tauzero

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1423311820' post='2683358']Erm, my only two Fenders are both active. A Japan Power Jazz[/quote] That managed three or four years, '84 to '87 [quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1423311820' post='2683358']and a Squier Jag.[/quote] Still going all these years after 2012.

[quote name='M@23' timestamp='1423322704' post='2683540'] Not quite sure what point you're trying to make; care to elaborate? [/quote] Well, you mentioned Ford turning out the Focus, Fiesta, and Transit. Maybe you're so young that these have all been made through your entire lifetime, but I can remember the Sierra (a real innovation, not to mention pig-ugly) coming into being - and where is that now? So yes, Ford are making the Focus, but it's not something they've made since the dawn of time. Cars are a poor analogy, as bits of wood with strings on don't become completely superseded.

I'm really getting utterly peed off with agents. There's some operating around Birmingham that have got quite a few pubs sewn up. So we can't approach the pubs direct, yet, despite the fact that the pubs would like us in, the agents aren't booking us into them either. What the hell can we do?

[quote name='M@23' timestamp='1423226811' post='2682445'] Same with Ford, wish they would stop pedalling out all those Focus', Fiestas and Transists [/quote] And when will they move on from churning out the Model T?

Any fule kno it's a Squitr.

The neck pickup seems to have been installed with minimal regard to string coverage. Or maybe it's just my OCD.

As the experience of playing a real German-made Hofner is a rather unpleasant one (IMO IME HTH HAND and bar), are these a more or less pleasant experience?

There was a lovely Stradi that cropped up several times on Ebay - fretless with a full-length unfretboard and a bottom horn that was just a hook formed of a piece of bent brass plate. A more exotically-wooded (IIRC) version of [url="http://www.stradi.pl/stalion.html"]http://www.stradi.pl/stalion.html[/url]

Um. Yes. I think you've just re-made my point.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1422984545' post='2679165'] Dating a musician? Cut him in half and count the rings ... [/quote] For keyboard players, just cut the left hand off and kill two birds with one stone.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1423230817' post='2682537'] I always think that slagging off Fender because they keep making the same old stuff is a bit like slagging off Heinz because they keep making Baked Beans. [/quote] Why this strange belief that a company can only produce the same old stuff or produce new stuff? Heinz have come up with new products, after all, not just baked beans with basil or baked beans with chilli sauce or baked beans with bananas. But they still produce baked beans, which is a Good Thing.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1423226213' post='2682430'][b]TRUE FACT:[/b] None of these have, or will, sell very well. So hats off to them for even trying. [/quote] But will they just abandon them, or will they try and find out what to do with them to make them sell better (other than "take out all the active bits and anything else that looks as if it was made later than 1960"?). I have previously cited the example of Harley Davidson - they had two basic families of bike based on the same engine layout they'd used since 1928. They kept with the V-twin but changed the cylinder angle, and came up with a genuinely new bike from the ground up. And then they persisted with it.

[quote name='tommorichards' timestamp='1423191878' post='2682101'] You mean like the Marcus Miller sig, American deluxe, Deluxe active okoume, deluxe jazz IV active? That sort of thing? [/quote] You mean those aren't just the same old bass with different go-faster stripes on?

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1423144922' post='2681358'] People give them crap for trying new stuff. People give them crap for sticking with the same old safe stuff. Can't win. [/quote] They never have a convincing go at trying new stuff. It's always a bit half-hearted, try something a bit different (not too radical, stick an active preamp in a Jazz for example) then if it doesn't take off in six months, ditch it.

"Hotel California". Not because it's a terribly complex bassline, but as it's just me who's backing the guitar, when he goes into the solo at the end, I'm arpeggioing R-5-8 constantly (using my right hand in a classical guitar stylee) so I'm keeping them pressed down (unlike the vocal parts where I left-hand damp so I'm relaxing my left hand quite a bit) and that gets absolutely knackering. Fortunately we only go through three iterations of the chords, not four.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1413294993' post='2576804'] Though you may want to solder an earth wire onto the shielding at some point! [/quote] If the control pots are in contact with the shielding, odds are they'll have a ground wire soldered to the bodies so the shielding will be grounded through that route.

I'm not sure how much overlap between worlds there is, TBH. A pro might say you should always have a P available because you never know when it'll be wanted on a session, but that would be of sublime indifference to me. A trolley to pull a bass cab across a carp ark, or whether to use active PA speakers, will be subjects of sublime indifference to a pro playing at levels somewhere above Dog and Duck. I would say that newcomers to bass could find them of value if deciding whether to try to go pro or to stay as hobbyist, but if they've already selected the appropriate trouserleg of fate then little from the other trouserleg will be of great significance. This shouldn't be assumed to be in any way me belittling pros, their accomplishment, or their knowledge, and it would be nice to see some more of them on here.

That's presumably the Traben Bigger Bridge featured in the description and the sticky label on the flame on the lower side.

That's improved the trussrod access.

Don't like the white binding on the top. Our old guitarist had an actual '57 (I think) Gold Top and the binding doesn't wrap right round the edge like that:

I've not seen anyone launching into similar diatribes against GK for selling their MB150 combo for £550. It's not as if they're still absorbing the development costs, it's been around for 30+ years. Although one point that Ashdown may wish to consider is that as well as the premium-priced MB150, GK do a second range which are half the price.

I had the neck on my '00 Thumb shaved down to the same proportions as my '87 JD Thumb. Local luthier did it, and made a jolly good job of it.

[quote name='lonestar' timestamp='1422743298' post='2676455'] Id like to be able to do nuts but the files are a bit prcicey [/quote] Adjustable nuts from Thomann are a lot cheaper. Of course, you'll then get lots of BCers telling you not to use them, but it's worth it. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_6240_webster_nut_bass.htm[/url] If it was good enough for Warwick, it's good enough for me.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1422632607' post='2674934'] My influences when taking up playing bass were guys like Jaco, using bass in a melodic way. [/quote] Who's Jaco?

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1422637605' post='2675030'] Smile politely. I'm very much in the John Entwistle school of stage presence (which, I hasten to add, is subtly different from the Bill Wyman school) [/quote] I thought the Bill Wyman school was where he got his girlfriends.