thodrik

226

Nice! I must check the serious number on my Excess but it is definitely from the same year! Though curiously all of controls on mine are centre dented. Frankly I really like the non-chrome knobs. I also prefer the look of the basses with a pickguard, though mine does not have one. In terms of sounds, to me I have always though that the bass seemed like a hybrid between a dual pickup Musicman, a Rickenbacker and Jazz bass. Definitely not another Fender Jazz clone. Also, agreed that getting intonation right is a bit finnicky. Also I find that the treble control must be used very sparingly. Generally I have never had the Bass control above the centre point and treble is usually just about a quarter turn from 'off'. I find that the coolest sounds are by panning the pickup blend slightly towards the bridge. Having the tone controls not 'boosted' generally helps with the single coil hum and noise. In terms of set up I generally lower the front pickup a bit as when the pickup blend is at the centre point the front pickup can be very overpowering. In terms of the stability of the neck. I have used my bass since 2004 in all kinds of tunings and gauges. Presently strung with Elixirs in drop C (130, 95, 70, 50) with pretty high tension. No issues whatsoever, Quick change of nut and I could have it back in standard tuning with a 100-40 set without any worries. Unless there is a defect (which is highly highly unusual) the necks are incredibly stable. I have an Arpege five string (newer bolt on design) which is a more 'state of the art' design. However, personally I prefer the styling of the Excess models in that they are solid, bomb-proof gigging machines.

True, though that era was full of artists who were considered to be a massive PIA. However, for me Fleetwood Mac can only be appreciated alongside the knowledge of how dysfunctional the band actually were. For me it is part of the charm.

For sure.

It has taken me a while. I have never had lessons on guitar and my main 'teachers' consisted of watching guitarists in my bands over the years. I bought my first guitar at 20 and really only started to take it seriously after I treated myself to a nicer guitar at the age of 31 (I'm now 36). Through 5 plus years of semi-regular practice I have improved from 'woeful' to 'distinctly average'. At this point I can even manage a vaguely cackhanded medium paced pentatonic blues solo in various keys. Loads of guitarists and bassists play without their pinky. Improvement takes time, don't rush it and don't get frustrated. If you are playing for your own enjoyment then just focus on your enjoyment rather than your technical limitations.

I just treat Green era and Buckingham/Nicks era Fleetwood Mac as completely different bands. I enjoy both. However, I like watching retrospective documentaries on the band more than I do like listening to the music. The infighting, internal affairs, membership changes, mental illnesses, massive drug binges, joining of cults, fallouts, songwriting and royalty clashes and general willingness of members to air dirty laundry in public is fascinating viewing. As a purely technical guitarist however, I consider Buckingham to be one of the more unsung guitar heroes of the 1970s and 1980s. A phenomenal talent and great songwriter.

Or that!

'Can I play with Madness?' by Iron Maidan will always sound like 'Can I play with Magnus?' to me, as if Bruce Dickinson is a 5 year old asking his parents if he can go on a play date. Also, I have heard many a lyric which is so naff that I thought that I must have misheard it when I heard it for the first time. Hearing James Hetfield scream 'I AM THE TABLE' repeatedly in the Metallica and Lou Reed collaboration in The View will live with me forever.

I am sure that the usual bunch of YouTube influencers are preparing their absolutely glowing '100% honest reviews' as we speak.

I won’t dispute that, for me it is part of the charm.

I still have never tried a proper World Tour head. I really enjoyed the Bass Pod Eden sim back in the day. At the right price used I would certainly consider one. In terms of the Marshall DBS amps, I liked them but they never appealed to me and I didn't think that they offered the flexibility of a Trace Elliot, Eden or Mesa or the 'cool factor' of Ampeg. However the VBA 400 was an absolute monster, if they had just downsized it to 200 watts it would have been a brilliant gigging amp.

It’s actually cherry sunburst but it had faded quite a bit over the years. My brother called it ‘rotten fruitburst’

It’s weird but I actually really like it!

Vigier Excess: bought new in 2004. If you like really closely you can see some wear and tear from 18 years of gigging and rehearsals and years of carting the bass around in whatever gig bag I could afford for £30 in taxis, busses etc. Generally I'm not overly precious with instruments either. Two chips. That is pretty much it in terms of cosmetics however I am onto the second nut, second zero fret and second jack socket. I have had my Fender since 1999. It is an S9 series so is probably anywhere from late 1978-1980. The lacquer on the neck has started to flake off, probably from years of sudden temperature changes from being transported in the cold and then brought into warm venues etc. The neck was actually pretty much in mint condition until about 2013-14 and then the peeling started. The actual body is perfectly fine and hasn't got many scratches, chips or dings whatsoever. Scratch plate 'work' was done by the previous owner. I think that is the original scratch plate but cut in two to allow easy access to the jack socket for repairs. However I haven't needed to ever repair the jack socket in 23 years. I thought about getting the neck re-lacquered but I would probably go for a satin refinish rather than nitro. At this point I don't care about devaluing it because I will never sell it and I will never realistically consider late 70s Fenders to be 'valuable' commodities. I just got this because it was significantly cheaper than a 'new' American Standard when I was 13!

I love the V2 as well. I love the mids control boosted at the 1K setting. Really allows that bass to cut through the mix a lot better than the old V1 which I used on and off for about a decade. I thought about getting a Para Driver, however nearly all of my amps have a sweepable mids feature so I didn't need that. I just wanted a little bit of the Sansamp flavour by running the blend at about halfway.

I did but then LED blew as well after 18 months. During the pandemic though I bought a red LED which is still working two years on!

Being serious, I have always found D'addario to be very good. I once received a set of D'addarios with a missing E string from Stringbusters who went bust immediately after I received an order. I contacted D'addario UK, who promptly sent me a whole new set free of charge. EBS are also great to deal with when I contact them every 3 years to get a new replacement red bulb for the Fafner when it blows.

I thought it was obvious on account that I am not Henry Juszkiewicz and he is the only person on planet earth who thought it was a good idea.

When Gibson put automatic tuners on all their instruments with no option to request the outdated 'normal' tuners. Designed entirely with the musician in mind, this innovation allowed musicians to spend more time playing music rather as opposed to wasting time tuning their instrument. Unfortunately the general public were too resistant to change to truly appreciate this groundbreaking consumer-friendly technological development.

Great collection! I have an Excess and Arpege five string. Need a Passion to complete the set!

I don't have much familiarity with the basses, but the Yamaha guitars like the Pacifica and now the Revstar are seriously good value. In general Yamaha just do not make poorly designed products: pianos, keyboards, guitars, basses, woodwind etc, you name it and they will generally have produced a very good product for the price point and the top end stuff is generally outstanding.

I love the look of the them but the neck radius is a no-go for me irrespective of the weight, even though the neck radius is 'period correct'. I learned to play on 9.5 inch radius late seventies Precision (back when they were cheap because they were considered to be worse than the new Fenders in the 1990s) I tried playing on a few Fender custom shop jazz basses which all had the 7.5 inch radius a couple of years ago in Guitar Guitar and I just really didn't enjoy playing them as much as I thought I would. I'm much more at home with a slightly flatter radius. In terms of looks though I think that these are step forward from the previous AV line.

As someone who is constantly struggling with website guys in my own job, I really do sympathise with the frustration that it can bring!

I like the fact that listings for all amps, cabinets and effects on the site include a statement detailing 'A professional setup will be carried out on this bass'.

I really like the stylings. The green would go perfectly with my Trace Elliot V6. Interested to see the release of the 10 inch speakers in due course.