Leaderboard

As promised, managed to ge out in the good weather and get a few beauty shots! The scroll at the front and the rounded front of the headstock im particulary pleased with: and a few artsy shots on the grass and a few close ups of the pattern: Hopefully updates in the form of a couple of demo videos coming soon!!

Very chuffed this week! I've wanted one of these for over a year. They allegedly only did 200 in this colour as a special run then discontinued them. So, when this came up I was very lucky. Took a chance and it arrived in unused immaculate condition, still with the plastic coverings on. The colour is stunning. Not obnoxious green, but not subtle! I have a fender player in sunburst so I knew what to expect, but the maple neck is lovely and bright and the whole bass is fantastically balanced and plays superb.

We have a roof!!! I laid on quite a spread for the topping off party,. Sparkling wine and two types of crisps.

Glueing the fretboard on is quite difficult. The challenge is clamping evenly when the back caul along the straight part of the neck can, by definition, be only a thin strip teetering on the spine of the neck, and then the part over the body being able to be clamped without crushing the hollow body. With a standard acoustic, you can pop a clamp inside the sound-hole for the upper frets, but this doesn't have a proper soundhole. But, at the end of the day, it's still a case of just swamping it with clamps and radius blocks to try to give maximum even pressure on the board itself: ...and I think this is OK. Not perfect, but probably better than I expected: It looks pretty flat and twist free, but before I spend any time on refinishing and re-levelling/crowning the frets, I'm going to see if the basic break mend cuts the mustard. So tomorrow, when I know the fretboard glue is fully cured, I'm going to string it up, bring it up to pitch and see what happens

Woke up in a great mood today. The sun was shining and I'd had a lovely hour's walk with the dog and my youngest daughter. So I thought I'd set about my fretless with a drill and a Dremel. Replaced the EMG PAX pickup that was in there with a Wilkinson PJ set, stacked V/T V/T pots and a phase switch on the bridge pickup. Used a 10mm bit to remove most of the wood, then the Dremel with a routing bit. No template, just some markings on some tape. Took my time and stayed calm. I had a moment of panic when both V/T controls acted as masters, I'd forgotten the two resistors to isolate the controls . Added those and all is good. It sounds much bigger than with the EMG, even just this P on its own, and it now has those mids that a fretless really needs...

I mounted the neck, bridge and pickups. I put an old set of strings on it, did a quick set up. Plays nice so far. Just the controls and strap locks to go. And lots of tweaking the setup. I only get one chance to put the controls where I want them...

I started out like many, playing on what I could afford in my early twenties. My second bass was a Japanese Fender Jazz, better then my first (which I believe was a Fernandes). Long story short, after 30+ years of playing and trading up I now own instruments said to be top notch. Brands are Fodera, Zon, Sadowsky etc. I like to think I have a good idea about the quality of instruments BUT... I saw a young lad with lots of talent totally rip **** up on a cheap Squier Jazz the other day. He sounded awesome and I was loving it. So are we simply spoiling ourselves for no real good reason when moving on to "better" instruments? Are the most pricey and iconic brands of instruments for lawyers, dentists, IT folk (me) and alike who pretend to be musicians? I wonder what would happen if I would switch to the cheapest of basses right now. Could I come to terms with playing those again? Has anyone tried this? When thinking back to my early gigging days, I do not think I was having any less fun with those cheap instruments then I am having right now with the pricey ones... Have you ever thought about these things? I am wondering if I am the only one. Any response is welcome.

With the tried and tested luthier formula of: Assembled components - weight of taper removal and profile carving of neck + 5-string Superquad + 5th tuner - difference between borrowed tuners and hipshot superlites + difference between borrowed rosewood fretboard and ebony one + residual weight of finish after full evaporation and cooling - weight of plate - flour left on kitchen scales = projected weight of finished bass... ...I reckon that I need to lose around 1lb 8oz of weight from this point, in addition to the wood removed by tapering and profiling the neck already in the formula. Not impossible and will give me the excuse for the bit of styling at the back. I'll be doing a bit more drawing to make sure that my chambering from the top of the wings doesn't meet the carving at the back of the wings in a "France meets UK in middle of channel tunnel construction" kind of a way.

Technical ability is a funny thing. There are few guitarists who have written anything that a thousand MIT type student guitarists cannot play note for note. Those guitarists may be considered technically as good as the artist that played the original because they possess the relevant technique to replicate it Whether many of them can come up with something groundbreaking of their own is a completely different issue.

