NJE

Nice to see that, reading through the article quickly, the British stats seem to reflect the American figures. I seem to remember watching an interview with the CEO of Fender saying ladies/girls buying acoustics and ukeleles were a huge portion of their sales. Brilliant in my view, the more the merrier. There are some great female artists and bands out there, and hopefully it starts to dilute the number of fat balding old men that just want to play blues and crappy old ‘Dad rock’.

This is such a subjective topic and essentially comes down to what we feel and notice as players, how much money we have and where we place value. The Fender CS Pino is by all accounts an incredible instrument, well made, incredible feel, quarter sawn maple neck (you don't get that in the lower end instruments), Nitro finish, basically as close to a 62 Fender Precision you can get without buying the real thing and in many peoples views, the best Precision Fender have made. A lot of people covet the early 60s Fenders for feel and playability and general 'mojo'. I don't believe that all of them were superb instruments by any stretch of the imagination, there were probably just as many horrendous ones as Fender currently chuck out. Yes Fender are charging a premium for the Pino and I am in no doubt that the Pino signature alone is adding to the cost. Some people see very little difference between a £300 precision vs a £3000 bass and to an extent, I don't believe they would sound much different and I don't personally believe anyone would hear the difference, at least not live. However, most of the Fender basses I have owned have been shoddy and I disagree that a MIM precision would play just as well or feel as nice, but that is where things get incredibly personal and subjective. Every Fender CS Relic instrument I have played (guitars and basses) have had the most sublime fit and finish, and the necks and fretting have been out of this world. Beautifully rolled fingerboards and no sharps frets etc. just great instruments that have made me want to just keep playing and playing and really inspire me to play. I have felt that with much cheaper instruments, but very rarely. Almost every new instrument I have played over the years has felt sterile and lifeless apart from very expensive hand made custom basses costing around the same as the Pino. Just to fill you in, I am not some devout Fender CS fan boy, I own a £150 Squier and a second-hand 17 year old Music Man Stingray. The Stingray is worn in and has a great feel but I really dislike the new ones, the years of playing have made that bass feel the way it does and IMHO Fender do an incredibly job of replicating that broken in feel. I cant afford a Fender Custom Shop but I want one so badly, partly because I lusted after them for years in my teens and I have an irrational and romantic view of them. Is it worth the extra money to you, probably not, but to someone else it will be, but that's like almost any other product on the market. My cheap as chips VW Up does the same job as my friends Audi A5 sport in my eyes, and I don't see the point in buying anything more, but to him there is no comparison. Some people buy own brand beans in the supermarket and say there is no difference, some people buy Heinz because they can taste the difference. In terms of guitars I don't believe an expensive bass will make you better, they are just different flavours of the same thing and be grateful you like the cheaper ones. However, if you are lucky enough to find that one instrument that really inspires you, buy it if you can, whether it be a £100 Harley Benton or a £9000 Fodera.

I genuinely think I am missing the point of this pedal. If you need to play something a semitone lower, just play it a semitone lower or if your using open strings, tune to Eb and then adjust for the other songs. Failing that, tune one bass down and keep one standard? I wouldn’t want to rely on a pedal to tune down for me.

Might sound like an odd choice but I found Elixirs have a warmer tone to them fresh out of the box, less top end zing than a lot of brands, which is ideal for me as a soul/funk type player. They also last a silly amount of time and stay consistent.

Yes, from memory you don’t need those screws for the mutes. Take them off and you should get all the correct parts with the mute kit.

Yup, I think bass direct sell them, failing that get in touch with strings & things

Wow 🤤

Back on topic.....I have played quite a lot of Fender CS Relic teles and strats, and all I can say is that if i got near a bass that felt like those it would be coming home with me. They all had sublime necks and beautifully rolled fretboards with amazing smooth necks. That’s enough for me, it’s all about necks, everything else can be tweaked. Are they worth it compared to other basses, probably not, but the 15 year old me that used to drool over Fender frontline magazine in science class and draw custom shop logos on school books still wants one more than any other bass.

😲 Pictures of the back of the neck?

What made the neck unique? If you tell me it was a P neck on a Jazz my head might explode with jealousy 😄

I don’t want to sound rude and state the obvious, but have you tried Lakland? I found they have good customer service and are good at replying to queries.

Henrik Linder does quite a lot of chordal stuff so I’m presuming he has noticed that the chords aren’t as spot on as they should be with other basses. Would anyone else notice? Probably not unless your seriously analysing in a studio, but if it’s enough to make him feel better or happier with his sound then good luck to him.

The first thing I did when I thought about packing up was add up all my gear to see if I could afford a Fender CS Pino signature 😂. Daft really but I do know deep down I would never want to be without a bass even if I did just play at home in my office.

