philwood

They are indeed, but somehow the weight corresponds with the meatyness of the tone! I may have to get a second one with light rounds at somepoint. This ones settled in beatifully now with 52-105 flats so Don't fancy taking them off until I need to. I never have it in active mode but its a useful feature to have.

Beltin!! Is that a Thunder 3?

Yeah took afew along the road. A fair few mistakes and lessons learned but luckily turned out well. Used Crimson Guitars Stain and Oil

I did a little refinish job and reshaped the headstock. Was a tough job but happy with the results!

I’ve had this bass for about a year now with Heavy flatwounds on and foam on top of the strings - Jamerson. I do mainly studio work so it’s just bang on perfect! £150 bass and played on probably 4 albums worth of songs with very happy customers!

For me it was both the practice content, the focus on how I practiced it and the mindset I had when practicing it. I always practice in the context of an actual song and practice Incrementally in dificulty and not moving on until i could play the current practice material through the song to tempo at least 3 times without mistakes. For example: - I'd take a tune I really liked and memorise the chord changes (roots only) - Then play purely the triads through the changes staying in one position on the fretboard only (note - not with the chords written in front of me but from memory / ear) - Similar exercise but staying in one direction on the fretboard so if I was on the first position and the first chord was Am7 and the second chord was D7 (one bar each) I would play G, A, C , E and then carry on with the direction of travel but changing chord the next note would be F# A C and back down to the A again. (I have no idea if this makes sense but it' an amazing exercise to change chords without changing the direction of your line) - I'd then experiment with adding chromatics in to the basic chord tones and see if I can start to 'Hear' which chord tone I'm aiming for Other things I've practiced would be learning a whole solo by somebody I love to listen to and pick it a part to see If can integrate some of the licks into my own playing for various chord types. I think the biggest thing I learned was in my mindset to practicing - Focus on the work and not on the results. The results will come naturally as part of the work. But if you focus only on the results I guarantee you'll become frustrated and likely give up. I also limited myself to only sticking to one or two things when practicing otherwise I just practiced 10 things really badly. Only my very humble experiences and I am by no means an expert! Hope at least some of that helps you my friend.

Yeah the active is a nice option to have although I've not really used it. It's just a one knob for treble boost clockwise and bass boost the anti-clockwise. That being said it leads to a wide variety of potential tones coupled with the phase switch and tone knob. I'll probably never tap into that as I'm over the moon with the passive tone. Toying with the idea to sand and re-finish but then part of me is happy with the condition as it is for a 35 year old instrument c/w original case!

Bought this awesome bass this last week for £150 and it really is a belter. Nice set of flatwounds on it and previous owner had a bridge cover installed with foam etc. The Pick up is one of the best i've heard and I've own at least 35 basses from all the big boys in the last 20 years. Well recommended if you ever get the chance to buy one Looks like something from the back cover of 1986 Guitar magazine but I don't care. Mainly using it for studio work anyway! Just can't go wrong with a 'P' type bass.

I'm trying to get hold of a copy of the backing tracks from Alain Caron's 'Rhythm 'n Jazz' play along CD. Seems to be mostly unavailable now other than the odd site at ridiculous prices. I'm only after one track and was wondering if anyone still had it maybe? Many thanks

It's a patch I created using the Roland GR-55 with the GK3b pickup. To be fair there are some great bass tones on it too.

Yeah yeah it sounds nothing like a bass but its fun! [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHtO04l8Zsc[/media]

Thanks everyone that helps alot!

Has anyone ever upgraded their 'non Alembic bass' to Alembic electronics and if so did it make a huge difference? Thanks!