Chris2112

Amber over alder for me, for the classic Jeff Berlin look: Mike Pedulla's colour finishes are the most beautiful in the world, I think. My Pentabuzz is Peacock Blue, a deep blue with some green hues giving it a turquoise look, but my favourite Pedulla finish is the very bright turquoise look:

Loads of basses feature it to varying degrees these days. Moreover, I can't remember the last time I felt a neck edge with poorly finished fret-ends sticking out.

Give Geoff Gould a shout on Facebook and ask him. No-one knows these basses like he does and he still offers a lot of advice and aftermarket support despite having left Modulus over 20 years ago. Oh, and his G.Gould basses are utterly gorgeous too...

Yeah, 'The Grudge' is nearly ten minutes long but that doesn't matter because it's a banger. It is, IMO, Tool at their most spectacular and refined. It blends both brilliant melodies, pacing and a good blend of dynamic. It has a clear progression and builds to an exciting crescendo. At the heart of it is that brilliant riff. My point about loving these songs from 25 years ago is coming full circle back to my earlier point, in that Tool write some of the best songs in rock, but a large amount of their output is just fodder to fill space on a disc. You could condense their best tracks down to make one mega-album, which would be full of bangers from start to finish.

I love them, but I take time and care to choose the right ones. They aren't just tools to me, but I hold no sentimental attachment to any instrument. They all must be worth playing in their own right or I simply won't keep them. If I had some collection of blandness assembled with a perfunctory laziness (like a collection of P basses, for instance) I might simply treat the basses as tools. As it stands, whenever I get a bass out of it's case I look at it for a minute and admire the work of the builder, and wonder where the bass was before it got to me.

That is definitely the best song on the album. I would have been quiet happy if it were eight minutes long, as there is about four minutes worth of fat to lose there. The first half is good, and the grinding riff near the end is excellent. The middle part with the vocoder vocals is very hokey. Overall, it's not a bad record but it's not a masterpiece and it has plenty of the usual filler that Tool like to bang in. There are no real massive tracks in it, no 'Prison Sex' or 'Hooker with a pe nis'. It rather sounds as though they're still mining the same vein of creativity that they started with 'Lateralus', a record that should have started and ended with 'The Grudge'. I do expect that this will be their last record and that waiting 13 years to follow up a disappointing record like '10,000 Days' was always going to produce something that was rather a let down.

I'd always thought them to be ugly, useless pieces of crap that belonged in the bin.

Grace Under Pressure was my first Rush album. It's actually a great centre point to their career. I can still remember the feeling as I listened to the 30 second track samples at a Virgin music store. I felt as though 'Afterimage' was the song I'd been waiting my whole life to hear, and Rush were the band.

It is certainly noticeable. They were still capable of turning out a decent tune like 'How It Is' but the real instrumental interplay was dialled back. There was a sense that collectively, they would push each other and really craft the arrangements to make the instruments work together. It seems like in the later years, they didn't bother writing like that anymore but they could certainly nail the parts live. Geddy's eventual over-reliance on his flamenco strumming technique also changed his basslines dramatically, with his tendency to write interesting fills and melodies replaced by repetitive strumming over one note. That eventual fading of creative energy must be a part of being a prog rock band, the same thing happened to Dream Theater. Their 90's output was a million times better than the rubbish they've committed to disc since.

I had actually forgotten how heavy the groove in the first chorus is. It's not the strongest track on the album but it's certainly a good effort.

I like Tai Shan and Superconductor. Superconductor has a really great middle eight with that soaring synth line. In fact, I think 'Presto' as a whole has some real bangers on it, and like RTB, is perhaps a bit overlooked as it's not as cohesive as 'Power Windows' or 'Hold Your Fire'. I do find the lyrics in Tai Shan to be a bit hokey, but their focus on mysticism and a 'romantic orient' simply reflects the western view of Asia at the time. Look at 'The Chinese Way' for another song that would probably be written differently today. My favourite Rush album is, on alternating days, either 'Power Windows' or 'Hold Your Fire'. Both are front to back quality, just utterly exceptional in every regard. Rush had really honed their craft then, bookend their best songs with the best instrument tones and perfect production.

I didn't realise The Grateful Dead were terrorist sympathisers.

What a collection. That Rogue with the Series II electronics is really something, just a gorgeous bit of design.

That is just mint. You are a very lucky lad.

I always find the sound of Les Pauls doesn't really work well for rhythm playing. The attack and decay of the notes is too slow for that really tight rhythm sound.

I will agree that the upper fret access on the NS body shape is not the best, but the overall shape and balance really works for me so I would persevere with one. You can still get around them fairly quickly if you want, this lad manages alright... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-IScNYSWuc

Just the later ones?

The Pentabuzz does have a very distinctive voice. It has the most 'mwah' and bloom of any fretless bass I've known, but it gives so much tonal and dynamic control the player just through how you attack the strings. Absolutely thunderous low end too. Do you have any pics of that Modulus?

If my Pedulla were fretted it would be a much closer bet. My brother has an MVP5 which is really something. I'm just more into frets than I am into fretless. As for competition with Status, I don't think so but they would appeal to the same sort of buyer - someone who wants more than just a P or J design, someone who likes hi-tech materials and modern tones. Stefan Heß followed his own vision for making a bass and it just happened to share some of the materials Status use. However, I do find them rather less 'obvious' than a Status, in the way that the signature Status sound tends to stand out. With the Bartolini pickups mine has, it sounds more like a Modulus. Very modern, articulate and direct but quite organic and woody. My Bogart has a headstock too, so the 1st position will feel more familiar to those unused to a true headless. Out of the two, I prefer Bogart. I do love Status basses, having owned a few, and I no doubt will own more in future.

My SKC Bogart Blackstone takes the top spot here. I've owned some great five string basses and it's a close run thing with my Pentabuzz. It just has such a great tone. The feel of it is also delightful but it's a million miles away from a 'traditonal' feel with it's wide, flat neck. The bridge pickup running solo is absolutely mint. If it has any downsides, it's that it takes a bit of practice to learn how to restring it. It's a piece of p iss once you've learned the trick, but I was fortunate to have some friends on Basschat tell me that the trick was to pull the string taut with pliers when locking them in. It's also not particuarly adjustable, as it has no truss rod so the relief is built in. The action is pretty low, but not as low as some of my other basses. The tuning is naturally very stable, the neck never moves, there are no dead spots and every note on the neck is very consistent. The strings need a change now, with fresh strings it sounds amazing but with dead strings, it sounds crap. At least that pressures you to change strings.