EMG456

Cant go wrong with a classic Dimarzio model P or Model J. I've only tried the series/ parallel on the Model P that's on my SD Curlee bass but it makes a big difference to the sound so that would be a good idea in my opinion, even if at the end of the day you completely prefer one of the options. Oh, and they've got to be cream covers - it's the law. 😀

I changed to full range cabs in the early 80s but up to that time and after a never ending gear quest for a decent sound, the Acoustic 370 paired with the 1x18 301 cab was streets ahead of anything else I had come across. Effortless, big sound and surprisingly easy to move with its tiltback castors and handles. Unless there were stairs.

I popped it into the chat but I think it was Jaco who mentioned it at the time in some interview or another - you need to look at the fingerboard as just another consumable like strings, batteries etc. Most fingerboards have plenty of meat in them to be able to stand a few cycles of wear and re-flattening before they might need to be replaced. I think a lot of folks panic because the wire wrap in roundwound strings marks the fingerboard very quickly but after that initial rush, they wear very slowly. New fretless learners also have a tendency to make it worse by applying sideways vibrato a-la guitar or fretted bass rather than lengthwise like violin, cello or double bass. This makes the scratching much worse and also more visible. You quickly learn! + 1 on the village tuning - Manring was in stitches!

Agreed this was quite a good listen - thanks to the OP for the heads up. The roundwounds thing was interesting to me as well but only in as much as every bass I have has roundwounds on - I changed from flats in the mid 70s and have never really understood the current fashion for flats again. My oldest fretless I've had since 78 and it has a laquered fingerboard which has been dressed a couple of times and eventually re done a few years back- as they all pretty much agreed, it's the sound that counts. Just deal with the wear as it comes up. I'm sure they were recording this one but not sure if it will all be available to listen back or not. Finally, as usual, all these luminaries came across as really good guys -friendly, helpful and approachable plus Nick Beggs was in the audience with us! Great stuff.

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We'll have none of that finger-chopping talk here- inspiration only.

Did it for years in the 80s and 90s. Various situations and either used for replacing Keys or keys and drums. I know what you mean about the cheating feeling but in my defence, I had played/ programmed all the tracks myself. There were/ are considerations to be made as to how you will connect with the track and whether or not you want the audience to be aware of any click tracks but they're all surmountable.

Agree with those who say that you can't predict exactly what an instrument will sound like by just the wood choices and also those who state that even two pieces of the same species will be different. Don't agree however with those claiming it doesn't have any effect at all. The four basses clearly sounded slightly different from each other and interestingly, for me, there were two I preferred the sound of consistently compared to the other two. Also have to say that we didn't get to hear the pure electronic sound of the bass because the mic was live all the time so all the acoustic clattering and rattling was mixed in - would that sound be more coloured by the woods than the pure electronic output from the pickups? I suspect so. Right there in that video you can see the potential pitfalls of commissioning a custom instrument if you have a very fixed idea of how that instrument will perform.

HAha - the basschat profanity filter! I was of course calling it the brown stuff that comes out of bulls!

Utter cow poop! There does that help?

I'm always late to these things... have loved Joni's music for decades now. From what you say, Wild Things, Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Mark (my own favourite probably), Night ride and Turbulent Indigo are probably where you want to go at first. Joni has always worked with great bassists though so there's a lot to like on Court and Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira even if Jaco's not your poison. I can find songs I love on almost any Joni album right back to Song to a Seagull and Clouds but they do tend to be more folksy/ singer/songwritery. And once you've absorbed all that, the truly beautiful reinterpretations on the Larry Klein produced Travelogue will be waiting to grab you all over again.

Brilliant. I'm going to use that clip on a singer I work with who claims to be unable to sing the same tune if the chords or bass notes are substituted for something else he is unused to!

Well I tried one when they were about and have to say that I was completely underwhelmed by the (lack of) variety of tones on offer. Much of that could have been down to the TC combo that I was trying it through and the lack of knowledge of the shop assistants who were there. From memory, everything was very bassy and despite all the controls, you couldn't select every possible pickup combination. Please correct me if I'm wrong - I really wanted to like it. On the shape, when it's actually being played, it looks surprisingly conventional, especially in a sunburst finish.

They could just be wired wrongly. I rescued an old Aria Jazz Bass a few years back and when I put it all back together again the pickups were wired out of phase. The wiring was correct according to the colours of the pickup wires but the end result was definitely out of phase. Reversed the phase of one of the pickups and that sorted things out. As far as I know, the pickups were original to the bass so must have been manufactured and installed like that.

Really liked that @Bluewine Wish you well for your health stuff.

Probably my all time favourite rhythm section right there!

Well I thought that was just fantastic and what's more I don't care! 😀

Actually, in real world terms, probably the exact opposite.

For me, because they were flats. I started playing bass because of guys like Chris Squire, John Entwhistle and the like. The full range sound and clarity of roundwounds was what I wanted. Moving on, all the funk and slap players also used rounds. The dull, thuddy, indistinct sounds of 1960s bass players were not for me. I have to say that I'm still the same. None of my basses are fitted with flatwound or tapewound strings. It's not that I dislike all flatwound tones but as soon as I play them, they don't feel or sound right to me. If I do follow this current trend, it would only be to use occasionally as an effect, essentially. @drTStingray - +1 on all the old bass style amplification. First decent rig I found after many, many changes was the Acoustic 370/301 setup. Interesting in that it didn't have the full range highs that I liked but but it delivered in punch and projection way beyond anything else I had found to that point.

Sometimes!

Spot on. All Fenders, Rics, Gibsons etc came with flatwounds on. Your first task getting a bass home was to change the strings! First new bass I bought which came with roundwounds already on was an Aria SB1000 in 1979.

Interesting wee thread and I'm still amazed at how hung up on the detail folks can get. Maybe I'm not so fussy- after all every time I record it just sounds like me playing a bass. Sure, there are subtle differences but in the end even I can't tell sometimes which instrument I was playing. I know that I do like a Dimarzio Model J in the bridge position of a Jazz and I also know that I like EMGs on a Jazz and I like single coils on a Jazz! Choices! They still all mostly sound like me playing a Jazz Bass. On the other hand - nice Suhr - mmm... didn't fancy cream or white pickup covers though? I'll get my coat...

Well it's been years but I actually still prefer my own take on it - we're all different eh?

Everybody needs an LS-2! I've now got two of them.

Aye @upside downer - what I mean is I'm liking a lot of what I'm hearing here but not sure if a. it will be useful to me or b. why they are doing it. (Not that that matters) Also still not sure what logic there is (if any) to all of it. For example, both the chap playing the headless instrument with Babazula and every guitarist in the King Gizzard band have intermediate frets only between certain frets on the fingerboard. This then implies a different microtonal "Key" for every string tuned differently and so also for each note of a fretted chord so can they play in any key or are they confined to one key? Or is the point just to be far enough out of tune to challenge our western even temperament ears? Likewise @Woodwind, that christmas microtonal hip hop thing was interesting too but he was playing alternate tunings one after the other rather than mixing them together. And anyway, his choice of chord sustitutions would have driven most "average listeners" away even if they were all played using even temperament! Every day's a schoolday!