EMG456

As was the trend at the time, when I got my first "proper" bass, I decided to turn the Avon into a fretless. I was astonished to find that the black fingerboard was in fact a maple one dyed and the actual neck was made of many thin laminates- very much like the neck on a Kubicki Ex-Factor if you've ever seen one of those. Very strange. I also can't remember where it went or what happened to it. This age thing is very annoying!

Late to this as usual... Yes- totally different manufacturing process between Status and Steinberger meaning that it was very labour intensive to build the Steinberger necks and it's unlikely that they will ever be built the same way again. The Streamline was deigned to be a similar concept to the Steinberger L series but I believe is much lighter in weight. A Steinberger L2 is not a lightweight bass, despite appearances. I like Steinbergers- in fact my original L2 is my favourite bass. There were enough of them made for them not to be too difficult to source even today unless you are looking for an unusual spec so I would suggest you see if you can find one to try. Unfortunately I'm in Scotland so a bit far to come but if you're ever around you'd be welcome to try them out. I've also got a Status that Rob made for me in the Steinberger shape when I couldn't find a Steiney 5 string a while back. It's a great bass too, as was the Hohner I used for a while in the 80s. Functionally, no one has bettered Ned's design in my opinion. One point on the necks. Ned was heavily influenced by Stanley Clarke at the time so the L2 has a very chunky neck in terms of thickness back to front and a narrow and quite parallel fingerboard. Quite like the Alembics and Rics at that time. Some folks find the spacing too tight at the bridge. This was changed with the XL2 and it's at that time that the Spirit series and the licensed Hohners were introduced so your Hohner will have that slightly wider string spacing and taper, like the XL2. No truss rods in the graphite necked Steinbergers - the neck is very rigid and just doesn't move. You can't really change the neck relief apart from major surgery so to allow this. most graphite neck builders nowadays design a neck which is more flexible and will respond to string tension/ truss rod forces. With it not being wood though, as @Happy Jack states above, once it's adjusted, it never changes. I've had the Status since 2006 or thereabouts and it's never been touched since it left the workshop.

My first bass was an Avon SG and it was uniquely awful. And it cost about £35 at the time. Did the trick though, I suppose...

Some top guys having fun - great! Anderson's voice though- wow. Seemingly no change at all over the years. And LoLing at Wakeman's nonchalant reach over at the end to play the last bit upside down!

What a great result!

I've also now got two. The Atilla Balogh Odyssey bass I recently acquired has a retro fit Kahler on it but the one I've had for a long time is a Steinberger XL-2TA which was factory ordered with the bass TransTrem. I find them fun with a bit of harmonics and reverb but of course the Steiney has the edge as far as functionality is concerned as you can lock the arm into different tuning positions on the fly so with the bass tuned as standard, I can drop to D, C or B or go up to F# or G.

Who said that?

Myth- usually perpetrated by guitarists- “The bass is too loud”.

Far too many people here obviously listen with their eyes! 😯

I like it... but then again I would! Would I buy it however? No. For genuine speed of swapping between fretted/fretless in a compact package, a headless, bodyless "plain" doubleneck would be quicker and in the long term probably, more robust.

I've been setting up my own basses since the mid 70s and have never taken a measurement once. I know what works for me and how far I can push each instrument probably better than the luthier or company that manufactured the instrument. That said, I can certainly see the value of a standard spec for manufacturing purposes or for setting up an instrument for someone else but again in my experience, no matter who's doing it, the best setups for a player will always involve a bit of "slightly up on the D string" trial and error refinement. Of course, because I like the ability to induce a bit of clank and buzz as required in my playing, it's crucial to me that the action is as near as possible to how I like it. If I favoured a high, very clean action, the setup by numbers would be more likely to succeed.

Headless for cramped gigs.

If you've got a use for it, make it 10 string. A straight octave pedal can't come close to the harmonic complexity you get with interacting octave strings. It will give you a very distinctive sound in your armoury but it's one which I personally find limited use for so if you're constrained in terms of numbers of instruments you can own/ store then it may not be worthwhile. If you have a big say in arrangements or work with band members who have an open mind to unusual things then that will help.

It was surgery nonsense for sure but I always had a great respect for the arrangements and musicianship.

Agree on the BVs - the guys are obviously well seasoned players so it was surprising that they didn't have a go. Great stuff though and she is a terrific player/singer.

So the folk band I play with wanted to do some lockdown things - guess who had to put it together! My schoolboy error in the first one is not pressing record properly on the phone for the first bass take that I liked lol - vid is from the take before! I'm a bit seat of the pants and never play anything the same twice so the fingers don't always match what you hear. I'll watch out for that in the future so go easy on me!😀

Excellent stuff- bass sounds good. Used to love the Span- Rick Kemp an early influence.

That's fantastic!

God gave Rock and Roll - excellent stuff and genius video production - well done those guys!

I'm having what I call a "Jaco" moment here - when you unexpectedly discover that it's the bass doing something you didn't think it did. I have always assumed that those crazy slidey noises in I Wish were dubbed by Stevie on some kind of synth but it actually is Nate Watts playing a cranked up Jazz Bass? Off to rethink my entire existence... Thanks for posting these.

I’m not saying this will happen but a Resolve installation trashed both Cubase and all my Arturia V Collection instruments on my MS Surface Pro 4 pc. Taking it back to an earlier system restore point didn’t help and I ended up having to restore a full backup. I never managed to get to the bottom of what happened but after then installing Resolve on my desktop PC and it proving a bit flaky there also, I gave up with it. A shame as I did like the interface, workflow and features. From memory it was Resolve v 16xxxx So I’m suggesting a full system backup before you install. Let us know how you get on.

Shotcut is free, doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but runs reliably for me on Win10. Will output HD resolution and has versions for Mac and Linux as well. When you bring in variable bit rate videos from phone footage, it will offer to convert to a more edit friendly format. Good luck. Half the battle is getting everybody to provide useable video and audio. I used to get involved in this stuff for a living so I know what I’m doing if a bit rusty but remotely coaching folks who have no video/ audio recording knowledge and are using phones I have no practical knowledge of is really like herding cats! That said, we’re all learning lots and enjoying it so it’s proving to be worthwhile.

Lol'ing at this. My birthday last year was that exact chair and a sit/stand electric desk frame. Both brill and sourced from ebay, not so expensive.

Good luck @Bobthedog I got my first fretless in 1978 and have never been without one since. Usually comes to gigs for a few songs. Take your time - it's a whole new tone/ expression pallet.