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[walks into shop] Can I buy your Maruzoo... Marushu... Maruzaku... Mooroozoo... Ah b0llocks, I'll have that Fodera. No wonder I'm skint.

I may be able to offer some insight on this as I am something of an obsessive on the Jeff Berlin sound. It's always been a sound that I loved and since returning to bass full time in 2015 after a couple of years off, it has been the sound that I craved and sought to recreate in my playing. Of course, there are different eras of Jeff's sound but the key ingredients in getting his basic tone remain the same. Essentially, it's 15" cabs with no tweeters, an alder bodied bass with Bartolini pickups and a high mass bridge. Sometimes, but not always using a bit of chorus and almost exclusively using the bridge pickup with the tone rolled slightly back (it's worth noting that his 'blonde' bass had the neck pickup disconnected for many years before it was stolen). For reference, my rig is the Markbass CMD151P Jeff Berlin combo, with a Cort Rithimic 4 string and Peavey Palaedium in amber, as per what Jeff played from the early 90's until he signed with Dean Guitars. I also use a TC Electronic Corona Chorus pedal, I am reliably informed that this was Jeff's chorus pedal for years, although Jeff now uses an EBS Unichorus. You can read interviews where Jeff talks about why he no longer endorses the brand, though he never names TC Electronic directly. It boils down to a dispute over loaning a pedal at a trade show where Jeff was demonstrating for them, and I do not propose to expand on this matter here. I will note the varying eras by which I define Jeff's tone: Bruford era - black Jazz bass and 'Blonde' bass. Due to the production techniques of the late 70's, the early Bruford tones aren't massively defined. The black jazz bass was retired at some stage and by the early 80's Jeff was recording almost exclusively with what I call the 'blonde' bass. This was an alder precision body with two Bartolini humbuckers. The neck pickup became static at some point and was disconnected and in later years, the control knobs for this pickup were removed from the bass. The neck was a Fender Jazz neck reprofiled by Michael Tobias (Jeff used a Tobias bass for the live shows with AWBH band). The Bartolini humbuckers were wound by Bill Bartolini to Jeff's specification and sounded tremendous. The tone was middy, but the recordings of the day don't capture the 'nasal' upper mid quality which later records did. This same bass was used on Jeff's first two solo records. Around this time, Jeff was playing Yamaha amps and appeared in some promotional material with Billy Sheehan. The 90's - Peavey years - Jeff signed with Peavey and had the Palaedium signature bass made. The earlier basses used a different logo to the later instrument - look for the difference in a cursive, scrolled 'Palaedium' script against a more angular font. it is still unclear as to whether or not the pickups inside the basses are Bartolini. It is my belief that they are Peavey pickups. They are rather brighter and clearer than the Barts, with a little less warmth and a bump in the upper-mid character. For 1997's 'Taking Notes', Jeff noted that the bridge pickup was a little too close to the strings and created some interference on the record, though this is barely perceptible. By the end of this era, Jeff was getting more heavily into chorus. For whatever reason, by the end of 90's his Peavey basses had black tape over the Peavey logo. The 00's - Dean Guitars - The Dean instruments sounded very bight and nasally. They had an ebony board (like the Palaedium) but also Bartolini pickups. They had a beautiful singing quality to them. I understand that Jeff's instruments were made at Dean Guitars in Florida by someone called 'Mike', but I have been unable to find further info on this to date. There was a 'Grinch' bass, which had a slightly thicker than normal body. This had a top compromised of many different exotic woods. One ended up being sold to a TB'er in Florida (this was an early prototype) and another was sold by Jeff as part of his fundraising for the Jack Bruce project. Current day - Jeff now uses the Cort Rithimic. This includes Bartolini pickups wound to the original specifications of the pickup he designed with Bill Bartolini, after the original schematic for the pickups was recovered after many years being lost. The BadAss II bridge was replaced with a Babicz. It hangs on the body more like a traditonal jazz bass whereas the Palaedium and Dean tend to sit a little more in-board on the body. If you listen to 'Joe Frazier Round 3' you'll note that the bass sound is a little darker and punchier in the low mids. The Cort sound has serious balls, with a little more 'thump' than the earlier Palaedium and Dean. I think it sounds more like the 'blonde' bass and so it suits me to have both. One notes that Jeff does set his tone rolled back slightly, as in the instructional videos for his reading course, he has purple tape on the bass to keep the tone knob in the right place (ie, neither fully open nor closed). Over years of owning many, many basses, I am convinced that the Rithimic and the Palaedium are the best basses I have ever played and I would struggle to choose a favourite between the two. The trick is to use hand positioning to modulate your sound. When Jeff walks, he plays closer to the neck and returns to the bridge for superior control over the length and tone of the note. Jeff has always played with a low action and light strings (DR DDT .40 - .100). I recall a post from a Talkbass user who had played one of Jeff's Palaediums at a trade show and recalled that the action was so low he struggled to get a clean note out of it, but Jeff was able to make it sing with his controlled touch. I note that his touch these days is more refined than it has ever been. The bridge pickup is absolutely key.

