Fat Rich

Feel free to post your Status question as there a few of us who play them here, there's also the statii.com forum you could try too if you haven't already (although OutToPlayJazz has vanished from there too) It'd be nice to have him back as he is extremely knowledgeable and helpful, and also has a daft sense of humour!

Low B for me too, but I'm more of a groove player.

One of my Status S2s is about 11lbs and I'd say that's a bit heavy, although that's still only about 3.5% of my body weight so I don't really notice it . The others are all about 6-9 lbs which feels about right to me. But I agree with BigRedX that a comfortable, well balanced bass is important, I hate neck heavy basses whatever the weight.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1357621' date='Aug 31 2011, 03:16 PM']I just think that, by not playing your bass, you have 'forgotton' your abilities and are enjoying rediscovering them. If you stick with it, you will start to see your shortcomings again.[/quote] Have you ever considered becoming a motivational speaker?

[quote name='silddx' post='1357221' date='Aug 31 2011, 10:14 AM']It will last until I discover a real need to read. I did some learning about 6 months ago and I know I could do it with the right motivation. I just don't need to read, Bilbo, that's the crux of the biscuit. But being told so often that I should learn to read by people on here made me feel guilty and incomplete as a musician. That's how basschat can f*** you up if you don't have a steel heart. I can't seem to stay away though [/quote] I'm in a similar position, I get to a point where I can sight read straightforward stuff and work out complicated stuff with a little time but then real life gets in the way and when I eventually go back to reading I'm struggling again. The kind of bands I've been in I've never needed it but there's a wealth of material out there I'd like to be able to read through so I'll keep trying.

[quote name='dc2009' post='1354786' date='Aug 28 2011, 09:59 PM']550-575 seems to be the going rate, and as you've seen above one guy got one for 450! obviously this is variably depending on condition, colour and presence of a case, whether you are offering insured shipping. It'll sell, these things always do.[/quote] Yup, but mine is pretty worn and beaten up although it still plays very well. I'd say £525 to £575 is about the right price for a good one in these difficult times.

Got mine for £450, great bass for the money. Actually apart from the preamp and the ugly control panel it's a really great bass whatever the money. My problem with the preamp is that while it adds bass and treble it actually makes the bass sound less like Marcus Miller's sound. Boost the treble EQ and it sounds a bit reedy, boost the bass EQ and it doesn't have the fatness I'd hoped for, just woollyness. There's a bit of hiss on mine with the treble boosted, and the single coil pickups will hum in some circumstances but no more so than any other Jazz bass I've owned. Running the bass passive sounds really great, running it passive through an outboard Sadowsky preamp with DR Highbeam or Fatbeam strings is pure Marcus tone if that's what you want. I'd say it's a good value, good quality snappy sounding Jazz bass that sounds great passive and with a preamp change can sound awesome.

[quote name='Clarky' post='1350180' date='Aug 24 2011, 01:00 PM']People will happily buy cars which - in most cases - immediately depreciate more than the £1600 mentioned in the OP. Its all about what makes you happy. I have spent £3k on a beautiful double bass and similar on a year-of-birth (1963) Fender Precision. To me they are worth it as they make my life better [/quote] This was what happened to me, I needed a new car but pretty quickly found you need to spend £18K to get something big enough to carry gear in and some nice options. So I bought a 10 year old Mondeo estate for £3k and spent some of the money I saved on some very nice basses that get played most days and I'll keep till the day I keel over. It was definitely an extravagance for me but made more financial sense than a new car depreciating 50% the moment I drive it off the forecourt. Add to that someone ran into it while it was parked two days after I bought it, and again last week so I'd be really fed up if it'd been a new one.

Good stuff! Should get people jumping about.

Started out on a very cheap bolt Aria which played pretty well and sounded OK. Moved on to Aria SB neck-throughs which were great but then I wanted 5 strings. Wasted some time and money on a couple of cheap 5 strings but they sounded rubbish and one had really tight string spacing. Went to the Bass Centre to buy a Warwick Streamer 5 and hated it, came back with my Status series 1 instead and still play it regularly. The only real regret was not keeping my battered '62 Jazz, my Japanese '62 Reissue sounds and plays the same but the original would be worth a fortune now. I suppose with hindsight I would have got started on a decent 5 string sooner and maybe not bothered with the 6 stringers as I just don't feel as comfortable on them.

