaner sound this way and need less mids to be heard. Of course, if you're going thru a bigger PA you're at the mercy of the FOH engineer but if they're any good they should be able to give you a non growl sound that can be heard. Although for that you have to give the FOH a di that they can work with and is sympathetic to the PA setup.

Jack of all trades and master of none?

Or, a bit left field, try a phaser instead of an envelope filter... the Grape Phaser is super funky.

Brighten your board up with a pedal with great artwork! Photon Death Ray comp, a Jam pedal, Walrus have some great pedals, their Slo has some interesting modulated delays, Mr Black Fwonkbeta is super phat. Not as pretty, but how about a phaser? The Aguilar Grape phaser is super funky.

I put a Peterson Stroboclip on every bass I use so it's off my board and they more or less live on headstock permanently.

I quite like the 'fan' effect of the strings on the headstock, quite a pleasing geometry. I'm off to change all my strings!

I love my 4001 but I did have to make some changes.... the bridge obviously has to be swapped out, and nordstrand make a good neck pup replacement, so while I was at it, I went and replaced the bridge pup as well. I wasn't finding it that comfortable to play, so I took the bridge pup cover off, it still wasn't that comfortable and I don't think I got on with the body shape so I swapped out the body as well, but as it's a neck through I had to change that as well. Now the pups didn't really fit with the setup, so I changed them as well, and now it's perfect.

A friend of mine used to run a drum shop. People would go in, try everything, ask advice, and then go and buy from an online shop because it was a dollar cheaper. Now there's no local drum shop, and the punters complain they can't try anything out. Buy online and you don't like it when it arrives, there's a surprise!

.... welcome to motorcycle chat!

Get a used TC Electronic Spectracomp for 50 quid, then use the toneprints to see if you like compression and if you do, what type.

Ah, come back, your local friendly music shop, all is forgiven!

I agree, dual coils don't quite sound as good as single coils. I've fitted my jazz with a series/parallel switch for the best of both worlds.

Not sure about a comparison with Lotus. I mean, Lotus might actually have some 20th century technology in it, whereas Rics, like Harley engines, where designed in the Jurassic period.

Funny enough, EMG quote the impedance of their active pickups as 10K. An opamp would normally have a low impedance output but they've obviously not gone down that route so their pickups can just slot straight into a standard setup, and they have enough oomph for any standard passive or active preamp.

Well, I know you don't want to do much mod'ing but... my fav jazz bass I've owned, a Squier VM, I changed all hardware; pups, bridge, tuners, nut, preamp, and the whole thing came in at around £600. Played better than any USA standard version and I got exactly the setup I wanted. So, get a Squier and stick some EMGs in it.