Chris2112

My Sabre special suffered from this quite badly when I first got it. I adjusted the bass and sorted the string heights, and after a tweak and set up by myself, the G string is back in action! Now it sounds full and punchy, whereas before it sounded as flat as a fart! It also has one of those lovely SD MM pickups in it...sounds absolutely incredible!

[quote name='firmo' post='754833' date='Feb 23 2010, 11:30 AM']Once at a gig my bass was on it's stand right at the back of the stage (behind the curtain) when the support bands bassist bust a string. I was stood there and saw him put his bass down and disappear somewhere, I assumed he'd gone to grab his spare only to find him come back out from behind the curtain with my bass! Cheeky little f***er I was tempted to climb up on stage and knock the little sh*t out - if he'd have asked I wouldn't have minded that much but this made my blood boil.[/quote] I would have went on stage and removed my bass from the little twat's hands!

Ah, my old Spector... One of the best basses I have ever played! I still miss it now!

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='753510' date='Feb 22 2010, 09:27 AM']but the moment you get up on stage in front of these guys, they might also be expecting you to play like David Beezley, Matt Garrison or Richard Bona...[/quote] Or even, god forbid, Victor Wooten...then you'd have no chance of measuring up!

Beaten up doesn't matter so much with these basses, since they are made like tanks!

Currently my Musicman Sabre special is my bass of the moment. It's a 1980 Sabre neck with gold Schaller tuners, with a new fretless African Blackwood board on it. The body was handmade by the bloke I bought it off, Bubinga back with a Thuja top. All the hardware is brass, and it weighs and absolute ton! It really makes my Warwick Thumb feel like a Stratocaster in comparison! Luckily I get to play most of my fretted stuff sitting down! It has a SD Bassline MM pickup and sounds absolutely incredible. It's so burpy, I am convinced the MM pickup placement is the best for fretless stuff now! Even the controls are made of beautifully turned ebony. The bass is just ridiculously well made, it oozes quality and it sounds incredible. I don't have any pictures yet so I'll try and link in the seller's picture... I bought it off forum user Shaggy. His name is Greg and he's not a big time builder, but he really knows how to make a quality product! Also, given how good this bass is, it was an absolute steal too, I'd have to spend a lot of money to find a fretless as good as this!

Heathrow by Level 42 is the obvious choice: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7284pq13U4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7284pq13U4[/url]

Ouch, thats a sticky situation!

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='736170' date='Feb 5 2010, 01:46 PM']Stingrays? G.[/quote] This sums it up perfectly for me. Indeed, as I understand it, the Ray was to be a modernised super P bass when it was designed. For me, the Precision is utterly useless. Move the pickup lower and generally make it more playable and better looking and suddenly you've got a winner!

[quote name='Doddy' post='738402' date='Feb 7 2010, 07:59 PM']Why not just remove it then? It's only held on by a couple of screws.[/quote] Because I sold the bass after a couple of weeks or so, and I knew from within the first couple of days that I wouldn't be handing on it. However, removing it wasn't really neccessary as the bass sounded best with the bridge pickup on solo being plucked. The slap tone was so-so, so it didn't see a lot of that.

Hmm, I always find the tone a tiny bit lacking in Gerald Veasley's hands, although sometimes he can get them sounding pretty cool. But when I've played them, I've always been impressed with them, especially the prestige stuff, which is very good.

Yeah, the only thing I didn't like about my Squier Classic Jazz bass (which was awesome, despite the fact I didn't keep it long) was that the finger rest got in the way when slapping!

[quote name='silddx' post='735706' date='Feb 5 2010, 12:42 AM']His sound was sh*t because it was never sympathetic with the music, he was possibly the most selfish bassist ever to gain glory. His technique and musicality were awe inspiring, but his sound was brash, ugly and selfish, and he was only ever out for himself.[/quote] If it is his selfish nature that has created so many beautiful sounds, then I wish I could be that selfish. Jaco's sound is still one of my absolute favourite tones, and the "Jaco honk" on a nice fretless bass is very versatile and can really be used anywhere!

Luckily for me I seem to have luck finding basses that impress me in ever respect! And my use of effects and EQ is minimal.

I'd recommend not getting a bass on finance to be honest! Save up and don't get yourself in a financial hole for what is essential a "leisure" item!

Reminds me of one of the first recordings I made, I cut a track at the end of the day with a flubbed note on a Kubicki bass which was a big, obvious 8th note. packed up my kit since it was the end of the day thinking I wouldn't get a chance to record the track again. I could have done it the next day, but no one seemed to have heard that awful bum note! It made it into the track and it was only when I pointed it out post mastering that anyone else noticed! I'm not sure how since it sounded like a bloody trumpet exploding. On the same track, the drummer managed to go out of time, and since the drum track was being recorded with a MIDI hookup and a click track, a good take was punched in over the top since that part of the song was "sparse" with only drums, keys and bass playing. I didn't have the chance to re-record my part and it was left as is, which makes it sound as though my bloody bass goes well out of time since I played along to the original, "slow" drum track! We live and we learn, eh?

I remember this joke doing the rounds on Talkbass circa 2006!

I've just bought a fretless Musicman Sabre custom bass off Greg and it has been one of the best sales I've been through as a buyer, if not the smoothest due to the mystery of the online banking! Greg has remained patient with great communication and has been a pleasure to deal with. I would recommend him to any basschatter looking to do a deal. Again, thanks very much Greg!

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='727500' date='Jan 28 2010, 12:55 PM']From Newcastle-ish, Neil Harland & Frankie Gibbon.. awsome.[/quote] Also from Newcastle, our very own Mark Palmer (who also uses this site!). Whenever I've seen Mark play I've always been blown away!