gjones

I heard a young guy playing one down at Whighams in Edinburgh. He was in the house band at the 'Blues Tuesday' open mic night. It was a reasonable sound but didn't sound like a Stingray. As soon as he got the chance he swopped it with with a very grungy 70's Jazz Bass, with a horrible action, that a jammer had brought along. So I assume it's not his first love, just a bass that he could afford. I recommend you play one, if you can, before you fork any money out.

[quote name='Hugh971' timestamp='1390045131' post='2340794'] HI, I'm after a cheap fretless bass. This will be my first fretless so a big part of this is so I can see if I like fretless and stick to it. My main influence in fretless playing is Jaco's more groove oriented stuff (not so much the soloing) but I'm not trying to be Jaco but I am specifically after a jazz due to the the bridge J pickup though I will consider other suggestions. At the moment I'm looking primarily at these 2 options[list] [*][b]Vintage Fretless Icon [/b]([url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/vintage_vj96mrjp_fretless.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...jp_fretless.htm[/url]) - This seems to be regarded quite well around here. [*][b]Cheap Harley Benton Fretless Jazz [/b]([url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_jb_40fl_sb.htm"]http://www.thomann.d..._jb_40fl_sb.htm[/url]) - I've found next to nothing about this online. It looks very good for the price but it's a bit of a risk. Has anyone ever played a Harley Benton bass and if so was it any good? [/list] Can anyone help here? I'm leaning towards the Vintage at the moment. Thanks Hugh [/quote] There's one on ebay at the moment http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Squier-Jazz-Vintage-Modified-Active-Pick-ups-Bass-guitar-/291058945956?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item43c4770fa4

These are good too. You can pick them up for £200 or under secondhand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVP7EEl8HfE

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1390045370' post='2340797'] For Hifi they used to advise spending 50% of your budget on the speakers. As Liam says a bad cab won't make anything sound good. I'd take your own amp to this gig. [/quote] I will next time

My advice is to pick some songs you like which have simple bass parts and play along. Eventually you'll pick up the bass lines. Repeat this process until you find it easy to pick up simple bass parts by ear. This process does take time but everything worth doing takes some effort. I'm sure there's beginner lessons for free on youtube. Once you've learned a few songs start going to local jams and meeting musicians and like minded people. They'll probably encourage you to get up for a jam.This will give you the motivation to spend more time practicing and eventually it will be you who gets up and joins the guys on stage. After I got my bass It took me about a year before I played my first proper gig.

A venue where I gig regularly has the bass amp going through a really nice Ampeg Classic Series SVT 410he. They started off pairing it with an Ampeg PF- 500, which broke, the replacement was an Ashdown Mag 300 which also broke, and now they've hired an ancient Peavey firebass 700 with a broken input (you have to use the effects return thereby bypassing the preamp completely). The amazing thing is, whatever amp they use, the sound out of that cab is always great! The 410he cabs are not cheap.They typically sell for around £700. Which leads me to the conclusion that you're much better off spending your cash on the best cab you can afford and economising on the amplifier rather than the other way around. I wonder if there's any other Basschattters out there who have had a similar experience of playing a cheap and cheerful amp through a high end cab and getting a great sound?

It's a nice sound you have there, it doesn't sound like a inexpensive bass. And the playing is great, considering you've only recently started playing DB.

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1388929886' post='2327698'] Right guys, I've taken your advice and tried to straighten out the truss rod a bit more. It looked fairly good before, but I thought I would see if I could get the neck a touch straighter. The truss was very tight to move, 1/4 turn then left a few hours to settle made no discernible difference to relief, so I tried again with 1/2 turn. Left overnight, no difference. Both times it appeared to have moved ok on retuning, but when settled had returned to as it was before. Tried one more 1/2 turn, left to settle, same result. Removed the neck fully last night, released the truss nut completely and greased, re-tightened truss again and it snapped. Seriously. It's sheared off right under the truss nut. Holy f*** If someone has any helpful advice right now, or just an optomistic comment I'd love to hear it as I'm feeling this could be damage beyond repair and I've just destroyed my new bass. I can't believe it. [/quote] I have an original Mighty Mite Precision maple neck on my Precision. It was manufactured in the early 80s when Mighty Mite first started make replacement parts for Fender basses and guitars. The truss rod on this neck sounds a bit like yours, in that although you can adjust it, it doesn't change the relief as far as I can tell. So in order to get a decent action on it I inserted a shim in the neck pocket (a cut up plastic morrisons loyalty card if you must know). This raised the angle of the neck sufficiently to adjust the action via the bridge. I now have a very nice neck, with a decent and playable low action. The point I'm so long windededly trying to make is, have you refitted the neck to the body and restrung it? From what you've said, adjusting the truss rod didn't make much of a difference, but even so the action was pretty good. If you haven't already, I recommend refitting the neck, restringing the bass and seeing what damage has been done. You may find that, although you've damaged the truss rod, if it wasn't having much effect on the neck relief when you were adjusting it, the neck may still be playable. If it is playable but you need to adjust the action, do what I did and insert shims of various thicknesses until you can adjust the action, via the bridge, to your satisfaction. Good luck. Edit: a quick google comes up with this. This guys neck stayed playable for quite a while without a shim. Maybe all is not lost. [url="http://www.carvinbbs.com/viewtopic.php?p=30839&sid=ef4228680c3b8d7e6c76d0162ac89d8e"]http://www.carvinbbs...c76d0162ac89d8e[/url]

I think the problem is playing boring songs not boring basslines. Simple basslines in a great song don't bug me as much a complex bassline in a boring song.

