Basses in the 1980s

[basexperience]

On 18/02/2025 at 20:12, shoulderpet said:

I only used Elites once and they literally went dead overnight, I was 15 at the time so wasn't playing gigs and was tbh a bit lazy with practicing so between the time they were fitted and when they went dead they had all of 20 mins play on them, how they went dead overnight is a mystery but it's the only set of strings that has done that (I killed a set of Rotosounds in 1 gig once but tbh the venue was so hot I don't think any set of strings would have survived)

I played Elites for a while: still string my 1986 Aria Pro II JTB-2J with them!

 

these days, though, after using Warwick strings for a while (they’re awful btw, I just didn’t realise it!) I use D’addario XL nickels. They’re amazing. 
 

btw washing strings in methylated spirit / denatured alcohol works wonders. 4-5 uses out of one set, come out sparkly and played in. Lovely. 

[HeadlessBassist]

On 18/02/2025 at 00:31, crazycloud said:

I won't tell you what I paid for my, admittedly well used, S2000 then.

I don't think it has anything to do with the preamp, it's just the extremely rigid construction of the monocoque.

I just always preferred the two-band, as that's what I had in my original 1988 Series-II and also later in a couple of Streamlines.

 

I have board 302 and 303 in the current ones. 

[Jerry_B]

I'm on holiday and so have been giving this 1985 Aria Pro II Laser Electric 'Heritage' a bit of an overhaul. Despite playing around with the pickup height I still can't seem to get the bridge pickup to sound less thin and reedy. The neck pickup is really good, but when the two are combined the bass sounds a bit compressed. Anyway, aside from that, this is a very nice bass.

 

 

[TrevorR]

1 hour ago, Jerry_B said:

I'm on holiday and so have been giving this 1985 Aria Pro II Laser Electric 'Heritage' a bit of an overhaul. Despite playing around with the pickup height I still can't seem to get the bridge pickup to sound less thin and reedy. The neck pickup is really good, but when the two are combined the bass sounds a bit compressed. Anyway, aside from that, this is a very nice bass.

 

 

Oooooh, lovely!

[matski]

I have a bass from the Bass Centre in Wapping too. At that time I was attending Saturday classes at the music school that used to operate from upstairs in the same building and afterwards used to pop downstairs to drool over the gear in the Bass Centre.

The one fateful Saturday I saw my dream bass hanging on the wall: a MusicMan Cutlass 1 with the Modulus graphite neck!

My grandad had recently died and left me some money in his will and it was exactly enough to buy the bass so I put a small deposit down on it and returned on the following Monday to collect it. I still have that bass and it is still my most prized possession.

Fascinating factoid: I recently found out, thanks to Gavin who runs the MusicMan serial numbers website, that my Cutlass was previously owned by Mark O'Toole from Frankie Goes To Hollywood. He bought it new from Manny's Guitars in New York CIty in 1985. I know this as Gav send me a pic of the original sales receipt and some backstage shots of my bass - how he got hold of them is anyone's guess!

[Bass Direct]

On 29/01/2025 at 18:00, Russ said:

I always remember a white Zon with a Kahler, signed by Mark King, that was always hanging by the door. I wonder if they ever sold that?

I bet that was the red one, which was actually his :)... I know who owns that one nowadays

[Misdee]

I had a custom Zon bass made for me in the late 1990's and used to speak to Joe Zon and his sales manager Mark regularly at that time.

 

Mark King came up one day in conversation. Joe and Mark were both more than a little miffed that a bass they made for Mark King had turned up in a pawn shop or some such like, not long after they had given it to him. A lot of work had gone into that bass with MK's specific requirements in mind and they were a bit insulted he had just tossed it at the first opportunity. Joe was a big fan of Mark King's playing and I think he was genuinely upset.

 

What the ins and outs of this tale were, I have no idea. I'm just recounting what Zon told me about it.

Edited 3 hours ago by Misdee

[Bass Direct]

1 minute ago, Misdee said:

I had a custom Zon bass made for me in the late 1990's and used to speak to Joe Zon and his sales manager Mark regularly at that time.

 

Mark King came up one day in conversation. Joe and Mark were both more than a little miffed that the a bass they made for Mark King had turned up in a pawn shop or some such like, not long after they had given it to him. A lot of work had gone into that bass with MK's specific requirements in mind and they were a bit insulted he had just tossed it at the first opportunity. Joe was a big fan of Mark King's playing and I think he was genuinely upset.

 

What the ins and outs of this tale were, I have no idea. I'm just recounting what Zon told me about it.

Mark got that bass is 1985, and still had it until at least 1994

[Misdee]

13 minutes ago, Bass Direct said:

Mark got that bass is 1985, and still had it until at least 1994

Maybe there was more than one bass.

 

The story was recounted to me in 1998/1999.

[Bass Direct]

46 minutes ago, Misdee said:

Maybe there was more than one bass.

 

The story was recounted to me in 1998/1999.

I remember speaking to Joe Zon about Mark's red bass at NAMM one year, only the one went Marks way

[Misdee]

Then I'm sure that must be right, but they made a point of telling me how MK had flogged a relatively new bass they had given him. Like I said previously, I have no idea of the details of this incident.

 

It came up as a topic of conversation because there was a switch on my custom Legacy Elite that Joe called the Mark King switch. Mark King didn't have that switch on his bass, but Joe Zon thought  that with the switch engaged it gave the bass a Mark King-like tone. 

.