NJE

Just another example of how little people in general value any kind of creative industry. The issue is not just this person/venue though, I know and have know, a lot of bands and musicians that would play the opening of a cupboard door for a free drink and a pat on the back. I don’t want to criticise them too much, because for a lot of people it’s a hobby and they are just happy to play and have fun and don’t need or want to make money. I have found the same through talking to other kinds of creative people, photographers, web designers, illustrators, they all come across people who do the same work but will do it for very little or nothing just to get experience and build a portfolio.

For anyone interested, I gave up on lemon oil about 2 years ago as I found it wasn’t really nourishing the rosewood boards on my guitars. I have used it for years and it never seemed to properly condition the wood, it just soaked in and the board looked fine for a week and then dried out. I did some google research and found a lot of luthiers and guitar companies in general moving away from it and using Music Nomad F-One oil. I bought a bottle and tried it and for me and my guitars it works so much better than lemon oil and has lasted and really seems to ‘feed’ the wood and make it look and feel superb. I’m converted and think it is well worth it (a bottle will last a few guitars for years).

Here’s a few things: country of origin, location of business, rent, staff costs, production methods, cost of materials, heritage, reputation, experience. I’m sure there are hundreds more. One is made by a very small team of luthiers in New York/Brooklyn? Where they have to pay staff enough to live in that area as well. By all accounts they hand pick all of their timbers and pay top dollar etc and they have the reputation as one of the finest bunch of luthiers in the world. It’s more about their outgoings as a business not just what physically went into it as an instrument. They need to pay for everything’s and everyone involved in the business and then make a profit. I have no doubt their reputation gives them the luxury to charge a good amount of money for the product so why not charge what people are willing to pay?

I shouldn’t like it, my brain tells me it’s everything I don’t want in a bass, but I really like them 😬. I especially like the Prog version, will be interesting to see the pricing on these.

I’ve been approaching this the wrong way all along.

This thread just got me thinking how long it had been since I bought any new gear, so I decided to delve into emails and photos to check. 2nd of March 2017 was the last time I bought anything, and that includes strings, cables, even spare batteries for basses and tuner. I’m stunned! that has to be a record for me, amazing how kids can distract you from this kind of nonsense. 😂

I have OBBM cables and also Design-a-cable. My only slight leaning towards design-a-cable is the wide variety of colours available. I always buy a range of strange colours so mine don’t get ‘lost’ or swept up in other people’s gig bags and flightcases. I have been using the same speaker and guitar leads for the past 7 years, one of each from the two companies mentioned above. Top notch kit.

Why does any ‘luxury’ item cost a premium, because people naturally want something better/more expensive/rarer/fancier than the next person and will pay for that. There will also always be people in the world who don’t consider 4K a lot of money to put into their hobby/career. In Fenders case there are a lot of building to keep running, staff to pay, artists to give free stuff to, marketing to pay for and as someone said the pound is weak which doesn’t help us. They also want to make a profit and so do distributors etc so it all adds up for the customer. Its a dramatically different business to say someone like Overwater or Sei who are small operations selling direct to customer with much lower overheads. It may well be snake oil and ridiculous to some people and that is fine, but to someone else it may be the greatest most expressive and inspirational instrument they ever play and they may go on to make great music because of it and not play another bass ever again. I bet there are more that a few folks on here who have lost a few grand buying basses and other kit and selling it on at a loss because of GAS or hype. I have played crap 3k basses and superb £300 basses and visa versa, just find an instrument you love and can’t live without, that inspires you and buy it if you are fortunate enough to be able to. Then go make some great music and enjoy and stop worrying about why some basses cost a lot of money 😉

I use my laptop with a interface and headphones through GarageBand for a bit of compression and sound sculpting. Then I normally drag the track up on YouTube and play along. The best thing about YouTube is that you can slow the music down and really hear sections and play along to fast sections and build up. There isn’t a huge range of speeds but it’s enough for me. Next stage for me will be something like a Phil Jones big head with headphones and my phone for portability.

I have had gig hangovers, or ‘gig-itis’ as my wife calls it now, ever since I started playing when I was 16. I think initially it was down to alcohol, two lots of loading and unloading all in the same day, and getting very excited and physical onstage. Now I have removed the alcohol, but it is still very physical and a lot more kit to move with my last band, so I now get more aches and stiffness the day after. I have never been one for really late nights either so I think getting home late, combined with the time it takes me to get over the adrenaline and buzz, makes me pretty tired and grumpy the day after most gigs. The only band I felt fine every time after a gig, was a large soul band where I didn’t have to do anything other than plug my kit in and play.

Back in the late 90s a big music shop i visited to but my first real Fender, happily swapped the necks on two precisions so I had the configuration I wanted. It could be the distributor or the shop swapped necks for the customer rather than order a whole new bass in the right combination of colours and woods.

Can’t go wrong with some early morning acoustic-mandolin-funk courtesy of Vulfpeck and the immensely talented Chris Thile...

Totally agree, I can’t stop listening to Hard Work by Theo, great tune.

I am slowly working through the Vulfpeck back catalogue. I love a few of the better known tracks, back pocket, dean town etc but there is so much out there to get to know and love. I am currently obsessed with The Birdwatcher and The Speedwalker and the new track with Theo Katzman up front; Half of the way.

