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Geddy's Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass


spongebob

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5 minutes ago, Wilco said:

I’ve only had a cursory glance at it so far, but one page I wanted to get to was about his ‘72 Jazz.

Interesting comment about Badass bridges on that one, basically saying they make bugger all difference on Fenders over the stock BBOT.

Many of us will have formed an opinion over the years on the value of a high mass bridge on a Fender, but from a player of that amount of experience with loads of Jazz’s to compare against, is that the definitive answer?

In this 2007 video, he clearly states that he notices a difference in sustain. He seems to have changed his mind since having so many others with which to compare.

 

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16 minutes ago, arthurhenry said:

In this 2007 video, he clearly states that he notices a difference in sustain. He seems to have changed his mind since having so many others with which to compare.

 

In the book he says he used them on his Rickenbackers & he did notice a sustain difference on those. That probably drove his opinion then, but as you say, having so many Jazz’s to compare to now must have changed his mind.

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One notable omission from his collection is the second (humbucker equipped) version of the Tele bass. He does say he likes the sound of the Gibson humbucker, so a mark II Tele should be purchased, I think! Also, I take issue with the claim that Pink Floyd's Money was the first and only hit single in 7/4. Surely the first was All You Need is Love?

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10 minutes ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Currently £16 on Amazon, all be it with a 4-6 week estimated delivery time.  I just ordered :).

£16! Balls! I spunked £18.51... £2.51 I'll never see again. Curse you to hell Amazon. 

PS. What's going on with Amazon's pricing algorithm?

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  • 3 weeks later...
7 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

Not here yet 🙄

Anyone else still waiting? 

I note that Amazon now show it as available within 1-2 months, so basically it's not in stock and they're not sure when they're getting any more.

You might be OK, but Amazon do have a habit of doing this and then sending you a slow and steady stream if e-mails saying that they aren't sure when they'll have it and you might want to cancel your order and find it elsewhere.  I had an order for a load of lightscribe CDRs that was open for about two years before they eventually admitted that they weren't going to be getting any more.

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On 27/12/2018 at 12:38, arthurhenry said:

One notable omission from his collection is the second (humbucker equipped) version of the Tele bass. He does say he likes the sound of the Gibson humbucker, so a mark II Tele should be purchased, I think! Also, I take issue with the claim that Pink Floyd's Money was the first and only hit single in 7/4. Surely the first was All You Need is Love?

Also the middle of Music by John Miles.

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Geddy Lee said in a recent interview that it was on its second printing, so hopefully it will soon be in stock for those of you who are waiting.  It's an excellent book & well worth these prices.

 

I'm amazed that Geddy felt the need for a Badass to give him better sustain on a Rickenbacker.  I know the Rick bridge is pretty cumbersome, but despite its flaws I've never had a sustain issue on a Rick (in fact I can't recall sustain issues on any bass I've owned).  I wonder if the real driver at the time was his desire for a bit more bottom end - something he has complained about despite subsequently using a much thinner tone just after he went off the Rickenbackers.  He probably didn't know about the bridge pickup capacitor bypass trick at the time, though I'm sure he or his bass tech must be aware of it now.

 

 

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11 minutes ago, jonsmith said:

Geddy Lee said in a recent interview that it was on its second printing, so hopefully it will soon be in stock for those of you who are waiting.  It's an excellent book & well worth these prices.

 

I'm amazed that Geddy felt the need for a Badass to give him better sustain on a Rickenbacker.  I know the Rick bridge is pretty cumbersome, but despite its flaws I've never had a sustain issue on a Rick (in fact I can't recall sustain issues on any bass I've owned).  I wonder if the real driver at the time was his desire for a bit more bottom end - something he has complained about despite subsequently using a much thinner tone just after he went off the Rickenbackers.  He probably didn't know about the bridge pickup capacitor bypass trick at the time, though I'm sure he or his bass tech must be aware of it now.

 

 

I've only skimmed through my copy, but I'm pretty sure he says that having been convinced at the time that the Badass improved the sustain, he now thinks he was probably wrong about it

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22 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

I've only skimmed through my copy, but I'm pretty sure he says that having been convinced at the time that the Badass improved the sustain, he now thinks he was probably wrong about it

Nobody tell him about tone woods then!! ;) Srsly though, if he thought it worked for him then it did - most of the hardware stuff has more than a pinch of psychosomatic benefit about it.

Still awaiting mine - currently says I'll get it by the 30th.

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3 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

Nobody tell him about tone woods then!! ;) Srsly though, if he thought it worked for him then it did - most of the hardware stuff has more than a pinch of psychosomatic benefit about it.

Still awaiting mine - currently says I'll get it by the 30th.

Having heard an interview with him about the book, he does seem to have spent the last few years obsessively playing his basses to compare and contrast the tone (and the book has a comparison of basses for every year of Fender Jazz production over the time period to see whether he can hear the differences) so I wonder if he either had one where it did improve the tone back in the day so he defaulted to changing the bridge/tailpiece without ever checking the individual instruments, or if the snake oil of magic extra sustain has worn off.  Or, you know, drugs.  Perhaps I should read what he's saying properly then...

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But different instruments from the same year of exactly the same model made in the same factory on the same line by the same crew of people under the same environmental conditions sound different anyway. Even these days with CNC you need to try a few to find the best one 

 

Does he not have enough to fill his days ? 

 

 

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