Chris2112

Looks like it should be fantastic when it's back in one piece!

I'm struggling to really think of any, but Chris Baio from Vampire Weekend does a good job on some of their songs!

Afternoon all. Before I get into the nitty gritty with this thread, allow me to set out my stall and explain where I'm coming from... Recently, I had a bass related epiphany when I discovered ACG basses; you can read about this here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=107600"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=107600[/url] It struck me that this was where I wanted to go with my bass collection. I have had many fantastic basses over the years but nothing with this level of craftsmanship. I have had many "handmade" basses (Alembic, Kubicki, Status) but this struck me above all else as being a beautiful, handcrafted instrument. It was also my first singlecut, something else new to my collection. The quality of the ACG has further inspired me, as I looked at British made basses as a whole, and it was not hard to reach to the conclusion that I did: That here in Britain today, we have the best bass builders in the world. Think about it: ACG, Overwater, Status Graphite, Wal, Shuker, Sei and Jaydee, to name but a few. The fact that some of these builders are no more than a couple of hours drive from my house makes me realise that legendary basses are being crafted practically on my doorstep. I'd be a fool not to take advantage of this - not only could I have bespoke basses made without paying excessive customs charges, I could have the luthier's customer service too. Alan at ACG guitars has been fantastic, I must take my hat off to him. After finding that I had bought an ACG bass secondhand he emailed me out of the blue with a manual for the preamp and an invitation to the Moffat bass bash. Since then we've talked about the bass and the possiblity of a custom order. I've spoken to Jon Shuker this week about a bass I liked off his website, and he was more than happy to give me more detailed information about it and comes across as a real enthusiast about what he makes. Similarly, Rob and Dawn at Status have always been fantastically accomodating via telephone or email. Which leads me to where I am now. Having decided to collect my "best of British" stable, I really want to order new where I can and get the spec I want. I would primarily do this around January of each year - place an order with a builder and enjoy my bass a few weeks or months later with the joys of spring or summer. I have been thinking of some ideas for a while now, although I'm not sure where to start. I'll list the sort of specs I've been thinking of below. I will obviously look for different wood choices in different basses but the other things are generally "my thing" and I'd like them wherever possible (eg headless design): *4 string, probably fretted. *34" scale *Thru neck wherever possible *headless where possible *singlecut where possible *Maple body *flamed maple or lacewood top *maple or ebony fretboard *black hardware *wenge or ebony stringers in the neck *matching or black headstock for the ACG I have considered ordering this type of thing with my wood choices: Over the next few weeks I'll be giving the specs some more thought and seeing where I end up. I'm fairly sure I'll go to ACG for the order, although I'm still considering Status and Shuker as possibles. What do you think?

I've got to be honest, I've never been blown away by GB basses, perhaps I am yet to "get" them? Even when they look pretty, I've found them to have a fairly dull tone and playablity that doesn't wow me. I think they were epitomised for me in the Mark King "Ohne Filter" DVD, where they don't sound very good at all. I'm perhaps in a minority of not being that impressed with them, but if you enjoy it then just go for it. If you can afford it, why not live well within your means?

Reading your spec list I did think of either an ACG custom build or a Dingwall. It all depends really...

I'm glad to hear Phil has got his showroom open! I really don't think there has ever been a better time for the bass market in the UK in terms of the quality of stuff we've got available, and I hope it continues to grow!

I was having a little go on the bass tonight and I've discovered a neat new trick. I'm used to thinking in terms of "absolutes" with bass EQ'ing, so I decided to fiddle around with the controls a bit more on the ACG to see what I could discover. As has been said, each pickup has a frequency filter and as a control that acts like a "boost" for that pickup. Then there is the treble and treble "boost" control to consider, along with the coil switching options for each pickup. By putting the bridge boost on full and the filter about midway, and putting the neck filter on "closed" and boosting that too with plenty of treble dialled in I had created a sort of "Geddy Lee" type sound which was most surprising, given that I play through an Ashdown MK500 which is all solid state, all clean. It had this incredible twang and attack and a solid bottom with a punchy midrange; the closest way I can describe it is by comparing it to Geddy Lee's Rickenbacker sound, or perhaps Chris Squire's Rick. Given that I was playing with my fingers through a clean amp, I can only imagine how powerful this tone would sound through an overdriven amp! I have been using the ACG for middy, modern bass tones but this discovery of a raw "rock" sound is awesome!

[quote name='artisan' post='1023608' date='Nov 14 2010, 05:12 PM']ok so mine isn't as posh as the beautys posted on here but its the best i can afford & indeed the very best bass i've ever owned. bought just yesterday from Phil at Bass Gear & yes he has some very tasty gear in stock. Sonus "import" standard,me like a lot.[/quote] Yes, please do let us know what you think of it! I was/am a bit skeptical of these, as the magic of Zon for me is those graphite necks and the Bartolini pickups, so it'll be interesting to see what they're like!

[quote name='Alfie' post='1021189' date='Nov 12 2010, 11:32 AM']While it is not so much the case now that the forum has grown so much, I also think that in selling on Basschat there is a certain sense of helping people out to experience gear they otherwise would have no access to, by pricing slightly cheaper it helps things circulate and it all balances itself out eventually. This is why it annoys me when people try to sell used items for more than they paid for them, we can all see what the value of the item was and I would feel slightly dirty to purchase an item where the Basschat system has been abused by naked profiteering.[/quote] This is an excellent point and it's something I really support. I have been very lucky with a few deals on this board, for instance my Alembic Epic 5 string which cost me £600! When I decided to sell it, I offered it for sale at £600. I could have easily asked double and probably taken that. However, I appreciated the fact that I had been lucky, and it's good to pass on a good deal. Someone else gets to experience a great bass and I've not lost out on it.

