Belka

I've found that the BB range has been consistently excellent at all price points. It's one of the best sounding PJs out there, and they are always well put together whether at the budget or MIJ end of the spectrum. I always loved the '90s BBNs ones with the soapbars and quilted maple (although I think the cheaper versions used paper 'foto') tops. I was never quite so inspired by the TRBs - they have a very clean almost Spanish guitar sound going on that is fine for soloing but isn't really my thing - I always preferred Patitucci's Ken Smith sound for example.

Mickleburgh sometimes has some decent stuff in, but in recent years the bass selection has been lacking. Rikaxxe has had the same stuff sitting in it for years. They're friendly enough though. If you're a real masochist you can try going into Heron Music or Electric Ladyland. The former has some decent stuff in it, but it can be a bit weird. There's stuff that's been hanging in there for months which he claims is sold and won't let you play, but it never seems to leave the shop. I get the impression he has regular clients who he'd very much rather deal with than walk-ins. The latter is a real experience. He probably won't let you buy anything, the levels of secondhand smoke are ridiculous, and a lot of his stock has come out of a skip, but you get some entertaining stories out of him. Both Heron and Electric Ladyland allude to rooms with the 'good stuff' upstairs, but neither have ever let me see any of it. They both asked me to say what I might be interested in and if they had it they'd show me (I suggested various basses but apparently they didn't have any of it). I did once see a couple of nice basses downstairs in Electric Ladyland - a cherry red fretless '80s Jaydee in good condition (although the amount of cigarette smoke in that shop can't be good for any guitar in there long term), and a 1968 Telecaster bass - he did tell me not to buy that one as apparently it was haunted.

I think there are probably some gigs/sessions where a player will be told to use/bring a P bass (Motown revues, certain bandleaders/producers that request it - I've heard this from more than one pro player), but I'd guess it happens a lot less than the SBL and other Youtubers' 'The TRUTH about why the P bass SLAYS everything else' content suggests. It's funny, but some of the P bass sounds I really like were in situations when it was no longer a particularly fashionable bass - Steve Harris, Andy Rourke and Freddie Washington in the '80s, Pino when he brought it back into fashion around 2000 - I don't think any of them were using one because they felt they needed to or that the producer had demanded it.

Three years ago I bought a Precision because I had some money burning a hole in my pocket and thought, after watching various YouTube videos with Sean Hurley, that all bassists needed one. I put flats on it, as you're supposed to do, and enjoyed playing it for a few months, but after a while I just kind of stopped. Most of my gigs called for a 5 string and when I needed an approximation of a P bass the neck pickup on the Jazz was close enough, so I eventually sold it. I'm currently putting together a parts P to give them another try. This time it's going to be with a maple neck and roundwounds; I think that to make P basses shine in a lot of modern live mixes you need them as bright as possible to be heard (of course I know that for recording this is different and flats sit very well in a properly balanced mix), and the Precision tones I like generally tend to be quite bright anyway.

It's a shame they didn't take any pictures with the pickup covers off. They do give decent enough disclosure about the refret and the changed Japanese pots, so, I'd guess the pickups are original and they just didn't see the need to say anything. Definitely worth checking just in case however. Interestingly, this bass could almost be labelled a mid-late '70s transition item. It has some features of earlier '70s models (the serial number and original knobs, rather than the Strat knobs), and some of the later '70s models (Fender-branded Schaller tuners instead of the bigger 67-76 Fender tuners and smaller headstock logo). Not that these features make it more desirable/valuable however, but definitely captures an interesting turning point in production. The weight, condition and price (the latter is in line with Bass Bros, Bass Direct, Andy Baxter) seem decent for a late '70s Jazz - if the pickups are original and it sounds good I think it would be a good score.