A Geddy Lee with a John East J retro pre amp fitted, would knock spots off a Fender Deluxe. Search for John East retro pre amps on basschat and you'll see what I mean (they get a lot of love). But be aware the Geddy neck is ultra slim and doesn't have the graphite rods the deluxe does, so tends to need truss rod adjustment regularly if you like a low action.

Hmmmmmm......I was thinking. There is no risk in pledging to pay a decent wadge of cash for this, as it is collection in person. And if it's a piece of trash, you just tell them it's junk and walk away......without paying a penny.

Here we go http://basschat.co.uk/topic/226512-jazz-bass-on-ebay/page__p__2330831__hl__78__fromsearch__1#entry2330831

There's another thread about this bass, somewhere on basschat, where the OP was asking the same thing. The conclusion was that it is kosher but possibly not 100% original.

The brother they are selling for isn't a bass player? Why buy a bass. It's like buying a car........when you can't drive.

Georgie Fame is the thin end of the wedge as far as Jazz is concerned. This is from his album 'The Blues and Me'. There's some great musicians on this album (I believe they were the band from The Letterman Show). I love the album but this is one of my favorites. You can listen to the other tracks from the album here on youtube too. Bassist is Will Lee and he plays some very classy bass this album. [media]http://youtu.be/qf-cadFwums[/media]

[quote name='bassist_lewis' timestamp='1389563696' post='2335631'] It's about a 55/45 split this tax year in favour of my non-music job, I live in my own flat and receive no financial help from parents or spouses (I do use my girlfriend's car but we split insurance, tax, MOT etc) [/quote] Does you girlfriend ever see you at weekends? As you get more successful, the less you'll see of her at the weekends. Because that's when you make your money. In my experience it's the lack of a social life, outside music, that is the most difficult part of a professional music career.

1st of all, if you're serious, ask the ebay account holder if you can be put directly in touch with the friend. Then you can put all questions directly to him/her.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1389485230' post='2334786'] Sorry but I'd never play with her again after pulling an amateurish stunt like that. [/quote] Most of her 'episodes' were at piddily little gigs that didn't really matter. Of course I'd be mightily pished off if she took a strop in the middle of a tour or at a festival gig, where I ended up out of pocket. So far she's been very professional at those.

This is a handy gig guide. [url="http://www.gigguide.co.uk/Edinburgh%20Listings/edinburghmonday.htm"]http://www.gigguide....burghmonday.htm[/url] It won't show Feb gigs until 1st of feb but you'll get an idea of whats available. Mcnach plays in multiple bands in Edinburgh so you'll probably manage to catch him playing. Whistlebinkies is the best venue for really good quality bands. I also recommend the Jazz Bar. Lots of Jazz and lots of other stuff too. I recommend the 17 piece big band on Mondays and the 101st airborne on tuesdays for some Hedrixy funky stuff. All top notch musicians. [url="http://www.thejazzbar.co.uk/programme/regular-weekly-events/"]http://www.thejazzba...-weekly-events/[/url]

I play in a band where the singer and the guitarist are married. They never row at home, but as soon as they get on stage and it's time to pick a song to play.......they're off! A couple of years ago, at an open air gig in front of 1,000 people, Dana (the singer), saw that her husband (the guitarist) had bummed a fag off somebody and lit up on stage. She strode over and slapped the thing out of his mouth. And then went on to harague him in front of the crowd. The punters loved it and thought it was part of the act. I've played a couple of gigs where they've rowed about a guitar solo going on too long and she's called a taxi and effed off in the middle of the set. Leaving the rest of the band, and her long suffering hubbie, to struggle on without her. Since then, if she gets into a strop on stage, I just shout 'Taxi for Dana!'. They love each other really.......!?

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1389357816' post='2333222'] I've been reading the story of how that album was recorded. In that David Byrne and Brian Eno would try to do the bass themselves, and Tine would be bought in to re-record the bassline. Are there any soul ballads with a really subtle touch on the bass, but where what's played and how it's played is just perfect? [/quote] This one. The bass line is simple but perfect for the song. Played by David Hood I believe. [media]http://youtu.be/u9sq3ME0JHQ[/media]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1389451613' post='2334301'] Yes - for £9.98 each. If I remember rightly from my eBay trading days, this is a trick whereby increasing the price beyond what anyone would pay allows you to keep a long-standing listing going if you're temporarily out of stock. Pulling the listing and re-listing it again would lose the valuable search engine advantages that have been accrued on that particular URL, from eBay and from Google. [/quote] I thought the guy who listed it might have had a stutter.

Do you have a link?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1389323037' post='2332915'] As a car mechanic, one gets paid for the 100 hours. When a car goes on to win rallies, or get sold for thousands as a collector's item, the mechanic has still been paid. If the car goes to the scrap heap the week after, the mechanic has still been paid. I don't hold with the notion that "if it becomes a hit, I become rich." An hour's work is an hour's work, and deserves appropriate recompense. Any more, in my book, is profiteering. I doubt if my notions would meet with popular approval, more so on a music forum, so Tin Pan Alley can (probably...) sleep easy tonight. I still don't see how these huge sums can be justified in the hallowed name of 'artistry'. Is that clearer..? I've no qualms with expansion, or debate on the subject, as long as it's considered 'in scope' here, or in a dedicated thread. Agreement on all fronts will be difficult, I'm guessing... [/quote] So if a company's designers design some technology.......a phone a computer, a Jumbo Jet perhaps? It's ok for another company to reverse engineer that bit of technology, build a copy and sell it to enrich themselves at the expense of the original company? I'm not so sure.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1389368405' post='2333473'] I disagree. Copeland and Summers' styles are too distinctive. [/quote] And I'm sure they would both 100% agree with you