EMG456

The frets thing is not unique. A long time ago I sold an SD Curlee to an acquaintance and it ended up having the frets filed of to make it fretless with metal lines. The good news is that it is indeed reversible as was the ownership of that bass and it's now back with me in all it's fretted glory, apparently none the worse for the adventure. I think if you like the typical chunky V profile of the Wal neck, a nice ebony board would be in order. If you wanted you could even go all retro Wal and cover up the nasty woodwork with a nice carved leather scratchplate! Just a thought... Cheers Ed

No gigs in my hectic schedule now until the end of January... maybe the bass will be back up here o it's travels next year? Cheers Ed

Excellent - I think that's the way I'll go too. Ed

Anybody here use a stack pot Jazz? I recently acquired a beat up old Aria Jazz Bass which needs a lot of tlc. I'm going to recreate the vibe of an old '61 Precision that I used to own which had a '70s stylee stripped body. The finish stripping had already been done to the Aria so I don't feel at all bad about doing this! Anyway, I would like the look of a stack pot control plate on the bass but it's a long time since I owned one of those so the question is... If I run the stack pot controls with both tones wide open, will it sound and act exactly the same as a Vol, Vol, Tone Jazz? Are there any strange interactions between the tone pots - ie can you reliably roll the tone down on one pickup without affecting the other? That's today's question - any help will be appreciated. Cheers Ed

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1384179681' post='2273581'] I used to own an Antoria J bass that had a butchers block of mahogany strips with a thin layer of something between. Sounded lovely. I'll find a pic and post it. [/quote] Here's my somewhat modded Antoria P. I've owned it for 35 years and it's a great bass. The second pic shows the laminated body construction. cheers Ed [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eddiem/10817952815/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eddiem/10817952815/"]antoria_1[/url] by [url="http://www.flickr.com/people/eddiem/"]emg456[/url], on Flickr [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eddiem/10818081754/"][/url] [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eddiem/10818081754/"]antoria_2[/url] by [url="http://www.flickr.com/people/eddiem/"]emg456[/url], on Flickr

Been playing all graphite basses for close on 30 years now. Are they different? Yes, but then two supposedly identical basses are always different too. Are they better? Well, in terms of robustness, stability of set up and tuning, clarity of reproduction- yes, undoubtably. In terms of sound, no- just different- you may prefer it or you may not. I like them but I still also play basses just made of wood. You should give it a try- you will probably like it. What I do know is that my graphite necked basses are solid, dependable,reliable and sound great and if I'm in any doubt as to any other aspects of a gig or session, one of them will be there to make sure I get through it with my head held high! Cheers Ed

Sorry mate - it was me! I got it for £73 - my max bid was £75 so £103 in all. I have a hankering for a jazz bass reminiscent of an old '61 precision that I used to own - it had been stripped of finish as was the stylee in the early '70s, was beat about and felt like a comfy old pair of slippers to play if you know what I mean. I feel that the Jap basses of the mid '70s to mid '80s are every bit as good as the '60s Fenders so the basis for my project was always going to come from there but I would always nowadays feel a bit guilty to get a nice Tokai/Aria/Ibanez/Antoria/Squier and then destroy the original finish etc. So this fits the bill - all the destruction has already been done and what I will be doing is giving it a future as a viable instrument once again. What is likely to happen is that fingerboard will either be trimmed down to size or replaced with one a bit darker looking and a worn tort scratchplate will go on together with reverse tuners. After that and I can see what it plays/ sounds like, I'll look at anything needed in the pickup/ electrics side of things. Oh, and it's likely to get stack pots as well! Kind of looking forward to it and I'll let y'all know of progress when it arrives hopefully in one piece!! Cheers Ed

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1383041420' post='2259321'] I would suggest, sir, that you give Sun Ra or Global Unity Orchestra a miss! Or possibly check them out to experience just how free-form and avant-garde music can get ;-) [/quote] Yep - they seem to me to be about as far away from "free-form" as you could get - everything's arranged to the Nth degree and they all have the chops to keep up with programme! That said, it's plain to me that they *do* possess huge amounts of funk, soul and musicality and I find it refreshing to see young players following their own path and not trudging down the dreary but fashionable retro route. Good luck to them. Ed

