Rayman

I just wondered how many of you were happily spanking your more affordable gear and being perfectly happy with it. This is a bass guitar forum, and many many players here have top end kit costing many thousands of pounds. I've had some nice gear in my time too, as have many of my mates, but....last year, for Christmas, my Mrs bought me an OLP Tony Levin 5. I'm a bit of a fan and fancied his signature bass because it was cheap, and if I hated it, it wasn't the end of the world. Now, out of the box is was very nice and comfortable to play with some nice meaty tones to play with, but the EQ wasn't great, noisy and cheap it had to go. It had a shocking nut and a flimsy battery compartment too. I tried a few alterations, different pups etc, but after a few changes it's come back from my techs with a John East 3 band EQ and a beautifully made brass nut fitted, also a good quality battery box has been slapped in. I had the original pickup put back in after a couple of emails from Tony, who informed me that the design of them was intentionally meant to echo the tone of his alnico original. So after the changes were finished, and it'd had a setup, I plugged it in, and fell in love with it instantly. NOT your typical Stingray tone you understand, but still it now has a voice and playability all of its own. Live it sounds immence, it plays great too, and with the superb EQ you can dial in almost any tone you like. So the Fenders have taken a bit of a back seat because of this, allbeit [i]pimped[/i] budget bass guitar that I just love to bits. I've spent the same amount doing it up that I did buying it in the first place, but I reckon it's now a much [i]much[/i] better instrument, and worth the effort. Worth it? You decide.

That's a beautiful colour, superb bass.

I play it through an Ibanez PD-7 overdrive and it's close enough for me. To be honest, I played it clean at the last gig and we all agreed it was so much better. I must admit though I'm not a fan of bass overdrive generally, I use it on that song and on Grounds For Divorce by Elbow but I'd rather not use it at all.

I'm waiting for your '73 to come on the market . Love it mate, love it. It's just great, why, are you missing it?

You could pimp the Japanese one with a nice new pickup. Otherwise....just blow your stash on a nice new MIA and whack some Thomastic Flats on there, splendid.

[quote name='neptunehealer' post='505345' date='Jun 4 2009, 11:11 AM']Well i have always been sick of my muddy quiet pick-ups in the mix so i guess these will solve that. Our set does comprise on some pop punk covers etc, but as i have bought these now i may aswell try them out. But i am a finger player so will that make the sound a bit more vintage. Also in the set when it come to the Beatles, James Brown etc songs what should i do to get the best tone suited for these songs?[/quote] You won't get muddy or quiet with a QP I promise you that. I think it'll sound fantastic, give it a chance. At the end of the day, if you get stuck with a pickup you don't like, pull it out and sell it here. Then put a Thumper in.

84s are darker sounding with more winds on the pup, the 64s are a bit brighter and crunchier, a bit more like a regular jazz type sound. Top pups from a top geezer.

Oh aye, I should be up for that. We're going away around that time, but I think it's the weekend after.

I've always had a softspot for 'rays, and that's a beaut.

Love TIs, the LaBellas were too deep for me. I found the TIs had a nice click to them as well as plenty of bottom end, and they're soft and flexible too, which I like. They were just fab on my Lakland JO4. I'm thinking of putting them on my P bass at some point once the Slinkys have gone off.

I love 1/4lbers. They're capable of many sounds, they're just a higher output pickup aimed at a rock tone basically, but if you back them off a bit and be a little more subtle with your playing, I think they sound great. The pickup exchange thing sounds like your best bet though, and try the SB1. Failing that, a Wizard Thumper is a great upgrade pup for a P bass.

Stuart Zender's past it?? Christ, there's no hope for any of us if a young bloke like him is past it. If this [i]isn't[/i] a signature model, then we're all talking cobblers then aren't we? I'm purely responding to the title of the thread, I haven't bothered to find out whether the bass is a sig or not, mainly because I don't care. I have nothing against any luthier producing anything they like, I just question the relevance of some of the "artists" who get their own model. I played some covers at the Ship Inn last Saturday night, do I get my own signature model?

I agree wholeheartedly.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='503937' date='Jun 2 2009, 04:16 PM']No doubt[/quote] Ah ha, the Tony Canal signature Yamaha BB......there's an idea.

[quote name='OldGit' post='503946' date='Jun 2 2009, 04:24 PM']A few months back there was a discussion of JJ Burnel on here and several people had no idea who he was ..... Seriously they didn't... Not all kids either. For the current generation of bassists, JJB is as long gone as James Jamerson, John Entnwhistle, Norman Watt-Roy and Paul Chambers ... All seriously influential on the people they look up to but way past it....[/quote] Yep, I guess you're right, who am I, in my mid 40's, to comment on who influences younger folk? The Kaiser Chiefs obviously? OK, so now I feel old. I was only wondering the other day, how much longer I can get away with a low slung bass during gigs, with my fat belly now hanging over the top. I saw a couple of pics of myself live recently and wondered who that fat old tart was, and what had happened to the lean rock machine that used to occupy that old carcass?

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='503824' date='Jun 2 2009, 02:27 PM']Isn't Hadrien more famous for being a Ken Smith man?[/quote] He's the man that made me leave bass day early a couple of years back....[i]yawn[/i]. Surely JJ Burnel is infinitely more influential than the bloke from the ruddy Kaiser Chiefs no? I aint knocking anyone mind, each to his own I s'pose. I can't knock signature stuff, I've had my fair share, and I still have my Tony Levin, which although is heavily modded, is still a superb bass, however it seems to me that there's an awful lot of "signature" instruments around with some names on them that aren't exactly top of the influence list. I mean, the [i]Kaiser Chiefs??[/i] I can understand Marcus Miller, Jaco, James Jamerson (where IS the Jamerson sig bass?), but some of these lesser known people like m'laddo from the KCs, I mean, what'll be next, the "Bloke from Hannah Montana's backing band" signature bass? I'll be rushing out to buy that. All the "big name" rubbish to one side, that's a tasty looking bass.

My wife bought me my Tony Levin 5 from Soundslive, nowt but praise for an excellent bass from an excellent place.

[i]LOVE[/i] the new album, funktastic baby. Shame they're not coming OOP north.

I like Warwicks, and it's one of the few "big name" manufacturers I've never owned (There's still time of course). I [i]really[/i] wanted to Like Stuarts' Sig bass, but alas, it just doesn't do it for me, I'd rather have a streamer. The rest are very tasty looking to me, apart from the Cort I'm afraid.