EMG456

Vintage Tort pick guard for my 70's Aria Jazz Bass. Custom fit to a template I provided and delivered within 4 days. Excellent job. Many thanks.

Beautiful basses. Does the blue one have gold hardware or is that just wishful thinking on my part? (Looking on my phone so can't zoom in!)

[quote name='paul j h' timestamp='1396879417' post='2418268'] Another Joni fan here, I think Hejira and chalk mark in a rainstorm (which is also a great album title) are my two favorites, fabulous bass playing, beautiful lyrics, everything that is great about Joni. [/quote] Chalk Mark is probably my favourite Joni album too - fabulous songs - Lakota, the Tea Leaf Prophesy, Beat of Black Wings etc etc. I honestly don't think she put a foot wrong musically till the Taming the Tiger album. A strong return to form with Travelogue and I confess I don't know much about the last album. She's a bit of a nifty painter as well!

The thing about odd time signatures is that they're usually there for some reason like for example they fit the tune or the notes in a riff. If you can work out the reason and get your mindset going for that groove, it will soon start to feel quite natural and you won't need to be counting it out in your head. Just remembering back in the day before the CD, Genesis released an album ( can't remember the name of it just now) and the first track on side one was in 5/4. Apparently a huge percentage of buyers took it straight back to the record shops because they thought it was jumping.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1396875785' post='2418207'] The two 8/8 examples I gave sound very different to me. I just made a drum machine track to demonstrate. [url="https://soundcloud.com/annoyingtwit/four-versus-eight"]https://soundcloud.c...ur-versus-eight[/url] There are twelve bars. First four bars of 4/4, then four bars of 8/8, then four bars of another 8/8 time signature. It sounds a bit more like 8/8 if a bassline is added, but I had to keep it mega-simple or I'd play 4/4 by default. [url="https://soundcloud.com/annoyingtwit/eightplusbass"]https://soundcloud.c...t/eightplusbass[/url] However, I will admit that it's easy to count 4/4 time against all of these examples, even though the 8/8 patterns were designed to be as 8/8 as I could make them (bass drum and snare on the beats, three beats per bar). I think this is something to do with my/our familiarity with 4/4, particularly syncopated, time signatures and relative unfamiliarity with 8/8 time signatures. It's easier to make something more obviously 8/8 with a pitched instrument such as a bass, or fingerstyle other guitars. We don't seem to have so much problem distinguishing 3/4 from 6/8, as both of those time signatures are commonly used. If we say that music is in 8/8 we are telling musicians that it isn't 4/4, but unlike (say) 12/8, we aren't telling them where the accents are. This could be shown by accents in musical notation. Or, it could be up the musician to guess where the strong beats are based on the time signature and the actual notes in the music. [/quote] Thanks again - I now see what you mean although I'm sure that if you went into a session and were handed out the parts, these patterns would almost certainly be written in 4/4 - the notes, ties and rests would be identical in each instance, would they not? I would just have viewed that pattern as a syncopated 4/4 with an offbeat snare or a kind of pushed half- time. That said, as instructed by dad3353, I went off to said Wikipedia and now my head hurts. 2 and a half over 4, anyone? And I found Ravel's Piano Trio which is indeed written in 8/8 although I confess my reading is so dodgy that I can't get my head around the first bar! Anyway - brilliant! Thanks everyone - I learnt something new today! Cheers Ed