[quote name='risingson' post='1347865' date='Aug 22 2011, 11:44 AM']I agree with the sentiment of what you're saying, but whilst the guys that have played with Donald Fagan are all excellent drummers with incredible feels, they were all being told to play as cleanly as possible because that's what Fagan and Becker wanted for the tracks they performed on. Bernard Purdie and Steve Jordan for example are two of the most hardcore funk drummers I've ever heard and can get as low down and dirty as any of James Brown's drummers. It's hard when the boundaries of the categories get blurred like this, but I understand what you're saying. .......[/quote] Yup, I agree entirely which is why I listed Donald Fagan as an example rather than the great players who played on his songs. There's an insight into how he works in Anthony Jackson's section here: [url="http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/bp_sessionlegends/index.php#/0"]http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/bp_...ds/index.php#/0[/url] which to me explains why I don't feel the groove on much of Fagan's material. That's not to say it's not good, just not as funky as it could have been

[quote name='Doddy' post='1347838' date='Aug 22 2011, 10:40 AM']Interesting point about the drummers.....I disagree almost completely,but interesting point non the less. ...,[/quote] Fair enough, care to elaborate? [quote name='Doddy' post='1347838' date='Aug 22 2011, 10:40 AM']Rocco? You can still be busy and retain a great feel.[/quote] Very true, Rocco is super funky but he often "makes" space by heavy use of accents and some serious muting.

In my experience most of the funk comes from the drummer, and [b]very[/b] broadly speaking funk drummers fall into two categories: 1: Drummers with great feel whose beats make you want to jump about, sometimes not the most technical of drummers but can groove really hard. They seem to have looser influences people like Stevie Wonder, the New Orleans drummers, John Bonham... whatever the genre, they play grooves I can't sit still to. Some put a small amount of swing to almost everything they play which makes them fun and inspiring to play bass to. For me this is where the funk is. 2: Drummers with great time but lacking that certain something, often technically excellent but their timing is a little too regimented. Their influences seem to be the more produced stuff like Donald Fagan, EWF and super tight drummers like Dave Weckl (although he seems to have loosened up a bit recently). Playing bass along to some of these guys is about as inspiring as playing to a metronome, most are happy for me to push and pull the groove a little to try and bring some life to it, but a few just don't get it. All a massive generalisation of course, there are some drummers that can vary the feel effortlessly, many have less control and have good days and bad days. Or drummers like me who is so rubbish it's all academic If your drummer is really funky and you've listened to plenty of different kinds of funk, you probably won't need to be taught. Edit: [quote name='BottomE' post='1347795' date='Aug 22 2011, 09:53 AM']It depends what you mean by learn. If you mean regurgitating stuff that is in a book or from a teacher then you are right. However, creating your own lines with the right feel and mood is a different bag of snakes which is what i think the OP was about. I work with a gifted keyboard player and he is technically very good. On occassion he playes too many notes and the space necessary to generate the groove is lost - the song stops being funky. When we talked about it he insisted on the notes being "correct theoretically" which they are - but they just ain't funky. Thats the quintessential part that comes from listening. No amount of teaching is going to address that.[/quote] Leaving space is super important, it's the gaps and where you put them that increases the anticipation and makes a groove really funky.

I used them for many years and never had a duff string or a breakage (I may just have been lucky!). They're fairly cheap and available almost everywhere, not the longest lasting string out there but they last OK and seem to go off consistently, even the low B so they're still fairly useable when they're old. I slightly prefer the sound of Slinkys to Elites (also a very good string, used them when I started out on bass), but the Slinkys have got just a little more character and seem to sound good on all my basses. I've recently been using DR Highbeams for some clang, Status Hotwires for a really strong fundamental tone but I still sometimes put on Slinkys for a more balanced, rounder tone.

I was going to buy the album after seeing them on Jools a few months ago. Thanks for the reminder!

