Chris2112

It's a Thuja top, according the luthier (our very own Shaggy), the most expensive top available at the dealer by some margin! Looks gorgeous though. The pictures bring out a bit of orange in it and saturate it, it looks "deeper" and slightly darker in person.

Usually when I have a Kubicki in my hand, they just feel "made for me", and if they are good enough for Stuart Hamm, they're good enough for me! I've been gutted ever since I got rid of my first one so its good to have another! EDIT: Said objects of affection:

I wouldn't go for a defretted bass. Unless the job has been done by the best, it never looks perfect IMO, and when there are so many nice fretless basses on the shelf already... I'm quite fortunate at the moment that I've managed to get two lovely fretless basses into my collection, my fretless Alembic Epic and a fretless Musicman Sabre "special" as I call it, due to it's custom roots. The Alembic is now my most played bass, and the Musicman is up for sale, but having a choice between two fretless basses is awesome. I used to play more fretted bass than fretless, but I guess now about 60-70% of my time is spent playing fretless! I absolutely love it too, its taken my bass playing to a whole new place these past few years. And here are some of the Alembic, I really need to take my own though...

Oh, I believe Stanley is the best upright player around, but I still don't dig it much! However, Ronald is a fierce drummer, I absolutely love him. He plays with such fire, like a young Jeff Sipe. Sounds like a bloody artillery battery on the kit!

Sadly, most of the tracks on the sampler sound pretty bland. However, I'm sure these 30 second clips are never a good way to judge a record. He'll have a hard job beating "The Toys of Men". He'll have to work even harder to do better than the Animal Logic records, they are just incredible.

Terrible shame this. Paul was always one of my favourite metal bassists. What a tone he used to get with those Thumbs! When "Slipknot" came out, it was never out of my CD player and it remains one of my favourite records to this day.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='847056' date='May 24 2010, 11:47 PM']#2 I've asked specifically in this thread about whether graphite necks can make dead spot problems completely go away, and this is the first response I've had. Dead spots are a big deal to me because I use a lot of effects and dead spots are quickly shown up by tracking effects like the ubiquitous Boss OC-2, rendering certain notes in certain positions useless. Do graphite necks eliminate this issue? Other graphite neck bass users seem less than keen to endorse this particular performance improvement.[/quote] Both the basses I had with graphite necks were headed, and both were free of dead spots. In fact, the Status Stealth, which was essentially a bass made of graphite, is without a doubt the most full and even sounding of all the basses I have ever owned.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='846706' date='May 24 2010, 06:03 PM']And I'm sure if the default neck material was carbon fibre everybody would be using carbon fibre. But it isn't. Why isn't it? Because wood doesn't need replacing.[/quote] I disagree. I think if all basses could come with graphite necks, they'd receive much wider praise. Of course though, its cost that stops this being possible. Just imagine all the cheapo basses that could have benefited from a nice graphite neck! If not just for the tone, for the stability and dead-spot-destroying effect they give!

[quote name='BigRedX' post='845855' date='May 23 2010, 04:36 PM']Why does it have to be wood [i]or[/i] graphite?[/quote] Well, there have been a few things like this in the past, namely Zon, Modulus and Status graphite leading the way with various hybrid necks and treaments for woods. However, I've always felt that if it's going to be a graphite neck, have a classic take on it like the Status woven fibre ones. Interestingly, I remember Fender32, a user of Talkbass, had a jazz bass with a GMT woven graphite neck. (Green Machine Technology, Rob's company prior to Status). The neck is an early one, I remember him describing the profile as quite square, which was the norm on the old Status stuff, and he also mentioned that you could make out the imperfections in the cloth weave too! Must have been a very cool thing to see in person, that bass!

I am very much "for" graphite necks, or at least high tech solutions and innovation in bass making! Hence my ownership of Status and Kubicki basses: My Status Stealth was "all graphite". I think its fair to say that out of all the basses I've owned, this one had the most even response across the tonal spectrum, and could give brightness that was too much even for me! However, it was sweetest with the bass and treble backed off just a bit and the mids singing through. It was also incredibly light, despite being a 6 string. This was the bass that absolutely "sold" me on graphite. I'd own an all graphite bass again in a shot! Which of course brings me onto Kubicki Ex Factors. I've had two of these, both 1989 models with the Fender Custom shop stamp, but made with Pre-Fender parts (the 18V preamp with the 6 way selector). The interesting thing was, when Phillip first designed these, he looked at graphite necks and decided against them as they were too expensive. For his needs at least, he could get similar strength, stablility and tone from making a neck of 34 maple laminates while avoiding paying a high price for graphite technology (which was very, very expensive back in the 80's!). This neck would then be bolted onto a maple body with an ebony fretboard attached and would produce a very bright, full and slightly compressed sounding tone, which gave Kubicki a sound very much of their own when connected to the Kubicki electronics. Of course, Phillip realised he was onto a winning solution with his own basses and kept going with the maple necks. Unlike some poorly finished graphite necks, the Kubicki necks could be finished to perfection and "felt like wood", which attracted a lot of players who might have otherwise been put off by such an exotic bass. However, I have also played and owned basses with incredibly finished graphite necks which were like glass. In short, I love this kind of thing.

This sounds good. "The Toys of Men" was a real return to form so I'm looking forward to this! Although I am pleased this is an all electric record, I'm worried when Stan says it is the last Electric stuff he'll be doing for a while. I guess I'll be switching off Stanley for a while then because DB playing really does bore me to tears.

You have PM, something that might interest you!

Will be a shocker if it does, given Warwick's company pride in quality! I had a '99 Thumb with a Wenge neck and the old neck profile, it was an amazing bass and I loved owning it! Sadly, Warwick as we know them are prett much already gone, it happened when they changed to ovangkol necks IMO!

These things always get good press and I've always fancied one, but the price is outrageous these days!

The thing is, trends also play a big part in it. It was most noticeable on Talkbass but every few months had its brand, and the year had one too. Like earlier on this millenium, Warwick were the "in" bass at Talkbass and everyone had to have one. The same thing happens here I think, on a smaller scale. Whats popular and being talked about at the moment can really help shift something on the adverts page. You'd think something like a Fender would be very easy to shift, for example, but this year I'm noticing a lot of players are going for very individual basses, picking brands and basses that aren't seen every day and relishing the bass not only for what it is as an instrument but the "kudos" it has for not being something you see all the time. Hence seeing some Marcus Miller basses selling for silly prices!

To be honest, it didn't work for me. It just sounded like it had had all the punch and dynamics sucked out of it. Although the original is a fantastic piece, its just not working in this context for me, perhaps because the original is so iconic to me! I also love this much underrated tune! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9LrE6dRHn8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9LrE6dRHn8[/url]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='834549' date='May 11 2010, 07:12 PM']Er...anyone mention Victor? Probably the world's greatest, and boy does he get some stick on here.[/quote] Exactly my point! He's fantastic, but boy, have some people got a bee in their bonnet about him!

I've learned "I Believe it" by Uzeb, except for the solo, which should take a bit more work! Shouldn't be too hard though.

Mark King does get a lot of stick, but then when you're that good it is to be expected, there is always someone waiting to rain on the parade!

I saw Nena, talk about a bloody mime act! The band didn't even bother to make it look like they were playing! Shame there was no Tony Butler with an Aria! Or even a Warwick Thumb!