roceci

It's definitely a confidence issue. Rehearsal tomorrow night so I'll try a few of those suggestions out & report back if anyone's interested in an update.

Haha spot on about the dad/roadie thing! I'll point him in the direction of those amps, cheers. I'm also gonna try getting him to stand far away from his amp next rehearsal, see if that helps.

Thanks for all the advice so far guys. First off, damn right his rig isn't suited to the funk & soul pop that we do. I've figured that if he knew what he was doing it'd go a long way towards mitigating that but maybe the solution is to point him in the direction of something more suitable to speed things up. Time for a link bombardment.. The third-party amp-tweaking idea might be a goer too, particularly as our sort-of manager is his dad so the potential for offence should be limited. His old man's a pretty straight-up guy who I suspect will understand & be glad to help...either that or I've got him completely wrong & we lose a guitarist & a manager in one swoop! If it's meant to be it's meant to be tho. Def worth a try tho & I'll arrange a chat with him to that end. I'm not sure how effective listening back to recordings will prove though. He knows he's got issues with his sound but just doesn't seem to be able to figure out how to solve them on the fly yet. We've got some quality video & audio coming in from a couple of gigs we've done just recently so I'll suggest eschewing a rehearsal for a playback session & see what we can achieve there but it's more about what he does after that. He'll get it eventually but I guess I'm just fishing for techniques to try & hurry the process along as he's a keeper but I'm not getting any younger! As I say thanks for the advice so far, really helpful

Don't know if this is the right forum but here goes... My covers/functions band has recently started performing live in earnest & I couldn't hope for a better, more talented bunch of people to work with. We've got a little way to go before the set's smooth enough to try & crack the events market (our ultimate aim, $$$) but we're pretty tight & polished as is. The only real weak link atm is our lone guitarist - he's a very talented player & a lovely guy to work with but unfortunately he doesn't have the first clue about volume & tone. His gear is top notch at least as far as his axes & rig goes (USA strat, some fancy Ibanez job & a Mesa head on a Mesa 410 cab) so there's no problem there. However in practice & more worryingly at gigs he's generally way too quiet & needs to be told to turn up. Bad enough, but he'll then typically over-compensate & go ridiculously loud, & that's before he gets into dirt territory...ouch. When he does do distortion it's always massively over-aggressive compared to what's needed (think Isley Bros' Summer Breeze with screaming metal-type sounds on the guitar breaks - not what we're after at least). He'll then ask after the rehearsal/show how his volume was & you can see that he really hasn't got a clue where he sits sonically in the mix. I realise that most of the problem is a matter of experience...god I can remember when I used to plug away with no appreciation of how my fantastically up-front racket was affecting the overall sound! So over the past month or so I've tried to encourage the guy to try to listen to the whole band & put himself in context with everything else going on. Unfortunately his eager nods don't seem to translate into understanding & I don't seem to be getting through. So, I'm wondering if anyone's got any advice on alternative ways to approach the problem, perhaps based on similar experiences. He's a delicate kid & needs to be handled gently but he does seem eager to listen & learn to the oldest fella in the band (me), I guess it's a matter of how it's laid out to him. Any pointers appreciated. I've tried searching for info but can't find anything of use :/

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1390253422' post='2343277'] It was your review that pumped my GAS sir! [/quote] Glad to oblige mate!

Looks like everyone's after one of these all of a sudden! I'm off to collect my fee from J&D

iconic, good to see you pulled the trigger on one of these in the end! Damn you for writing a much better review than I did tho ;-) Hope you're as happy with it as I am with mine.

Yes a funk thread! Bootsy kills on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQFYJXMVxTc

Sorry been flat out with xmas...still loving the J&D tbh, still an awesome guitar for the price. As mentioned previously it's got a really authentic J sound to my ears. The neck pup is nice & beefy, lots of detail with the tone with open & deep with it rolled right back without being downright muddy. I'm probably not the best at describing sound but hope that helps! Gigged it a couple of weeks back strung with D'addario balanced tensions & it really held its own. Only problem was the pups were a bit high so there was a lot of clicking when I dug in - not much I could do mid-set but they're lowered now & it's fine. Howiebass - thanks for the tip - will try that as soon as I'm back with the bass

You honestly can't go wrong for that price mate!

Took a punt on this as I figured it'd make a nice twin for my Seafoam FSR P & at the price (£150 with shipping) it wouldn't be too much of a loss if it was a total plank. If it was halfway decent then it'd make a good mod bass anyway. Sorry about the rubbish picture, it's off me phone. [attachment=148752:20131119_134919.jpg] Wow, this is a superb guitar for the price & some! Fit & finish are pretty much flawless, the pickguard & binding on the neck have a few visible traces of rough cutting but nothing I can actually feel & invisible unless you're playing the thing. The neck needed some relief but plays like a dream now. Hardware-wise the tuners seem fine for now but I will be swapping the bridge out as it's not slotted & the E saddle is a bit slippy which in turn is causing the A saddle to rattle - not too bothered about a bridge change tbh & expected it. The strings are J&D branded - needless to say they're not the best so it'll be getting a new set of Elixirs tomorrow. They're by no means the worst strings I've used though...I won't name names here as that's for a totally different discussion! Plugging it in. Wow again. I'm no expert in the variety of pups out there but I know what I like & the stock pups on this are pretty hot with a massive bottom end, much more than I can get out of my MIA Jazz Deluxe in passive (unfortunately). They sound great from solo bridge to solo neck, totally authentic. It's a V-V-T config (give me that any day over a blend knob) & the tone knob is really effective, really ringy right down to thick & subby. Like a P tone control on 'roids I'd say. Tbh honest I expected this thing to sound mediocre at best but I can honestly say it's got a better passive tone than my Deluxe in terms of ballsy-ness. I hate saying that after buying the Deluxe new last year but it's the truth. Another big pro is that it's lighter than my other basses (not weighed it yet tho), I'm guessing this is the alder body vs ash? I haven't found any cons yet but time will tell. All in all tho a remarkably well built & good sounding jazz & not just for the price, & it looks the bomb if the 70s Fender look is your thing, like me. I sound like I work for the company but I'm just very pleasantly surprised at how this purchase has turned out. Can't wait to crank it at rehearsal tonight

Both my Mex and VM P's do the wooly to clanky thing on the tone knob. You say this has been a problem on several P's you've owned which makes me wonder if you're actually listening for the right thing. Do you have the means to record yourself? If so you could post some A/B clips & let everyone have a listen. Just a thought.

Just got back with it. Needs a bit of cleaning but wow, what a Squier. Build is excellent, neck seems solid & plays fast, much better bridge than I got stock on my VM P5 recently. Pups are great for stock & even the strings are decent which is a surprise as I'm guessing they're the stock Fenders which I've never got on with previously. True to the seller's word, the thing's hardly been played as it's pretty much mint. A true bargain! Now how do I attach pics to my posts other than linking to a URL?