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Well, after some humming and ahhhing... My 50th birthday present turned up last Friday. Fender Precision Professional in Candy Apple Red, from PMT in Manchester. Initially I was wanting a Precision Active Deluxe (in surf pearl) but after trying one in Dawsons and comparing to the American Pro they had it was clear that the American version for far superior – to me anyway. Possibly just down to the string through body, but it just literally sang, felt so much more alive and I thought the quality of ‘heft’ was particularly telling – it felt more solid. Then after spending an hour or so on my birthday (with an unusually attentive wife...!!!) trying their American Pro (which actually didn’t feel brilliantly set-up compared to the one at Dawsons) I picked up a Nat Mandel Precision. flip, I wish I hadn’t!!! Immediately the output of its Quarter Pounders was so marked – quite a bit louder and with a more pronounced growl – also I think the neck was more appealing, very familiar to my Yamaha BB424 so that was probably the reason it felt good. But, the Pro won out for me. It’s a special thing to me this – I can’t see me spunking this much money again on a guitar – I know, I know it’s only a bloody mid range bass, but as I say it’s a special purchase this so it had to be the American Pro – plus you get a lovely case too Ordered it last Wednesday and it arrived on Tuesday, but could only pick it last Friday due to work commitments. Picked it up and its perfect!! I’m a fussy git, but couldn’t find a single thing wrong with it – both in how it plays and cosmetically. The boys and PMT were awesome too – unknown to me, my Mum and Dad had nipped in 4 days earlier to pay off the remainder after my deposit and they played along with it right up until the end when I was about to pay when they then gave me an invoice saying nothing to pay! They also chucked in guitar stand too. Played it on Saturday night at a gig and it was brilliant - the neck is definetley different to what I'm used to, but it's by no means a negative. The action is so much better, more easier to play and it’s tone is unmistakably P-bass, plus got lots of comments on the colour from the ladies too – really, really pleased with it. ...Just need to learn to play proper now.

I got the gig!

Hope they don't take any flack, they have been informative and played with a straight bat. I think that's all we can ask for, as well as good customer service

I think it`s the difference between Jazzes & Precisions in general. I`ve found this, and to be honest, as a die-hard Precision player my ears are tuned to the P-bass, so setting up a Jazz eq in the mix just never sounds right to me, I can`t seem to coax those great tones out of one as I`m just expecting the Precision sound when I play - that might be part of the problem here maybe? The Jazz tone is much thinner in comparison, I did find that the Seymour Duncan Hot Stack was a good Jazz pickup, didn`t change the sound, just bulked it out and gave more of the same.

Who knows what engineers can do knowadays?? I mean they put a time machine in an Delorian in 1985 for goodness sake 😱

Interestingly the main thing they were worried about was me being in other bands, the things most in my favour were the drummer felt he and I clicked (I agree) and the shitty amp we used (provided by the rehearsal room) sounded horrible and I was the only one who tried to get a decent sound out of it. The others seemed not to notice or care. So what I take from this is: obviously be thorough and do your homework, but more importantly pay attention to any and every detail, you never know what might sway someone.

If your jazz sounds too thin, stick some flats on it. You can thank me later

At home, I can get a Jazz to sound just the way I want it but have never quite got it nailed in a band situation. I've stopped trying in recent years and stick with my P basses.

Not really a gig, just the first band get-together for two years, and it went rather well..! I've not been playing at all in that time, what with one thing and another, so it was with some trepidation that I sat behind my drums again. No, it's not quite like riding a bike, but it does come back quite enough for our rehearsals. A dozen songs from our past repertoires (deUs, Bashung, Radiohead, REM, RHCP, Noir Désir, Chris Cornell and more..) Altogether two hours; we'll do another session next week. Tired, now, but it's worth it.

