4 Strings

Let us know how you get on

Amen to that. If you want it to look worn out, use it and wear it out.

Personally I can't see the satisfaction in doing this or, worse buying a guitar with this carried out, even well. If a bass has been used through the years then it has 'character' and the imagination can rise on where the bass may have been. If its been sanded/buffed away, who is it actually fooling? Why would anyone want to fool someone and if the user knows its a fake, there must be zero satisfaction.

Fair point, a blind test would be good. Light strings can't be plucked so hard, especially the E, as it will go sharp, so maybe there's a difference there. I've never used heavy strings so, I admit, the beefy comment is from my perception. (I also argue against maple necks sounding brighter!)

Have used 35s for >20 years. Find it difficult to understand why anyone would use anything else (accepting a bit of beefiness as suggested).

So much easier to play, light touches only required, low action etc.

Goodness, its
Really
A
Blistering
Bass
Everyone,
Really!

Can't compete with some of those others!

Especially
Blimmin
'Orrible

Wow,
A
Real
Wood
Item,
Clinically
Klean

But
As
Subtle as
Sh*te

Try all the basses you want, but make sure you try a Stingray. I must admit not to have played an HH but the sound must be huge. Just roll the controls back for control. I am slowly being converted to a one bass trick, its to my Stingray.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='780263' date='Mar 19 2010, 09:50 PM']Having owned several of each, I'd say that a good Precision is the utter staple of rock music, but a Stingray will happily venture into some serious funk/slap territory and is much more versatile. There's something about the Stingray sound, too. It's just addictive! [/quote]

Addictive, yes. I have both, a '78 P and recently bought a '79/80 Stingray from one of our number on this list. They are so similar in some ways on the face of things (both being black and maple) but playing them is entirely different.

Most of us are used to Precisions, staple indeed, they do almost anything you want, can be very nice to play and have that certain 'rightness' about their feel. If its a car it would be a good solid Checker yellow cab. Play a Stingray and you now have the 8 litre sportscar of the same name. It is immensely but effortlessly powerful. Wonderfully comfortable, will do all the Precision can but with so much more ease and power. The neck is so slim and easy, the feel so solid and smooth, the pickup - that lazy 8 litre V8 with more whoomph than you'll need without trying its all so americanly excessive and ... addictive. There must be many who, once bitten, play little else.

All good - except the knob; I would feel like one with that on my bass!

Its a great look, much loved as he was/is Phil was, in my opinion, a great bass player in that so many people recognise his bass playing and it contributed so much to the overall sound rather than merely accompany it - which seems to be be so often the case nowadays.

A really nice chap by all accounts and, despite the manner of his death, I remember Leslie saying how proud he was of his daughter's husband (maybe just being the good dad!). His life was quite a story (was on Radio 4 a while back).

I know this will be an unpopular answer but I've always found Precisions to be neck heavy and find it a bit odd that there seems to be a 'lightness of body' obsession with them at the moment. The heavier ones can sit quite nicely, the lighter ones dip to the neck.

Grippy straps will, as you've found, merely tend to pull your shirt round your neck.

IA solution would be to put another strap button into the back of the bass 3-4 inches from the end of the body to shift the centre of balance to the right, if you don't mind making a little hole in the back of your bass.

Its an irritating problem if you really like the bass otherwise, its one of the first things I look for when trying one out.

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' date='Mar 10 2010, 06:34 PM' post='770754']
Er... judging by the rest of your post, I assume you mean there is no reason [i]not to[/i] use a guitar amp?

yes, um, thanks, reads a bit odd otherwise.

Jimmyb65, that's perfect!

I ordered my tickets and just had confirmation they have been posted to me.

Thanks for the tip-off Danweb22, great use of this forum, I would have hated to have missed it, right on my doorstep too!

There is no reason at all for using a guitar amp, it should make no difference to it at all. I would suggest that basses are more peaky than guitars and so a valve amp will handle it best. There's no reason why the valves shouldn't last for years.

Speakers designed for guitar use will sound pretty horrible on the low notes. Without a crossover this will make them distort and so even the high frequencies will sound nasty. The bi-amp idea is the best with a suitable cross-over.

Overdriven amps, especially valve amps, can sound great with bass. Overdriven speakers just make me clench my wallet!

[quote name='toneknob' post='764865' date='Mar 5 2010, 10:26 AM']If they do bring an amp and let me use it, they get beer and sweets.[/quote]


Surely this should be national principle for all bassists.

If you're using someone else's gear always be courteous enough to show them what you're going to be doing with it, no matter how obvious it is, and make sure you and anyone else who's using it buy the guy a beer.

(The down side might be that by the end of nights with 4-5 band the bass players of the headline bands are going to be half cut!)

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='764519' date='Mar 4 2010, 09:51 PM']I love a glossed maple neck, but rosewood always seems to help with a fuller and richer, more balanced sound.[/quote]

I must say, I can't see how this is the case, especially as maple is softer than rosewood. I certainly have not found it to be true with the (relatively few, I admit) basses I've played, although I've not been able to carry out a direct comparison.

Surely even the quality of the lead will have a greater effect than whether the fingerboard is glossed maple or not.