[quote name='BassBod' post='1344057' date='Aug 18 2011, 09:30 AM']I used one a few years ago. First - you've got to like the "graphite sound". Its bright, hard and brittle...unforgiving of sloppy playing...but also immediate and full. When you fit the neck you have to drill into the heel for the mounting screw holes. Its a thin moulding of epoxy with a hollow core, and you must countersink the holes to stop it cracking. It also kills a drill bit very fast and you must must must use the correct bit size for the screw they provide - there is no second chance (I doubt you could plug and re-drill, as there is pretty much nothing to plug). Same goes for the tuner mounting. They are well made, sound good (if you like it). Mine arrived with very level frets and a well cut nut.[/quote] I've heard that fitting them isn't for the faint hearted, although many people seem to have no problems. I thought the heel of the neck was layered up with various materials to give the screws something to bite into (rather than a hollow epoxy shell) but you'd still want to get them right first time. In theory all Fender necks and body neck pockets are the same size and shape, in practice some aren't... particularly some of the Japanese made ones. Might be worth checking the body with Status before ordering the neck. As BassBod said, it can sound bright, hard and brittle but with plenty of bass boost it can sound amazing. You get much more note definition than with a wooden neck, a graphite neck feels alive all over the fingerboard, no deadspots and better harmonics. You might find you need to clean up your technique a bit but it won't take long to adjust. Graphite necks aren't for everybody so you might want to try and give one a go before you buy. Edit: Not all Fender tuners are the same either so you might want to check they all fit before you start drilling.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='1341700' date='Aug 16 2011, 11:40 AM']32" if you play one of those Mark King toys.[/quote] Certainly not! I'd look like King Kong playing a ukelele. (How do you spell yooocahlaylee? ) [quote name='PerfectionBG' post='1341722' date='Aug 16 2011, 11:54 AM']Or 42" if you like your basses big vertical.[/quote] Ah, I'm now starting to see why it's such a difficult question.

I've come up with so many great memorable catchy tunes, unfortunately they all sound exactly like something I probably heard on the radio a few months earlier.

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='1341600' date='Aug 16 2011, 10:34 AM']how long is a piece of string?[/quote] 34". Or maybe 35" if you've got five or six pieces of string.

When it comes to 4 strings, I reckon I could get away with playing almost any bass and get the job done. The cheaper stuff would probably need a major setup and some decent strings, and may need adjusting more often than a more expensive instrument. Although I've had some more expensive instruments whose necks are all over the place (I'm looking at you, Fender USA & Mexico). I guess if you like a super low action you might come unstuck with a cheap bass but I'm not really that fussed. But when it comes to 5 or 6 strings I don't think it's so simple, the low B string just doesn't sound good on a lot of cheap basses (or some expensive ones, still looking at you, Fender). I like anything I play on the low B to have the same tone as the rest of the bass otherwise it sounds I've dropped out and the bottom has fallen out of the song. Usually that means spending a bit more money, although there are some great cheap ERBs out there. Ultimately it's up to the player how much he or she wants to spend to get close to their ideal sound, or even if they just want something that looks cool. For most of us it's a hobby and is supposed to be fun, so whatever floats your boat. BTW I voted last night but now I can't remember for what I think it was £400 to £599

[quote name='BassBus' post='1330801' date='Aug 7 2011, 11:49 AM']Here's my latest addition, a Status Electro 2. The dream continues. And the family.[/quote] Cool, that's a pretty rare beastie, nice collection you've got there!

I started learning songs purely by ear as there was no internet and most of what I wanted to play wasn't in books. After a few years had a handful of lessons which led to a Saturday course for 10 weeks at the Musicians Academy in Wapping. Didn't get the best out of the course as I didn't have enough time to practice the material. Now I still work things out by ear unless I'm in a hurry to learn something, then I'll look for notation, tabs or youtube videos. I feel that the two most important things a bass player can learn are the note names on the fingerboard and to be able to work out songs themselves without having to use the internet. Motivation was mostly from being in bands and wanting to do a good job.

[quote name='TheGreek' post='1331100' date='Aug 7 2011, 05:33 PM']Once you've got it tuned, learn your Blues, Major and Minor scales...[/quote] That's a good starting point plus learn some songs so you don't get bored. You'll find all sorts of stuff on Youtube, type the name of your favourite songs and "bass lesson" you'll probably find something. A lesson or two would be good so you don't get into any bad habits. Remember to relax as much as possible, fretting the note nearer the fret means you get a clean note with less pressure on the string. Also get started learning the names of the notes on the bass, it's a bit of a chore but it'll come in useful whatever level you take your playing to.