Paolo85
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Everything posted by Paolo85
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I picked up a bass for the first time after many many years in December 2021. At the time, I was mostly listening to old jazz, some fusion but only a tiny bit really. I much preferred the sound of a doublebass to that of an electric bass. As I did not want to play the metal of my youth nor jazz as it looked like a lot of work, I started googling for electric bass players that I could like. Luckily I bumped into Jamerson and that amazing generation of soul musicians. I immediately fell in love with the sound of old flats, neck pickups and mute. It did not sound to me like a bad copy of a double bass. Close but different. I was coming from jazz and so did Jamerson (him for real as a player, me just in my bedroom with headphones on), so I guess it makes sense that he wanted that sound and I like it. True, they had it easy in many ways, their sound would not come out in a hard rock band. But nor would Ray Brown's doublebass. I am not sure this means his sound is not cool EDIT: let me add that three guitars can be two to three too many
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Just bought a bass from Ady. Very nice to deal with him and very happy with the bass!
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Thanks @silverfoxnik ! Good memory of buying this from you. Very nice chat with a very nice person, and came home with a great bass. Too bad I always reach for the lightest P (and that i get GAS, buy a lot, so I need to sell at a similar pace!) -
This is a great bass for the price for somebody who, like me, could not care less about scratches, dings and marks. Of these, this bass has plenty. Everything else is great. This bass has outlived a modern Squier Affinity PJ, an old Squier Affinity made in Indonesia and even a Squier Classic Vibe. I am selling it now after I have put together a bitsa with similar characteristics and Fender neck with Hipshot ultralight tuners. To be clear, the reason the bitsa wins is just that it's lighter. This bass is a Squier Crafted In China in 2008. I am not sure they went by the name Affinity. I bough it here last year and has been owned by Basschatters since at least 2017. Based on the research I have made, these would actally have rosewood fretboard and alder body, which apparently at the time was cheap to source locally in China. It certainly feels sturdier than my poplar basses, but don't hang your purchase to this info. It weighs 4.2kg according to my bathroom scale. Feels much lighter than a 4.2kg Classic Vibe I had due to its great balance.This is helped by the tuners, which, believe me or not, weigh one gram less than Hipshot Licensed Ultralight. That's not the only good thing about the tuners. I can play this bass, leave it overnight, pick it up the next evening and it's still in tune, or mostly in tune. It had never happened to me with basses in this price range. This is also helped by a stable neck. Originally lacquered, I have sanded it a bit but I would not say all the way down to a satin. Let's say thin and non-sticky lacquer. The tuners have one downside: two of them rattled. The problem is mostly solved (with masking tape inside the casing on the back, you don't see it), although very occasionally I can still hear a rattle, which does not get amplified though. The neck shape is in between a J and a P. 40mm nut width. Not skinny back to front but not as chunky as say a Harley Benton JB75 either. Feels extremely nice. Frets are small, which to me gives it a bit of a fretless feeling and help not overdoing it with the fretting. Fretwork is good and allows for low action. In fact, for what cheap basses are concerned I only had an Ibanez once with equivalent fretwork. All others were not as good. I have replaced the pickup it came with (a Wilkinson ceramic) with a Wilkinson alnico which sounds great. I have installed it with a KiOgon loom. For people not too familiar with it, it means that - you can replace the pickup with just a screwdriver, no need to solder - the quality of the electronics is extremely high and well above the price point here The bridge, a bit battered, comes from a Squier Affinity PJ. Not really an upgrade but saddles in the stock one had become hard to move. It has a mirror pickguard which I understand that, much like the knobs, it was not stock. Strings are GHS Precision flats 45-95. They are dead but you may like dead flats. Pickup from Bromley (20min train from Victoria, with Oyster). I could meet in central London although I am not there regularly.
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Squier Vintage Modified 60’s jazz bass - *SOLD*
Paolo85 replied to bassmanady's topic in Basses For Sale
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Lightweight, P pickup, J neck - I imagine also not thick back to front. I can totally see the market for that. Too bad that my experience with quality control for entry level Squiers was dreadful.
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Fair enough. I am never sure about the weigh of my basses given that my bathroom scale is not reliable. My only P that was not neck heavy "out of the box" I would say is at least 4kg and has superlight tuners (stock). I had one 4.2kg and neck heavy! But maybe that's bad luck! I am extremely fussy about weight. I mostly play quite light basses, I have put hipshot ultralite on two out of the four I currently have, and I have even bought a Gruvgear duo strap!
