Leaderboard

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

I'm happy to help with that again Richard

We know. If you took the French and German out of the English language we would only be able to grunt at each other.

Both my six string basses have LaBella FLs and I play with a pick - perfect sound for what I play (Grateful Dead tribute band)

Using that logic, how you smell is not on the list, so don't bother showering before the gig as the audience probably won't notice! But seriously, you have balanced sound at #3, compression helps there. Compression helps every note be heard and felt with equal punch, letting you dig in to get a different texture but without an accompanying volume spike (actually my main reason for preferring multiband, a single band comp can rob your low end when you dig in hard). It definitely helps get butts wiggling if you ask me, even if playing something simple like straight 16ths. The way that a compressor shapes the attack by letting the peaks through before clamping down just does something - I know I can tell the difference and it makes me want to move more!

I didn’t like the whole ‘each knob has an effect on the other’ thing. Could never get a sound I liked out of it, played through various Barefaced and Aguilar cabs. There was always a horrible gain in the sound when it approached gig volume, even with Drive completely off. On the other hand, my DB751 sounds quite simply superb.

Not really bothered who presents it, I watch it for the Music. Sadly the down to earth, witty, intelligent Marc Radcliffe cant present everything.

We use Drop pedals in our band - both guitarists and myself. We have a few originals that just sound right played lower (three half-steps down from already-half-step-down with our last singer and from standard tuning with our current singer) and whilst we used to change guitars to achieve it, it put a break in the flow of the performance while we changed over and checked tuning, which we didn’t like; it was even worse if we then had to change back, especially given the average set length for an original power metal band playing local support slots etc. For the guitars it was a bit of a no-brainier - the Drop pedal works great as intended. For me on bass it was a judgement call; do I still change bass and work on the speed of changeover, play the line further up, play the whole set on a 5, or try the Drop pedal. I tried it and initially wasn’t sure as it sounded a little modulated, but with the Thumpinator in front of it to give it the cleanest possible signal to process, I decided it wasn’t out of tune or unpleasant and it was plenty close enough alongside the other elements in our live performance. Tuning up half a step to standard when we changed singer helped very slightly again in terms of accuracy, though I still wouldn’t want to go any further than 3 half-steps down with the pedal no matter what the starting point. I wouldn’t use it always-on and certainly wouldn’t record with it, but for an instant change in feel for a couple of songs to vary a set, it does more good than harm. We’ve been using them for a good while now and nobody’s ever come up and said “that sounded dodgy”! 🙂

GAS (or it's origins) is the main reason why the human race has been so (arguably) successful, to the point where we are actually wearing our environment out. Simply put, whatever it is it's never enough!

Nige bought a Genzler Magellan amp head from me - fast payment and great communication - recommended!

The cringlewangers require precise timing alignment or your playing will be slightly behind the beat. I use a special cringletimer: which attaches to the gripper splark and lets you manage the timing properly. Careful of cowboys who say they can set these using the guitar version (they are a totally different tool:)

Bought a very nice Genzler amp from Paul and found the whole thing more seamless than something with no seams whatsoever. Quick post and helpful seller. Thanks!

Gaye Advert.

I feel the same after upgrading my Cali CB to a Spectracomp. I can really notice he multiband when I dig in aggressively and it’s reigned in by the upper band with a fast attack to catch the peak, yet the low end still pulses, with a slower attack to accentuate the thump.

And for clarity, “the worst” is:

Very accurate playing, good technique, and great tone.

Precisely. Firstly, I am not responsible for what others post. Secondly, had people clicked on this post and seen a video of a guy playing the exact same guitar, there would be no accusations, nor any suggestions that the post was 'misogynist'. The assumption would have been that the guitar was the focus of attention, along with the playing. How many GAS posts exist on this forum where there is the insinuation of attraction or desire over an instrument? Not a single person would think 'Maybe he is in fact objectifying the guy in the video' 🙄 The only factor being considered here is that it just happens to be a young woman featured in the video. Does that alone make it 'misogynist'? The fact that there's a young woman in a video means the post must be about her and her appearance, and not about the instrument or the playing? And even if there were to be acknowledgement as to whether she is, or is not, attractive, is attraction now also misogynist? It is wrong to be attracted to a member of the opposite sex who also happens to share in one of your favourite things, whilst doing it so well? That's another debate altogether, and not one I'm not getting into, but doesn't seem to me to fit in with the concept of 'misogynism' Anyhow, it's a post featuring a video of a girl playing one of my favorite tunes on a rather nice bass. Enjoy.

Well at the next bass bash you could organise a blind audience fingering and get answers.

No, you're spot on! I remember a few years back listening to an interview with 'Stormzy', and even he couldn't explain 'Grime'. 'Emperors clothes?'

Regarding number 2: I always see that argument and to me it's just bollocks. Unless you're playing in a big band or a super loud Metal act where the bass is barely audible, tone matters a great deal in how the audience enjoys the sound. They may not know it, but it does. I could use the same argument for guitar/drums/etc: to a regular person who has no music knowledge and who is just watching a live show, every snare and hi-hat sounds the same...or so they think. I'm of the firm belief that besides being good at your instrument, having a great tone fit for the project you're playing in is a MUST. And it WILL make a huge difference. Are you playing in a power trio à la Rush/Nirvana and your bass tone is extremely boomy with scooped mids? Then honestly I don't care how good your fingers are and how your slapping is off this world, to me you're just another average musician. Are you playing in a blues-rock band with two guitarrists who like having those crunchy tones with your treble full on and a really hi-fi sound? You could have the best licks in the world but you're doing absolutely nothing there and the band's sound will be god damn awful without some low end booty to support it. Those are just two examples but I could go on and on and on. Bass tone DOES matter and it's up to every single musician and band to know how to EQ their instruments in order to provide the best possible sound out of their songs. Otherwise, no matter how good your technique is, your sound will not be enjoyable and most people won't even know why but they WILL walk away.