Fat Rich

[quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1246874' date='May 27 2011, 11:55 AM']I'm just wondering what a 4000pund bass provides that a 1000pund bass doesn't. This has been covered before, but I've played a shuker jazz since then and IMO it was no better built than a 1000pund stingray, except for personal preference I sound and looks I don't think there is much in it. Except a W&T. Also if you are having a wait time of 15 months, isn't it time to hire some help?[/quote] Growing from a single craftsman hand building to a team of craftsmen hand building top quality instruments is quite hard to achieve unless you've got a lot of business savvy. Most guitar builders just want spend all day making guitars, not running around managing a lot of staff and clients, sourcing larger quantities of top quality materials, keeping a production line busy and not running out of parts, doing marketing, finding larger premises, accountants meetings etc. There have been quite a few luthiers who have grown to meet demand, their products start to suffer and then they often seem to sell their business and go back to building guitars on their own or with a small team of trusted helpers. And as others have pointed out there actually isn't a lot of money in hand making guitars, most of these guys work hard to make it pay and stay in business. As soon as you employ some staff and pay out for premises and other overheads you can find it doesn't add up.

Yikes, I struggled to get through the 16 to 18 week waiting time for a Status, 15 months would drive me mad.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1245284' date='May 26 2011, 10:14 AM']....... Sometimes it just comes across as a form of veiled bragging - "My bass is just soooo good that I can't even gig with it".[/quote] My bass playing talent is just soooo good that I can't even gig with it.

[quote name='bartelby' post='1244590' date='May 25 2011, 06:39 PM']If it's good music it's good music. I don't care what it's played on.[/quote] I agree but I do tend to lean towards music with a good rhythm section, can be synth bass and electric drums as long as it grooves.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1243075' date='May 24 2011, 03:51 PM'] As for celebrity endorsements, tools, etc., I've got a packet of Tommy Walsh Rawlplugs in the shed. Light years better than the stock item.[/quote] The new Ryan Giggs ear plugs are really good, can't hear anything with those in.

[quote name='henry norton' post='1243816' date='May 25 2011, 07:58 AM']I remember doing exactly the same thing. I had a very early Stingray 5 which I decided to sell because I always preferred gigging with my Squier Precision as I could be more relaxed with it. I was always worried the SR5 would get stolen or scratched (!). That said, 20 years on I play bass for fun and don't live in London anymore, I would go out and buy another SR5 today if I could afford it.[/quote] I felt the same way about my old Jazz bass, someone might steal it at a gig and then I wouldn't have it anymore. So I sold it and didn't have it anymore Now I have some expensive basses I still worry someone might steal them, but so far they haven't and I've still got them and they put a big smile on my face. [quote name='mike_zimmerman' post='1243794' date='May 25 2011, 07:10 AM']I take the view that if you can afford it and enjoy it, why shouldn't you have nice gear? There's no need to "justify" by claiming that your gig (or heaven forbid, your technical prowess!) requires it, or that no one will take you seriously with cheap gear (as others have said, no one else besides other bass players really cares!). It's a mistake to convince yourself that expensive gear will make you a better player, as well. But I personally just enjoy playing nice instruments, and since I'm doing this mostly for enjoyment anyway, why shouldn't I play an instrument that will maximize my enjoyment?[/quote] Exactly this in my opinion.

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='1242469' date='May 23 2011, 11:43 PM']i tried a load of the metros in guitar guitar.... bare in mind i am comparing them to the other two jazzes in my life at the time- the red valenti number 42 and a FSR fender 70's jazz. And also the fenders in the store..... they were a lot cleaner than the fenders. they sounded like if you have a line 6 bass pod and you've got it going straight, then you turn it on and boom, there is a more prossesed 'fender' sound. This possibly is a good thing. Construction wise they were good, the valenti was far far better though. and then the bad thing happened.... I don't like active basses as much as passive- so i turned the preamp off..... and boom..... the sound went, and the whole thing sounded utterly dead and dull. so with the preamp in, aye it wasnae bad, but with it off.... awful. I wouldnae buy one[/quote] I run my cheap, battered old Japanese Fenders through an outboard Sadowsky preamp and it makes them sound fantastic. Much cheaper than buying a complete Sadowsky bass plus you've got the classic vintage Fender sound if you bypass it

I can work out a sheet of notation but can only sight read very simple lines. I know [i]about[/i] quite a lot of theory but haven't taken the time to learn it properly so I'm not really getting the benefits. I need to sit down and work through it thoroughly and hopefully it'll become second nature. On the plus side, the reading and theory I have worked on has helped to develop my ear so I can work things out pretty easily.... it's also got me playing and listening to different things than if I was just working out songs.

