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Hey Guys! Just stumbled over this thread and thought I'd chime in a bit about what is unique about my JHB signature bass. After the Warwick 35 years celebration in September 2017, Warwick asked me what would it take for me to come onboard as an endorser. My answer was simple, "You have to make me a bass that I'll want to play forever!" I was imediately flown out to Germany to the Custom Shop and spent 4-days with their head designer going through all the details of what had to be in this model. It has to be said that the Warwick JHB is totally different to any other Warwick bass I have seen and/or played, and when I was at the factory, I played everything they had. The Fortress body shape was chosen for two reasons. Firstly, Warwick did not want to design a completely new body shape, they wanted it to be representative of one of their basses- that was the only restriction. I chose the Fortress because at 24 frets, it was the only body shape they do that balanced properly. The shape was cutomised slightly in that it had a deeper angled curved where the forearm goes across and deep scoops on the inside of both the upper and lower horns. One of the most radical changes made, was the use of a different bridge. Historically, Warwick has always used a 2-peice bridge which is highly adjustable, but I never liked the sound of those 2-peice bridges- too clickly and hi-fi sounding. Instead we used an All Parts 'Omega' bridge which is a copy of the Badass II bridge. Badass went out of business sometime ago and All Parts waited until their patent expired and have done an exact copy- IMO the best sounding bridge ever. This single customisation makes this bass sing head over heels compared to any other Warwick bass I've heard. I love the sound of the Aguilar Super Doubles. I had those in my Fodera, but that was something I switched out as the Fodera came with Seymor Ducans. I also wanted the EM Bass Mute, which is a switchable bass muting system which emulates the palm muting technique. The circuit was designed by me and Warwick did a terrific job in manufacturing that exactly to my personal specs. The body wood is swamp ash which is considerably lighter than the American Ash on the Fodera and has a much more agressive and responsive sound. There's an ultra-thin AAA Flame Maple top. This was crucial as a lot of basses are made with top woods that are too thick which messes with the sound. The neck is also completely different from the garden variety Warwick bass. For starters, it has 19mm spacing which was the first bass they've produced with this spacing. In addition the depth of the neck is super thin and instead of a "C" shape, it's more of an assymetrical shape much like a teardrop, where there's a little more weight at the low strings and less weight at the higher strings. While I was at the Custom Shop, I played the Lee Sklar model. Although I diddn't really like that bass, they used small madolin fretwire which was incredible, so we added that as well to the JHB. The neck is made from Flame Maple, with a Bird's Eye Maple fretboard. This was finished off with a graphite nut. The playabitlity is amazing and all in all Warwick has done a fabulous job in reproducing all of my original ideas about this wonderful instrument. So many people were shocked when they heard I had gone to Warwick, but when I posted the original sound samples people were amazed at how good this bass sounded. Many stating that it was a lot punchier than the Fodera. I did like the Fodera bass, but my JHB bass is so much better. This is the bass I use now. You'll see a lot of guys who have endorsements who will never play the basss they endorse unless they're at a trade show. Not me. From the very outset with Warwick, I said that the only way that I will work with you is that you knock this out of the park and build me something that I'll play forever! They in turn came up with the goods! Bavo Warwick!

Well, there are a number of us female bass players on here - one of them is even a mod, and she can reply to locked threads! While we are all very, very pretty indeed, most of us are not exactly 'young', so our reaction tends to be a weary shrug of our shoulders, before moving on to another thread or back to practising on our basses.

Here's my old one: And here's my current one: And the two of them together cost less than he wants for the one in that listing!

The thing is though, the OP is claiming that's not what he meant, which I find disingenuous at best. If you want to make a leery, boorish nudge- nudge type comment about a girl on a publicly visible forum (which I think is the real point here), at least have the balls to admit it. Or possibly just keep it in your head where it belongs.