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' post='764099' date='Mar 4 2010, 04:26 PM']It's a different thing. Making arrangements to share kit in advance is one thing. The ranting in this thread is about people who turn up without their amp, assuming that they'll be able to borrow someone else's. That's disrespectful.

S.P.[/quote]


Yep, fair enough, tons of difference. As far as my lad's band is concerned its always agreed in advance at least so all know what to bring.

[quote name='dangerboy' post='764085' date='Mar 4 2010, 04:14 PM']At the nights I run, we have hard and fast rules about this.

Want to to use your bass amp but not let anyone else use it? You can get a gig somewhere else, because we don't want you. If bands can't be nice to each other and share, then they haven't got the right mindset for a DIY night.

And we're not greedy promoters - we never take a penny out of our nights.

Here are the Rules of Duel:
[url="http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=173394714&blogId=516965889"]http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseact...logId=516965889[/url]

On the other hand, we only put on bands who know what they're doing with gear![/quote]


This is the common experience. Not sure where the other people play.

My lad plays in pubs etc around London and they are rarely allowed to use their own gear.

Its very often down to the poor perishers who are top of the bill to allow the other bands free use of their gear. The drummers take their own snare, pedal and cymbals. The band do have their own backline but as they are usually early in the bill have to use what's already on stage. A couple of last-on acts have said 'no', no-one seems to mind, just means a lot of shifting about before they come on.

The fingerboard material needs to be dense as it takes quite a pounding, especially from round wounds. Maple is a hard wood but not as dense as rosewood and less so than ebony - the only wood more dense than water. The string touches the fret and so slight differences in the density of the wood under the fret is going to have a very small influence on the sound especially when compared to the pickups, amps, speakers etc. Being less dense, why maple would sound brighter is beyond me and I have never been able to carry out an experiment with identical body, pickups etc to see if it really does. If it does, and there's plenty who say so, it must be marginal. I would suggest it LOOKS brighter and wonder if this influences the perceived sound.

Maple fingerboards tend to be lacquered which gives them a different feel to bare wood. There is clearly a preference here, my own opinion goes for bare wood such as rosewood, but actually most of the contact from your finger is on the string, not the fingerboard.

I would not deny the influence of the neck material on the sound, although, again, this must surely be marginal. A rosewood finger board would have to pass vibrations through the glued joint between the neck and fingerboard. These are usually pretty good joints, certainly better than the bolted Fender style neck to body joint. Few complain about those and, I would suggest, those bolt-on neck joints would have a greater influence on the sound than the fingerboard to neck joint. Many maple fingerboards are separate too and so would also have this joint.

In terms of shape there is no reason why a rosewood fingerboard should have a slimmer cross-section than an all maple neck. In fact, the opposite would be more likely. A rosewood fingerboard are mostly rectangular and so a cross-section of the assembly would show a flat section at the sides of the fingerboard before the curve of the neck. Necks of basses I have with no separate fingerboard curve all the way to the edge of the finger board. The maple neck on my Musicman is very slim, one of the reasons I bought it.

Placing the frets straight into the neck Fender style is the easiest and cheapest way as it cuts out the process of buying another type of wood and making a fretboard. With thousands of Fenders being made every week this economy is easily understood (although I recognise there's no price difference in the shops between the two). Should it become damaged or actually wear out, however, it can't be replaced like a separate fingerboard.

Regarding looks, clearly that's up to each one of us. The maple fingerboards are lacquered to keep them looking clean. Anyone with an old one will see how quickly the wood under chips in the lacquer goes grimy. The grime doesn't penetrate the denser woods and can be scrubbed off.

Choice for me, black 'n' maple every time!

[quote name='yorick' post='763073' date='Mar 3 2010, 04:05 PM']Is anyone welcome here? I had John build me a copy of a Warwick thumb in '93, basically because i couldn't afford the real thing, and John could build one to my specs at a third of the price. G'wan, it's a "proper" Jaydee. [/quote]


Really? John would do a custom job cheaper than the real thing? Amazing! I wonder if he still does?

Not surprised after working at Monkey Biz.

That's where I bought my Jaydee too, might have even been you who served me!

Actually liked the shop, seemed to be a players' shop but also surrounded by tales of dodgy dealing etc. Stuff I got from there was great, still got the Jaydee, its still wonderful after ~25 years.

Its perfect, Slacker, get slappin' and a-ticklin'!

I love the sound, not heard a new Jaydee to be able to compare, but its pretty unique.

Hope its as easy to play as my old Roadie 1A

For bass mistakes here's one I posted elsewhere - Tears of a Clown; Bob Babbitt drops it on the entry to the last verse, about 2.08 in, after the words 'Just like..'. Keeps it going in time but is a tone out. (Check the 'UK' version of this otherwise you'' get Henderson's US version, such messy playing when compared).

For other sorts of things you can hear Hendrix coughing and clearing his throat just before he starts singing Purple Haze

For a drumming laugh, the during Baba O'Reilly on the 'Kids are Alright' Keith breaks into the 'Don't Cry' bit a bar early, then carried on too long into it (around 2.00 in).

There's loads of Beatles clangers, for example Macca loses count completely in the playout of All You Need is Love, but then its all part of the show with that sort of thing.

(Not forgetting the well documented 'Oh Sh*t' halfway through Louie Louie!)