ADEG Well, c'mon....I used to be a librarian.

This is how religious schisms begin. One innocent question about an inconsequential point of protocol. A thousand years from now our descendants will still be participating in mass persecutions and guerilla warfare between E starters and G starters.

You got it quite right @NJE, but the main reason for this price difference is called cupidity on the seller side and stupidity on the buyer side. And the Fodera team has not such extraordinary luthiers, that said. If these guys were so terrific they would do a differential fretboard dressing and certainly not that stupid unscientific string anchorage called "extended B"... Any real luthier knowing his job will build you a terrific bass, with terrific woods, extraordinary pickups and fantastic preamp for 3000 to 5000 quids, depending on the number of strings you want. And exactly as you want it. Think twice about the price tag of such high end basses, there is absolutely no reason for it. It's just like in the audiophile world, prices are totally unjustified. It's only the marketing department making his job. I had an original Fodera Richard Bona, simply the worst bass I ever played or owned, stupidly heavy, dull sound without the preamp loudly engaged : always thought it was a cheap Chinese copy ... but it wasn't. I know I won't make friends here, but truth always hurts.

I'm a cheap bastard. Do they do one a bit like that for 300 quid? 😁

I am intending to wait for proper medical advice but I just wanted to hear what other people's experiences have been. Have depped out the first couple already.

With all due respect I don’t think possession of a P bass is the main factor in me not being a first call LA session legend 😂

I've been on the forum for about 10yrs and it's fair to say it has changed, as would be expected. There were times when I first joined you'd get a proper verbal bust up. Posters would carry on into the early hours (some of the best threads would be active at 2 or 3 in the morning). It was busier. The membership was a little more diverse, especially age wise. It was it bit more raw, forthright and antagonistic at times, now it's more middle aged male grumpiness. It has always, ultimately, been friendly though. I may not have met them, but I regard some of the people I've 'met' on BC to be true friends. The place went downhill though when Bilbo ditched his carrots. Skank valiantly rescued them, but it still wasn't the same.

So there isn't really a problem? So glad I ploughed through 8 pages of this.

Ok, as requested I've had a tidyup and removed the argumentative non-contributions. Valuable and informative topics/discussions like this one are part of what makes this place so good. Please let's not spoil it with petty nonsense. Can I suggest that people use PMs in future if they want to have a handbag fight? So. As you were.

For the first time I can ever remember, when I last re-stringed my bass all 4 tuners ended up perpendicular to the headstock when tuned up*. So now I simply carry a set square around and tune by setting the angle. *This bit is actually true Really, G-E although I don't think it really matters. They are never out by much anyway and usually due to relative heat/humidity in the room.