Sire do a very decent PJ as well: the P7 Mk2. A used one would be almost within your budget - worth stretching a little if you need to - I think you should be able to pick a very good quality used one up for around £350. It's a LOT of bass for the money and a fantastic first bass IMO.

Don't get me wrong: I have my own personal favourites just like everybody else, but that's all they are. They change from time to time too... Threads like this can be great fun as a vehicle for argument informed discussion and debate (and occasionally expose us to players we may not be aware of), but they shouldn't be taken too seriously (not least because - and here's the serious point as set out above - people are unlikely to even agree what might count as valid selection criteria, never mind who best fulfils them). However, in a spirit of 'just give us a name ffs!' (and using my own secret selection modelling), I've come up with a shortlist: If you ask me again tomorrow it'll probably be 5 different guitarists.

Refinished bb800

Green vote here too.

I drove Vic mad one afternoon, playing 3 of their Foderas. All 3 were the best feeling and sounding basses I've held. One was my favourite, can't remember which model, but it was over £6000, which was a deal killer for me. IMO that bass was worth every penny. Playing it was a highlight moment in my bass life.

Echoing what you posted before? I thought I was in the dub version of the Reggae Thread for a minute!

Sorry. He’s sat down! His left thumb position!! 🤦🏻‍♂️ He’s probably got a music stand just out of site! That shirt! No “passion” (ie no histrionics/face pulling/he obvs doesn’t “mean it”)! Pedals anyone? Where are the pedals??? ps I love Pat Martino

I do like most of the usual top Rock, Country and Fusion suspects, mainly because they have been around during my life Journey. But to be honest, I always get drawn back to the likes of Wes Montgomery, early George Benson, along with the great Flamenco and Classical players. I can quite easily listen to whole concerts on YouTube of these players with no problem. Pat Martino is a favourite of mine at the moment:

I once asked the 6 people in my office if any of them could name any bass players at all. None of them could, even though one of them was married to a drummer and regularly went to gigs. They couldn't name the bass player in any of the bands they professed to like. Some of them had heard of Lemmy, Suzie Quattro and Phil Lynott but had no idea that they played bass. They weren't even sure about Paul McCartney.

Given the role the bass typically takes, it would be more like "I'm no Kenny Sansom but....."

I got a Sire U5 recently. Very happy with it.

Good one.... but due to his choice of name you'd have to contextualise it by mentioning bass. Otherwise they might think "I'm no Flea" means "Well, I can jump quite high" 😀

Ah understood, not daft at all. And in light of that, I vote shell pink 😬

Peavey F-800B Preamp: I used the factory schematics and schematics from a talkbass-project to create my own pcb:

Won’t do matte ever...for reference a bb300 refinished in LPB

I saw Paco Pena up close and personal in a very imitate gig, he was indeed, as you say, fantastic. That Friday Night album is jaw droppingly good, I’ve liked DiMeola from the first time I heard him on his Casino album (borrowed from the local record library [anyone remember those?] which I I selected because his Les Paul looked like my Aria copy and our spectacles were similar [I was young and shallow]). Perhaps, when these polls and journalistic pieces go out, they shouldn’t use the word ‘best’ and should go with ‘most widely known for their talent’ or ‘most influential’. Not as catchy in the way ‘best’ is click bait, but would probably result in a more accurate result.

BBC 6Music Amy Lame show (4pm today) is based on Sisters with Transistors and features the maker of the film: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vfl7 Available on catch up too of course.

Better quality is not a perception, it's a real thing. Whether it matters is a personal decision. When making our daily choices, most of us regularly disregard the cheapest. Bass gear is no different.

Green

Fantastic player on YouTube. Want a BTB now.

-

Fretwork and setup play a massive part in playability and the feel between cheap and expensive. Mostly because the cheaper manufacturing is all machine produced on an assembly line with less QC. After playability everything is nuanced - electronics, woods, aesthetics, craftsmanship, exclusivity ect. I have a mix of both, although the MIM Fender has had work at the Gallery to get it up to scratch.