I’m another one in a similar position. I have had small breaks from playing over the years, but recently I have had a strong desire to pack up and just do some noodling at home. I have a little boy who I look after a lot as my wife works crazy shifts in the NHS, so evenings are rarely free, plus I have a full time job and house to take care of and dogs to walk....the list goes on. All this has made me realise playing pub gigs to uninterested punters for £60 a night is not worth my time and energy. I also get sick of other people/musicians and their drama so I have gone from 4 working bands to about 1/2 a band who I help out a bit. It sounds like you have plenty on your plate and nothing is more important than family time and children. If I were you I would keep one good bass and a decent combo or headphone amp and shift the rest and go on a good holiday. Gear means nothing, I have been through silly expensive basses and then sold everything and played in four bands with one Squier 5 string precision which cost me £240, nobody noticed let alone cared. like others have said, keep a bass around as you may well come back to it in 6 months or even 5 years. My dad went from pro musician back in the 60s/70s to nothing until the mid 90s when I was grown up and he was established in life. He then had a very good working band for over 10 years with his 17 year old son on bass duties 😄. Change and a break is good for the soul I think, and extra change in your pocket is also nice too.

I have been following this for a while too, since the initial sketches and outline showed up. Looks cool and like others have said, will be available and I seem to remember Carey saying they would be under his Rocket Surgeon brand and not Nordstrand or Nordy. I also spotted a tasty bass preamp prototype on his Instagram too. Another cool short scale I want along with a mustang and supro.

Strings & Things have been great with any dealings we have had. I bought two white pickup covers for a Stingray and they got held up with a load of basses due to CITES and they kept on top of keeping me informed and letting me know I hadn’t been forgotten. Great bunch over there.

Some tasty music being posted, nice thread! I am a big Joey Landreth/Ariel Posen/Brothers Landreth fan, and recently Joey Landreth had this chap Roman Clarke playing drums for him and supporting him on tour. I think he’s a superb multi-instrumentalist and singer songwriter...

Although relatively simple in appearance and construction (no multi laminate bodies or neck through etc), Tom Stenback seems to build some incredible instruments from fine materials and I believe he even makes his own strap buttons, bridges and pickups/pickup covers. They are by all accounts built to incredible tolerances and sonically brilliant. I have never seen one in the flesh but watch the videos on youtube, its like the people playing them have some sort of epiphany. If I had a huge chunk of money to carelessly blow on a bass a Stenback and Fodera would probably be top of my list to try but that doesn't mean to say there aren't other builders that make incredible fancy wood, neck through basses. Actually I will add another to that list, I remember playing a single-cut Rob Elrick which was just out of this world quality and tone and playability.

Ha ha, don’t we all know it 😄. I remember the pre bass forums days, when I was happy with my gear and I spent more time practicing than looking up what bass I needed next.

Passive Sterling perhaps? Maybe a coil tap on the bridge pickup to go single coil? Musicman made a single knob black Sterling for Nine Inch Nails once, so this isnt breaking new ground really. I can’t find a picture of the NIN bass now. I remember reading a Q&A Joe did and whilst he is seen with the Jazz (apparently it’s the only bass he actually owns) he used a band mates bass which has a MusicMan pickup in it and they use sterlings and stingrays for recording, and I seem to remember him saying one of his favourite recorded Vulfpeck tones was a MusicMan bass. Makes sense for MusicMan to jump on it and give him a signature, he’s well respected and it’s about time they did a signature bass, there are loads of signature guitars now.

From what I can see that is a quick fix with some wood glue and on you go, however....that isn’t the point, if this was a new bass then the problem shouldn’t be there and I would either be asking for a replacement or at least some sort of refund to compensate for the damage and to get it fixed. Im Sure they would be happier letting you hold on to it and giving money off than having to do it all themselves.

I am already a fully paid up member of the NYXL fan club. I have been waxing lyrical about how good they are on here and to friends so I think you need to send a set to someone who is on the fence and hasn’t tried them yet. If you have any of those lovely D’Addario mugs going I wouldn’t say no though 😂 my Ernie Ball one looks awful now.

I have no interest in travelling hours for band practice. In fact now I only rehearse if there are gigs on the horizon that are financially worth it. Even then I only expect to do two at most before gigging as everyone should have learn their stuff at home and should have gone over the band recordings for structures etc. I just don’t have the desire to stand in a room for hours at my own expense with people who can’t be arsed to practice at home, week after week for a gig down the whore and trumpet for £40 each, life is too short.

Wow, that’s looks good, go Fender!

I know several musicians and general studio engineering and mixing folk who use Senngeiser HD-25 headphones. Apparently great natural flat response and not earth shatteringly expensive for headphones.