Grand Wazoo

Well the ones which are included in combo amps are usually of little effect, more of a limiter than a true and true compresson, whereas a decent deicated compressor pedal will help gather all your sound propulsion into a definite aural range, without allowing your sound to be despersed in the room behind the bass drum beat and the singer's pa. In other words imagine it as a huge tube in front of your speaker that funnels all your sound and project it directly at the audience. Actually a very useful tool for any type of audience

do you own a decent compressor? if you do it will help defining your "presence"

Without sounding too cynical, I'd say your neck's f***ed, and as stated above a good repairman would glue it together and it'll be tougher than ever. How did you achieve such gruelling result?

[quote name='Stacker' post='891925' date='Jul 11 2010, 12:49 PM']Re: set-ups. AFAIR, the UK distributors techs are meant to give the guitars a once-over when they arrived at the warehosue. I know Aribter did this in the past (except for the real cheapo acoustics) so there's absolutely no need for badly set-up stuff going out to dealers. And if I'd shown a badly set up guitar to a dealer, I'd expect him to sort it out before it went back on the shelf.[/quote] Which leaves me wondering if these dealers can tell the difference between a badly setup bass and a good one, or are they just business men that don't give a stuff as long as its on the shelf ready to be sold?

I agree that a setup from someone with a bit of bass know how would solve most issues but we are talking about an instrument which has is sold as "Custom Shop" special and as such you would expect at least that it is prefect out of the box. Now these are not rumours, A shop in Denmark St. had a custom shop Jazz 60's replica and I went to try it, I gave it back to the sales man, and said, are you kidding? The G string would slide off the neck at the least pressure and you just couldn't get it to tune properly. I was offended more than disappointed by the audacity that either the shop (failing to spot the problem) or Fender themselves put out an instrument which is worth a lot of cash in such conditions. I am now on my 4th Ernie Ball bass all bought site unseen and ordered from new, all of which required absolutely no setup once out of the box. And can someone please explain how comes Squier pays more attention to details? The 3 Classic Vibe's I've bought all came setup perfectly?

yes you are right its the same head (knobs!!) but nevertheless £699 is a bargain, if I didn't have one already I would jump on it.

Considering that these are around £1000 new, he wants £699 buy it now, not bad. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Markbass-CMD-102P-103H-head-/150464837009?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item2308673591"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Markbass-CMD-102P-10...=item2308673591[/url]

One of my PRS belonged to Mike Oldfield, he sold it back to the store and I bought it off them, do you think it makes a blind bit of difference if I was coming to sell it? I think not.

As promised here is a small review of this bass, but gee, where to begin? After 2 days of playing it solid with little stops in between for food and... the other, I now feel like I am pleasingly laying next to her in bed with one arm around the neck and the other holding a cigar, smiling with satisfaction. Let's just say this bass can be best described as a "chamaleon", a true master of disguise, and definately not one you can easily pidgeon hole as a Stingray, P-Bass or J-Bass wannabe, but low and behold with very little tweaking you can definately dial some sounds that will be closely reminescent of those I have mentioned, as Ed Freidland said in his video one particular combination (the middle on his own in passive mode) makes it a P bass killer. However one thing I have noticed about this bass, that I think sets it apart from the other current EBMM basses, is that you can set any given pickup combination which you think might suit a particular style or song like a driving rock groove and then you play another song, in a completely different style, say a motown type of riff and you don't need to panick and switch pickups selection, you can get away with a quick turn on the passive tone control or if you are in active mode you can dial some low mids and lows and turn down the treble and you are there in seconds. To truly appreciate the tonal differences between the many passive pickup combinations and the same combinations when in active mode, one way to perfectly place it is to think like this... Passive = Vintage Vibes, Blues, Classic sounds, Classic Rock etc. flick it in active and imagine being teleported into modern times: Active = Funkeeee! Modern Rock, Heavy, Cool, slap happy, pick-o-tronic powerhouse, muscle and definately balls de lux! There isn't a single pickup combination that I don't like or that doesn't sound musically inspiring, but if I was to give an early prediction of favourite selection I would say that I am very very partial to bridge and middle together and midlle and neck together they are just honey dripping sweet. This bass is also good for reggae, you can get a very deep yet hollow doop doop sound by maxing the bass and turning down both the mids, using the bridge and neck pickups together in active. Finally, this bass despite it's transatlantic voyage from America arrived here at Wazoo towers maintaining the skillful setup it was despatched with, the action is surgically accurate, the neck smooth and you can actually smell the Birchwood Casey wax on it. The back of the neck has a beautiful velvety satin feel and the frets are all smooth and perfectly fitted. Pukka!

Pledge spray and wipe off with microfibre cloth, endo!

