EMG456

On 30/06/2025 at 07:37, Cat Burrito said:

Ah, I thought that it might be the Hohner as it doesn’t have the Spirit logo. I remember those well. I wanted the style rather than the exact one. I believe the Spirit basses are wood too and I must confess I always prefer passive, simply because a flat battery is one more thing to go wrong. It makes sense that the Hohner would be superior as you aren’t paying for the name. 

Original (80s) Hohners and Steinberger Spirits were made in the same factory using the same hardware and were essentially the same instruments. 

As a Steinberger player since 1984, it still amazes me the continuing controversy/ furore over these instruments. 
 

They were designed to address various shortcomings of the traditional electric bass and the all wood versions retain a surprising amount of those benefits.

Yes,  it will feel a bit odd at first but give it a few days and you’ll feel much more at home. 

In 

On 27/02/2025 at 05:47, Chopthebass said:

Wood neck

In which case @Franticsmurf is correct in saying it's a Spirit bass although I think the official model number was XZ2, the Q designation being kept for the graphite necked Q4/ Q5 (version1) or XQ2/ XQ25 (Version 2)

The spirits all had the version 2 body, in my opinion much nicer than the V1.

Should be a nice bass.

Wooden neck or graphite neck?

Ikea Ivar. I've got two full walls of it in my room including space for cases, a couple of desktops, shelves, storage drawers.

Been using it for decades now and it has all moved with me twice.

Very sturdy, very flexible.

I've had a good laugh at this thread!

On thinking back over an up and down music career spanning about 50 years, there are many Spinal Tap moments. Oddly enough the first three that came into my mind were all drummer related so these are the ones I will tell.

First, back to the summer of 75 or 76. Band formed whilst still at school are playing an open air gig.

The stage is about six feet off the ground and is set up in a field. There are a couple of bands and a DJ on. We are the first band.

Our very cool drummer with the blue octagonal shades and the permed hair is set up at the back of the stage and it turns out his main drum stool foot is perilously "close to the edge".

He counts us in with a vocal count and stick clicks - One, Two, Three, Arghh...

And just like that, he's not there - nowhere to be seen. Found him slightly dazed and confused lying flat on his back in the grass with his stool on top of him.

Number two - different band - different drummer. Social club gig. Second set.

Playing away maybe two songs in, drummer is undoing the wing nut at the top of one of his cymbals in the middle of the song. He gets it off and throws it to the ground. Crash, indeed.

We finish the song. 

"Bill, what are you doing? We've got half an hour still."

"I don't like these"

Counts the next song in and does the same thing with another cymbal. Crash again, not to mention the erratic parts and timing necessitated by this apparently urgent disassembly.

"I hate cymbals" Starts muttering. Counts in the next song.

Any further enquiries were met with "I can't hear you, I've got a fish in my ear"

Last to go were the hi hats. did about the last four or five songs with just the drums and then packed out and left without exchanging a word with any of us.

The next night's gig he didn't turn up at all and that was the last we saw of him. His wife contacted us and told us he was having issues and we shouldn't expect him back. I heard he worked his way through it all so I don't mind telling the tale.

Number three same band but different drummer. Band has morphed into a seven piece cabaret/ dance band playing all the hits of the day and the day before. We're in a town hall type gig - big stage, slightly sloping forward, four foot drop onto the crowded dance floor.

Flashy drummer has a big kit, roto toms, loads of cymbals and just to his right a massive gong hanging on a big tubular chrome stand.

Now he's not daft - he doesn't use it all the time- no, no ,no - just for effect, you understand...

Anyway towards the end of the night and at the end of some overblown song or another- can't remember which - he gives this thing an almighty wallop. It swings backwards with such gusto that something happens to sever it's connection with it's stand and it crashes literally onto the ground. But somehow it's not done yet. It has managed to land on it's edge and due to the slope is now making it's way forward. It comes off the drum riser in the gap between the kit and my big Acoustic 371 rig, knocks my spare bass off it's stand and keeps going, gaining speed all the time. It was one of those moments when time seems to have slowed down but you seem to be unable to do anything but watch it all unfold.

When it reaches the front of the stage, it does a kind of ski jump off the foot of a mic stand and launches itself onto the floor and into the crowd who are now scattering in all directions from it's path which ends with the first table it hits, spilling all the drinks and generally ruining everyone's night. But the sound it made was amazing.

10 hours ago, grapefruitmoon said:

Last year, last band, the venues dry ice/smoke machine went haywire halfway through the set and engulfed us all in a a thick fog. Singer coughing, one guitarist trampled his pedalboard, drummer no clue what was happening and me and the other guitarist nearly wiped out by the sound guy running on stage past us to try and fix it. Audience couldn't see us for a few mins. There's a video of it somewhere.