I can see how megastars like Adele have to put a 'no contact' clause up. First couple of times people want to chat to you it's fine - but after the fifteenth person wanting you to ring their mum and do a verse of Chasing Pavements down the phone you're probably pretty tired of it so you say no, and then they get upset because you were OK with the previous fourteen people asking you for it and go tell everyone you're a beach. Eventually you figure you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and institute the "no speaky unless spoken to" ban so they'll leave you alone. Then you go slowly mad through isolation, build a theme park in your back garden, invite a bunch of pre-teens for sleepovers, and your nose falls off. It's a weird business.

No

You practice?

Did you try to favour the neck pup over the bridge pup and set the tone control to 50%? It works for me.

If there;s no phase issue, wiring in a series/parallel switch to be able to switch the pickups in series (like the Fender S1 switch) might help make it sound more beefy.

I did three auditions last year for the first time in about 15 years, I always find them a very surreal experience, I managed to get two out of the three gigs so I was pleased with that. Just remember they are musicians, making quick decisions is not what they are good at Best of luck.

Just remember, sometimes who they pick has nothing to do with who's the best player. Good for you getting out there. Good luck.

Ah, so you were the t1t the guys were talking about when I went in! :-)

Saw Kate Rusby last night in Glasgow and spent most of the gig mesmerised by Duncan's playing. That's about it really.

The general rule is you wouldn't have sharps and flats together. It really depends too on the key, if it's a flat key, say F for example then it's a Bb, if it's a sharp key, say B major then it's an A#.

bought a pedal from Patrick, fast shipping and all as expected! thanks!

And now... "whacking two out on top of each other" i need an eye test and to flush my filthy mind.

Haha - I misread that as "I agree, a CTM100 gets me stubby immediately" oo-er

Good evening, HH, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. (But you knew that anyway, didn't you..? )

Thank you all for your kind words and get well wishes. I’m very grateful. 😊 I was at a neighbours house at the weekend, and all the floors were bare, varnished, highly polished floorboards, and after dinner, whilst going down some steps, I lost my footing and came crashing down on the stairs themselves. My right forearm took the main hit, resulting in a deep open wound which bled profusely at the time. I was rushed to hospital in a state of shock, and it was confirmed I’d broken my arm too. (First break ever!) I spent the night in hospital and had my arm operated on the next day to clean and close the wound. It’s now in a cast and sling. My whole of my back is also badly bruised, and the side of my face took a hit too. After being given copious amounts of morphine at hospital, I’m now taking strong oral painkillers and antibiotics here at home. Unfortunately, as well as the injury, I’m now going to be missing a lot of work whilst I’m incapacitated. Poor Lucy now has two males at home who can’t look after themselves! 😉 Thank you all again for reaching out. All the best, Dave.

That looks very fetching, good choice Sir

I've been a P bass player since about 1988. I always go back to my old '73, despite owning loads of other basses BUT, since the arrival of my Flea Jazz bass, I haven't gigged a P bass. It's got custom shop 64 pickups IIRC as standard and they are cracking

Sorry!!

I think you just did!

Not good news but currently BF cabs can cost less than many other quality cabs, for instance Mesa, Aguilar and Genzler. They are a better buy than some cabs that are cheaper but in order to get the equivalent performance you'd have to buy 2. Sadly, Brexit is going to screw with lots of companies price lists especially if they use imported components in their products and the economy won't see the worst of it for several years. This was an entirely foreseeable situation pre Referendum.

Mate of mine has a good Rod Stewart story. A couple of years ago he went to West End show, booked at table at The Ivy, for his wife's 70th birthday, went to their seat and did the usual 'star gazing' that takes place there. Rod Stewart walked in a while later and sat at a table the other side of the place. Context at this point is that my mate and, particularly, his wife are mahoosive RS fans - they had seen him many times, the last of which was in Sydney Opera House a couple of months before. My mate went into the gents, RS came in a short while later. He risked getting chucked out (against house policy to approach celebs) and very politely thanked him for all the great concerts they'd seen, mentioned going to Sydney Opera House. Then mentioned it was his wife's birthday, where they were sitting, and what it would mean to her if he could possibly manage to make eye contact or even say something to her. My mate left the gents, RS came out shortly afterward, walked up to my mates wife, took her hand, kissed it, wished her a happy birthday. Don't think she has washed it since. A very small act of kindness on his part but it was literally one of the highlights of her life.