Interesting... I watched the Graceland Imagine documentary on the Beeb recently and while I remembered Mr Kumalo using a Washburn fretless at the time, I didn't know what the model was. If you look at the footage carefully, you will see that whilst the body/ neck is basically the same as the beautiful example pictured above, the pickup positions are quite different. the Jazz pickup at the bridge is very close to the bridge - much closer than this B-40- and the Precision pickup on Bakithi's bass is much closer to the end of the fingerboard with the orientation reversed - ie the E and A string pickup is closer to the neck than the D and G one. You can see this during his solo at around 2:17 in the video above. Bakithi himself says it's a B-20 - see this interview at [url="http://www.fretlessbass.com/KumaloBakithiInterview-01.html"]www.fretlessbass.com[/url] Either way, there seem to be very few of these around - nice basses. Ed

[quote name='gareth' timestamp='1381259337' post='2236682'] it was the quality of the jv's that led to the avri series [/quote] I worked in a music shop at the time and I had one of the first AVRI 62 Jazz's for a while. It was a great bass - much better than Fender had been turning out up to that point. I may be wrong here - after all it's a long time ago - but my memory tells me that the US production was stopped dead and all Fender production came from Japan till they sorted out all the issues in the states. I think that the first AVRI's may have been assembled in the states from Japanese necks/ bodies and US hardware. I also think that the Fullerton plant was where they turned it around and started producing nicer instruments again so for me, I would look far more favourably on an 80s Fullerton Fender than a 70s one. Cheers Ed

Well, the Seymour Duncan pickup at the bridge position on my Jazz 24 stopped working. On investigation, the winding wire had broken at the solder joint with the wire which leads off to the pot. I had to judiciously unwind one turn and re solder the joint - it's been fine ever since. Note, this is not for the feint hearted but I figured that at worst it would still not be working and at best it would be fixed! So pickups can fail. Cheers Ed

I have a Wal 5 string midi bass which I ordered from Pete back in the early 90's. It uses Steve Chick's fret sensing system but was created before he had put in the string tension sensors to detect string bends and vibrato which were on the Peavey Cyberbass and now on the IR basses. It was the best system at the time and may well still be but you still have to play very cleanly to avoid embarrassing glitches - Pete would not take my order until I had reported for duty at High Wycombe so he could see whether or not he thought I could handle it - too many complaints from folks who had sky high expectations! Of course I expect it will be much better now - after all 20 years have passed and the speed of processing has increased exponentially since then! I rarely use the midi on it these days but it's still a nice Wal so my logic back then has held true. Also, re the comments about just using a keyboard- yes that's valid but I'm much more fluent when improvising on bass than I am on keys. Plus it's just plain good fun playing strings, Fender Rhodes drums or trumpets on your bass! Cheers Ed

To be clear, the USA Subs were made from Stingray parts, on the Stingray production line by the people who were making the Stingray bass. That more or less makes it a genuine Stingray in my eyes and the example I own certainly lives up to that reputation. The only differences between the Sub and a Stingray were the solid colour (black) neck finish, solid colour (textured) body finish, cheap scratchplate and poplar body with no contouring. The pickup coils are wired in series like the Sterling bass at that time. I really like mine - it has that feel of a real quality instrument the moment you pick it up and at the price they command at the moment, I may well add a 5'er and a fretless version over time. Cheers Ed

It's an advert, trying to sell something - I would expect some kind of enthusiastic hyperbole. The bass is not going to attract a buyer if it's described as "absolutely average" or "the worst bass I've ever owned" Like all sales speels, treat with a pinch of salt. On the other hand, I do always wonder about the "best bass I've ever owned" ones. If that's really true, why would you be selling it? Ed

[quote name='police squad' timestamp='1378918480' post='2206529'] Still, I can't believe I want to buy some sort of keyboard thing and I'm quite excited by it. [/quote] Taurus pedals are different - everyone's excited by Taurus pedals! Well I am, anyway. Ed