People need to lose their blinkers, as good as Fender are, not everything must always be a Fender clone or a Gibson clone, listen with your ears and realize that there's a lot more out there to please a variety of people with many different styles of instruments.

It is understandable that not everyone might like the look of it but let me tell you playwise and soundwise this is a bit of a monster. I can't bare to look at headless basses but then again, if one plays nice and sounds the bollox than I can forget the looks.

Three more shots without the newbie stickers

[quote name='Doctor J' post='889652' date='Jul 8 2010, 04:26 PM']Excellent stuff The single coils themselves, do they have a Fendery tone to them or does it carry over the MM character?[/quote] 80% MusicMan sound, it has to do with them big pickup pole pieces, however it can emulate a wicked P Bass with the middle and neck together and a very definite jaco sound with the bridge pickup on his own in passive with the tone off 50%.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='889621' date='Jul 8 2010, 03:56 PM']Nice! As you may know ive cancelled mine for various reasons, but I still want one. Great looking bass and really individual. Im going to try and test a 4 vs a 5 next year when Ive had chance to enjoy my other incoming EBs.[/quote] Well Gareth maybe you were too quick triggered once again you should have known what the new pegs which you like, that EBMM have just designed, are still only a drawing on their blakcboard and will not see the light of day for at least another year or more. I really can't understand how you've cancelled the order just becaue the new pegs won't be fitted to the Big Al, specially when EB intends to fit them on the Reflex as they missed it for the 25th. Now about the sound: this bass is a lot punchier than a Stingray on blue pills, it covers a variety of styles, it's great for rock, if you like that sort of thing, and has a very captivating passive sound so blues and jazz lovers will be right at home there. I was also lucky: I've put it on the scale and was surprised to find that it is quite light for a fiver, at only 9.12lbs!! So far I am loving it a lot!

and some more...

Yes sorry I am back, I needed to catch some zZZzz regardless of the excitement, I was too tired this morning at 02:40 to even look at it. But here we are:

[quote name='merello' post='888798' date='Jul 7 2010, 06:35 PM']Watch it! Never mind Big Al, what about Big Al-Queda? [/quote] Sorry but you've lost me there, what's that got to do with me and or the Big Al?

[quote name='Johnston' post='888761' date='Jul 7 2010, 06:06 PM']Grand wazoo are you one of them 'pilots' that keep that sale the ships up the shipping channels??[/quote] Huh? Master Mariner is the job description.

[quote name='ShergoldSnickers' post='888662' date='Jul 7 2010, 05:03 PM']I had a friend in the Merchant Marine. Had to climb inside the cylinders, once the pistons were removed, to clean them. Horrible task, ankle deep in old oil, fumes etc. Big, big engines. He told me of an accident that occurred in an American port in the Gulf of Mexico. A fuel tanker - can't remember if it was spirit or gas - had caught fire, and all the ships in the harbour that could get underway quickly realised that moving was a good idea. His ship was offloading ammonia via pipelines, one of which was reluctant to turn off and detach. The ship pulled out anyway spilling ammonia on the quayside and rendering several unconscious. A few minutes later they saw the tanker go up, parts of the main deck and superstructure lifting high into the air, followed by a colossal pressure wave. Not sure if this story is true or not - could never find anything about this accident, which must have happened in the late 70s or early to mid 80s. He told it well nevertheless. Anyway, really looking forward to seeing this bass![/quote] Well luckily I don't need to be anywhere near the engine room, my position is on the bridge. I take one in, get her moored and then take the other one waiting alongside back out, fly back, have a night cap and off again. Fun?? Not really... but it's a job

[quote name='machinehead' post='888626' date='Jul 7 2010, 04:39 PM']A crew of 58? My god. Are they pedalling it? Frank[/quote] Yeah well you wish, but they run shifts so when 12 are manning the engine room for example, other are resting there is a workshop constantly reboring cylinders, swapping pistons, and that is also manned 24/7, other or on bridge duty, mooring stations, bunker stations, repainting decks, lashing cargo, maintaining hoistable decks and hydraulic pumps, scraping ballast tanks, need I go on?

[quote name='tombboy' post='888378' date='Jul 7 2010, 01:20 PM']And you're back tomorrow? Are you just popping up the corner shop for a packet of fags or something? [/quote] Yes mate, drop her in Antwerp and fly back to London City Airport. Missus waiting with car and then home sweet home.

[quote name='Doctor J' post='888319' date='Jul 7 2010, 12:46 PM']Is this not perfect justification for a sickie?[/quote] In an ideal world yes, but not when you are incharge of a large cargo ship and 58 crew members.

I've finally got it exactly 4 months from order date to delivery, it's safely at home and still unopened in the original box, I had to leave it indoors and fly straight to work, no time to even look at it yet, can you adam and eve it? However I will do it tomorrow when I disembark so watch this space for pics and review.