NJE

A lot of friends of mine have done music courses so I can probably speak from their point of view. Firstly none of them have gone straight from school into music courses/degrees, partly because they were sensible and knew that there was little to no chance of making music as a career (two of them now do though) and mainly because their parents told them it was a stupid idea and they would need a proper jobs one day. This was the main reason I never went to college or University to do music. When they did eventually decide to do a music course they sought out the best/most well known places to go. I don't know your music school and I am sure the courses are of a good standard but friends of mine went to Berklee in Boston, Academy of Contemporary Music and The Royal Welsh College of music (although they don't do electric bass as far as I know). I think one other factor is that not many musicians want to actually go and really study their instrument, learn theory etc and really commit to lengthy courses. It is much more exciting to sling a guitar or bass on, join a band and think you will become a pro musician writing and recording your own material. I guess my point is, for the small amount of bass players that want to do music courses, my guess is it will be something they do after completing a 'normal/sensible' course, and when they do want to do a course and take it seriously, they will probably seek out the better known places to do those courses.

I was playing with a Dire Straits tribute act for a while and I took it on thinking that it would be the easiest gig of my life, I was very wrong! I quickly gained a HUGE amount of respect for what John Illsley did with the band. The lines are not super complicated but to get the feel and groove right on the songs is tricky sometimes, and it is so easy to overplay the songs and add more notes where there aren't any. He is a great player and really overlooked.

I have always wanted the same combination and am a little suprised Fender have never done it. Even when they make a P/J model they usually stick a J neck on it, god knows why they presume every bass player wants a matchstick width neck. I did think about mixing and matching some classic series Mexican parts from Stratosphere on eBay and building a Jazz with a 50's Precision neck with the full on 44mm nut width the same as Jaco used to use. The parts are resonably cheap and you get some good quality Fender parts, I still might do it one day.

It shouldnt make any difference to the company and my opinion of Fender, but rather childishly I am now really put off Fender because of their association with them both. I am a relaxed kind of person but I want to smash the TV/Stereo any time I hear or see U2, I just cant stand listening to or looking at either of them. Saying that I am still not that put off a Pino Signature...

I personally think it is immaturity and obviously some sort of insecurity. He/she obviously is worried about being replaced if the dep player does a better job than them, but to be honest they need to get over themselves for the benefit of the band. I am in the same position over Christmas this year, there are at least two gigs I can't do so far and my band were actually really worried about asking me if I would mind them getting dep player. Personally I am really not bothered, and more than happy for them to play the gigs than give them up because of my selfishness. The dep player is probably as good, if not better than me but I am confident enough that I will not be replaced, they are friends at the end of the day and I am confident enough in the job I do for the band. If you have a busy working band with commitments and members who are busy then I can't see how many bands would get by without having back up dep players.

If you have a laptop or tablet you don't mind reading off I can thoroughly recommend, Ibass magazine, they have some great videos on youtube with some superb bass players. Actually it might be iPad only....great mag though and not too expensive.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1397774050' post='2427408'] Nice, Chris! Exactly what cabs are those? DB? Do you like them? I'm heavily contemplating ordering a few Aguilar 112s unseen and unheard, based on what BC has said earlier - probably DBs. [/quote] They are a DB112 on top and a non tweeter underneath. I haven't given them a full workout yet but I had a practice the other night and they sounded good. Not as bright as my old 410, but a bit more low-mid thump which is good and to be honest I don't need a huge amount of top playing soul and funk. They are great cabs, quite vintage sounding and looking but that is more to my tastes at the moment. My main reason for getting them is that I can get them both on the back seat of my car without folding seats down and they are easier to manage.

Well its the first time in a few years I have had a matching rig. I really loved my EBS cabs but I figure its time to try something new, variety being the spice of life and all that nonsense.... so here is my chocolate thunder rig: [attachment=160559:Rig.jpg]

Thanks chaps, I gave it a go and it seems to work fine. What I was concerned about was mixing connectors, I saw a post on talk bass that said I should go Speakon from head to cab 1, and then only use jack to jack to connect the two cabs. I thought doing it any other way and mixing connectors might mess something up. I might still buy another jack-jack lead as a spare just in case.

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1397671760' post='2426364'] Then once the shops close down as the internet has nicked all their trade where are you going to try stuff out? Wunjo are pretty competitive on pricing - don't believe the ticket price, and they're great people in there. [/quote] Went to the Wunjo bass shop two weeks ago, great guys in there, great atmosphere and service and they were more than willing to do a deal on the basses I was looking at. They also told me they compete with online prices, I would definitely go there and will be buying from them in the future.

