Muzz

OK, so I've spent a hatful of time and money narrowing down what I'd really like for a bass, and I can't buy it off the shelf. Life's also too short (as is the money) to wait for a luthier to build it for me, so I'm going the bitsa route, which has so far proved to be very successful with the MM neck/SX/Schaller 3D I've currently got. I was all set for a nice birdseye Warmoth Jazz neck to go on my Wizard-equipped P/J-Bass, but I keep going back to play the Warwick Fortress (which some of you may recall from a previous whinge I can't love because it hurts my eyes to look at it. Not really, but I'll never love the looks, and you lovely people have convinced me I'm not terminally shallow in this). Ugly to my eye it may be, but that Wenge neck is juuuust great to play. Not specifically the profile, but the wood. I love it. Sooooo, the logical step is to trot off to the folk at Warmoth, and then bolt an unfinished Wenge neck with an Ebony or Wenge board onto a P/J, but I'm unsure if that'll radically change the tone of the bass away from the 'normal' (albeit Wizard-enhanced) P/J tones. I know it's bound to change somewhat, I just don't know how much. Anyone replaced a maple neck with a wenge one? Did it completely change the tonal character of the bass out of all recognition?

[quote name='Horizontalste' post='1158007' date='Mar 11 2011, 01:18 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMkbnLUovXs&feature=relmfu"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMkbnLUovXs...;feature=relmfu[/url] Maple! don't know if its custom though. I can also vouch for the 614 too.[/quote] Yeah, it's a custom. And not one you can buy, either. On the other hand, Glenn doesn't use it much (see my earlier post) so he might take an offer for it...

If something's worth saying...

[quote name='Scooby' post='1118943' date='Feb 7 2011, 02:39 PM']Kev, try out Trip Wamsley [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1qTd2c72GM&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1qTd2c72GM...feature=related[/url] or Michael Manring [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gyVSNWXoJs&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gyVSNWXoJs...feature=related[/url] Let me know how you get on ;o)))[/quote] Just watched the Michael Manring one and thought "Bloody hell, he's taking forever tuning that bass up..." Then I realised he'd started...

Forgot to add, I've had a BB3000A from brand new in, erm, 87...I think...yeah, probably... and it's a fantastic bass. Rosewood board, tho...

I played one of the BB2024s late last year at Bass Direct for a while, and it was undoubtedly a very very high quality bass, and pretty much what I'd look for as a top-line Uber-P/J-bass. Are they worth the money? I dunno, it depends if you've got it... Apart from not having £2.5k to splurge on a bass, they only do them with rosewood boards, which rules me out - if I was gonna spend well into four figures on a bass, I don't want to be compromising [i]anywhere[/i], and they just don't look good enough for me. As for the celeb endorsements, I'd take those with a massive pinch of salt - Glenn Hughes spouts on at length about how good they are, and then in another interview reveals that for recording the BCC album it "just had to be the 65 P-bass". And then he's gigging with the 62 Jazz...bet Yamaha were delighted with that one...

Well, I'm using mine...as a testbed for a Double-P with Series/Parallel wiring. I've a hankering to hear what that'll sound like, and rather than mod an expensive bass as a trial, I reckon I'll get the answers I need from the Ryder. Pics will follow upon completion. The only real issue will be what to call it... Should I like what I hear, then the mother of all Franken-P projects will lurch towards the light: poncy Warmoth Jazz birdseye neck and board (no dots), some sort of P-Bass body (probably swamp ash, but I've yet to decide, and it'll be black anyway), two Wizard Thumpers with push-pull pot series switching, Hipshot, black pickguard. Mmmmm...

I take it you're not lugging them about yourself, then?

I'd like my 1980 Jetglo 4001 back please. I've got the £180 ready I got for it, too... oh, and my 76 P-Bass: I've got the £150 I got for that. So that's £330 the pair, then...

I've never seen the only thing I'd completely bust the bank for - an Apr 64 Precision with a maple board. Not even sure such a thing exists...

Yup, I've been entirely amp-and-cab-GAS free for a long while now: everything I look at on that front is of purely academic interest. Basses, now, that'll be harder to sort out. I know exactly what I want now (and it's been a very, very long trip to get there - it's gonna be an uber-Franken-P) but I don't have the finances to get there just yet. Then there's the stuff which you just fancy - like the Fortress I bought last month...

