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That's really interesting about how MK set his active EQ. If be very interested to try those settings out on a JayDee. I usually only make small additions or subtractions with any active bass. I wish I'd never sold my custom JayDee MK mk3. It had a graphite-reinforced neck with maple laminates replacing the usual walnut and vice versa. It had a unique profile to it as well. John Diggins himself made it, and it was an amazing piece of craftsmanship all-round. I sold it for sbout £600 in the summer of 1992 because JayDee basses had "gone out of fashion"(!) Quite why I should have been bothered by that I can't quite remember.

I think its possibly a combination of what I'm playing, the tone I have in my head, the colouration of the vintage sounding Two10. When I was playing 50's Rock n Roll with an Ampeg/Ashdown head then I was happier and had no urge to change but since moving to fretless in a 3 piece original band playing more melodic, cleaner and more upfront in the mix, something just hasn't worked. Changing to the LM IV helped but it's still never been the sound I want.

A bit of unbridled joy this evening. The bass player is Pete Morgan with the Dudley Moore Trio playing the evergreen 'The More I See You' and comes from a 1971 video on YouTube. Swings beautifully. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/the-more-i-see-you-dudley-moore-trio/

Although I'm loving the sound of the Jaydee in this one:

Yesshows - bass solo at the start of Ritual part 2. When I first heard it I assumed it was a guitar solo and when I finally realised it was bass, I knew I wanted to play with that kind of tone. I loved the sound - bass but with a trebly distortion which I later found out was Squire's Ricky with each pick up going into a different amp (I'm sure you know the details). I spent a few wilderness years playing guitar but I always came back to that sound on that track. By the time I took up the bass properly, I had most of Yes' albums and spent quite a bit of time chasing the Ritual solo sound on a minuscule budget (I couldn't afford a proper Rickenbacker). I finally got a sound I was happy with a few years ago with a combination of Ampeg SCRDI and bridge pick-up on my Sterling 34HH and either DI or into the FX return on my Peavey Minimax 600 and through a pair of TE 1x10" cabs. It's not the exact tone from Ritual, but it works for me and the rocky elements of the sets we play.

This has been my favourite live track for a good few years now.

Burke Shelly - Budgie, Great intricate work from a 3 Piece.

Why do you think that is?

Brilliant find... thankyou!

yeah it definitely does that. on a wooden stage that I have played on a number of times I noticed that I would have to cut the bass on my amp to about 10 o'clock lock from 12 o'cloc... with the harley benton mat I found I could actually boost bass and it still sounded way cleaner / clearer with much less boom

It’s nearly done!

Far more likely to not leave you embarrassed for oomph than the oversize practice amp.

I'm not sure if it has been posted before, if so, always worth another thread. 'Martha Reeves live in concert'. It's not very long (22 minutes) and there are a few top players by the looks of it. Some posters have named the band. Jamerson, Joe Sample (Keys), Wah Wah Watson & Dennis Coffey (Gtrs), Jim Keltner (Drums), Ollie E. Brown (percussion), Steve Doc Kupka (sax) Emilio Castillo (trumpet) Both from Tower of Power. George Bohannon (trombone) Maxine Willard, Maxine Waters, and Clydie King on back up vox. And, of course, Martha on top form!!

Then the answer is no

I had a very nice chat with him years ago backstage at the Fairfield Halls (my mate was working for Arbiter at the time and had some replacement equipment for the band so we got free tix and backstage / dressing room access). On the Jaydees he basically had the 3 active tone controls on full pretty much all the time but just rolled the bass off slightly, which pushed the mids through and gave that characteristic gnarly tone that you hear on the early albums. There’s no distortion effect, it’s all in the sound of the Jaydee bass. Other changes track to track were simply the position of the 3 way pickup selector. So slapped parts like Micro Kid, Out of Sight Out of Mind and finger style lines like Chinese Way for example were all bridge pick up whereas the slapped line on Heathrow for example was both pickups and some of the stuff on the Early Tapes was neck pickup only. If you’ve ever picked up a Series 1 Classic Jaydee you can very easily hear this difference just by playing with the rotary selector switch position (even if you can’t actually play the damn bass lines!)

Diamonds & Rust - Joan Baez

Stainless Steel Providers - Revolting Cocks