I will try and keep this as simple as possible, I have a tonehammer 350 with one speakon out and two aguilar db112 cabs which have speakon and two jacks. I know I need to daisy chain the cabs but does it matter how? I have one speakon to speakon cable and one jack to speakon, can I take speakon out to speakon on cab 1 and then go jack to speakon on the second cab? Basically do I need to match connectors, so go speakon to speakon and then jack to jack to link the cabs or does it not matter where I connect the two cabs? God I am confused.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1377207333' post='2184918'] ive just reviewed this pedal! It's actually rather good. No, it doesn't do dirt at all. It has tons of clean headroom. The pedal comes with a 12v adaptor and creates it's 24v internally. I liked the way you can channel change or feed two different basses in to it. Originally i thought the pedal should come with a D.I too, but actually looking back, it was great as it was. It was also very happy driving a Matrix GT power amp alone up to gig volume. [/quote] I am really interested in this pedal and saw your review Dood, any ideas where to get them, release date etc? Did you get the review pedal from the uk distributor?

I think in terms of 'holding value' it probably will if you don't mess around with the pickups, how quickly you will ever sell it again is another thing. If you were looking for a rock solid investment I think an old Fender would have done you better and you seem to be a fan of fender and jazz type basses judging by your signature. I think other people on here have hit the nail on the head, your obviously shocked by its condition, and perhaps wouldn't have bought it had you seen in in the flesh before hand. You also seem to have such a huge dislike for P pickups, so much so you are going to modify a £3500 bass. I guess my point is, for £3500 you could have any number of outstanding builders build you exactly what you want, Alleva, Sadowsky, Sei, Overwater, Lull etc, so why buy a bass that isn't perfect for you and try and make it fit? I think you coming on here is a big sign that you are trying to convince yourself its worth holding onto, I could be wrong I don't know you personally but that is what comes across to me. I would send it back.

[quote name='Scott S' timestamp='1393202349' post='2377407'] Oh yeah, tell me about it, I'm soooo struggling to nail the main riff from "Everybody Dance"; it's as painful for me to play as it is for my wife to listen to, lol. [/quote] Its a tricky riff but slow it down with a metronome and you can get it fingerstyle without too much bother. I have just about got it, and get a reasonable facsimile of the bernard tone with the bridge pickup on my roscoe beck with the tone almost or fully off. I have had a few compliments that it sounds like the record. I tried doing it using bernards 'finger plectrum' technique and its very awkward and painful, to be honest unless your doing it for personal reasons to nail it 100% i doubt anyone at a gig would ever hear the difference. I cant find a video where Jerry Barnes the current chic bass player plays that riff at all, they re-arrange it live. Perhaps even Jerry cant do it justice.

I think Sean Hurley is a classy player and I love his approach and attitude towards playing from what I have read and seen in interviews and articles. I just stumbled on this video from iBass magazine (they do some great interviews on youtube, must get a subscription) with Sean talking about P basses and why he uses them. There is also another part talking about his live sound and its so refreshing to hear he has similar issues to mine (although on a larger scale than me) with booming stages, odd harmonics and the right front of house sound. So it has confirmed my thoughts for a while now, I need a P bass with flats, so gutted I sold my last one. http://youtu.be/2RPzwLH1EZc http://youtu.be/JmA_C5lFOaI

Classic 50's precision gets my vote, amazing basses and there is one on ebay for £400 at the moment. They regularly pop up under £500

I am in the minority, I am not keen on Lakland. They are solid basses but with the exception of a Duck Dunn model, I have only ever been underwhelmed by Lakland Skyline's. They are well built, but for what they go for new I would buy something else personally. My best friend uses a 5502 Deluxe with USA Bart electronics for a lot of high profile recording jobs and has constantly struggled to get a decent tone out of it and now bypasses the electronics for recording. I leant him my old £260 Squier CV precision and he instantly found it easier to play and got a better sound out of it for recording. Its all preference though, we all have different ideas of the perfect tone.

I am a convert, used to hate the look and whole concept of relics, but I have had the pleasure of playing a few relic fenders recently and all I can say is that they are up there with every top end instrument I have ever played, Alleva, Sadowsky, GB, Overwater, Sei etc. In fact I would say that the feel and playability was better on the fender for me personally because of the lovely rolled fingerboards and general worn in feel of the necks, they were just out of this world. Even the road worn basses I have tried have been wonderful, and the build and playability was on a par with the Sadowsky metro's I have played which are well over double the price (similar price to Fender CS Relics in fact). It's all about necks and playability for me, I don't care what the thing looks like, I don't care if it looks battered or mint but that worn in CS neck is amazing, which is why I have a savings pot for a CS Relic on the go.

I used a EBS Proline 212 (4ohm) and a EBS Neo 410 (4ohm) with my old markbass, It worked well, lots of power as I was pulling the full amount out of the head. EBS make superb cabs and they can be picked up very cheap, I still have the Neo 410 but the MarkBass disappeared a while ago.