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3.6kg? That in my limited experience would be very low in a PJ in general, and would carry a good risk of neck dive. While I imagine these Gotoh are not particularly heavy, to my understanding they are not of the superlight kind. But I may be wrong
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This is a very good point and it is certainly the case that if somebody wants THAT bass and can afford it, it is certainly worth it for them. Jost a couple of notes: I don't think anybody said that £400 Sire is the same as a Stingray. But, when people say these are tough times because Stingrays and US fenders are expensive, well.. not really. These are good times and nobody should be sad. As for being worth it, I totally agree that those Stingrays could be worth it to somebody. I guess a point of discussion is: in what way they are worth the money? You have made an analogy with cars there. The same car but with different specs. But there are many other possible analogies that could be made by other people. Are £4000 basses worth it the way a rolex is worth more than an average good watch (no discernible improvements in tracking the time, just the former looks better to the buyer and confers status)? Are they worth it the way a sports car is better than any fully functioning, safe, not particularly noisy car with aircon (for most application they are the same, in some conditions in which 90% of the buyers are not expected to ever find themselves could really make a difference. However, for everyday use one may actually find that the sports car is not even better). Are they worth it the way a car with Homer Simpson "speedholes" is better than one without (something has been done but does not make a difference)? And so on... I don't know the answer. I am pretty convinced that a £4000 bas does not make you go faster or play cleaner than a cheaper bass chosen with a neck shape that subjectively works well and has had a good fret job. As for the sound, I am pretty sure that above a certain level it becomes a matter of personal taste (which does not mean they are all the same, but maybe it happens that some £1000 basses are as good, just different). But maybe I am wrong. I understand Fender Custom Shop tests the wood of the body and the neck to ensure they resonate well together. As you know, to some people's ears they may as well use poplar poplar and would sound the same. I don't know who's right. I don't know most things as I never tried a £4000 bass. I have only tried £1000-£1500 basses max and found them no better than carefully selected and modded cheap basses with slight modifications. Maybe there is an inversion in the law of diminishing returns at £4000. I do not mean this ironically. Maybe.
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This. Absolutely. I think some 11 basses have passed through my house over the past year or so, the most expensive being a Sire paid £400 new. While not everything has been great, I found some gems and could not care less about gear costing £2000 plus. I believe £1000+ basses tend to have better pickups than cheap basses, maybe better fretwork. I don't exclude buying one one day (used!). But a fretjob cost £90 and a pickup upgrade cost ~£100+, light tuners cost ~£100so this should be put in perspective. I know that for as much as I can spend, the neck will never play itself. Weigh and balance are better with mid-priced Japanese brands than with vintage looking US basses. Not interested in this MM. Not sad at all.
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I feel the same. My back is ok for now but clearly back problems are quite common among bass players. I work in front of a computer and I have been meaning to start doing sports for many years now. Unless something kills me, there is potential for a few decades of playing ahead of me and if that turns out to be the case I don't think it's likely I would be one of the lucky ones without back problems. Especially as I play standing up most of the time. I could see myself tempted by playing a heavy 60s precision. Not really tempted by playing a heavy bass just to get a supercheap one instead of a quite cheap one
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That's fair enough. Let's just say they have a tendency to make basses I personally am interested in quite heavy. The two I bought, I sold. The Enhanced and the PJs are reportedly heavy. Even the PB20 with a poplar body, can easily be heavy for what I read. I have good hopes for the poplar JB62. The one on sale in rhe classfields was 4.4kg if I remember correctly, which is ok for a Jazz in the great scheme of things, but it is not on the light side for a poplar body. This makes me suspect that, much for the JB75 I had, they use fairly thick slabs of wood. That being said, other people report lower weigh and I will likely end up ordering one at one point.
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I am annoyed at the Enhanced because I would be all over a cheap P H bass if only they were not known to be super heavy. I would even get over mixed reviews on the electronics as these can be replaced. I see this one costs £150 more than the other Enhanced. They have added a gigbag and a roasted maple neck. I am not too excited about either of them. At £439 you are not in the "so cheap that I am shocked it's good" price range. At that price one can buy a Sire V5 or a Sterling Ray 4. I am not saying this is worse (I have not tried it), I just wish they figured out how to make lighter basses instead throwing around Gotoh tuners, zero frets and roasted maple necks for free
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Just bought a Gruvgear strap from Clarky. Everything went perfectly and he was supernice. Buy with confidence!
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Well I wish I could do that
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Glad to hear I am not the only slow one. I guess the difference is that if I showed on stage instead of you, after having "learnt" all the songs, people would still look at me and say "what the f are you playing?"
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As in, a list of songs BCers are learning? That could be a nice thread. I like thay stuff because once said publicly "I am learning this" I might feel more compelled to actually learn from start to finish!