Time to address a couple of common ideas often spoken around these parts. The first was brought up in a recent thread and I see the second one a lot, too. Interested to hear your thoughts. 1. "Whatever bass you play, you'll sound like you'' / ''It's all in the fingers'' I suppose to a degree it's right - someone will recognise the style of playing of an individual regardless of what bass they play. A good example would be Victor Wooten playing that Sire jazz bass recently posted here. It sounds like him. BUT - I don't think it's even remotely true to say it doesn't matter what bass you buy, it's all in the fingers. Nobody can make a Precision bass sound like a Musicman just by the way they play. It's impossible. Maybe in front of an audience with poor monitoring and a poor bass sound it would be immaterial - we've all been there - but recorded, or properly monitored, it's obvious to me that basses sound completely different. Otherwise why would we even discuss them? 2. "It doesn't matter what you play (gear wise), the audience won't be able to tell the difference" Maybe not. My mum can't even identify what sound is the bass. But is that a reason not to buy XYZ? Do we do it slavishly for the audience, or do we enjoy knowing our own sound works, and the nuances, even if known only to the player, are worth the journey? Would you be happy playing a really horrible - but adequate - sound as a bass player?

It would take less time asking every member of the audience than it would asking every member of the band in some of the places I've played in!

Lads I already feel bad for regurgitating it all over again. We can all just get along. The new bc rules should be no political chat, no religious chat, no compression chat!

Maybe try reading the thread next time...even the title would have been a start😉

I find it quite disturbing that a Belgian has a better English vocabulary than I do 😁

The audience can hear the difference, they just don't know they do

It is yellow....very yellow! And I like it!

Thought this was cool - Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet's GK rig, as used with a pair of Wals

Time for a story, sorry Many years ago lighting was expensive and I was broke. For our band I kibbled some lighting together, ahem health and what? Anyway I had two kitchen spotlight units with three different coloured halogen spots in each, a strobe attached to each and a smoke machine. It was all wired through a homemade footswitch to turn it all on and off. The smoke machine was tucked behind my massively over the top bass rig consisting of a bi-amped pair of 15's and a pair of 12's, aiming behind the drummer. When we did Motorheads Overkill I would stomp on the switch turning off the coloured lights and turning the smoke and strobes on when it got to all the false endings, if you know the song you'll know when I mean. At one gig I stomped enthusiastically on the switch at the correct moment which immediately fell to pieces leaving the smoke machine and strobe permanently on only able to be turned off at the wall. The drummer slowly disappeared from sight, then the guitarist and I and it stayed on for the remainder of the song until the stage area and crowd were completely lost in the fog and blinded by massive white strobes bouncing off the cloud. Oh how we all laughed, well apart from the drummer who was having some sort of epileptic asthma attack

Think we've got very similar if not the same ones Les. They're ok for a colour wash but I wouldn't use them on their own. I've got a couple of more expensive brighter ones that I use for main lighting. You're welcome to pop by to check them out if we're in your neck of the woods - we're at the bowling green in Dec. I use an O clamp with some speaker pole mounted to the ceiling mount screw holes on the top of our PA tops. Then I can just hang the par cans off them.

I've gigged and rehearsed with about ten different basses in my current band over hundreds of gigs/sessions. Not one band member or punter has ever noticed the difference 😞😞

I’d totally try out a the HL comp and if it works ‘ better’ than my Cali I’d consider the possibility of swapping. If a product is noticeably better or adds something to the whole then it makes sense to consider the options especially if it’s important to you to have the latest version of a pedal. I enjoy what my Cali does I like the sound so not actively in the market but if anyone wants to A/B one in Edinburgh with my Cali just let me know 😀 @Al Krow most audiences aren’t going to consciously notice a lot of what you list over and above the singer and the songs. I believe that unless actively out to scrutinise a band rather than just have a few drinks and a dance folks aren’t that bothered. I know we’ll disagree over that but playing a bum note or screwing up a passage might not even get noticed by many let alone some of the other stuff listed. I’ve hit the occasional bum note and no one on the dance floor stopped dead and eyeballed me with contempt for killing their groove... Ok maybe the drummer 😀 Recently doing our Ska ‘7 Nation army’ cover I didn’t bother with the heavy drive on one chorus but did in another and again there wasn’t any noticeable different in the crowds response to the song as they kept on singing along. Generally folks were more interested in their immediate friends and surroundings than my choice of note, technique or effect be it in their face or beyond the realms of their perception. Ive said it before I’m not apathetic to the audience, I love gigging and a bit of banter with folk when playing. I understand that while many of us do understand where and how important a bass works in a mix a lot of the drunken hen parties we see don’t and would be bored to death if we tried to tell them. I’m happy that they remain as oblivious to my gear if it means they kee dancing and singing.

