SJA

in my old Yamaha catalogue from around 1991 the BB300 listed looks exactly like your new bass on the right (no tuning fork logo either). it's funny how Yamaha keep changing the split coil P-style pickup between reversed and non-reversed config on the BB basses- the recent Mike Anthony sig. BB3000MA started off as reversed P, but the ones he plays live now are non-reversed. is there much tonal difference? (ie. E and A sounding tighter with the reversed-P, D and G fuller?)

I found it funny that he claims this acoustic also has a "byurtiful head design" (he sounds like a cross between Tim Westwood and Lloyd Grossman )- [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Black-Acoustic-Guitar-gitar-bag-strap-pick-38inch-wood_W0QQitemZ140175081429QQihZ004QQcategoryZ33040QQcmdZViewItem"][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Black-Acoustic-Guita...0QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Black-Acoustic-Guita...0QQcmdZViewItem[/url][/url] sounds alright though.

the stuff from that seller looks like the same as Wesley, and there's a Sound Control Legacy 4 string that looks like that 5. the "Fusion" bass looks just like the Stagg BC300, and Rockers in Denmark street badge it as their own brand bass too.

actually I was only half-joking when I wrote that- have you seen the Fender Eddie Van Halen Frankenstrat? [url="http://www.evhgear.com/frankenstein/"]http://www.evhgear.com/frankenstein/[/url] they were charging $25,000 for that piece of...er...fine craftsmanship.....

[quote name='lwtait' post='85518' date='Nov 8 2007, 04:15 PM']yeah, just googled it. i see what it is, but i cant imagine it being anymore comfortable. EDIT: by the way, SJA, is there an attitude four string with a PJ config? dont they normally just have a P?[/quote] yep, there was, it was the Attitude Standard (discontinued) the standard 4 and 5 had a blade-style 3 way pickup selector, single mono output.

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='85402' date='Nov 8 2007, 12:54 PM']It looks like it was found in a skip. I'd pass if its over £20.[/quote] mind you, if that came out of the Fender Custom Shop as a special edition relic, people would be paying £3000 for it.... :ph34r:

I got Colin H's album the Bottom Line at the Bass centre- but that was back in the good ol' days when they were in Wapping.

[quote name='Hit&Run' post='85115' date='Nov 7 2007, 08:22 PM']Didn't Maggie Bell sing the theme tune to Taggart?[/quote] yeah, I was just thinking of that. that theme tune always caught my ear because it sounded like a P bass played with a pick, but the doublestop fills sounded more like fingerstyle. [url="http://taggart-theme-song-feat-maggie-bell-tagg-mp3-download.kohit.net/_/71071"]http://taggart-theme-song-feat-maggie-bell...hit.net/_/71071[/url]

I've got a Yamaha catalogue from 91/92 with the various Attitude models in it- I'd be interested in what that custom sounds like with the piezo in the bridge. the custom is listed as having a Dimarzio woofer, but unnamed P pickup. I'd like to find an Attitude five string which was PJ config. there was also an Attitude deluxe with a 6-coil pickup (3 X split coils) in place of the P.

of course, the headless design makes it neat and compact.

get Simon Quinlank round- [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1xjcyyuDM0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1xjcyyuDM0[/url] I'll have to chuck my 15'" monitor soon. the local council tip takes old computer stuff for recycling, but I'm unsure whether it will be of any use now- it'll probably have to go in with general waste.

I saw on Ashdown's site an endorsee James Bailes credited with bass for Busted. apparently someone also played live behind the stage while Matt Willis mimed badly out front.