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1378332960' post='2198936'] It won't be anything visual of any use or ornament. I reckon it might, in fact SHOULD be, adjustable neck relief along the LENGTH of the neck so you can set the apex and profile of the neck curvature between about the 9th to the 16th frets. I think that would make it possible to set up the bass in a much more comfortable way to suit the string gauges, scale length and tuning. Necks bend at different places so a new truss rod system to control that bend could mean better feel and playability and above all, consistency. It may have been done already, never heard of it though. Not convinced I've explained it well either [/quote] The latest Chapman Sticks have a dual action, dual zone truss rod which can apply forward or backward bow over two separate parts of the neck. On a Stick it's pretty crucial to have a *very* low action so you tend to want the fingerboard as flat as possible. Combining this rod with the fully adjustable nuts and bridges of the Stick will make for a pretty fine- tunable action set up which would be great to have on a bass. Cheers Ed

Dee Murray Jon Camp

I've used full range PA cabs almost forever for my bass rig. You need to be careful - cheapo cabs don't tend to handle the bottom end too well and can be harsh sounding but good full range cabs coupled to a clean sounding head is the closest you're likely to get to the sound of a bass DI'd into the desk in the studio. Tends to not be so good for folks who don't like too much top end zing in their sound. I now use Acme Sound LowB2's which *are* purpose built bass cabs but very much fit in with the full-range, hifi ethos. Cheers Ed

[quote name='MisterFingers' timestamp='1376429164' post='2173983'] It's going to cost a lot more to get a new finger board than get a re-fret - and metal wears a lot slower than wood, but I get ya. [/quote] You're right there but it shouldn't be prohibitively expensive and it does take an awful lot of playing before a new board becomes necessary. I have been playing fretless since 1978 but usually only for 2 or three songs each gig and there were long periods in the '80s and '90s when it was unusual for me to take a fretless along. I have owned four fretless basses during that time but only 2 for more than three or four years. None of them have had to have the board replaced yet and I'm thinking they'll probably see me out! That said, the Antoria fretless P that I bought in '78 has a lacquered maple board and the lacquer finally wore through to the wood 5 or 6 years ago. A swift visit to local luthier Jimmy Moon and hey presto, it's gleaming again ready for the next 30 years! Put whatever strings you like on it and as they say around here, "Gie it laldy!" i.e. give it a damned good thrashing. Ed

[quote name='MisterFingers' timestamp='1376228132' post='2171010'] Apologies if this has been covered many times in the past, or is in the wrong section... [/quote] This does come up regularly and I must admit that I don't understand what the issue is. If you like the sound of flatwound or tapewound strings on your fretless, use them. I personally don't and my fretless basses have never been strung with flatwounds. This causes wear on the fingerboard, just like it does on frets. After a while, if there are softer spots on the board, it may need dressing. If you play a LOT on that one bass, the fingerboard may eventually have to be replaced - a decent luthier can do that easily. I just kind of view a fretless fingerboard as a consumable which can be fixed or replaced if it wears out. My bass is for making noises with and the fretless noises I like to make are made with roundwound strings. Just my 2p Ed

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1373707584' post='2140735'] does something 'have' to happen - this song is all about the lyrics and the ethereal feel created by JM's strumming and open tuning - the clarinet and bass (nice as it is) is just the icing on the cake i think PP is great on this even if you do draw comparisons with JP - and as ezbass said above what bassist in their right mind would be brave or stupid enough to even want to attempt this [/quote] Are you kidding?!! The chance to play for JM and in the band with the likes of Shorter et al - I would say yes in a heartbeat! Brave or foolish? Yep, I try to be! Seriously, I wasn't aware that Pino had been hired by Joni but it makes sense - he would have been a great fit for covering all those great JP and LK lines. I thought he did a really good job here - much mellower tone than Jaco but then again Pino's been pretty much mellowing out ever since the early days. Cheers Ed

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1372887742' post='2131341'] Any one remember lugging these about with a P or a Jazz? And taking out the passenger front seat to get it all in.... [size=4][url="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/hqa4.jpg/"][/url][/size] [url="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/9jm4.jpg/"][/url] [/quote] Absolute classic rig - I loved my 371 rig in the late 70's/ early 80's. Effortless volume and power with a truly great sound. Actually very easy to move around with the wheels on the back and big cast handles. We used to play a club that had a grand carpeted stair and at the end of the night I'd wheel the 301 cab out and when no one was looking slide it down the stairs on its back! Wheel out to the estate car, tilt back, load in, done! Feeling quite nostalgic now... Ed