gjones

I would turn your bass volume to zero but jump about as if you're actually playing. See if anybody notices. If nobody does then your guitarists have hogged all the bass frequencies and your playing is superfluous to the overall sound. In which case I recommend you join a Level 42 tribute band, where your contribution will be appreciated.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1385115307' post='2284561'] Brief hijack...sorry... I set up my 50th jazz a little while back and adjusted the truss rod .I asked about it at the time and was told, right turn to tighten (less relief) and left turn to loosen (more relief). The adjustment is at the body end of the neck. I also have an 83 jazz that I may need to adjust but the adjustment is at the headstock.... Is it still right turn (clockwise) to tighten and left turn (anticlockwise) to loosen? Or does that change as the rod is the other way round? [/quote] Actually, although the truss on my precision neck, where the access is at the body, follows the rule that you turn right to tighten and left to loosen, my Jazz neck (which has access at the headstock) is the opposite way around. You'll be able to confirm that yourself, when you adjust the neck on your 83 jazz.

I like working with musicians that play for the song and can take constructive criticism. When I offer constructive criticism, I always have an idea how the song can be made better. There's no point just saying it sounds crap unless you can point out where the failures are and offer suggestions on how the arrangement can be improved. Once you're in the rehearsal room, bring up what the singer has said and get the rest of the band to offer up ideas to improve the 'groove'. Deconstruct the songs - start with the drums, then add bass, then rhythm guitar, then vocals. Along the way make sure you're happy with what each musician is doing before you go on to the next. Don't see criticism as an attack on your ability, see it as an opportunity to improve.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1385314936' post='2286778'] At the time, one of the ( many) problems that Fender were facing as a company was that their retailers were in a state of revolt because of the amount of unsaleable utterly crap products Fender were giving them to try and pass off to the general public . Fender dealers literally couldn't give these basses away in the early '80's , and Fender had to start offering special promotions and discounts to the dealers to get them to stock these and several other of their guitars at the time. They even ceased production for a while . If these have become sought after as being "vintage" then anything is possible. It's as if in thirty years from now Susan Boyle becomes seen to be a sex symbol. Not least of all from an aesthetic point of view, they have managed to take something as inherently beautiful as a Fender Jazz Bass and make it look ungainly by virtue of the bizzare "restyling" . Why tamper with perfection, and why tamper with it like that? Fender managed to make themselves look not just desperate but lazy and stupid, too. I remember when these basses were current , and they were the worst possible use of your money at that time. [/quote] I've always wondered why I never bought a Fender in the 80s when I started playing bass. I owned a Westone a Yamaha and a Charvel between 1984 and 1994. It never occured to me to buy a Fender. I assume it must have been because of the negative press they were getting at the time.

Since we're on the subject of Abbey Road, I only realised this week how crap the bassline is on Long and Winding Road. I listened to it for years and never noticed it until I read something on the internet about how Paul Mcartney let John Lennon loose with a Fender VI while he played the piano (bad mistake). It was one of the reasons why Paul was so pissed of when Phil Spector (over)produced the track and left John's bassline in. And here is the guilty party making a mess of a pretty simple bass part. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6AuKENgmLQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6AuKENgmLQ[/url]

I used to have a P/J with just a toggle switch. It sounded great but I would have much preferred a blend knob for more control over the blend. Recently I bought a master volume, blend, master tone loom from Ki0gon (John) on basschat, for my Jazz. I much prefer it to VVT as it's much easier to adjust live. Ki0gon's looms have screw terminals to attach the wires from your pickups, are pre soldered and take 10 mins to install.

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1385076183' post='2284337'] I'm a massive fan of the original tune but love Amy's version of it. You can look on it as a blatant robbery or you can look at it as her ode to a classic era of 20th century music, I think for her it was definitely about the latter. [/quote] It's definitely a 'homage'. And her lyrics are very poignant. Her death was very sad. Such a huge talent.

This started life as an old Squier P bass body that a friend of a friend chucked away. It was covered with stickers and accumulated gunk but I really wanted a P bass. I scrubbed it down, gave it a respray in vintage white, added some CTS pots and a well seasoned, 1970's Mighty Mite Precision neck (from the first bass I bought secondhand 30 years ago), plus a split pickup from the same bass......and we're cooking. Sounds and plays fantastic. I love it. [attachment=148954:DSC01369.JPG]

I think there was a thread on here recently about these two songs. I do believe the writers of 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' got a credit on Amy's album. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_Dry_on_Their_Own"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_Dry_on_Their_Own[/url]