I think this is absolutely right, but these days, amongst younger players 'session player' has come to mean any freelancer who plays with more than one band, and is probably just as much (or even more) about live playing than actual recording. The funny thing is, in the past, the great session players all started playing live constantly and then fell into session work - it was probably well-paid and convenient. The best players also still kept doing lots of touring, Anthony Jackson, Chuck Rainey, Pino, etc. These days you get people who actively want to be recording players primarily and are not as interested in live work. Without that foundation of playing with others constantly in different styles/genres they will probably never develop their full potential however. Also, and with the risk of sounding like an old fart, these days the likes of Sean Hurley, great player though he is, have reinforced the idea that being a good sideman/session player is all about a P bass, short scales with flats, dozens of different DI boxes which all just sound like you're rolling off a passive tone control, 'taste', and vintage vibes. While I'm sure that these are essential things you need in the toolbox to have a career these days, it produces players who sound the same. You don't see a lot of risk taking/individuality any more. Back in the '70/80s you had lots of jazz/fusion players hired for pop/rock records, there was a crossover, these days you don't see that. If the likes of Hadrien Feraud/Janek Gwizdala got a few more of those LA pop/rock sessions for being great players, rather than just being able to bring a vintage vibe, they just might make the music more interesting.

I remember someone posting about the same bass here back in 2019. It's sat there unsold for at least 6 years. Judging by the wear on the bridge it was played at lot by someone. Kind of sad it's not getting any use. The pawnbrokers could probably put it up on Reverb/Ebay at that price and sell it in a few weeks.

I think pre EB MusicMan stuff has also gone up a great deal over the last year or so - it used to be priced similarly to Fender stuff of the same vintage, but the fact that they now have their Retro '70s/Pino basses sold new for over £3000 new means that no-one, shop or private seller, is going to take anything less than £3000 for any pre-EB stuff, unless it's modified/very bad condition.

To be honest I've never received a decent offer from any shop for part exchange/buy in, and I think these days Andy Baxter won't accept any part exchange against a commission sale. However, when I sold through him his commission was 15% while a lot of other shops take 20%. It's swings and roundabouts I suppose.

To be fair, I think Andy Baxter has a more realistic experience of the market than some other dealers and knows what something is really worth. He tends to get in the extremely rare/valuable stuff perhaps more than others do, and it is often very expensive. However, refinished/stripped/altered basses are often considerably cheaper at his place than other dealers - just recently I've seen refinished mid '60s Fender basses go for around 4K, and early '70s ones for around 2-2.5K. Compare that with the likes of the Gallery and Vintage Bass Room for their '60s/70s refins and he seems much better value.

The word over at Talkbass is that Fender has bought/is buying G&L.

That's actually quite a good point, although it may be skewed somewhat by genre and geography. I would associate the early '80s a bit more with British pop and rock bands - the second British invasion as MTV might have termed it. In the later '80s British commercial music went into something of decline, and American hard rock/Hip Hop became a lot more popular.

Looks like a fun setlist - good luck with it. One thing to watch out for - with all those key changes I'd hazard a guess that the guitarist(s) is/are using a drop pedal/key change function on Kemper - from my experience they use the wrong preset, or forget to switch tuning at least once per gig - sometimes they realise and correct it, other times they don't - if they don't (if it's just one guitarist with no other melodic instruments to indicate he's in the wrong key) you might have to transpose on the fly.

https://www.andybaxterbass.com/collections/fender-basses/products/1974-fender-precision-bass-black-refinish https://www.andybaxterbass.com/collections/fender-basses/products/1974-fender-precision-bass-olympic-white-refinish Couple of nice refinished P basses up at Andy Baxter at the moment - not collector's items but quite a cheap way of going vintage. They sound good too - the black one is very light and has that really woody hollow tone I often associate with early '70s P basses. The white one seems to have a thicker sound - more going on in the midrange (I think they have identical strings on them).

Yes, of course, and the very best session musicians, the likes of Chuck Rainey, Marcus Miller, Anthony Jackson, Pino etc., have/had the skills and theory knowledge to ensure they knew to create interesting lines which perfectly outlined the harmony, and could listen to what the producer/artist wanted them to play and interpret that appropriately; they didn't get gain their reputations by just being 'good enough'.