EssentialTension

Taylor with flats and Entwistle with rounds? What do you think?

Monterey again, John Entwistle with The Who playing a white Precision, is it a slab? Clear shot at 15.33 looks slabbish. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWU9nNT1oUQ[/media]

Larry Taylor with Canned Heat playing a black slab-bodied maple-board Precision at Monterey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vFOqp-BeJk

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1401267647' post='2461743'] (Yes, I'm over 40 years old) [/quote] Yes, I'm over 60 so I've asked my over 20 son for his opinion.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1401305502' post='2462329'] Music for people who don't like music is a huge market. Also see: stupidly big cars for people who can't drive; best-selling novels for people who can't read and a plethora of similar 'luxury goods' for discerning consumers [size=4]who don't know their arses from a hole in the ground. Ooh, I'm grumpy today all right![/size] [/quote] ... you forgot best-selling novels by people who can't write ...

I had not heard this or even heard of this. I have heard the name Pharrell but had no idea who or what it was. It turns out it's inoffensive but drivelling who-cares-music for people who don't actually like music, IMHO. On YouTube the preceding advert was better and I skipped that.

Yes, waste of time, better to concentrate on playing. This is especially true if you are playing on your own. Tone-fiddling can make you go blind ... or was it deaf?

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1401061888' post='2459740'] I can also confirm that Amy Winehouse's band used to get paid a pittance per night, roughly £250-£500 each, if they were lucky that is. I know of pub bands who play her songs that get paid more than that each. [/quote] Which pubs are those?

[quote name='Green Alsatian' timestamp='1401214075' post='2461335'] The term 'Telecaster Bass' in the context of the slab Precision, according to Barry Matthews' book 'Fender Bass for Britain: The History of the 1966 Slab-Bodied Precision Bass', came from Arbiter, who imported Fenders at the time. On page 9 of the book, there is a print of the 'Instrumental News' page from an issue of 'Beat Instrumental' harking from July 1966 and it features an article, titled 'New Telecaster Bass'. It reads: [i]Arbiter announce that they are now handling a new Fender bass. It costs 147 gns and has a Telecaster type body. Interest has been shown in it by many top group bassmen.[/i] The author's comment at the foot of the page states that this is the only advert that ever appeared for the slab Precision. It's likely that on reading about the slab's body, Arbiter assumed it was a new model and not just a unique run of Precisions. [/quote] I haven't read any of the books so thanks for that. To me, that sounds like Arbiter saying '[i]Telecaster type body'[/i] (meaning slab body) and then a sub-editor at Beat Instrumental writing the headline 'New Telecaster Bass' because they don't know what '[i]Telecaster type body'[/i] means[i].[/i]

I'm a big fan but I'm very poor at it myself. My son plays some banjo in his gypsy-folk-dub band Euphony. He's got an Ozark of some kind with a closed back.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1401200373' post='2461061'] I doubt it, he got exactly what he wanted. If he wanted a telecaster bass, then he would have asked for a reissue of the original single coil P-Bass from '51-'54, that would have been far easier to have described and requested. In fact, in '66, he probably could have bought one of those for less than the price of a new custom order Precision. [/quote] I get your point but in '66, the '51-'54 Precision was called ... er ... a Precision Bass and there were no Telecaster Basses until '68 when the '51 Precision was renamed and reissued. So if he did want a bass based (no pun intended) on the Telecaster guitar it should have been a single cut with two single-coil pickups and Telecaster Bass on the headstock. But he got a slab-bodied Precision Bass instead.

A piece of felt is another good one.

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1401137324' post='2460530'] Apparently some guy went into the shop in London, in 1966, and asked for a special [i]Fender Telecaster[/i] bass to be made by Fender. When word got to the Fender plant they set about making a Precision bass that matched the aesthetics of the '50s Telecaster guitars, hence the colour of the finish, the lack of contours, the maple neck and the black pickguard. To all intents and purposes it is a Precision bass with some aesthetic changes. The biggie, that makes the sonic difference, is the construction of the maple neck. The electronics are regular P-bass fare, and there is nothing special going on with the output of the pickups or anything. [/quote] OK, thanks for the explanation but I still don't quite get it because "the lack of contours, the maple neck and the black pickguard" are all typical of an early '50s Precision bass just as much as a Telecaster guitar. As for the colour of the finish, surely that's just a custom colour, as you say "aesthetic change", in the normal way. In fact there is nothing about it which could not be considered Precision bass in one way or another; which is probably why it's always been known as a Precision bass. Still, like I said, people can call it what they want.