I think starting any reply to any concern, especially one that is as serious as suggesting you may have been liberal with your marketing facts by implying the customer is having "a bad day" smacks of not taking them seriously or treating them like they're stupid. Maybe I'm having a "bad day" when reading it, but to me it comes across as massively unprofessional and conjures up the image of a one man band operation, smoking waccy baccy and telling me to "chill out". Again, all IMHO of course. I'm sure 99% of bass players would find it cool.

Whether using top or side mounted sockets... 90-degree cable plugs seem a must to me. Normal cable just make me nervous that something/someone will eventually hit it bending it and possibly damaging the socket. Clearly not too much of an issue as most people do just fine without... but that's my take on it.

Every other company needs to raise prices at times, I like the way they`ve put out comms about it, rather than just add on the quids without explanation.

Might as well took a picture of your hand! Chromes have royal blue silks so if the strings on the bass don't have the silks then they're not Chromes.

Great club venue (apart from the load-in - up the fire escape or a narrow staircase indoors)! I've had a couple of great nights there. I would have had a drive over but unfortunately I'm gigging in Leeds that night...

I'd like to get gigging a bit more as i'm getting older. Originally when i got back into bands i thought one a month would suit me but now that i've more free time and a little older the weekends don't have any special meaning ie night out with friends for a beer or two i'm thinking i'd like to play more often.

Hi all Firstly, thanks for the responses..... Hazza is a great lad (I would say that tho) and unlike Kiogon I won't be building this for him! - although I will help him where he needs to be safe! Haz has been saving for ages to get the bits he wants so I want try and avoid ending up with a lemon! I don't play guitar (so I literally have no idea what he's talking about but he has spent hours researching and reading on this) and although We have made a couple of woodwork projects (cajon and bowls etc) I always encourage him to learn and do for himself - so we genuinely appreciate your views/advice/help!! The one bit I will help with is that I have presumed that using a router is the best option For the pick up bits and pieces And presumably for a neck 'hole/pocket' does anyone supply templates for these or do you have to make it from scratch? Cheers all.... And I'm sure Haz will post pictures or YouTube or whatever they do these days

Here's the update ... The head went back to Orange and I've just had an email from them saying that they've fixed the issue. Here's what they've said (I'm assuming that the issue would have required a little soldering and wasn't just a badly seated valve as I'd tried switching them out/reseating them a few times before I sent it to them): I've paid them for labour and shipping but so far this seems fantastic customer service. I'll post another update once I get the head back.

Reminds me of the famous Hoffman/Olivier conversation, in which Sir Larry, after apparently listening to Dustin drone on for hours about Method, offered "You should try acting my dear, it's so much easier"

Second gig with the ska band last night. Longer set this time. Went really well and i got lots of compliments on my sound, the band in particular loved it (all i did was roll off the passive tone on my Sire V7 fiver about 60% of the way to take the bright snap out of the tone, and boost the active bass a bit). I had a total mare in a couple of songs, Ghost Town in particular was a real car crash. Which is annoying because it was fine at the last gig -- more personal practice needed and less complacence. I'm having a ball playing this stuff. The venue fed us too, absolutely belting pizza.

Hey Buzzy. I’m 68 mate and been in both situations. I’m back playing again though. If you want to you can. Age means nothing go for it if it is what you want! 😀👍🎸😀👍🎸😀👍🎸😀

Bass heaven - Instrument at waist height. Bass hell - Instrument at chest or knee height.

Hi Ellie, what a coincidence! Your name is the same as my daughter's and it's also the name I've given to my new custom s-s Maruszczyk Elwood pictured below!! Oh, and I play an SWB-1 too among other things. Just saying...