EssentialTension

It was Happy Jack - apologies for nicking your pic Jack but here we go:

I've seen worse. Much worse. Like all the pointy ones for example. Anyway, someone on BC used to have (and may still have) a Lindert Bass VI with the same headstock shape.

I have to say I can't hear what is supposedly unique about the sound. Those examples just sound typical Precision with roundwounds, full treble, played with a pick. The Larry Taylor one just sounds like Precision with flatwounds, played with fingers near the neck.

Never had a problem with Gak. No problem with Thomann either.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1402156190' post='2470549'] Is it very common? I must have been incredibly lucky [/quote] We all must have been very very lucky. In 40 years of playing bolt on basses I've never even heard the problem referred to before this thread.

No. I prefer not to give my real name.

[quote name='CHRISDABASS' timestamp='1401514232' post='2464345'] The difference is very noticable before you even plug them in. For me this shows the affect that different woods have. [/quote] I would not be at all surprised to find that two different pieces of wood (all other things being equal) might sound somehow different [b][i]especially before you even plug them in[/i][/b]. That's exactly when they would likely sound most different. For me, this shows the very minimal effect (if any) that different woods have. But even if there were such a difference, you can NOT extrapolate from that to either of: 1: This species of wood always sounds like X; it is a 'tonewood'. 2: The difference will be anything other than a very minor factor in the amplified sound.

Maybe the guitarist is playing too much when he is not soloing and so losing too much when he drops it. As for the bass: Have a variant of the bass line for the instrumental section so instead of being empty it just sounds different - in fact instead of being the guitarist soloing, treat it as an instrumental section. If you were playing quarter notes then play eighths, or vice versa. If you were pedalling then walk, or vice versa. If you were walking up then walk down, or vice versa. But space is good. Most of us play more than is necessary.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1401305798' post='2462337'] Yes, I'm over 60 so I've asked my over 20 son for his opinion. [/quote] Well, just coming up to 48 hours and I'm still waiting a reply to my text.

Also here - [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/237818-the-carol-kaye-story/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/237818-the-carol-kaye-story/[/url]

That Larry Taylor and John Entwistle sound so different suggest that like any P bass these had a range of different sounds.

[quote name='Sean' timestamp='1401392934' post='2463272'] I played bass in a Blues Brothers tribute with a great bunch of people, awesome (bonkers) drummer and loved every minute of playing the music and gigging. I learned loads about gigging, emulating styles, working with people I normally would not etc etc etc Dump your prejudices and get tributing! [/quote] But prejudices are OK if they are original prejudices. It's those covers of other peoples prejudices that are bad ... and as for tribute prejudices, they leave me speechless.

Tony Franklin - Corona.

More Larry Taylor story here too: [url="http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&topic_number=699338"]http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&topic_number=699338[/url]

Yes I saw the Alembic room letter.

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1401388980' post='2463199'] Definitely a slab at Monterey! [/quote] Taylor and Entwistle both?

[quote name='GCYPbass' timestamp='1401378192' post='2463015'] Yeah I see. I read many good comments about their neck. Were you happy with the sound? The color is very dark bright blue. Fender names it as bright sapphire metallic or something like that I think. [/quote] I don't recall much but I certainly wasn't unhappy.

[quote name='BigGuyAtTheBack' timestamp='1401376678' post='2462991'] Spent 20 years looking for the 'right' tone, discovered a plectrum was all I needed! [/quote] So, it's not all in the fingers after all?