I would walk well away from that. Too many queries for that price.

Many years ago I used to spend ages messing with EQ. Now I rarely bother and do my best to avoid EQ fiddling. Instead, play in a different manner, move my right hand, neckwards or bridgewards. Play more lightly and turn the volume up or play harder and turn the volume down.

Sponge from under pickups, screwed up tissues, bit of old cotton cloth or velvet, mouse mat - try different things til you get the sound you want.

[quote name='slab66' timestamp='1400945327' post='2458434'] I guess we could settle on Telecaster/Precision hybrid! That's what I call mine. Best of both worlds. [/quote] Well, like I said, you can of course call it what you like, but I'm just interested to know why anyone would think it would attract the name Telecaster. I really don't want to pay £30 to read that book to find out.

[quote name='ukulelelab' timestamp='1400877552' post='2457907'] My '66 LPB [/quote] Very nice.

Broke an A string once years ago and that was only time at a gig. Always spare strings, rarely spare bass.

[quote name='slab66' timestamp='1400599083' post='2455324'] Had not read Barrie's book back then. [/quote] You can call it whatever you want of course but please explain why you want to call it a Telecaster Bass when Fender call it a Precision Bass and even the website for the book you refer to also calls it a Precision Bass sometimes.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1400829047' post='2457267'] Seems to be working again now [/quote] Indeed.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1400410104' post='2453516'] Which is the 'good music' and which is the 'bad music'? [/quote] If you can't tell the difference good and bad then it makes no difference whether it's so-called original, covers, tribute or whatever.

[quote] [b] The "adult" version[/b] In 1979, the cast and crew of [i]Rainbow[/i] made a special exclusive sketch for the Thames TV staff [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tape"]Christmas tape[/url], sometimes referred to as the "Twangers" episode. This sketch featured plenty of deliberate sexual innuendo (beginning with Zippy peeling a banana, saying 'One skin, two skin, three skin, four...' before being interrupted), and was never shown at the time (as it was never intended to be screened to the general public.) It also included Geoffrey convincing the viewers to "bounce" their balls, but if they did not have any balls, they could ask a friend if they could play with his. Jane also claimed that she was "blowing a lot with Rodger". Soon, Zippy asked them to stop, suggesting whether to play with a blowing tube and maracas, so they could start singing the 'Plucking Song'. The clip became famous after being aired on [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Lewis-Smith"]Victor Lewis-Smith[/url]'s [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_4"]Channel 4[/url] programme [i][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Offal"]TV Offal[/url][/i] (1997) and was referred to as 'the pilot episode' in order to fit into the regular programme segment "The Pilots That Crashed"; however, the clip clearly was not a pilot, as Geoffrey Hayes was the regular presenter at the time. The clip became widespread with the advent of the internet, first as an e-mail attachment and later via online video websites such as YouTube, where to date it has received more than a million hits. This has led to many erroneous claims that the episode was publicly broadcast as a regular episode.[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_%28TV_series%29#The_.22adult.22_version"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_%28TV_series%29#The_.22adult.22_version[/url][/quote]

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1400358564' post='2453242'] Each to their own. I'd rather go and see an original band I haven't heard before. [/quote] Well, as you say, each to their own, but my preference is good songs and good performance so I don't care whether its so-called original material or so-called covers or so-called tribute. For me, it's the music and the performance that matters. So, original or not, covers or not, tribute or not it can be good or not so good, and so original, covers, or tribute can't be a test of how good it is. Anyway, it's really quite rare to see something actually original as so-called original is commonly highly derivative and sometimes derivative in a rather dull manner.