Kiwi

[i]"Hmmph! Show me da graphite!"[/i]

AM, your choice of bass should probably be guided by the music you intend to play. The strength of the jazz bass is that its a very versatile instrument and more or less an industry standard. If you intend to play a wide variety of pop/soul/funk/rock covers the jazz will probably allow you to get closer to nailing the sounds on the CD's. Most session musicians have a jazz bass in their arsenal of instruments. The Warwick sounds more distinctive and more a matter of personal taste. Probably a better bass to have if you're planning on playing more originals or a lot of music that was originally recorded using a Warwick.

Mines set so the height is consisent regardless of whether Im standing or sitting. In reality, that means quite a bit of variation in actual neck height as I have different instruments with different body widths.

Tonight we did a posh private wedding at a large Edward Luyten designed property in Haywards Heath. I'm not actually sure whether we were playing at one property with three houses or three separate properties because there were no fences or boundaries marked between them, driveways all seemed to share the parking for the event and the properties all shared variations on the same address name. Anyways, tonight I took the Spector Euro 6 as usual and I thought I'd leave the stingray at home so I could take the red Celinder I bought recently from the Gallery. Before the gig we had a rehearsal at Pease Pottage and ran through some potential songs for the set list. One song went well enough for us to give a go tonight too - Estelle's American Boy. We were all in marquee in the garden and had to set up in front of the guests as well as haul all the gear through the kitchen who were getting ready to serve the main course! Possibly the worst logistics yet, this year. Anyway we managed a super quick set up but there was no opportunity for a sound check so the first song was a bit wobbly levels wise but we worked through it. Personally I like playing marquees because the acoustics are usually deader than a dead thing and that means we can all hear ourselves which also means we can play really tight. The Spector usually handles most of the songs and I use it with the mid scoop on the shuttle turned on to remove a little of the aggression and I use the bass boost to fatten it up a little too. I turned off the mid scoop for the jazz because jazz basses are normally already mid scooped enough, but I did use it when using the neck pickup to get a nice round p-bass tone. Both basses sounded great tonight. The Spector was its usual growly self although a little boomy towards the low end but it was shoving a lot of bass out there into the audience under the rest of the mix. I've found my EBS 212 neo cab doesn't really throw super low end into the crowd very well which is good for me because it means I can turn it up on stage a little more with the Spector. I've been listening to a lot of gospel since the last gig and I managed to incorporate more bluesy style riffs in the songs that were blues based (like the motown stuff) and generally played with a lot more confidence when I tried pushing the boat out a little musically. That was really satisfying, I think my playing overall was a lot fresher after a 4 week break too. The gig seemed to go really well, we got to help ourselves to christmas dinner each to eat and the booze was free (although we didn't indulge). Have to say I'm now head over heels with this red Celinder. Although it sounded good in the shop, I was a little disappointed with it when I got it home and tried it at practice levels, it didn't seem to have the warmth and growl that I heard in the shop and I more or less put it down to the colouring of the Mark Bass head. However at stage volumes it was... ...gorgeous. I don't think I've ever said that about a bass I've ever owned before, but that's how I feel about it. Its the perfect jazz tone for me. Full, sweet high end, crisp and growly with any pickup combination, the instrument has a little 5th fret/G string dead spot but the rest of the bass responds very smoothly and evenly across the neck and I could hear it very clearly in the mix all the way through both our sets. Oh and the growl, did I mention the growl? Sweet mother of god, this thing growls like junkyard dog. It handled almost all of the songs I used it for superbly. I even used it on the Chic stuff and it did OK, but still couldn't quite replace the stingray. (I play the stingray differently to how I play the jazz so the sound and feel was all different.) It growls as much as the Stingray if not more, I couldn't believe that I was finally hearing the jazz tone in my head that I'd been searching for all these years. So I'm besotted with this instrument at the moment, it looks like a junkyard dog too with all the scratches and bumps and other cosmetic faults but its definitely a keeper. We did American Boy and I tried the standard riff to begin with, quietened down for the verses, did a bit of latin/house disco variation under the rap section and finished off with some full on solid slap. It was dreamy! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, smooth, warm, growly, funky jazz bass! Yet again the presence of a load of player wear has proved to be the sign to watch for! PS: I also put round wounds on the Celinder P-bass at last just to see what it sounded like and, after lowering the action quite a bit, its a really lovely bass too. Maybe sounds a little less substantial and heavyweight than a well played in 70's Fender P but very growly and (unlike a 70's P) super fast to play. Its very easy for me to get around on. I'm going to have a lot of fun exploring this one too.

