Chris2112

Been there. Wandered into Sound Control Preston years ago whilst visiting a girlfriend, because I was bored and had nothing better to do. Ended up buying a Spector Reboot DLX - a truly stunning bass. It was so good I then sold my Status Stealth I 6 string.

Afternoon all, I took delivery yesterday of a wonderful SKC Bogart Blackstone bass. This is, I have discovered, a wonderful instrument with a rather interesting history. First of all, some background. SKC Bogart basses were/are made in Germany by Stefan Heß. Mr Heß has an extensive background in building carbon fibre parts for instruments. He was the carbon fibre man to go to in Germany. He even made carbon fibre necks for Schack and Clover basses, and the complete monocoque shell for Clover's 'SKC Slapper' model. The Bogart basses were Stefan's creation, renowned for being incredible instruments. They went out of production for a while but are now being made again, now with a full wooden construction. My Bogart Blackstone is, I have discovered, either 1994 or 1995 model. I'm not sure how it came to be in the UK because, so far as I can tell, there was never a UK distributor for these instruments. It was purchased by Stuart Clayton at the London Bass Guitar show in 2012 and he kept it for a few years, doing a really cool cover of Alain Caron's 'D-Code' on YouTube with it. Stuart had it refinished from it's original black and blue paint scheme to a very cool metallic blue colour. The paint on it at the moment is absolutely incredible - it has depth and shimmer, and is even to a tee. I think the original paint scheme would have been black with blue flecks of paint splatter, one of the abstract finishes Stefan was fond of (I love those). The bass itself is just delightful. Light and well balanced, it plays well when seated or standing. The neck is wide and flat, with no radius, and it's very thin, an advantage of it's carbon fibre construction. The headstock holds small screw-in string clamps, while the bridge holds the ball end of the string for tuning. The neck has a smooth satin finish, like a Zon, rather than the gloss gel coat Status use (I have owned both Zon and Status basses in the past). The body is 'Blackstone', a epoxy foam injected into a synthetic shell to give the consistency of alder. It's very light and resonant. The pickups are Bartolini, and the preamp is now a Noll. The bass originally came with a German preamp (the name was something like Karaundt, though it escapes me). This was the standard Bogart preamp at the time, but it was replaced with a Noll after it failed. The Noll was a good choice as it became the standard fit item for new Bogart basses some time after the turn of the millennium. Controls are standard three band with a push/pull for acting and passive switching. I missed this when I first bought the bass and it was only after reading about the Noll preamp online that I thought to try this out! The tone of the bass is thunderous. Very clean and hi-fi with that 'lossless' resonance of carbon graphite. The bridge pickup is very articulate, producing very distinct notes but without the harsh, treble hiss of string noise that some carbon fibre instruments make. With both pickups active, there is very little loss of tone through phasing. It sounds like a sledgehammer and it absolutely drives my Markbass CMD 151P Jeff Berlin signature combo. The sustain is incredible and the wide, flat neck makes for a very pleasant feel all over the neck. The slap and picked tones are equally exemplary, but I play fingerstyle with the bridge running solo 95% of the time, so I'm pleased to confirm the bass delivers in that respect. To have found this for sale at The Bass Gallery in London was a lucky strike as these basses are very few in number, particularly outside of Germany. Those that own them often have a couple in their collection. Are they a bit of an undiscovered secret? I think so. In doing my research on this bass, I discovered a lot of old 'for sale' threads on the internet where I had been posting trying to buy a Bogart, that obviously had never worked out. I'm glad to finally have added this bass to my collection and I would love to hear from other Bogart bass owners. Some pics and Stuart Clayton's video can be seen below.

That is really cool.

The Fender Precision had a Jazz bass neck that had been shaved by Michael Tobias. It had two Bartolini pickups which were custom wound to Jeff's specification by Bill Bartolini. It ended up with just the bridge pickup connected (I may be wrong, but I think the neck pickup may have 'went static'). Interestinigly, that was the end of the road for those pickups until recently, when Bill Bartolini found the original diagrams for those pickups. The pickup was resurrected, appearing in the Cort Rithimic. It's actually a splitcoil inside a soapbar case. I know that bass was eventually stolen, probably some time around 1990. Jeff had used it in 1988 in the Kazumi Watanabe recordings and live with John McLaughlin on their tour of England. By 1992 (I think) he was playing a first generation Peavey Palaedium. I plan on getting a replica of this bass commissioned. I'm not sure how I'll go about it, but it'll probably involve a Warmoth alder Precision body, a Fender Jazz neck, some Bartolini 'classic' range pickups, a Badass II and a few other finishing touches, put together by a good luthier in the UK. As for Jeff himself, I consider him a friend and a good guy who always wants to lift people up. On the internet, he has perhaps come across as a bit stand-offish in the past but he will speak to anyone to put his point across because he genuinely wants to raise the level of bass education and the skills of bass players in general. The situation is not helped by some frightfully rude sorts on the 'net who insult and troll him for sport. I know not everyone is interested in jazz, fusion or classical teaching methodology, though I'm never surprised to see folk lining up to have a go at him. In conversation with Jeff, I've always found him to be a warm, funny and caring bloke. It astounds me that the (IMO) greatest bassist of our generation, and the most fluent improviser on our instrument, would have any interest in how my playing is and would want to offer me advice on how to get better. For that reason alone, I'll always have a tremendous amount of respect for Jeff.