Wait... you can tune a bass? I don't hold with all this new-fangled messing about & chicanery! I told the rest of the band that my tuning can't be changed, so they have to re-tune to me. Problemo solvedo 🎸 🎻 🎶 🍻

I play the songs first then tune my bass to compensate for all the wrong notes.... 🤪

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2 bests for me, 2012 Ric 4003 and Fender player series p bass, if any of you are toying with getting a player series I can highly recommend them, mine plays as good as the USA I used to own. worse buy of 2018 was a 50s fender telecaster bass copy.. bloody orrible thing, sold it on immediately

Buy the cheaper one and a butterfly sticker. Nobody would know 😉

While the festives and family stuff has been going on, progress has been a bit spasmodic but by the end of tomorrow, I should be able to put some quality time into finishing this - hopefully by the end of the week. I've got two more slurry and buff grades to do on the body - 1500 and 2000, but already it is feeling right and looking pretty even. Here's how the back presently stands: The basic back carve shape is the same as on @Len_derby 's build. What I liked about this variation is that it still looks and feels a substantially thick body and yet still has the comfort and weight advantages of the arched back - some of my other builds have tapered more at the sides, making it look super skinny which freaks some players out (especially 6-string electric guitar players ) This variation softens the carve towards the edges, so retains the edge and front view thickness: Still to do - Final two grit levels of the body oil slurry and buff – 1500 and 2000 grit Sort the magnetic hatch and trussrod cover fixings Fit the jack-plate, set into the body the same way the bridge is Copper-foil line the control chamber Fit the electrics and pickups Level, re-crown and polish the frets Micro-mesh the neck and fretboard progressively to around 8000 grit micro-mesh Fit the nut, bridge, tuners and strap buttons String up Set up

No, they tend to play lead guitar:

Yup, this thread is turning into a secret confessional - oh, the shame we feel when we discover we've been doing it the 'wrong' way. It's like discovering that some people stand up to wipe their bums while others remain seated...

You guys tune your basses ?

Burn the heretical bastards, before their foul perversity spreads to the simple minded and unenlightened.

After Bridgehouse saves Rock n Roll with a Marshall, here is my own contribution. I sold my Rumble last year as we were mostly doing gigs with supplied backline, there is now some gigs on the horizon where we need to bring our own gear. So a good excuse to get something with a bit of oommph. As a long time Ashdown fan, I spotted this in GG so pulled the trigger. It`s an ABM 500 EVO 2 but I havent seen any heads this size. It is in what looks like an official Asdown head sleeve but all the heads I have seen are a good bit shorter without the vents at the ends. This style of head looks like the ones fitted to the EVO 2 combo. I might drop them a line and see if I can get any info. It looks like it has never been used and is almost mint and needless to say the wife had a bloomin fit when I plugged it into my ABM 2 x 10 cab and gave it a bit of welly. It`s heavy, large and I love it already! Just need the 8 x 10 now... The saviour of Rock N Roll part 2!

I’m on here quite regularly nowadays, I’ve noticed so many BC’ers are fast to create drama and hostility towards each other and jump down each other’s throats, what’s the deal? What happened to peace & love among bassists???

A Lexus costs pretty much the same to build as a Toyota of equivalent spec but they sell for 2-3 times the price, they only sell 13,000 of them a year in the UK, so every one who buys a Lexus pays over the odds mostly in order to pay for the advertising (Sponsorship or whatever they call it) that creates the perceived value (as well as supporting dealers who sell low volumes compared to Ford or Vauxhall dealers so fixed costs per sale are higher), top price instruments are pretty much the same, it's about perceived value - and because some of the brands aren't well known and heavily advertised they are perceived as of less value hence resale values are lower even if they were originally good value for money when new If Victor Wooten played a Maruszczyk or a Mensinger and banged on about it then Adrian could charge more rather than charging cost plus profit plus a little margin for retailer and a what the market will bear factor I'd be interested to know how many Basses Fodera make annually compared to Adrian and what their actual costs are, I bet they aren't much more than 2x as expensive to build

I'm really not sure what you're trying to get at. I don't get drawn into the arguments on here because, as I'm sure I've posted before, Internet arguing, where nobody wins and everyone looks like d!cks. I'm pretty laid back in life and on here and as far as I'm aware I've never upset anyone on here. So I'll just wish you a happy new year and leave it at that. No smiley as that appears to cause upset.