Speaking of Mark King, there was an interesting discrepancy a while back over the situation with his Alembics. Alembic at one point claimed that they'd never given basses away while Mark King claimed he'd been subject to an unsolicited approach by Alembic in 1987 while on a Madonna tour (the implication being that he'd never had to actually pay Alembic for the instruments they offered to build for him.) Mica has stayed very schtum on that issue from what I'm aware. There was also a similar situation when Alembic presented Stanley Clarke with his birthday bass too. But its just two basses, I know Fodera players don't get their instruments for free by any means. Far from it.

There's another story that Mark felt the basses were too inconsistent for swapping on stage. Mark apparently pays Rob for his instruments, if you believe the folk on Statii.com.

The game is fundamentally about media coverage. So most of the time its about getting profile for the instrument (which isn't going to happen in the studio unless the endorsee really likes the instrument). For example, while endorsing Modulus and Musicman, Flea used a range of other instruments in the studio including an Alembic and a Wal. It's also not been unknown for some endorsing artists to require a hand made specification instrument, which looks like the production model too. I believe this has been the case with some Gibson endorsees in the past.

[quote name='Bassmonster' post='346455' date='Dec 5 2008, 02:32 PM']Well the news is its all complete, just waiting on word that its been shipped[/quote] Thank goodness for that! Perhaps its a proverbial leak in the dyke...?

[quote name='Toasted' post='345440' date='Dec 4 2008, 02:19 PM']Did you enjoy the vid, CK? I found it V interesting.[/quote] Yes, I found Rogers comments on the selection of body wood particularly interesting and the chambering is something I think we may see more of in the future from other makers.

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=198"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=198[/url] Is this helpful?

yeah I think thats a great idea. I wonder what he might make of a card signed "on behalf of the four and a half thousand members of Basschat"...? We might have to be respectful of his privacy too though. Is there any way of knowing if something like this would be welcomed by him?

[quote name='SteveK' post='345360' date='Dec 4 2008, 01:29 PM']Even after many Tequilas and Jagermeisters Luke didn't say much more than I posted above - he was quite obviously very sad and upset about MP's plight.[/quote] I hope its not a permanent condition but if he's isolating himself it sounds like he's maybe dealing with depression too. I hope it doesn't last too long for him, I'm sure there would be loads of support out there for him in the industry when he feels ready.

Jeez, thats one hell of a test for the tightness of a neck pocket!!

Oh this sounds tragic, can any one fill us in on whats happened? Mike comes across as such a genuine and lovely guy in interviews.

Are you running off a fresh beryllium sphere?

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='345101' date='Dec 4 2008, 09:22 AM']I never doubted it, CK. I just think people should know what they are doing with their forum![/quote] Absolutely! Thanks for posting it too, (always better for that kind of info to come from someone other than Ped or I!)

I had an SWR Triad cab which had that arrangement with a passive crossover but I sold it because I couldn't hear it properly. I don't think it sounded punchy or aggressive enough for what I needed.

LOL Bilbo you're not telling Ped and I anything we weren't already aware of. This forum is used as much as a networking/socialising site as it is as a place to talk about bass. That was what prompted my last 'consultation' thread to include the social networking development option. Offtopic is the place where people tend to sound each other out about things beyond basses.

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='343740' date='Dec 3 2008, 02:15 AM']You seem to assume that these 'competitive urges' are innate in human nature; so you seem to be claiming a particular view of human nature which, as I suggest above, is exactly what is in dispute here... ...This kind of theory has been commonly known as [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism"]Social Darwinism[/url]. The theory doesn't actually go back to Darwin and in fact predates him historically, owing more to Herbert Spencer who coined the phrase [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest"]'survival of the fittest'[/url].[/quote] But doesn't cooperation allow a group of individuals to be more competitive?