I put together the maple-neck P-bass in my avatar from a warmoth body (hard ash) and neck (maple/maple). loads and loads of sustain- at a recent recording session waiting for the signal leds on the desk to fade out on the last note became a running joke. very tight neck joint. the neck is very solid- double-action trussrod plus 2 steel stiffening rods. these do make the neck heavy though- i used Hipshot ultralite machineheads to counter neck-dive. with their standard P and J bodies and necks you do get the standard cumbersome neck joint block- they do offer an angled joint, but it's still more awkward than the contoured heel that would be on a Shuker J. another drawback- resale value won't be great.

another thought- when playing solo, a precision can sound ratty and crude when strung with steel roundwounds, but great in the mix in a rock context, with heavy guitars. IMO Colin Hodgkinson's solo bass playing would sound a lot better with a bass with a bridge pickup too rather than his single-pickup precision. I've seen pics of him using a stingray- never heard him use it, but i'd bet his chordal playing would sound better on it. whereas more sophisticated active basses can sound great solo, but those nuances are lost in the mix with guitars and drums. Dave Ellefson (Megadeth) says that he uses the active precision deluxe live, but a passive 70's p in the studio as he's found active basses disappear in the mix.

yeah, if you're a good engineer you can get any bass to cut through with eq, miking technique etc. but the bog standard p bass tone doesn't need anything done to it to have presence in the mix. just the right amount of lows, with enough mids for the notes to have definition. (that's if it's played right, of course....)

one thing I've found is that if a producer/engineer manages to lose a p bass in the mix in a rock track, then it's proof they're utterly useless.

bah, it's the Jehovah's bass witnesses again....

"He now says he hasn't a camera and didn't want to feel a fool by admiting it !!!!!!" how did he take the pic in the original listing? was the bass in the pic even his?

the Jazz is far more prevalent in R&B, jazz, funk and modern pop but I think the P bass is still the standard tone for rock- that Pbass-strung-with-roundwounds-played-with-a-pick tone is still everywhere- emo, skate-punk, even metal.

problems with the P bass for me are lack of a bridge pickup, only 20 frets (21 as on the stingray would be perfect) and the chunky neck joint impeding access up the top of the neck. dead spots on the G are a bit of a pain too- but then they're a pain on nearly all wood-necked basses. I've got a 1992 US Precision plus which is PJ and 22 frets, passive. it's got the tonal versatility and upper range, but the neck's a bit thin and flimsy. and I put together a P from warmoth parts (in my avatar)- 21 frets, passive, p and double J humbucker- dead spots are less of a problem on this with the steel-reinforced warmoth neck, but there's still the block of the neck joint. I should have gone for the angled neck joint option, maybe used ferrules-bolts-inserts instead of the neck plate + screws. I could always mod it though. I understand they've trimmed the neck joint slightly on the US P and J deluxes.

to be honest one of those £79 Legacy p-basses from Sound control would be better. at least you get a solid wood body and a decent maple neck. I still bear the mental scars of owning a '91 korean squier. ugh. the maple they used for the neck was really bad- sapping up all the energy from every note you played. in the pic of the headstock you can see it's a separate piece glued on where the Squier logo is.

I'd avoid that one- I had the same era bass in black- 1991 Squier P, plywood body, really thick gloss finish on the neck, exact same headstock logos, and it was awful- frets wore out very quickly, deadspots all over the neck- terrible sustain, really frustrated me as I couldn't get any kind of decent slap tone, or any kind of bite out of it. it was my first bass so i didn't know any better at the time. I came across another like it at a studio and it was just as bad. actually, I think you can see the lines of the ply body in the pic of it from the bridge. also the cracks at the neck pocket don't surprise me if it's a ply body. contrary to what the guy says, I'd say that the late 90's to current Squiers are far better than the early 90's ones.

"he even had black tape covering the Fender logo on the headstock of his vintage Precision. Never seen that before for any bass player on TV - I can only guess that he he must be worried about upsetting a bass sponsor..." Fender probably didn't offer him an endorsement deal, or a good enough one. Jeff Berlin taped over the Peavey logo on his Palladium sig. bass when he quit endorsing them.

pics in the Killing Joke blog- [url="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=47477713&blogID=321287968"]http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...07D591C30201019[/url] below the pic of him with a warwick, looks like a Stingray cutlass (graphite neck) I think it's the same one he's using in the video of prong's "snap your fingers snap your neck".

Derek Forbes is slapping a P bass in this clip- [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJE3FQR6orE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJE3FQR6orE[/url]