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1401364717' post='2462812'] Wonder why so many people have multiple basses if its not worth spending more than a few mins getting a good tone. Maybe its not worth spending the time, but worth sending them money ;-) [/quote] This is a very good point and the same might apply to multiple amps etc too. However, I don't quite understand why it would take any more than a few minutes to get a good tone and if it did I would think there was either something wrong with the equipment or something wrong with me. It's not that it's not worth spending more than a few minutes; it's that it really should only take a few minutes. Anyway, speaking for myself I could quite adequately play in any band I have ever been in with one Precision Bass, or one Jazz Bass or similar, or one probably not even very similar at all. It would still work. But despite multiple basses being not really necessary I do like to have different kinds if I am going to have more than one so: Upright bass Large bodied electro-acoustic fretless Solid body electric fretted (I have two of these and can give no good excuse - I should be horse-whipped) Bass VI tic-tac/surf bass They all sound disappointingly the same when I play them.

[quote name='GCYPbass' timestamp='1401372696' post='2462925'] I beleive it is one of the 34" scale ones. I think the Urge 1 models are 32" scale but I may be wrong. [/quote] Ah, that's right I think. I payed a 32" years ago it seemed very fast - if you see what I mean. What colour?

It won't make you rich but as an unusual but nice (in my view) Fender it's unlikely to lose you much either. Is it the 32" scale or 34" scale.

[quote name='yann' timestamp='1401364215' post='2462809'] There's a Greek word that explains it: "Anadrasis". I can only translate this as "interaction" or something... [/quote] [i]Anadrasis[/i] = running back so feeding back and so interaction? Does that sound correct? I've no dispute, I think like most non-believers as you call us, that a different piece of wood might at least in principle sound different from some other piece of wood; and might also sound different from perspex or aluminium or whatever material, even hollow wood rather than solid wood. Nor any issue with the idea that there might be some interaction, some feedback between wood and the rest of an electric instrument. What I and I'm sure others remain unconvinced by is the idea that a particular species of wood can be established as a so-called tonewood. Even insofar as a particular species of wood might be generally or commonly be associated with a point on some continuum between 'bright' and 'dark' (or some other difficultly measurable aesthetic judgement), any particular sample of that species might or might not display the characteristics commonly associated with said species. But anyway, even if we allow that some individual pieces of wood might be tonally different to other individual pieces of wood - which I think few people would strongly deny - there is a long list of factors which will have much greater influence over tone than will the wood: strings, foam or whatever under the strings, pickups, fingers, plectrum, where your hand is when you hit the strings, the manner in which you hit the strings, scale length, setup of neck and bridge, EQ on the bass, effects pedals, amplification, speakers, interaction (that's [i]anadrasis[/i]) with the rest of the band and the room, etc. etc. .... ... and of course that's how this thread got started: [quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1263247258' post='709467'] I think this is the right forum for this one... I've always thought that the wood(s) used to make a bass (or guitar for that matter) are a critical element in determining how it will sound, and that time spent selecting the woods for a high-end instrument build is time well spent as it provides a 'uniqueness' to the sound. However I recently had a fascinating conversation with a respected specialist builder on another forum, to the effect that whilst high quality woods are an important element in producing a high quality instrument, the actual choice of wood is less of a factor in determining the specifics of the sound than I had supposed, and that other factors such as pickup/preamp choice, string choice and setup are at least as important (if not more so). The implications of this are fairly substantial IMHO, because if true it means that in selecting tonewoods a customer is exerting less influence on how the instrument will sound (and probably more on how it looks) than he/she might believe. I'm aware that I may be stirring a bit of a hornet's nest in asking this, but I'm considering having a bass built for me (although the same basic considerations would surely apply to off-the-shelf instruments) and I really would like to know what people think. [/quote]

[quote name='yann' timestamp='1401364215' post='2462809'] ... wood matters in electric sound ... [/quote] You need to start with a full clarification of what that phrase, that claim, actually means.

[quote name='yann' timestamp='1401347364' post='2462579'] Sorry,you're both (and all others who support this) wrong... There are so many practical examples around that appear daily since the making of the very first electric instrument! (The question: "Does wood affect electric sound" is been answered since the 60s,i don't see the reason it's still discussed... ...) [/quote] Not a convincing argument.

Entwistle playing, I believe, the same bass but much clearer sound here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYIZfb6KFsk