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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.

Wired parallel two 98dB/w 8 ohm speakers will have 104dB/2.83v voltage sensitivity, but the halved impedance makes 2.83v 2 watts. Their 1 watt sensitivity is 101dB. One way manufacturers fudge the numbers is to quote a 4 ohm speaker at 2.83v sensitivity while making no mention that's 2 watts. If you could wire four speakers parallel the 1 watt sensitivity would go up to 104dB, but unless your amp is 2 ohm capable you have to wire the two pairs series/parallel. In that case the cab will be 8 ohms, and the 2.83v and 1w sensitivity is 101dB. Taking the math backwards, if the Eden and DNS 410s had 106dB/w sensitivity then the sensitivity of each driver would be 103dB. No ten inch driver that is useful below 100Hz has 103dB sensitivity.

Well that does get some of the neck sheen, so I wouldn't worry too much

I thought there was just one, the key of bass

I think it’s worth remembering why we had flats and sharps in the first place; Bb was NOT the same pitch as A#. Since th advent of equal temperament and the standard pianoforte instrument the distinction between them is less relevant. It is however generally true that horn players prefer flat keys and guitarists sharp keys (lots of open strings available). 30 keys? If you’re really into learning to read and write music whilst thinking of double flats and sharps throughout then more power to you; I’m not!

I saw an Ashdown CTM 30 in PMT today, and remembered this thread. I used valve amps long ago, and remember them fondly. Then I tried to pick up the CTM. It seemed to have been glued to the cab beneath it which in turn had been glued to the floor. I thought of my Rootmaster 800 and Barefaced cabs and moved swiftly on.

Here's mine that I took some photos earlier today.

Cheers! Yes I did have a good idea what to find ha ha. Looking forward to doing a bit of both.

Nice bass, happy birthday

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.

Nothing like a NBD, congrats

Good luck with it. Hope you get the job ok. I remember auditioning for a Celtic folk band. Not my usual kind of stuff at all and was fairly nervous going in. Band consisted of female singer, female violin, male guitarist, male drummer and if i remember right the guy running it played flute and wind instruments. They were auditiong 6 bass players. When i went in the 2 females literally told me the guy before me would be the perfect fit. Kind of put a damper on whole thing. Did my bit, no mistakes and was told week later that i hadn't got the job. That was my one and only failed audition in 40yrs playing. The positive in that was a year later they contacted me by email and said the guy had left and was i still interested. I reminded them what was said and quietly said no thanks. Some auditions just go so well as long as you've done your homework. You usually know when its good and you get offered the job there and then. I like them. I've had to say to enthusiastic bands to have a think about it for a week sometimes its because i might have doubts but i always like a few days to consider whether they suit me and its what i want. I've turned down quite a few for various reasons over past few yrs. Never used to say no at all and would just take any gig going. Now i'm older i'm a lot more fussy about who i play in bands with. Auditions need to work both ways. Dave

@andy67 - Good to hear. My BT500 came back today well packed and wrapped in the box I sent it in. I've given it a quick blast and seems like the problems all fixed (I didn't expect any less). They've also helpfully included a service report listing the following: Diagnosis of fault Dodgy valve sockets, bad solder contacts, broken Active/Passive switch Action taken Replaced preamp board, set clock frequencies, tested Considering I ended up paying less than 2 hours bench fee at my local tech including shipping in both directions I couldn't be happier. Thank you Orange for providing fantastic after sales service!

Or stick a good quality active circuit like an East or Audere mounted on a Jazz control plate and you can boost the low and mids a bit. I put an Audere in my Frankenjazz and it was a monster!

Our drummer spends all his time at the end of a gig chatting up women while making it look like he's packing up his gear. Meanwhile we do the stripdown and then help him load his stuff! Drummers eh! Can't gig without em...can't kill 'em!

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.

Nearing completion...

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.

Not really. It pretty much dictates how it will feel when plucking. It's part of the picture with regards to how a bass feels, but to call it meaningless when in isolation sounds ridiculous to me.

As Lozz has said, the Jazz does sound thinner compared to the Precision, its just the way it is. It can also depend on what pickups you have in the Jazz. My 66 Jazz has Barts and sounds thinner than my 75 Jazz but sounds so sweet. The 75 has Fender 75 vintage pickups and sounds more rounded but less dynamics tonally.

Lasers. You need lasers.

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"

No, better for sole.

Bass heaven: Listening to a great bass player Bass hell: Listening to me try and play the bass

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