[quote name='skydivepaul' timestamp='1385027072' post='2283484'] Just been reading this with interest as after a week and half of playing my new jazz bass to death I found my finger tips are getting sore!! I have been playing bass for nearly two years and I thought my fingers had hardened enough After a bit of checking last night night I checked the action height and found it to be exactly as per fender specifications but when checked against my Ibanez it was double the height. I noticed that the strings required greater pressure to push down onto the frets on my jazz bass compared to my Ibanez (hence my sore finger tips ) I lowered the action but this only partially resolved it but also introduced some fret buzz lower down. I put on a set of old strings in case the new one were not broken in yet and this helped a little. upon inspection of the nut height I noticed it is around double the height from the bottom of the string to the fretboard on my jazz bass compared to the ibanez. a very quick measure before work today: distance from bottom of E string to fretboard Jazz bass : 4mm Ibanez : 2mm I realise the measurement needs to be from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string but didn't have time this morning to accurately measure this. I am thinking I may need to file the nut out a little. Any help or advice greatly received Paul [/quote] The video, which I put up earlier on this topic, shows a professional guitar tech filing the nut of a new Standard Mexican Fender Precision. Which goes to show that it wasn't exactly set up to perfection when it left the factory. He is setting the string height at the first fret to 0.559 mm. He's using a set of proper bass files which cost about £70 to £80 new. If you don't have much experience setting up basses I recommend just taking it to a guitar tech as he/she will have the correct files. The bass tech in the video has others on youtube which show you how to adjust your truss rod and saddle height so you bass is easier to play. Which is always handy to know how to do.

I bet those are dimarzios. Everybody who bought a Jap crap copy back in the 70s and 80s fitted those cream dimarzios. I know I did.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1385033491' post='2283586'] What is a 60's sound for bass? In the 60's they used flats and rounds, picks and fingers and foam muting or not. Live anything went... mostly valve amps through underpowered and woolly 4 x 12 cabs. I don't think there is a 60's bass sound. [/quote] Yes, Paul MaCartney desperately wanted to sound like Marcus Miller but it's hard to do that on a Hofner Violin bass plugged into a 15 watt Selmer.

[quote name='eddiehoffmann' timestamp='1384986897' post='2283297'] My idea of a 60's Jazz Bass sound is John Paul Jones and he used flats. I think he had a P-Bass with rounds though... [/quote] Actually he used roundwounds but he had mutes on the bridge of his Jazz bass which gave him that flatwound type sound. For a 60's sound I'd put some foam in the bridge cover which will act like the original Fender mutes. See piccie [url="http://www.12fret.com/wordpress/wp-content/gallery/fender-jazz-bass-1961-cons/fender-jazz-bass-1961-cons-bridge-mutes-1.jpg"]http://www.12fret.co...dge-mutes-1.jpg[/url] Or if you want to do it the professional way damp with the palm of your hand. Scot shows you how here with a great lesson on how to get a 60's sound [url="http://www.bassguitarvideo.com/bass-lesson-james-jamerson-bass-lines-get-vintage-tone/"]http://www.bassguita...t-vintage-tone/[/url]

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1384977265' post='2283093'] Thanks John, I'll rob the one from my other P , you'll have to send me another one please ? I like the feel of this bass so much, I might P/J it with my wizards, but i'm not sure if that will devalue it, or even if it does, does it matter [/quote] I think your bass may need shielding. I just finished sorting my Precision out an hour ago. I was getting the same thing (buzzing that goes away when I touch the strings or roll of the tone a bit). So I pulled the scratchplate off, stuck a sheet of copper foil on it, cut off the excess and screwed it back on the bass. The result is a much quieter bass. I was thinking of painting it with some carbon shielding paint I used to shield my Jazz Bass. I may do that this weekend. This is the same type of stuff I used which is cheap as chips. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300mm-x-200mm-Guitar-pickup-self-adhesive-copper-foil-tape-shielding-/390702336281?_trksid=p2054897.l4276"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=p2054897.l4276[/url]

I bought these files and used them this morning on the offending nut. Looks like it's done the job and my bass plays much better on the first 3 frets. I recommend taking it easy and checking every 10 secs to make sure you've not filed too low. [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00439E2MQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00439E2MQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/url]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1384947296' post='2282568'] He's certainly 'up there', all right. [/quote] Yup.........where the sun don't shine.

I notice that the audience was full of celebrity liggers.

And mugs! Hats and mugs!

I think it's a good way to gauge peoples commitment. I assume it's a 5 or 6 piece band and I know how difficult it can be to get that many people in a room at the same time for rehearsals etc. If people moan and whinge about putting money up front for demos, then you know they aren't particularly committed in the first place.

[quote name='PJT' timestamp='1384874721' post='2281720'] Never got asked back. [/quote] Did you want to be??????

One open tuned for slide one normal tuning?

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1384774402' post='2280460'] .... we've got a neighbour problem. Can you play quietly? I usually dread this! But we had one of these gigs on Saturday and actually managed to keep the volume right down. The drummer used rods. It was a great gig. Our balance was much better than normal and I thought the playing was better. [/quote] I've been told by drummers that, although sticks are louder, It takes more energy to play with rods than sticks. The last time our drummer played with rods (to keep the volume down), he ended up dripping with sweat after the gig, even though he sounded a lot quieter than usual. That energy transferred to the whole bands performance and we played and sounded better than ever.

Whatever it is make sure it has the facility to plug a decent microphone into it. Too many bass blogs, or reviews, are recorded with the cameras own microphone, which, 9 times out of 10, can't capture bass frequencies.

This is what those synth dudes are getting up to behind our backs [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3FMuSR46f8[/media] And this is even scarier [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1toLihZkDs[/media]

Why not use a limiter rather than a compressor if you're worried about peaks but want to keep the dynamic in your playing.