[quote name='Doddy' post='1240750' date='May 22 2011, 08:21 PM']The strap length,for me,makes a bigger difference than playing a random bass.[/quote] I wear my bass fairly low on a strap but also practice sitting down with the bass higher so I don't think I'd have too much of a problem. I've always recommended people set their strap so their bass is the same height sitting or standing but maybe there's a case for not doing that?

[quote name='matski' post='1240030' date='May 22 2011, 09:36 AM']Those Status basses you have in your sig must be hard work then! [/quote] They're all headed

I got some useful tips here a while ago: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=114453&hl=pick"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=114453&hl=pick[/url] I seem to be easing into playing with a pick, still not completely comfortable with it yet. I think you'll pretty quickly find your own style but it's good to use other people's experience when you're starting out.

[quote name='RhysP' post='1239398' date='May 21 2011, 03:34 PM']Phenolic. No truss rod. It is indeed rock solid & one of the nicest necks I've ever played, quite wide but incredibly thin front to back. It also gets rid of the old "can't put a headless bass on a wall mounted hanger" problem! [/quote] Cool! I can take 5 of the 6 strings off my old Series 1 and the remaining string is still completely in tune, no neck movement at all. Enjoy your new bass!

Touch typing can make your keyboard sound like a Mark King solo but that's about it I reckon.

Interesting looking beastie! Does it have a phenolic or wood fingerboard? Does it have a truss rod or is it rock solid like an early Status? Interesting approach to the double ball end problem.

Sometimes a high end bass arrives eventually (they usually take ages to build) but it doesn't quite hit the spot... you need to understand very clearly what you like in a bass before you order. A highly personalized bass might not resell for as much as you paid if you decide you really don't like it. But if you get it right it might be the only bass you ever play. Buying a few cheaper basses and tinkering might be more fun in the long run, plus I've never found just one bass that covers everything I want to play.

Would have no problem with any 4 or 5 string, probably a few bum notes in the first song on a 6 string. Had a quick go on a fanned fret Dingwall, reckon it might take a few hours to get used to that. Unusual tunings would throw me completely though, never been able to get my head round them. Edit: Forgot to mention that headless basses confuse me too, I seem to play everything about 4 frets further up than usual, I think my brain thinks the first 4 frets must be headstock

[quote name='Conan' post='1235718' date='May 18 2011, 02:03 PM']Ah! But that's clearly spaghetti, not beans. That's like comparing apples and pears - or (God forbid) Precisions and Jazzes![/quote] Exactly, spaghetti is more versatile but you can't beat the simplicity and roundness of beans.

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1235601' date='May 18 2011, 12:53 PM']I would,because the string doesnt have to clear the frets.If you lower the fret slots,you will get a lower action and easier playability.[/quote] It should be much lower than a fretted nut already if it's been built properly, I've never seen a fretless bass that's needed the slots lowering. Maybe I've just been lucky.