I think that'll have been a live performance that was overdubbed with the recorded track, as was common with these old televised studio shows.

A true bluesman who loved his craft.

Cort are on the up and up. Their products have been improving consistently for years to the point where now, the represent incredible quality and value.

I was very snobby about playing with a pick for a long time. I have focused so intently on fingerstyle dexterity that I left the pick for several years. It was Anthony Jackson that brought me back to the pick, along with the notion that whatever suits the song best is the best approach. I still play fingerstyle about 95% of the time. I find the pick useful for odd rhythmic groupings that repeat over one string. Or, slightly off time patterns. I can nail the quantised synth bass line in 'Lonely Town's by Brandon Flowers easier with a pick because the 'up/down' motion feels more natural there than alternately plucking with the right hand. But in terms of outright speed over complex patterns, fingers wins for me. I couldn't play bebop lead lines with a pick and good right hand consistency and time is a great skill to work on, reaching for the pick to make a hard song easier is not something I would typically do.

I haven't shopped there in ages. A shame that they seem to have completely lost it. I now get my strings from Bass Direct, because they stock the DR DDT strings I really like. Their service is good enough, though a confirmation email would be nice. You hear nothing from them and then a package with a rather scrappy printed invoice comes through the door! Still, as long as they keep doing DDT's in .40 I'll be happy.

A Rickenbacker, just a dreadful thing in every sense.

This sort of jealousy makes me cringe.

Anthony's earlier records were mostly done with the 'career girl' jazz bass. Someone on Talkbass has a really interesting project on the go to build a replica of that. That said, the Contrabass has evolved, as the years went on, into something of a super Precision bass. I've always viewed it in that way. I'm not sure which version of the Contrabass was the first to do away with the bridge pickup but once it was gone, it was never coming back. Anthony considers each new Contrabass very carefully, each model being an evolution of the last and a step closer to his ideal. His most famous Contrabass was known as, IIRC #10 or #11. I'm leaning more towards #10. It's appeared already here, with a flamed redwood top. He appeared on loads of records and video recordings with that bass and yet, like the rest of his basses, he sold it on when he received the next model. Over the years, he has stripped back what he wanted towards his ideal. Active electronics, gone. Bridge pickup, gone. Double cut, gone. He still gets a lot of 'cut' from it by switching to a pick on the fly. Notice that he often plucks all over the body to adjust his tone and then moved to a pick when he really needs that extra presence.

He's actually very slim at the moment. He's slimmed down massively in the past too, and never stopped playing his Contrabasses. He's had some health issues of late, so I dearly hope he's on the mend.

It's a stunning bass. Were I not in the North of England, I'd be on my way to France to have a go of it and giving you a good bottle of spirits as thanks for the opportunity! As for the front mounted jack, I've always liked them. I use cables with a 90° end on them for my basses with side mounted jack sockets so I don't prang the cable when sitting but I'd be just as happy with a top mounted jack. The Ibanez SR jack, routed into the body as it is, is also great for playing whilst seated. Make no mistake, there is not one single detail on a Fodera Contrabass that has not been extensively reviewed through various iterations of the instrument. Anthony is extremely specific as to how his instrument should be function.

Who is the rip-off merchant?

The trend for dreadful acoustic music these days suits venues. They keep the difference in cash and have less disruption than having a full band in.

Billy is a top groove player and he always has been. He has always espoused that you must nail the groove first and the rest is just ornamentation. I've seen him live a few times with Steve Vai and that tone of his, in the live arena, is absolutely fearsome. It drives the band with a tremendous cadence. It always sounds good to my ear on record but no record could really replicate the sheer punch of Billy's tone in the live setting. I've seen Vai's band with Philip Bynoe playing the bass and I rather missed Billy's input on that occasion.

As a former ACG owner (albeit a few years ago), I reckon the East electronics are everything and more than the Wal system. The Wal system is fine but the East electronics are so much more flexible. Perfect if you like to sculpt your tone but sculpting is the best way to describe what working the controls is like and it takes a bit of time to work out how to get the best from them. They are amazing, as are ACG basses. I may have to buy another some day!

It seems rather passive aggressive to bring this up here, rather than speaking to the guy in the store about it. What would you have done before the days of the internet? Would you have gone home fuming or rather, knowing you had no recourse, would you have sorted it out with the salesman there and then? FWIW, I'd never pass over buying something I actually wanted just to spite a shop that gave me the wrong impression but then I don't really feel a need to be sold to and I get no validation from being given a sales pitch.

'Joe Frazier' by Jeff Berlin (either the Bruford or solo record versions). The head is just insane. It sounds as though it would be easy to break down into sections but after the turn around going up to the high G it gets very tricky. I still haven't nailed it.

I use the paid Spotify service and I think it's great, but my tastes are directed very much towards fusion and a lot of the records listed on there in the fusion section are either out of print or hard to get hold of. I like being able to stream high quality music easily through my phone when I'm surfing the net. That said, I know musicians are getting next to nothing back from it and that irks me but there is little I can do. If I pay £30 for an out of print CD from an Amazon marketplace seller, the artist won't see that cash either.