@Bassislife16 You've genuinely confused me now.

To be fair Al..... I’m really shallow, I’ll have the Bentley please 😂😂

Can i live there

I made sure I bought a bass that was in tune when I bought it... Seriously though. I always tune E to G, but I'm beginning to think I should go G to E. Or, E to G then G to E to double check?

Get in touch with GG and demand a uk one. Thats what i did with both of mine (first one from G4M). Both did arrive with adapters though, it wasnt that i couldnt use them, i just wanted proper UK ones. I spoke to TCE and they said the uk purchased ones should come with proper UK adapter.

So you want to setup the intonation on your bass? Thats a pity...

My sound is so clanky you won't notice that the bass is out of tune.

Jimmy Hill volute !

street cred or 10 bob the choice is yours

I’ve followed this thread loosely and I’m wondering about the premise. Does anyone actually overrate the Ric? As it’s generally regarded as a bit of a one trick pony (as an owner, I don’t think it is) it is surely hard to overrate it. Does it have some questionable design features? Does its looks divide opinion? Is it sometimes badly put together? Yes to all of those, but overrated? Not so much IMO, it’s just a bass at the end of the day. BC does like a Ric bash and sometimes it’s warranted (I often agree with those points) and Ric themselves do nothing to endear them to the bass community, but to call it overrated sounds off to me, you might as well ask that of any ‘one trick pony’ bass. My 2p FWIW.

Super cool. Probably going to take this on my European Tour next month. It just screamed rock 'n' roll to me. 😺

Or 'Cease and Desist'

Also, I have several and I'm not a first-call LA session legend. Although I'm probably the second-call in my street.

Hey guys, not sure if this is strictly the place to put it but just wanted to give you a heads up as I know people are often after new transcriptions on here, I had a quiet night last night and transcribed 'Good Love is on the Way' from the John Mayer Trio live album - the outstanding Pino on bass.... And now I have just finished doing 'Who Did You Think I Was' from the same record....I learn so much from transcribing this guy...He is like a gold mine of useful and tasteful ideas! Check them out, feel free to use them! https://www.daveevansbass.com/transcriptions Dave

best advice so far😎

Until now! E,G,D,A of course... Why I've no idea but I've been doing it that way for 35 years. Got a feeling someone told me to to it that way - maybe?? 😃

I never tune, tuning is over-rated 😂

I bought 3. It would have been rude not to.

Imagine being a mod on a forum with over 137, 000 members. Never ending task, but we had superb ways of dealing with dissenters. We tracked their addresses down through their IP's and sent a tooled up crew round. Happy days

I don't really recognise the picture painted by the OP. Basschat is one of the warmest, friendliest places I've been a contributor to. One thing that comes to mind is that it's easy to mistake the intentions that the author of a post had and to draw offense where none is due. Try to imagine they're written by nice people with smiles on their faces and winks in their eyes (but not in a Werthers Original way).

Still got the final shaping to finish, but grabbed a spare moment to do a few of the smaller jobs. I cut some swifts: Cut the control chamber cover from another offcut of the top wood: And fitted the tuners and bridge to pop on some strings, just tightened enough to straighten them, so that I can work out the exact positions of the PJ pickups before the scary bit of cutting the chambers: I will be sinking the bridge in so that the plate is flush with the top as I did with @Len_derby 's - but that and the pickup routs will wait a day or so while I make a bit more progress on @eude 's 6-er