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First, let me say here as well for transparency that I failed miserably with the abstinence again, there is J neck coming my way and I am already looking into some sort of therapy for addictions! I have a list of more like 70 songs for which I have gathered books/tabs/notation/youtube videos. The fact is that I decide "ok, I learn these songs next", and then I find myself learning another random one that is not on any list. I guess that's the way to go to keep it stimulating So far, since January I have -Learned or almost learned (but let me say that rendition could be excruciating, so I do not consider myself done) Stand by me Ben E. KING Cissy strut The Meters Thank you Sly & tfs Stop! Diana Ross & Supremes She caught the Katy Blues Brothers Le freak Chic You're gonna need me Albert King Trouble Jose James Too young to die Jamiroquai Walking on the moon Police - "half learned" Mean disposition Muddy Waters Night train Oscar Peterson Trio (I may skip the solo) A remark you made Weather Report (when I play on fretless though it's embarassing :D) I am also working on Wherever I lay my hat and Barbary Coast but I consider the latter a "long term project" so to speak ...now, this is stuff that a pro may learn in a day - and unlike me, play it well - but I must admit I had never learned so much stuff in such a short time. That's why I swear by gear abstinence - associated with if only I could actually do it and stick to it
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Right, that's quite humiliating! After failing here before the end of February and going into a buying spree, I committed to abstinence again here I was about to sell a bass. Sell, not buy! It's a beautiful Squier Affinity PJ with KiOgon loom and Wilkinson pickup, whose neck has given me a lot of aggravation. Tired of not being able to use my string of choice because of truss rod issues, I was about to post it here for sale, not for very much given the neck. As I opened Basschat to put it for sale, I saw a Fender Modern Player Jazz neck for £150... ...clearly, that was a sign from the sky thay my bass had to become a bitsa! I could not go against the will of whoever inhabits the sky? Or am I mad?
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Admittedly I look at eBay and Reverb only occasionally, mostly for stuff that is up to £500-600 new. I never bumped into something offered at an interesting price. The differences with new prices are so small that it does not make sense. I am not sure this harms the market though. As you can see on BC, if a seller really wants to sell the price gets reduced and fairly quickly. If the bass sells, clearly somebody thought it was worth the money
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Are they Labella LTF? They are known to occasionally have a "sitar" effect. In this case Labella could send you a replacement string to try I think
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I don't know anything about prices 15 years ago but I find this very interesting. Especially as at the same time a lot of people are saying cheap basses were never so good and a lot of people question the returns of buying anything more than £500-800 new. I wonder if there is a relationship between the two issues. Marketing can be funny and people are funny. Maybe, and I am speculating here, they figured out that Stingrays and high-end Yamahas are just better business if marketed at a high price as an object of desire. If they were sold for less it would send the message that they are 20% better than a Sire, instead of something you dream of. Both brands cover the lower end of the market anyway with great basses such as the Sterling Ray 4 or the Yamaha BB424
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You mean you prefer passive than active? In that case, there are preamps that are fairly "transparent" which should give you flexibility to eq while preserving your passice sound for the most part. If I remember correctly, Nordstrand an Glockenklang were said to do that, but don't take my word for it as I never tried them. For the most part, preamps (much like "amps", which have a preamp) alter the sound by choice and design. That's part of what they sell: the promise to "improve" on the natural sound of your bass
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Parcelforce now off my christmas card list
Paolo85 replied to Yan_Huriey's topic in General Discussion
That's an absolutely fair opinion. And I agree with you that one should make the best effort to prorect the instrument. At the same time, note that the way a bass is posted is pretty much always clearly stated so both buyer and seller make an informed decision. Besides, I say, and I assume is customary, that if a bass arrives brocken it's on the seller making it right. Because of the issue of cost effectivness mentioned above, it looks to me that the custom is to do as I say. I went through the classfields and checked the most recent adverts for basses ~300 or less. I checked all that mention anything about shipping, without making a selection. Here is what they say: ". I have the original box, so can post/courier at buyers expense" "£300 cash on collection from Carlisle, Cumbria, or bank transfer £25 P&P for UK Mainland only." <-- 25 definitely does not cover a hard case + postage + insurance so I guess that's not the case.. "NOW ONLY £250 POSTED" <- hard case not mentioned in the advert. I suspect it would have been if there was one given it would be worth 25% of the bass "would very much prefer collection in person here in north London (N21) as I can demo the bass with an amp and make sure that the potential buyer is happy. However I do have a couple of shipping boxes that I would be willing to post basses in at the buyers risk. " "I'd much prefer collection in person, but I can also post at cost in the UK if needed as I do have a proper shipping box from another bass I purchased from Andertons in the summer." I only remember once a hard case mentioned for a cheap bass in the revent past. But nite that it was a semihollow -
Parcelforce now off my christmas card list
Paolo85 replied to Yan_Huriey's topic in General Discussion
I think Parcelforce says you have to ship instruments with a hard case, so shipping without it I guess would invalidate the insurance?