[quote name='CXIII' post='1235394' date='May 18 2011, 11:02 AM']Hi all, Looking for a bit of advice/opinion on a fretless bass set up. I recently took the plunge and bought a fretless Fanndec 5-string bass, by no means a top of the line instrument. The bass originally came with a set of roundwounds and upon reading about strings for fretless I changed the the strings to a set of Hot Wire half-rounds (125 gauge). After the restring I noticed the action to be a tad on the high side especially at the upper neck region and a bit of the characteristic 'mwah' sound had been lost mainly on the E and B strings. On further reading my general understanding is that the straighter the neck on a fretless the greater the 'mwah' so was going to tighten the truss rod and hence lower the action? Also was going to file the nut down a touch if needed? Any advice on fretless setup would be much appreciated.[/quote] Groundwound / Half Round / Flatwound tend to give slightly less mwah than roundwound strings as they generally don't bite into the fingerboard so much, the plus side is they do less damage to your bass. Also in my experience Status Half Wounds have a very strong fundamental and a bright toppyness but don't have as many middy overtones as some other strings which can make the mwah a little harder to hear. They're very good strings and I use them on one of my fretless basses, but you might find D'addario halfwounds are worth a try, definitely more middy. Setup wise, sounds like the truss rod needs a tweak, best to tighten it in small steps, maybe a quarter turn at most and see what it does. You may be able to drop the action at the bridge end too, but get the neck adjusted first. I wouldn't file the nut unless there's a huge gap between the fingerboard and the strings, it shouldn't be too far out. Good luck!

[quote name='lucky' post='1235218' date='May 18 2011, 08:57 AM']can't beat a solid fender precision in my mind- but that's just me the way i see it (apologies if a similar food related reference has been made before) it's like baked beans fenders ( i mainly mean Pbasses here but i guess this applies to jazz basses too) are like the heinz baked beans, consistent, reliable widely available good middle of the range beans. there will always be gourmet waitrose beans that some people can really appreciate the difference of, and there will always be cheap and cheerful no frills beans that rarely taste quite as good, and then there will always be some weird spin off like branston beans which for the life of me i dont understand why people put in their mouths... but they all lack the secret ingredient that makes one brand of beans stand out. and like beans- it's all just a matter of taste little more beanchat than basschat but there you go... [/quote] Plus they both can give you GAS. Heinz beans are affordable though, how can Fender justify charging £2K plus for a couple of planks of wood screwed together, some bent tin and a few bits of plastic? It's not like their R&D costs are high because their designs are 50+ years old.

[quote name='Robert Manning' post='1234033' date='May 17 2011, 10:22 AM']........but i'm very serious on becoming the best bass player i can be. any recommendations out there of modern basses that have a bit of a unique tone to them? and thanks for the feedback guys! rob[/quote] Most distinctive sounding are probably Alembic, early Status (and to a lesser extent the modern ones), Kubicki, Fodera, Goodfellow, Dingwall, Warwick... I'm sure I've missed many, the list goes on because each bass has it's own sound. I chose Status 5 stringers because they fit my hands perfectly, the low B has more clarity than a wood necked bass (except probably a fanned fret bass) and the modern ones don't have such a distinctly Status sound. But they seem to be one of the most unfashionable basses on Basschat because everyone associates them with Mark King's typewriter slap style. I don't play slap and don't like a toppy clattery sound, as a result I don't sound like most Status players, it's more of a super Jazz bass sound but with the extra clarity of a graphite neck. [quote name='Lozz196' post='1234041' date='May 17 2011, 10:29 AM']I think as well here, is that, if for example you love the sound of a Precision, playing any bass that doesn`t sound like one, new or old, may put you off - it did me, when I tried a Jazz, great bass, but just didn`t sound right. So trying a modern bass that has Precision tone-qualities/ability - well that may be how you can decide on this.[/quote] I've come to the conclusion that you can't make a modern bass sound like a traditional one or vice versa, so the Status does the bulk of the work but when I want a classic P bass sound, or a Stingray or a Jazz then that's what I play. I would say if a classic bass sound works for you then go for it, as long as you've tried the alternatives and ruled them out purely on sound and playability rather than just image or because it's what everyone else plays.

While some of your sound is in your fingers and note choices, if you want to find your own voice on the bass you're probably going to find it harder if you play the same 50 year old designs as everyone else.

Might be a Kay to you, but it looks less than OK to me

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1232048' date='May 15 2011, 02:54 PM']I thought I was being clever by doing that too but It doesnt add up, I think there is one line between them?[/quote] Yup, middle C is between the staves.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1232019' date='May 15 2011, 02:39 PM']That actually brings me to a question I always forget to ask, How many Bass clef readers can read Treble clef too? Im not fussed for it right now and obviously the note lengths are the same but I dont want to confuse myself trying to read another stave right now either.[/quote] And does knowing your treble clef help with ledger lines in bass clef?