I think essentially Flea knows what he likes for live use after all these years. He likes that MM humbucker in the sweet spot and by the looks of it, a Stingray-ish thickness in the neck (not surprising after so many years playing them). He has been seen regularly with his old fender and a couple of other fender jazz basses and a Precision, and it’s pretty well documented that he uses/used a Wal and has recorded recent stuff on a Stingray. Ernie Ball don’t need to pay him a load of money to endorse a bass that is always going to be synonymous with flea that already sells well. From fragments I have read over the years I think Flea was basically being a d*ck about it and I don’t think Sterling Ball takes any crap from anyone. Modulus go out of business, Fender knock on your door offering some money and you say yes to a replica of your trusty 62 and say I also need basses that sound as close to the ones I love to use live, pretty simple really. I think that he’s obviously still peeved that Ernie Ball didn’t bow down to his celebrity, and still won’t use a stingray in public despite it being the bass everyone associated him with, that is essentially the spec and tone he still wants.

I think you have covered all of the main websites and really Facebook seems the last option you haven't explored. There are lots of musicians groups out there, so I would suggest signing up and seeing if there are any posts looking for dep or full time bass players, find some open mic nights and go along to see if there are any good players around? I have been lucky to find people to play with through one lucky advert about 8 years ago. I just kept meeting musicians who needed a bass player or needed a dep or wanted to form different bands on the side. There are a lot of bands and musicians out there who will play for nothing, or very little so its hard to find well paid work with a covers band. High end function work is hard to come by unless you all well marketed with great videos, demos, website, agent, great photos etc. When I was looking to push my band to the next level I looked at a lot of bands and agency websites and they were all younger, thinner, better presented and better looking than me and my band mates, and that is a factor IMO. At 35 I have become very disillusioned with being in bands and gigging. local clubs and bars don't really hire bands and when they do, they seem to think that everyone still wants the same old classic rock/pop covers, basically the same old cr*p that was old when I played it in cover bands 20 years ago. Either that or its blues music and festivals around where I live, and that's not for me in the slightest. Like others have said, maybe start something yourself? A friend of mine who was always in rock bands now plays acoustic guitar in an Americana/folky acoustic band with violin and mandolin etc and they get a great reception when they play. I think this is mostly down to the fact that they are a bit different, aren't loud and don't play cheesy rock or blues covers like every other band. They started out at open mic nights to get gig ready and they were normally one acoustic act in line-ups of 4-5 blues/rock bands and got great feedback form punters.

Nice to hear an opinion on these, I saw Thundercat with one recently (he probably needs it with the boat anchor he plays) and I thought it looked like a good comfort strap alternative.

Stupid title I know, but I couldn’t think of another way to phrase it. I was just playing my main bass and realised that it was much more of a calculated head over heart purchase than the ‘love at first sight’ instant GAS type of purchase I have made in the past. Its a superb bass (2000 MusicMan Stingray) with lovely subtle Birdseye satin silky smooth neck, but I didn’t instantly love it, partly due to the finish which is amber-burst. Things are changing though, over the past year I have become very comfortable with it and the neck is beautiful and when I take it out of the bag to play I am always pleasantly surprised how nice it looks, despite being more of a solid colour kinda guy. It has definitely been a slow burn romance, so I was wondering who else has a bass that they slowly grew to love and how long have you had it? Heres mine:

That just blew my mind with sound and concise logic, brilliant explanation, it makes a lot of sense. ⭐️

Am I in some Kind of weird time warp or were these released months ago? Why do Fender suddenly announce them as new?

It was a non string through Mexican PJ mustang with factory Fender strings (I can’t imagibe the shop bothered changing them). Like everyone has said, there should be some reduction in tension over a “normal” scale bass, but there didn’t appear to be any, in fact it felt harder under hand, very very strange. I wonder if someone had accidentally tuned them up an octave, is that even physically possible without breaking the strings or the bass? I need to try one again in an environment where I am not being nicely pressured. PMT are very friendly and accommodating but they go straight in with the finance, pay next year when you have been playing for 30 seconds.

That’s really interesting, thanks for the replies. I pondered on it last night and wondered whether it was something to do with my right hand position. It was a PJ mustang and without thinking I automatically anchored my thumb on the bridge pickup which is very close to the bridge. This could have effected how I perceived the overall tension. I do still remember the strings feeling very stiff under my fretting hand and it was hard to fret despite a reasonable action. I think there was definitively something not right with the tension so I think I need to try another one somewhere else to make sure 😄

Ooh love a bit of Nickel Creek. Seth Lakeman is worth a listen to if you like a bit of folk.

I went into PMT today to try and convince myself I don’t want/need/like mustang basses. Sadly it didn’t work too well and I could be in trouble when finances recover. Anyway for the second time, I was struck by how tight the strings were, the tension was really high, not just more than I thought it would be, but almost uncomfortably tight to play. It was properly tuned and I am pretty sure it was wearing original strings. I was always under the illusion the short scales would have nice soft wobbly string tension and be easy on the plucking hand but this was just like playing my Stingray. Is something going wrong here or was I deluded about the feel of a short scale all along? I know it’s hard to comment without playing I’m just interested in peoples thoughts and experiences.

Joseph Kaye might be worth contacting https://www.josephkayeguitars.com/ His instagram account has lots of pictures of restorations including some old acoustics.