Chris2112

Pentabuzz or MVP?

A great bass. One of the few fretless basses I GAS for, but don't tell my Pentabuzz that. As far as my number one goes, my 1993 Spector NS-5CR gets the call most days. It's one of those basses that is extremely flattering to play because it's effortless. The tone is supreme but there is no hiding it in a mix, so if you're one of those guys who likes to sound like you have a pillow sat in front of a 15" speaker with strings that went dead twenty years ago, it's won't be for you.

Quite. I like Wal basses but I've never played one that was worth their asking price (to me). I don't decry him at all for trying to sling the nasty pasty, might as well take the cash out of some rich doctor or architect's pocket and enjoy it. Clearly it wasn't 'the one' for him as he's been playing his Status basses for years. Given their light weight, superior ergonomic form and tone, that doesn't surprise me. I may have mentioned earlier here or on Facebook that a friend of mine once sent me an advert for a Nissan Micra being sold by a member of Status Quo. I had mistakenly thought that it was Rhino selling it but a review of my records showed it was actually John Coghlan.

I would expect a discount given that it may have been the bass used to inflict that awful Christmas song on us but even so, the price is steep. I'm wondering if his roof hasn't fallen in.

Between £1200 and £1500 is probably realistic. I've seen a few float around the £1200 mark for a while over the years. I used to have the number for Todd Krause when he was building Stu's basses at the Fender Custom Shop. I used to dream of having a Mel replica but the price would have been extremely high.

My brother has one of the last three Shawn Lane Excalibur models on order now. It will be the last natural alder model out of the shop before they close. He had a heads up from a Vigier dealer about the end of the production and was passed details to buy it. I am really looking forward to hearing it as Shawn got the best cleans tones ever committed to record from his natural finish Excalibur models.

A bit like unboxing videos, I find these to of the sort of utter nonsense that floods YouTube.

Ordered a set of these in Medium gauge to put on my Spector NS-5CR this evening. All went on fine except for the B, which barely tapers at all at the headstock end. It won't fit into the tuner for me to start winding. A shame as the four that fit on the bass actually sound and feel pretty good.

Class!

Gilmour's bends sound like a cat being strangled. The whole thing does nothing for me, very naff. I appreciate if you're of a certain age you may feel differently.

The gold fretwire on this is so cool.

Gorgeous. Just keep it string with fresh strings. Nothing sounds better with fresh strings and worse with dead strings than. Thumb. I've had a couple in the past and there is no doubt I'll have another. I wanted to go back to Spector first and then a Thumb, when the right one comes up.

I guess if I hit the big time I'd be happy with a Spector. Probably with the curved NS body in quilted or flamed maple with EMG single coils. Basically what Yoshihiro Naruse was playing in the 80's. I love signature basses and I'll defend them to the hilt, particularly when the model you can buy is the one that the artist actually uses. However, over recent years I have noticed a slew of no-name bassists claiming their own signature model just because they've paid for a custom build to their specs. It's a bit cringeworthy IMO. Ultimately that's just a custom build. You can get a bass built to your specs and call it your signature bass but unless you have the profile to warrant a sig you're just cosplaying at having a signature bass, sort of like buying a privateer entry into a race series and being crap rather than getting a factory seat. If the manufacturer doesn't propose the deal to you, it's probably not the real deal.

If meeting with friends to jam we'd meet the pub across from the rehearsal room and have a pint and share a pizza. Not enough to have any effect on our playing, and in any other setting or with any sort of audience then we'd tend to abstain. I've known plenty of players who think a drink or three helps to loosen them up and get them playing their best. It really doesn't. You might feel like Yoshihiro Naruse up on stage entertaining thousands and playing like a wizard but you will sound sloppy and bad. Whether or not your audience can tell or care is another matter.

I'm going to order with Strings Direct today off the back of this. I ordered some strings (and other stuff) from Bass Direct on the 4th of June. They took payment but then emailed to say they didn't have the strings in stock but would send them as soon as they came, if I didn't want a refund first. Well, I'm still waiting so I guess it's time to take that refund and look elsewhere. Strings Direct it is. You can tell Lee that good customer service pays dividends next time you speak.

That does look really crap. I guess Lakland are just trying to pump them out as cheap and as fast as they can.

They definitely struggle with their stock keeping system. I ordered some strings and a couple of other bits the other day. In fairness, whilst the money had gone from my account via PayPal they did email me promptly to say the items I'd ordered weren't in stock but they could order them in. They offered me a refund but I said I was happy for them to just send the goods when they arrived in store. Of course, I would have shopped elsewhere if their stock system was good enough to tell me they didn't actually have the gear I wanted. Maybe they don't want to miss out on those sales? 🤣

Man, what does that weigh? 😳

Vic is an amazing player but this nonsense line of his is one of the most oft-quoted of his and it makes my toes curl just reading it. I get that when he first came out with that line he was probably just trying to ease the anguish of bassists who hit a bum note (his whole 'you're only ever a half-step away from a 'right' note' concept). It's unfortunate that it ultimately gained so much traction and continues to hang around like a bad smell over almost 25 years since it was first recording publicly (to the best of my knowledge, 1998 was the first time Victor made this comment). Perhaps it was popular because it fed into a wider movement within the bass community to disregard the importance of the notes in favour of 'groove', as if groove could be anything other than the end product of a well-rehearsed endeavour. However, Victor certainly didn't get to be one of the most notable bassists by being blasé as to whether not he was hitting the right notes. I can't imagine many reputable bandleaders would be happy with that either. I don't particularly enjoy listening to walking basslines but in those lines the 'off' notes are usually carefully chosen passing tones and approach notes used to create movement, outlining an harmonic quality or setting up a resolution. I know this rant is a departure from your original point OP but we've a suffered under the aforementioned quote for a long time. It seems to me that just learning the notes and then playing them in time is a safer and more professional attitude than being ready to hammer on or pull off if you hit a clam.

It is an early Euro, all maple with EMG electronics.