gjones

My Elite Precision's jack input failed a year after I bought it. I had great trouble finding the cheap, plastic, Fender branded, replacement to repair it.

That's an excellent philosophy. It could be the title of a self help book. A very short self help book

Fender custom shop basses and guitars, are for accountants, or lawyers to hang on their walls.

Unless I have dealt with the seller before, I would always make payment by Paypal and offer to pay the fees. If the seller doesn't accept Paypal (and there's no excuse not to, as it's really easy to set up) then the sale is off.

Are you being paid a lot of money? In which case say yes. Have you been asked to join the band because you look incredibly sexy (like Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet who couldn't actually play any instrument at the time he was asked to join the band)? In which case you should feel flattered...... but still ask for a lot of money. If the answer to the above two questions are NO, then tell them to get lost.

This is number one in my opinion. Bass also has the annoying tendency to sound fantastic when you're standing next to your amp and really rubbish when you actually listen to it in front of the stage where the audience is (if you have a long lead, or are wireless). Of course if you then tweak your EQ to sound good to the audience, it will probably sound rubbish on stage.

Car brands have taken Fender's lead in having a budget brand and a luxury brand i.e. Toyota has Lexus, Honda has Infiniti, Hyundai have Genesis. Make the same guitar, put a 'premium' logo on it and sell it for much more than you budget brand instruments. You'd think that people wouldn't fall for it, but they do.

With any band there is aways the inspirational figure in the band, who is usually the frontperson songwriter, and then there's the rest of the band members. These days, with so little money coming from sales and publishing, there's just not enough money to feed the drummer, bassist, guitarist, cowbell player, as well as the frontperson/songwriter. So if you are a new act, you'll see a 'band' as just more mouths to feed. Why bother with a permanent band, just hire session players when you need to record or gig, if and when you need them. It's the brutal reality of the music business today. Sad but true.

The guitarist in my band actually filmed a DVD called 'Play Bass Guitar In One Day'. He had filmed the guitar equivalent and decided he might as well do a bass version. He had never played a bass guitar previously. I do recommend checking out the 'ROCK GRIP!'. I use that particular technique, since I first watched the video, whenever I can 🤣🤣🤣

If Fender can't sell Mexican made instruments in the US, they will have to try and sell them to the rest of the world, not affected by the tit for tat tariffs. Hopefully one of those countries will be the UK. Maybe we'll get a load of cut price MIM Fenders dumped over here - they have to sell them somewhere? Silver linings and all that....

I'm assuming they've bought government bonds not handed them suitcases full of cash. They can't hand the bonds back and ask for a refund

So far, the UK has been seen as too insignificant for tariff hikes but who knows what the future holds.

I know that Geddy Lee had the neck on his first Jazz Bass, which was a 70s model, shaved. That's why his signature model has such slim neck front to back. I've owned a 3 Geddy Lee basses over the years and, out of curiosity, I swapped the neck on one of them. The neck I fitted to the Geddy was a much chunkier Allparts neck with a rosewood board and it definitely did make a difference to the sound. The Geddy Lee is a pretty twangy Jazz Bass but with the bulkier neck fitted it sounded much darker and fuller. After a few weeks I fitted the old neck back and the twangy Geddy Lee sound returned. So if you do get the neck shaved on your bass, I suspect that you'll notice a difference in tone.

Might be cheaper to buy an Indonesian Squier and get yourself a Fender decal on Ebay?

Ooooh........

You must be psychic

Hey what the heck, the money will go to his family I suppose. Edit: HOW MUCH!!!!!!!!!

I once got the chance to play the Alembic of a bassist from a big (ish) heavy rock band from the 70s and 80s. It had an action like a crossbow, flatwounds fitted and he played it with a pick. Frankly he probably would have been better buying a Precision and using the money he would have saved to buy a Ferrari.

As mentioned earlier, the Japanese Silver Squier Precisions and Jazz basses shared a neck which was 40mm at the nut and very shallow. I own a Silver Squier Jazz Bass and the neck is great.

I bought a bass with a smelly case 15 years ago. The bass is long sold but the case is still too smelly to sell. I'll try the bicarbonate of soda trick and hopefully it will get rid of the pong.

Rotosound Tru Bass is what McCartney had on his violin bass. I've just put a set on my Precision and they have a nice attack, which means you don't get lost in the mix. The only problem is they come in one gauge, which is gigantic. I'm not a fan of flatwounds as I find them too woolly and indistinct when they're new.

Occasionally the guitarist in my band takes two to the gig but he usually only takes one. I've seen him break 3 strings on one song and carry on playing 🤣

I've owned a Barefaced Compact (now discontinued) for quite a few years now, which is a great sounding, very light and extremely loud cab. I tried to replace it with a Super Compact but it wasn't any lighter, didn't sound any better and was nowhere near as loud. So I sold the Super Compact and kept the Compact. I do have a Markbass CMD 12 P combo, which is great, but I'm pretty sure the Barefaced could go louder if that's what was needed for the gig.

Yes, I saw him at the Edinburgh Festival about 20 years ago.He wrote a book about his life as a session bassist called 'My bass and other animals' and he took to the road telling stories from the book (which is great by the way).