+1 The pleasure of the chase, and acquisition [rpt]. A couple of times I have bought The One, only to sell and buy again, because I can't bear the thought of the chase ending.

Can you Photoshop my belly to make it smaller please.

perfect. I've ordered one of the other ones you posted, to see what they're like. Thanks for your help folks

I recently started to do live looping and wanted to avoid a computer so I bought an Akai xr-20 used for dirt cheap to act as the master clock for my Pigtronix Infinity looper. Sure, if you want to record it, you need a computer, but for playing live, this setup would not require a computer. In some ways it feels very liberating. Here´s how my setup sounds:

I always thought ‘all in the fingers’ was nonsense. I get the thinking behind it but people who say that are confusing chops / playing style with choice of equipment. A really good example is Jaco playing Jerry Jemmott’s bass on the Electric Bass video. Jaco is playing in the way he plays, and it’s great, but it sounds completely different to the rest of the video where he plays the Fender. They’re Jaco’s chops, but with a different tone.

Nail on head. Hubba hubba indeed. FFS.

Later Without Jools Holland.

I don't want to out myself as a Snowflake SJW but I can't help wondering what I'd think if I was a young female bass player reading this thread.

And she’s hot i do have a liking for the work of Michael Steele of the bangles

Its a misconception that all power amps are the same and uncoloured. They are mostly different - the higher end power amps are much more full sounding, with more pronounced bass and bottom end. It debateable what difference it makes for bass guitar, but there is a big difference. There is also a big difference between traditional amps and class D, (the dreaded heft word). BUT class D is more than acceptable - you wouldnt know the difference if you werent A/B ing them. I currently have a QSC RMX1450 which works really well with bass. (i use a tech 21 VTRM) Flipping heavy though. I had a Crown 1502 - very light and clear - but if youre going to get one id just consider a couple of things: 1) how many cabs/speakers are you driving? (i used one to power a barefaced sc 1x12 and it was really struggling. 2) if you are bridging you WILL need a different speakon cable to put the amp in bridge mode. It needs setting to bridge, then using a differently wired speakon.

Ok that's a deal. So I definitely won't be able to confirm or deny whether I've splashed out £63 for a multi-band comp that's going to let me: dig in to get a different texture but without an accompanying volume spike (whereas a single band comp might rob my low end when I dig in hard); shapes the attack by letting the peaks through before clamping down by providing a fast attack to catch the peak, yet the low end still pulses with a slower attack to accentuate the thump; and, according to some, represents an "upgrade" from a Cali 76CB; [source: the legendary db ] Plus: takes up precious little pedal board real estate; has just one knob for simpletons like me to worry about.

IMO..... you take what you need from instruction, take from it what's useful to you, and ignore what isn't. Like someone said earlier, you can loose a bit of your individuality if you follow to the letter what someone else is showing you. Singing/lessons is the same, keep your own voice and take on board the stuff that helps you improve your own technique. Be yourself, always.

Good point Jez. The inner devil’s advocate tells me that as double bass player we hardly contribute to mass slaughters, but still, the synthetic options have got to be the future.

Pop down your local chemist and buy a pack of these - you'll soon be back to thinking that the gear will make a difference and the GAS will be back

I would say yes as long as you have a volume control! The main input expects an instrument level signal. I've run things like a Tech21 VT DI and DP3X into it no problem, but I've set them up so they are around unity gain when on/off. You might get clipping if pumping in a really hot signal, but I have boosted into it quite hard and not heard any obvious clipping before.

This is all getting quite boring. People taking offence for no reason and on behalf of others. I actually think the bickering here is far more off-putting to all forum users than any offence that might have been taken. I'll invite the mods to decide the nature of what has been posted and take action as needed, and let that be the end of it.