Please locate video.

2 hours ago, Terry M. said:

I liked them all but found the 2nd link a little more exciting than the others. I appreciate thumpin and plucking (the original term for the technique) isn't for everybody but I'm not sure it's fair to call it stupid. 

 Aye! Welcome to Basschat!

My thoughts:

#1     I would die of boredom if I had to play exactly what that guy played throughout the entire song. He's playing it like a midi sequencer backing track! To be fair, his transcription is the sort of part you might be given on a dep gig so it's a good starting point to go from.

#2     It's her band and a vehicle for whatever she wants it to be so she calls the shots. I liked it and on the subject of funky spaces, note that she tones it down for the singing ( that might well be for "technical reasons") and she also has whole measures where the bass completely drops out.

#3     Err... No.

I liked the Bernie Marsden version - a few bits of four on the floor dropped in amongst the funk - very Climax Blues Band.

Delbert McClinton- nice.

The original Temptations version - now we are talking! He's *playing* it from the heart, not just  reproducing a part and you can hear that in it.

Also ironically, unless I'm very much mistaken,  the first bass you hear in the track comes in at the end of the fourth bar just before the drums and is entirely a slap/pop part. The main foundation part also uses a pop on the Octave E hammer-on albeit the tone is much more Chuck Rainey than Marcus Miller.

Baack to sleep now.

On 01/02/2025 at 15:45, NancyJohnson said:

On the first point of royalties, I often wonder why people feel so hard done by for artistes; I worked on projects decades ago and I know some of my work is still being used today in old employers systems.  Why should I expect ongoing royalties, whereas musicians/bands still expect a cheque once in a while.  Don't get it.  

Normally if you work as an employee or sub contractor for any organisation where you will be creating a product that will have a value into the future - could be a bit of music, some graphics or video, a software application or even a small module in one, a paragraph of text even - there will be a clause in the contract that signs over the ownership of the intellectual property - that thing you have created- to the company. That's why you get no ongoing benefit from your work- you signed that away to them in return for some sort of reimbursement at the time.

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

I guess i'm in the minority not using Spotify. No particular reason other than i prefer to have a CD than a download.

Dave

I don't have a spotify account either due to distaste of their questionable business activities. I do use streaming services for video but those are not things I feel strongly about ownership.

Music is a different thing for me as indeed is stuff like subscription software. I don't agree with the model so I won't partake. I don't object to a music download that I own the right to use in perpetuity but I would never leave that and stream it from a cloud server- company goes down and your money has gone up in smoke.

Have recently purchased a turntable again for the first time in about 40 years and am working my way through digitising our collection of three big boxes of albums many of which have never made it into our digital library- it's proving interesting.

Having owned a Wal with an earlier version of this system installed for over 30 years, I just want to say- if you want to play midi synths/ sound sources from a bass, this is *the* system. 
 

These are incredibly rare and the wait for a new build is astronomical now so what are y’all waiting for?! 

Oh and James- lovely clean playing. 

Mingus is a great album. It's also the one that finally frightened off most of Joni's original west coast singer songwriter fans.

20 hours ago, Misdee said:

I wish someone would resume production of the classic Steinberger models at the quality level of the originals, like Ernie Ball did with Musicman.

 

I've got a Status Graphite Streamline, but it's a very different sound to the Steinberger L2. That was a unique tone, and I've always loved it.

17 hours ago, Cairobill said:

I love the idea of some proper full carbon Steinies coming back into production but I am not convinced by fan frets. Having owned a Dingwall sixer I certainly won some but I also lost some and much prefer a straight 34inch scale six string. Let's have a 4, 5 and 6 at 34inch scale across the board please Mr Steinberger...

I don't think we're going to see that I'm afraid. The original Steinberger blend composite necks and neck/ bodies in the case of the L series were custom layups with the carbon fibres hand laid into the mould in particular orientations and patterns to give strength and rigidity with the desired characteristics. That is a very labour intensive method of production and would be extremely costly today. This limited edition looks like it uses the Carbon mat weave "exoskeleton" process similar to Status Graphite or Parker guitars did. Still nice but not exactly the same as the original Steinbergers.

Ned has talked before about bringing out an updated range of instruments based on the aesthetic/ ergonomics of the original L series and indeed is pictured with a prototype on the cover of Jim Reilly's biography

He talks about both wood and all composite versions so who knows but I suspect that a wood with carbon reinforcements version like the Radius instruments is the most likely to see the light of day.

Fortunately for me I have all the Steinbergers I need (want?) and I don't really get on with fan frets but it's good to see Ned playing around with all composite construction again.

I wonder if the bridge pieces are individual versions of the cutting/ clamping bridge in the Radius basses?

Long term hero and influence for me.