Right then – never done one of these before but I’ve enjoyed reading others’ adventures on here and seeing the outcomes so here goes. Firstly, a bit of background. A long time ago, when I was young and fairly foolish, I was looking for a bass to use for fingerstyle playing which my favoured Ricks at the time did not suit. I was also interested in the new “slap ‘n Snap” styles which were beginning to be heard (who knew?!). I found a likely looking bass in a local shop which the guy assured me was a Fender Precision although it had no headstock logo and I tried it and bought it for the princely sum of £125. When I took it to bits to clean it up, it turned out to be a 1961 Precision Bass. It had been sunburst finish but a previous owner had stripped the finish off and roughly varnished it. This was a common occurrence in the 70’s and I knew many Fenders that looked like that. Anyway, I refretted up to the 12th fret and it became a great bass to play – kind of like a comfy old pair of slippers! A major bass purchase in the early 80’s necessitated the sale of a few instruments and the Fender went to a friend who had had it on loan for a few months – he still plays it to this day. Now, I tend to prefer twin pickup basses but I always had fond memories of that old bass and a couple of years back, during a trip to London, I spied an early Jazz Bass in the Gallery which looked like my old P’s twin! It turned out to be a Bill Nash bass but it so captured the vibe of my old bass that it set me thinking... I could re-create the old P in J form. So I started out looking for a project bass to use. For me, the obvious choice given the prices charged these days for old Fenders, would be a Japanese built Jazz from the 70’s or 80’s. But these instruments are now themselves genuine vintage guitars and I didn’t want to take a perfectly good old instrument and hack it about so a waiting game ensued... and this is what I ended up buying. It’s an Aria Pro II JB 600 from 1977. It has had a hard life and has a few features which did definitely not come directly from the Matsumoku factory! Like the unusual tuning arrangement! Or the unique fingerboard customisation – yes, a 21 fret Precision board will just fit straight onto a 20 fret Jazz neck – no problem! But most importantly, all the demolition has already been done on this bass. It’s already an unloved and abandoned lost cause and nothing I can do to it will make it worse so it’s a real rescue mission – I think it will now be known as the dogs trust bass! More to follow soon... Cheers Ed

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1396806174' post='2417546'] Please don't get the impression that I am being snooty at all about the Euro basses, or indeed the ones made in the Far East, I'm sure they are great . I just wanted to point out that my observations about the sound of Spector basses are derived entirely from the USA models because those are the only ones I have ever encountered . I would love to try a Euro model and compare, and I am sure the law of diminishing returns may well apply to material differences between the Euro and USA models . [/quote] Well, given the history between Ned Steinberger and Stuart Spector, I would not be at all surprised if it turned out to be the same people in the Czech Republic making the Euro Spectors that make the NS Design instrument line. I don't have any evidence of that - pure conjecture! If it is the case though, the fact that Ned has now even passed over the production of the top notch, multi- laminate wood/ carbon concentric neck upright basses to the Czech Republic suggests that you would be able to rely on the quality of the Euro basses being of the highest. Funny, I really like Spectors but I've never found a Warwick that I liked except to look at. Cheers Ed

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1396864812' post='2418004'] It's useful to know the difference between simple, compound, and odd time signatures IMHO. E.g. 4/4 = simple, 12/8 = compound, and 8/8 = odd. For Ed: A simple time signature is one where the beats are divided into two. E.g. Odd time signatures have beats that are divided into different numbers of divisions. E..g 8/8 = 1 and a 2 and a 3 and 8/8 (another one) = 1 and 2 and a 3 and a 12/16 (I hope one example of) = 1 and a 2 and a 3 and 4 and 5 and The reason the two 8/8 rhythms aren't 4/4 is that they are odd time signatures, and we have already used 4/4 for the simple time signature given above, so we have to use 8/8. Try counting a 4/4 beat by reading out what I've written (but loop it). Emphasise the numbers and de-emphasise 'and's and 'a's. Then try the 8/8 examples. You should find that both the 8/8 examples are quite different rhythms than the 4/4. Similarly for 3/4 versus 6/8. Music written in 4/4 should sound different from 8/8, but admittedly I'm having trouble writing something for drum machines that I don't naturally count as 4/4 when I listen to it. [/quote] Very succinct - thanks for that. So are we saying that we are influencing the *accents* by writing in a different signature - according to how you suggest that you might count it out loud? If not, then for say 8/8, there is no reason whatsoever for not writing it in 4/4 as all of the note timings and lengths would be exactly the same. And if we are saying we *should* give it the feel it has when counting it out loud, how would I be able to differentiate between for example the two 8/8 examples you gave from just looking at the dots? This is interesting to me as one of the problems of standard notation and its application to pop/ rock/ whatever types of music has always been that the notes and timings were captured but the "feel" was not but I still don't see how you could tell the difference between two alternative types of 8/8. The drum machine thing is as old as... well drum machines but again, it's all to do with the accents. [quote name='Phil Adams' timestamp='1396865510' post='2418017'] I thought 3/3 was waltz time. See, I never said I know my time signatures. [/quote] No worries mate - I think you and me both are learning something new here! Cheers Ed