Just had a look at them, and Lord, they're expensive - a P-Bass neck is £400 + Ebay + shipping + import Duty + VAT = the North end of what you could get the whole bass for. The search (for me) continues...

This is one of the reasons I'm looking at Warmoth for my custom build - life's too short...

Phil sold me p/u and wiring, all went perfectly, the man could give lessons in packing for the post...

Ooooh, looking at that, someone in Holland's in for a big disappointment...

I can concur with the overall impression of Schroeder cabs - nothing that small and light should sound like they do. I put a friend onto them for a cab for his heavy metal covers band, because their Trace 4x10 wasn't cutting the mustard - he bought a 1212L and couldn't be happier, and my 1515L is the last bass cab I'll ever need to buy (unless it gets nicked or broken, obviously). I'd try ringing SHX rather than phoning - I had a few conversations/emails with them before buying my 1515L (from elsewhere, to be fair, but that was only because I needed one quick and they didn't have the stock - they were very helpful), and found the phone was far better.

There ya go...three-on-a-bed gear porn. Can anyone spot the aesthetic theme? [attachment=73772:DSC01026.JPG]

We played a gig years ago, and agreed to let some some friends open up for us as their first gig. Luckily, the club was closed during the afternoon for soundchecking, so there was very little pressure. We soundchecked two numbers, thumbs up from the desk, and left to go and get something to eat while the younger guys soundchecked. We came back about 45 minutes later and they were still soundchecking. The soundman had his head in his hands as the singer said "We're not happy". The soundman said "Well, what do you want?" "I don't know" said the singer "but we're still not happy". "Look," said the soundman, leaning wearily across the desk "I haven't got a friggin Happy button on here..."

Yep, I had a 10-year hiatus, with about half a dozen gigs in that time, just for parties or get-togethers, and I'd sold the big rigs (Ampeg SVT, V4B and 8x10 and 2x15), all but one of the basses and bought a small Peavey (and then Warwick) combo. Did me OK for what I needed. Nowadays I'd keep the whole rig (if money wasn't an issue) - the RH450 and the 1515L take up hardly any room, and the RH450 is great for bedroom practice with mp3 player and headphones. If I was desperate for money (and I had no prospects of gigging), I'd go down to just the Roland Micro Bass combo (same thing with the headphones/mp3 scenario) if only to keep me sane.

I've got quite a big span (210mm wrist to tip, 240mm thumb to pinkie and 200mm index to ring) and normally go for Precision-sized necks, although I'm enjoying the new (to me) Jazz and Fortress necks quite a lot...

I can't be the only person who was disappointed to click on this thread and find no pictures...

I like that new similie: "pushy like a guitarist"...should be in the OED

As far as I'm aware he used both tracks of the bass - as I say, the sound was there in what I'd assumed was its finished state for days and days of tracking/mixing, it's only in the final mix that he's flung the wool over it. It sounds like he got to the final mix and paid attention to the bass sound for the first time and said "Oooh, that's not fluffy enough...how did I miss that?"

Thanks for the responses guys (and Jennifer) - I appreciate it. OK, to clarify a few bits: I'd been surprised and disappointed with the sound, because I'd been so happy with the results of the tracking days (a mix of DI and mike'd cab) sound-wise. It'd been a GAS-reducing result to hear the bass sit in the band mix sounding pretty much as I'd imagined in my head. All through the rough mixing while we were tracking everything else, there it was, very nice indeed. Come the final mixing days, due to serious family illness I was backwards and forwards to hospital and so I missed out on being there (ironic in itself, as I'd been there for 8 days AFTER I'd finished tracking the bass parts, just to show willing, make brews and take the mick out of the drummer for struggling to record tambourine in time) and the bass tone changed dramatically. Listening again (sorry I can't post anything yet, but the singer, who's the main songwriter wants it all under wraps until it's done) and I can hear traces of the old sound, but it's definitely been duveted*. Anyway, the good news is we're having a sit-down this week to review the results so far (7 out of 12/13 tracks are 'complete', so it's an ongoing process) so there's a forum for me to raise the issue. It's not just me obsessing about 'my tone', though - I genuinely think at least some of the songs are poorer overall for the wooly bass. We've also got the option of playing around at the mastering stage, so maybe it won't be as expensive as I'm fearing. Finger crossed. Cheers, Muzz * Is this a word? I think not. Anyway.