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't expect it to raise much cash, after all: 1) It's an SG body shape... 2) It's a Pangborn. Pangborn fans are bassists, because we saw Mark King using them and thought they looked and sounded awesome. Now, it's just the die hard Mark King fans who know what they are, which is a relatively small group who aren't typically interested in guitars. Even the Pangborn P Bass shape (the Warrior or Chieftain? I can't remember) doesn't seem that sought after, there was one on sale here for ages. for me, Pangborns always looked a lot like Jaydees with a better headstock design!

Punk: sloppy feel, awful playing and awful tone. Latin Jazz: fast swinging feel around the angular piano lines

I have to say, I am completely done with the pub circuit. It used to be better, but now it seems to have died a bit of a death, and is is tougher on musicians than ever before. With the increasing prevalence of pay to play, it's just awful. I'm lucky in that as far as band playing goes now, it is 100% studio based for me now. As a band we've retired from the live scene as it's just too much hassle and fuss for what you get back from it. I'm fortunate that one of the guys I play with has an amazing home studio where we can relax, drink a few beers and jam. Once we've got something on tape we can play it back and adjust/mix it at our leisure as there are no studio fees! If I was going to go back to playing live it would only be on the hotel/wedding scene as you are pretty much guaranteed to have appreciative and accomodating organisers and customers.

Then I would definitely advise you to avoid playing any ACG basses, they will redefine what you expect from an instrument and you will suffer from serious GAS as a result. I have to keep telling myself I don't need a fretless to stop me ordering another bass from Alan!

I've not heard of there being Pangborn guitars however it is more than possible. That said, pretty much anything Ashley made is pretty rare! Last I heard he was working for Gibson in Germany, it would be amazing if he started building again.

I think McCartney is one of the handful of players who novice bassists should study to get a grasp of what bass playing is all about. He's incredibly versatile and I love the way he just went for it with some of those lines. He appreciated the role of bass in pop music at the time but also saw it as a viable melodic instrument which is a very cool way of looking at it.

The singer is the most noticeable member of the band on stage, and if they're not up to scratch it's a disaster. Especially since we live in the X Factor age and everyone is now a de facto expert on singing. It is also true that good singers are the hardest band members to find and generally the hardest to get on with, simply because they don't have the same musical bond as everyone else who likes messing around with their instruments etc etc.

To me, these represent the worst of current Warwick. Along with that hideous Adam Clayton thing and the newest Jack Bruce bass. Oh, how I laughed when the Zender fans went wild, hearing that he had a new signature model in the works, only to see that monstrosity unleashed!

[quote name='far0n' post='1021021' date='Nov 12 2010, 09:22 AM']Played one years ago that had a neck like a tree trunk but sounded truly superb, then got it into my head that all warwicks were chubby. Until I played Warwickhunt's one, his had a nice slim neck ! Hmm... anyway.. loads of questions about Warwicks.... Which pickups are usually the better ? Barts ? MEC ? etc Which time frame has the slimmer necks ? Do the older ones need that wood treament lark ? Weren't they just waxed or something ?? What's the difference between Stage I and II ? I'm sure I'll think of more..... Ta[/quote] The slimmest necks I've found are the old NT models, though the bolt on profile of the 90's was also quite slim and comfortable. This was the height of Warwicks glory, the late 80's though until the late 90's. Then came the Millenium and Nu Metal and suddenly Warwick's popularity exploded due to increased marketing. They became very popular with players across the board (as evidenced by the massive popularity they enjoyed at Talkbass: they were very much the bass to have, which seems incredible saying as we are talking about Warwick!). With this sudden surge in popularity, Warwick basses ended up in the hands of a lot more players than ever before. However, they had started using ovangkol instead of wenge to make the necks and the profile had changed from a slim "C" to a wide and clubby "D". This resulted in many people saying Warwick had necks like baseball bats; this is only true of the later models. As for the pickups, Warwick sound great with Barts but the other popular pickup choices, Seymour Duncans and EMGs don't really put their best foot forward. However, the MECs are perfectly useable pickups though they too have suffered undue criticism. People say they are naff pickups when they're really not enjoying the MEC preamp! However, I really liked the sound of my stock Thumb and I'm not one to fiddle with basses so I just left it as it came. As for the wood waxing, it's generally more of an issue with newer basses. With the older basses, if they've been owned by a dedicated and conscientous owner, they should be in good shape. The wax is applied to treat the wood of the bass and keep it moist and attractive. I've seen a couple of Warwicks that haven't been properly looked after that appear dry and chalky as the wood is so thirsty. When the bass is new, it has to be waxed more often. After a while, the wood has soaked up enough wax to keep it in good condition and it only requires an occasional buffing to keep it in tip top condition. Dana B Goods (an American Warwick dealer) stated that you can use a variety of household furniture polishes on the basses, I had a pot of Warwick Beeswax with mine and a little goes a long, long way. The necks, particularly the open grain of the wenge, does not need wax treatment, as it is oiled by your hand as you play. I've seen people wax the necks before and they're like greased bananas and a nightmare to clean as the wenge soaks up a lot of wax. As for the difference between the S1 and the S2, I think it is as follows: S1: Maple body and through neck, variety of pickups S2: Afzelia body and wenge (or ovangkol) through neck, jazz bar type single coil pickups.