Well, my reading was limited to a brief period in the 80s/ 90s when I played to earn my crust but as one who my band mates tell me is notoriously picky about tempos, feel and the precise placement of notes, I'm seeing some things here which I've never come across before. [quote name='Phil Adams' timestamp='1396858569' post='2417901'] With acknowledgment to the scales thread. Obviously some are easy, 4/4, 3/3 etc. Or do we just follow the sticksman and hope he's right? [/quote] What is 3/3? There isn't such a thing as a "third" note - is there? Breives, Semi-Breives, Crotchets, Quavers, Semi- Quavers or in modern speak whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes - does the whole system not depend on each note being divisible by two to give the next smallest interval? And as for 8/8 - what is the reason that that wouldn't be written as 4/4? Any parts I ever had to play which involved a lot of 8th notes would be written in 4/4. Unless of course it was an unusual bar length like 7/8 or 5/4 etc. Quench my thirst for knowledge - I'm interested! Cheers Ed

[quote name='GILLY' timestamp='1396809254' post='2417591'] 'Wild things run fast' is one of the albums in my collection that I never tire of. The opening track 'Chinese cafe/unchained melody' is amazing and the Carole that she names in the first verse is, in fact, her friend Carole Bayer Sager. [/quote] I didn't know that - "Christmas was sparkling out on Carole's lawn"... Joni is without doubt my favourite artist of all time. She has complete mastery of music and words in a way that just clicks with me. And her desire and ability to redefine herself often bravely throughout her career really places her head and shoulders above the pack. Unfortunately, I have never seen her live and I'm kind of resigned to the fact that it's unlikely I will now- some you win, some you loose! Looks like tomorrow's going to be a Joni day now... Cheers Ed

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1396702776' post='2416579'] At the risk of repeating myself, Alembics pricing structure is very much directly dictated by the amount of skilled man hours it takes to produce each design, including their complex and unique electronics which they largely manufacture themselves from scratch. [/quote] This is called "hitting the nail on the head". There is no huge profiteering going on at Alembic or Fodera or Wal or indeed Shuker, Sei etc. Indeed, that accusation could much more credibly be made against Fender, Gibson or Ernie Ball with their economies of scale and automation of the whole industrial process. If you have ever been involved in any research as to the actual costs of employing a person you will know that the answer comes to a factor of multiples of what that person is actually paid for their work. Taxes, overhead costs, employment legislation all quickly add up. It is genuinely scary, especially for small companies the like of which we are talking. Add in the costs of the raw materials and customer service and I come to the conclusion that an Alembic or Wal or (although I have no direct knowledge of them) a Fodera is actually very good value for money and I can see where all that money goes. I think these days our attitudes and expectations have been skewed by the licensing of designs and mass production in various low labour cost economies around the world. The fact that the machine led process can be consistently and reliably performed almost anywhere using broadly unskilled labour forces, means that we can buy what in the 60s and 70s would have been a high quality instrument, for basically peanuts. This in turn leads us to often undervalue instruments made according to a different economic model. There will always be a law of diminishing returns as we move up the food chain on any given product, be it cars, toasters or guitars. Does an American Fender justify a price 4 times that of an Indonesian or Chinese one? No, is the simple answer. But still we buy the American ones. I for one am glad that there are companies like Alembic constantly pushing up standards and creating innovations. Whatever instrument we choose to play, our bass lives would be a little bit poorer without them. Cheers Ed

Yes, but the commonly pushed theory is that through body stringing *decreases* compliance - ie provides a stiffer string for any given guage. I have my own theory on why that may be but it also assumes the transfer of tension to the non- speaking portions of the string.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1396649386' post='2416199'] Capo at first fret. Sorted. [/quote]

[quote name='ThePapabull' timestamp='1396649961' post='2416210'] RE Compliance….. I've just checked out ESSENTIAL TENSIONS url link. BRILLIANT all makes sense now ..It;s elasticity I'm referring to cheers the PB [/quote] Note however that the conclusion drawn in that link is the opposite of the commonly held one re added non- speaking string length and its relation to compliance. This usually comes up on a debate about through body stringing as apposed to anchored at the bridge. That site claims that extra string length is likely to give a more compliant (ie softer) feel whereas the anecdotal evidence from many who have tried through body stringing is that the extra length actually gives less compliance. Just something else you may want to try if your bass has the option of through body or bridge anchored stringing. Cheers Ed

As you say, a very interesting read. Thanks for posting it.