Here have some Brothers Johnson with magic Q dust sprinkled on!

Is it not maybe a Tune bass?

Japanese manufacturer first seen in the 80s with the Tune BassManiac.

I may be wrong cause the cut in the bottom of the body looks the wrong way round. 

Looks like a nicely made instrument.

2 hours ago, thebrig said:

This is the link to my YouTube channel that I usually send to anyone who asks for evidence of my playing, if you think that I'm doing something wrong, please say so because I'm 73 next week and I've decided to call it a day if I still haven't found a band by the New Year.

 

I have no ego whatsoever, so you can be as brutally honest as you wish, I do tend to shy away from the better bands because I lack self-confidence, but the "not so good" bands don't seem to "want me for whatever reason.

Just watched some vids so that all seems rather fine.

You seem calm and confident on the videos - maybe the "not so good" bands don't think you'd be interested?

You're obviously not a flash, "pushing the envelope" type of player but in a lot of busy working bands, that fits the bill.

Don't be afraid to go for any gig- the worst they can say would be no which lets face it is the answer to the majority of applicants to any sought after position.

And remember the best player definitely doesn't always get the job- personality and work ethic often are more important traits.

Unless finance dictates that you have to sell your gear, don't. It's enough justification that you like and enjoy it. You know what will happen- you'll get rid of it all and then almost immediately somebody will offer you a gig lol!

Also maybe consider bands that are not *entirely* within your ideal genre- variety can be good fun also.

Best of luck to you.

As usual, not paying attention so I'm late... but not too late thankfully!

On 10/05/2024 at 15:37, MacDaddy said:

There's much scaremongering about AI at the moment. AI is actually a misnomer as there's no intelligence involved. It's computer programs giving responses on the basis of probabilities.

AI at the moment is not creative, as it can not surpass it's data set and do anything original. For example if you programmed the relevant AI with The Beatles Red Album, it would not be able to come up with anything from The Blue Album. 

This.

I'm surprised (shouldn't be, right enough) that few people seem to have realised this so far.

All the large language models can do is plagiarise the past - they literally are incapable of original thought. We're being gaslit by the media and AI companies to be enthused by something that can only give us back a result that a human has previously created.

Might be a confidence thing - maybe you could persuade her?

Well whatever it is, if it plays and sounds nicely, that's an absolute beauty!

Nice one!

Are folks not just trying to do too much with these preamps? 

I love filter pre's and have 4 basses with them - 1 Wal, 1 Alembic, 1 ACG and 1 Status with ACG pre installed. For recording, the ACG's are unmatched - you can provide essentially a fully finished and eq'd sound to the board direct from your bass and it will be the sound *you* have sculpted.

But live I just run them in wide open "flat" mode as described by @skelf in an earlier post in this thread. Do I need to set a different eq for each song? No- I can change which pickup I'm using or move my hand along the string to get enough variation for a live set.

Once you know what's happening with each control it's easy enough to start tweaking live and use them intuitively but the bugbear comes if you're trying to insist on accurate repeatability. That's impossible with these setups. I would argue that it's not necessary for live work but others' circumstances may be different. There *is* an argument for recording when you might be required to revisit a section of a song at a later point. 

Would we like to see a programmable preamp in our basses?

I'm just making mischief now lol.

Always fancied one of these...

17 hours ago, neepheid said:

Furthermore, I don't feel pigeonholed by any bass.  I don't give a crap what other people think of the bass I'm playing.  I pick them on a whim and if anyone has a complaint, they're welcome to come on stage and take over and do a better job.  I'll play a Mockingbird or an Explorer in church, or at a country gig, and I'd play metal on my JC because I DGAF.  People who complain about these sorts of things should remember that they use their ears for listening, not their eyes

 

Ah @neepheid... you speaka my language!  😂

Like Victor Wooten, Charles' bass pyrotechnics are unexpectedly musical.

His playing does seem to be from the heart and his musicality and self deprecating sense of humour shine through.

On 01/03/2024 at 17:49, Shaggy said:

Anyone recommend any individual albums, or has likewise discovered bands they should have discovered ages ago?

 

Ah, my favourite band of that era/ genre.

What's generally regarded as the “classic” lineup wasn’t fully in place till the 1974 Turn of the Cards album so anything from that up to ‘79s Azure d’or is well worth the effort. 
Also brilliant is the “Live at Carnegie Hall” double album recorded over three consecutive nights with the New York Philharmonic.

Camp was/ is a great bassist and along with Chris Squire a massive influence on early me in my playing style and bass buying habits!

9 hours ago, skelf said:

 

Yes it is a huge influence but I want an ACG identity don’t want to be the guy that does the Wal knock offs I will leave that to others. 

Don’t think anybody’s going to accuse you of that these days Alan.