It's not a Thumb- it's a Streamer CV, but only 21 frets. There's a cool story about that too that I'll share another time.

Well quite, but I do feel calling someone out because they like the look of someone of the opposite or even the same sex is a little over the top. No lewd or defamatory words or phrases were used. If people did not find the opposite sex attractive the human race would have died out long ago. A bit of common sense perhaps. I remember my wife drooling over Sting for years and it had little to do with his bass playing.

Yeah that's the problem. I even found some of the books somewhat suspect back in the day. I find tabs are good for a reference point but you still have to use you ears and play what sounds "right".

I thought they were all universities now...?

If you want to buy gear you look on the manufacturers site and the retailers site. You can look on bass forums and ask questions. It's the buyers responsibility to find out what is being offered and what matches up with their requirements. In any field, it's the buyer who has to do their homework and if they buy a combo that can't use an extension cab, well that's either what they wanted or a good learning experience.

Whether it's in the fingers, or you have good or indifferent bass gear, one of the main (and overlooked) elements regarding how you sound is how everyone else in your band sounds. It's no good being the world's best bass player if you're in a band with the world's worst drummer or the UK's loudest guitarist. Whether or not you're heard and appreciated is also down to how other people play - do they listen, are they selfish, do they leave space in the music, do they have good timing and groove? Some people (even when playing covers) will fill every nanosecond with noise, so ultimately you can't hear anything much and whether you're a good bass player or not and whether you have good gear or not becomes moot.

I see he’s liberally applied a tube of “No More Headstock” on that...

If you think that's dodgy, I suggest you have a look at TC Electronic!

Received it on Friday. Looks pretty good in person. NOt sure about the bag. It's functional, but I'll probably end up getting one of those plastic light cases (Kinsman and the like) to offer a bit more protection in the future. I don't think I'll but the optional panel. It's a nice idea, but unnecessary. There's enough space below for a 4-way strip, which then allows multiple power supplies, as it may be required if using a few large draw pedals... so I think I'll just keep it as it is and find a way to fit a multiway underneath instead. Light and solid. Good call @cLepto-bass!!!

Oi oi! Just thought I'd actually post something! Especially as this is my thing... In a nutshell Live is the best solution for me - not least because it's rock solid on a gig - I've used it countless times now and it's never let me down. OK so hers's my basic formual. You'll need - 1 + decent Soundcard to plug your bass into (I use the Clarett 4Pre now, I was using a different one in the video below); midi foot controller - I use the KMI Softstep 2 (this allows you to do hands-free Record/overdub/stop/start looping with the built in Loop in Live) - and finally a midi-controller such as a Launchpad or Akai-type grid controller. You can run the sound directly into your amp, or split the output to your amp and the PA - that way you can have just the bass coming out of your amp in the usual way - but then have a lovely big stereo sound for all the other loops and effects. In terms of creating the actual loops there are several ways of doing this - do it complerely from scratch with each instrument on their own channel in Live, use the Launchpad to start recording on a single slot on a single channel and loop it when you want; or you can send the audio from each channel just to the Looper, or set up multiple loopers - either on the same channel or separate channels... the only limit to this is your technical knowledge and your imagination - Live is so flexible you can set it up in loads of different ways. Just a bit of info on this clip - which is from a gig I did with Loop Lord Steve Lawson (whose set up is completely different and uses a Looperlative) - I was just using one Looper channel, some pre-recorded clips or varying lengths - but also using some effects on the Looper channel which meant both the Loop and the signal from the bass where being mashed-up together - while also keeping a separate channel for the bass (I am sending the bass channel to the Looper as well, so it can be recorded and looped). Live also has some fantastic delays and reverbs, and I use it for my FX rack on a lot of gigs - all the effects on the video are generated in Live. If you wait for the looped chords (at 2.52) to come in they are actually being played backwards - which is one of the cool features of the Looper in Live: you can reverse, speed up and slow down your loops - which is brilliant for creating really unique lines and parts that you can't physically play - so it's a fun tool for composing too... If you're based near South London I'd be happy to give you (or anyone else) a lesson or two on this - so just PM me on that - otherwise I hope this helps Mx