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1396554689' post='2415131'] However it's worth remember that whilst the records were a bit ropey, his live shows were great. During the 80's with Clarke/Duke, he used to get musicians out of the audience to play bass, sing as he did when I first saw him at the Manchester Apollo. Also wandered through the audience with a long cable. [/quote] One of the best gigs I've ever seen was Clarke/Duke back in the 80's. Stan was awesome, they had guests - Phillip Bailey on vocals and either Robben Ford or Mike Sembello on guitar - the memory's getting a bit hazy now - and when George wheeled out the plexiglass clavinet with a giant whammy-bar on it, you just knew the night was complete!! Them were the days...

Bass Centre Elites? I've been using them for years and they do the job well and last a good length of time.

As has been said, you need to try some - they are not for everyone but they are useable in any musical situation. Loads of folk claim to dislike them but really, there's not much to dislike. They are generally speaking well designed and impeccably built and finished with huge attention to detail. The more you pay, the better the preamp and the more woods etc. you get. The Alembic filter pre is easy to use both live and in the studio. Sound is clear, punchy and full range. What else can I say... I like them. An iconic bass maker which should be on everyone's list to try. (IMHO) Cheers Ed

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1396101187' post='2409955'] Thanks for this! From about 3:20 to the end (when he's going for it) and despite the fact it's not a full-range recording, you do get a fairly good idea of the essential sound of a 4040. [size=4]Very audible, with a lot of thorb. Yes, I said 'thorb'.[/size] [size=4]I think this one might just be a fretless, too.[/size] [size=4] I can't help but feel the bargain window might be closing... get in, quick! [/quote] Help!!

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1396026102' post='2409217'] Given that I have never heard one, I would be very interested to hear some description of what this bass sounds like. [/quote] Your wish etc. etc. Here's the excellent John "Rhino" Edwards with the Judie Tzuke band back in the day playing one of his 4040s. I hope this thread isn't sparking huge interest in these - I've been trying to pick up a bargain one for several years now!! Cheers Ed [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXYKkOkJ4QM[/media]

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1395997477' post='2408708'] Yes...but the leg brace is an integral part of the sheer ingenuity of the design. [/quote] Later models have the fold out leg rest but anyway I just play them on the strap, standing or sitting - perfectly balanced - set to any angle- makes no difference.

I've owned one of these since 1978!! The Jazz pickup has been added - they were straight P's. you will probably have to have the fingerboard re-finished - I had mine re-done a few years back - standard fretless maintenance. The body is made of what is sometimes unkindly called plywood - in reality it's more like a sort of mahogany butchers block. You can see the construction of mine in this thread. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/222067-plywood-bodies/page__view__findpost__p__2274488 Currently at £46, it's a massive bargain. Cheers Ed

Rickenbacker Steinberger Alembic Series I/ II Like your SB, they all followed the more parallel neck profile so a bit closer together at the bridge. Quite a lot of early 5 strings had tight spacing also. Probably the tightest will indeed be Kiwi's Steinberger XL2-5 - a five string contained within the dimensions of the already tight 4 string neck - it saved them having to make new moulds!! Cheers Ed

Beautiful! you're a lucky man. Once again I was outbid on one of these on ebay last week. Wonder if it went to anyone on here. One of these years I'll nab one! Cheers Ed

[quote name='MattM' timestamp='1395782898' post='2406353'] Agreed. Something you don't appreciate until you've owned one. [/quote] Well me and my original L2 are coming up on 30 years together later this year so I've seen the whole cycle from Uber-trendy through to complete ridicule. When I take them out now, what I'm finding is a lot of affection for them either from those unfamiliar who think "amazing instrument!" or from those who remember "Wow - don't see many of those about any more - sounds incredible" So I think we've finally got past the 80s fashion statement thing and they are more and more being recognised as the pinnacle of design and functionality that they always genuinely were. Cheers Ed