Sometimes imho we get craftsmanship mixed up with how good a product is. If a purchase gives pleasure and we are happy with its price that should be enough. We do spend a lot of time trying to justify our choices to others by comparison’s instead of saying that we love the bass for what it is.The example I will give is watches another great topic on here. Craftsmen ship is what separates that market. Price does not determine which watch gives the best time as a £5 battery driven time piece will out perform any mechanical watch for accuracy.Some of us still spend finances allowing more money on some watches than others but all tell the time.Therefore any bass that can be set up to the required standard with a feel and sound that please’s the owner is a good one. Aspiration to own a crafted item does not have to be justified at the detriment to another instrument.If your choice makes you happy job done if you think spending lots of money will make you sound better well,,, one size does not fit all.But there are not many bad quality bass’s made these days but the quality of marketing has grown out of all proportion compared to the 70s and 80s and its impact can not be ignored on our choices even when we don’t think it has.

We did this about a week ago? Spanishtonians did the original ska, but this version is (I think) by Keith and Tex -

I always find these greatest guitarist of all time articles to be interesting but a bit pointless. Malmsteem Is definitely a more technically accomplished player than Gilmour but Floyd would sound crap with Malmsteen widdling all over the place. It’s all very subjective.

Oh, yeah, Django Reinhardt! In the 65 seconds from 1'45" here, such variety of tone and expression and articulation. Lovely

Surely “just a pipe of Pringles” would suffice? Good enough for Alan partridge ...

I had a friend that worked for a top hi-fi shop in the 80's and I remember going with him to deliver and set up a system in a small stone barn with 2 floors - it wasn't a huge place - maybe 10m x 5m - he was showing off a pair of Linn Kan speakers - relatively small speakers but able to handle a lot of power. He used a couple of special audiophile vinyl pressings of Police albums - UHQR, heavy weight vinyl and/or half-speed masters - to show off how they handled the incredible punch and dynamics of Copelands percussion and Strings bass - the albums were Zenyatta and Ghost In the Machine - my friend made us all sit and listen in the dark and you could feel the drums and hear the stereoscopic effect so clearly - to this day I can't remember a more outstanding listening experience for volume, clarity and sheer detail (other than Tangerine Dream when I was at the front of the Dominion Theatre for the Logos tour) - the hi-fi system was an expesnsive one but the recordings are incredible.

Follow Iron Ether. In terms of what you may find in an effects pedal, they always seem to be pushing the boundries.

I remember having a chat with Phil Nixon (the guy who used to run Bass Gear) when he first started carrying Fodera basses. He said that loads of guys slagged Fodera off as just being boutique basses and being no better than basses costing a fraction of the price. He just used to get them to plug one in for fifteen minutes and it was remarkable how many changed their minds; indeed several of them started making plans to sell all of their basses to buy one Fodera. As Phil said, if there is something that you can nearly play on a cheaper bass, the chances are you can play it easily on the Fodera! As far as I’m concerned, if you have ambitions to be a proper player, you should get the best bass that you can afford and that suits you as soon as you can. You don’t need a collection of basses (although a spare comes in useful), but something that works for the gigs / genre you play. When I got my first job, working backstage in a theatre part time for the equivalent of minimum wage, I saved up to buy an American Fender P bass. I still have the same bass now (admittedly I did sell it, then buy it back)! If you can play like Jaco, then you will be a great bass player on any playable bass! But then again, you will be even better on a better bass! But if you can’t play like Jaco, then a decent bass (preferable with a credible provenance) will help you to play and sound better, as well as impress prospective band leaders (who do like people turning up with guitars that they are impressed / familiar with, like it or not)! But what do I know, I’ve only been gigging for more than 40 years and never had to pretend to be a musician!

Gross. Sadowsky appears to have become such a confused brand. I know this gets mentioned every time the brand does now, but they’ve gone from a simple, easily identifiable product range, where there was guaranteed quality top to bottom to something where the bottom rung is/was a catalogue of errors and a top line that’s not even made by the master luthier whose name is on the headstock.

Unexpectedly found 2 hours to rough carve a neck. With the “flared” heel it is slightly more complex, as I need to very carefully carve the heel to match the contour of the body. So next week when I have time again I will fix the neck to the body and finish the carve. The neck will have a SS zero fret and I will notch out the fretboard so I can angle the strings down into the string clamp. The clamps will sit on top of a 2mm thick piece if ebony that follows the shape of the mini headstock ( a few mm smaller in diameter to still show the maple/wenge). Also did the 20” radiusing. Happy so far in any case. Note the neck is a few mm thinner on the flare than the neck, clearly I needed to create a little elevation to get enough clearance for strings/pickups etc. This flare design is either going to be very smart or very stupid 😂

Spector Forte 4 in gloss black