mcnach

On Tuesday my main band will have the first rehearsal since this started. At a local venue. They've made it available to us and we pay the sound guy who will be there. It works out only marginally more expensive than the usual rehearsal studio rates and we've got the whole place to us. We figured it was a very reasonable way to help in some small way a place that helped us a lot. On Saturday we'll go back, and have our first 'virtual' gig that will be live-streamed by the venue, and we'll record the audio plus film it using a bunch of static cameras and 2-3 people with hand-held ones. If someone, a year ago, had told me that I would be this excited to be able to play like this, I would not have believed them. Strange strange times.

The Dimension was the first real novel bass Fender has come up with in ages... and they discontinued it How could they?

That would save e a lot of money! I don't think I'm getting the Harley Benton... but I already looked at sources of black pickguards without pickup routing, so that I could put a different kind at whatever position in there... and my birthday is coming soon But for my birthday I was after a purple Telecaster. However, if I don't find it... hmmm

It's decent, but it lacked 'something' compared to the other two. He seems to be better at lead than Maurizio, but something about it makes me feel he sounds a bit too much like a potential 'guitar hero', while the other two played more for the song, if you know what I mean. Maurizio lacks a bit of finesse/control but overall I think he's more musical.

I don't need another bass I don't need another bass I don't need another bass... but damn, I'd love a 'stealth' Precision... I don't need another bass I don't need another bass...

By the way, what model is that bass exactly? Such a lovely finish!

THAT is interesting!!! They seem to have chosen parts that largely complement each other! GET BOTH!

I like that too. Maurizio's lead guitar is not that good, but he's got good ideas an I really liked everything apart from the lead. Mike is very interesting too and sounds really solid. What a nice problem to have! Thank you for sharing the journey with us!

Pretty sweet looking! Now drop that pickguard (🤮) and put a black one, or mint/parchment, and it'll look really classy.

To be honest, I don't choose a bass because it has certain pickups so that it fits with a particular sound... I just look at a bass and if it does the sounds I like, that works. This means that I have P, PJ, JJ, Jazz, MM, double MM, P/MM... It's not about output, but the combination of a type of pickup and its position just gives a certain type of sound, and with so many variants it's hard not to succumb to GAS and acquire a few different ones. A bass with a MM at the same position as the Precision pickup does not sound like a P, but it does have some of the vibe as I found out. So you can think of basses like that as variants of the Precision sound, some of which you may like more and some less than a Precision. You're right, single coil vs humbucker is super easy to tell apart on guitars. On bass it's not quite as clear cut, but sometimes it's very obvious, with the single coils generally having a treble profile that's quite telling... but there are exceptions, it's hard to make a hard and fast rule. Humbuckers are not muddy, you can make them muddy, but they don't have to be, it depends on the actual circuitry.

Sandberg and Warwick make small bodied Jazz-configured instruments too. Sandberg in particular would be where I'd be looking at.

I find them similar to Fat Beams and Sunbeams, presumably because all these are round cores. Flexible/compliant but not floppy. I've got Pure Blues on my Sandberg VM4 and I think they suit it well.

The Pure Blues have a more pronounced midrange than Sunbeams, so they can sound a bit more aggresive to start with, but they're also mellower in the higher frequencies, a bit as if you had been using those strings for a bit, and they have less oompf in the low end. Just a bit. I like them on Precisions, I think they suit them helping them getting a tighter low end, and I 'tame' the aggressive midrange with the tone control as it's mostly the high mids that -sometimes- needs taming, for my taste.

This. If anything, music education should give people tools to better use their creativity.

I think the butterscotch ones were always pine?

SQUIER

I really liked mine. It was an early butterscotch ones. The neck a bit chunkier than other incarnations as far as I could tell, but not in a bad way. It was not light, 'though.

It's probably easier and cheaper to just change your name...

I know it doesn't answer your question but... just try anything and everything. I find that different materials can work differently and give you a slightly different vibe. You may like more than one type!

Really like what he's done, very RHCP-esque indeed. Grab him before he goes away!

He made me a MMSR 3-knob 3-band with a bypass switch on the volume control (pull for bypass) at my request. I'm sure he'll add the passive tone control if there's a good way to add it to the existing layout of a Stingray ... and then I'll be very envious I didn't ask for that myself

A friend of mine's labrador discovered that guitars make noise when you hit their strings, and loved it. In that house guitars need to be kept hidden.

Judging by the amount of instruments kept hanging by the neck (in homes and shops) and held in stands and cases, for so many years, and we don't have a clear indication that any option is bad... I'd say that it doesn't matter much. Whatever is most convenient. Needing to adjust the truss rod from time to time is not unusual. Some of mine I never touch, but there's a few that *ideally* I'd tweak twice a year or so, although the difference is so tiny that I sometimes don't. I don't go for super low action, so that may be a factor too, as the basses can play buzz-free if I increase or decrease relief a little, so seasonal changes don't matter to me so much. I wonder if hanging them, being higher in the room, makes them more exposed to higher changes in temperature and humidity. But in normal circumstances I can't imagine it's a drastic change.

There are no real 'new rules', yet, but some people have always been reluctant to ship abroad because of perceived (real or not) potential trouble dealing with the aftermath if a parcel goes missing (insurance etc). There are no customs fees, yet, within the EU and the UK is still working on EU rules pretty much.

I should have said then GREAT optimism