Wolverinebass

Well, whatever Mr Hall would do, it sure as hell wouldn't be what Jesus would do.....

The last time I deliberately played a gig without specs was in 2007 and it was a struggle. After being out of the game for 2 years I took a dep gig and was actually told to not wear my specs by the guitarist due to image reasons. The fact that I learned their entire 10 song set in an evening then had a quick rehearsal before the gig obviously didn't cut it. It was horrible. As I'm very markedly long sighted and very short sighted in different eyes, everything is half blurred all the time. When I was younger I used to be able to tell how drunk I was by how long it took me to pull focus. Not any more. I couldn't even shut off the eye I didn't want to use. I don't mean shut it, I mean choose to ignore what your brain sees. Most people with this type of problem do this subconciously and you can train yourself to master it, but once your eyes move away from each other in prescription terms just that bit too far.... you are in serious trouble. I had a splitting headache after 2 songs. I thought for a few minutes I was having some sort of stroke. The second I came off stage I put on my prescription sunglasses (which are so dark that you can't see anything unless it's ludicrously bright), sat down outside the bar (it was 11pm) and took 6 very, very strong painkillers and had a few cigarettes before crawling into a taxi. During the ride, the painkillers kicked in and I was getting woken up by the driver when I got out. I resolved to never go onstage without glasses ever again.

It's the sort of thing that people live for. Getting cloned Wal pickups and a circuit. That thread on TB has been going on for about 5 years. It'll never happen. For those moaning about Wal not selling the pickups, why should they? If they did, I bet they'd sell a lot less basses. However, that's another story. Had this come to fruition I did toy with the idea of getting a neck and body from Warmoth and splatting the clones in it. In the end I realised that was pointless regardless if SGD had managed to do it anyway as it wouldn't be a Wal. If you really, really want the pickups there's a bloke on TB called MPU (based in Finland) who made some 8 coil pickups for some bloke to put in his spector. I believe they were in EMG casings. Dunno how much they'd be. Then you'd have the fun of trying to track down a comparable circuit. Good luck with that. I don't consider £4000 too much to spend on a great instrument (providing you have the money for it). But thereabouts is the cutoff for me. I'd never get a Fodera as even though they're great, it's just too much. Besides what with the buzzard I'm already an instrument insurer's wet dream anyway. Whilst I don't have the cash now, I shall be saving to get a Wal. Considering that there's something ludicrous like a 2 year wait, I could probably have ordered it tomorrow and managed to save up in the intervening time. However, I digress. If you want the sound, get the real thing.

Hi All, This is my trio band's first gig. For those of you in "Sarf East Landan" it's free to get in as we're going on before the open mic night. We'll be starting about 7pm and it'd be good to meet any local Bcer's who fancy having a chat and telling me that my playing sucks. Assuming we don't go down like the Hindenberg, we'll be playing there every 2nd Tuesday. Our stuff is on "The Book of Faces," so feel free to listen and like us should you wish to.

I'm not frustrated. For a time in my very early 20's I wanted to be somewhat rich and famous. Insane really considering I wouldn't compromise myself or my playing to do it. I passed on loads of bands who were signed and learned very quickly that wasn't what I wanted in my musical life. In the situations I'm in I fit well and my aims are modest. Just play original music I enjoy with people I like. My one musical ambition is to play a gig (only one!!) where every single song was mine. I haven't done it yet and I think that I probably never will. I'm certainly not frustrated with my playing or gear or anything like that.

I must admit despite shouting "NEVER!!" I'm feeling the urge to raid Warmoth for a 72 styled P bass.... What is happening to me?

Opinions sought on my bands new stuff. Whether it be production, bass playing or whatever grateful for you views peeps. [url="http://soundcloud.com/smokehouse-blackout"]http://soundcloud.com/smokehouse-blackout[/url]

This is a crime. The only thing I could think of that could be more insane would be someone selling a Status having removed the neck and replacing it with a neck from a squier precision and still thinking they'll get what they paid for it....

About 8 years ago I played through an ASS 1x15 and ASS 2x12. That was monstrous. I find it such a pity that they're not made any more. Either by Ashdown or ASS. I found them to have more in common with putting a pod through a PA rather than a bass rig. The articulation in some of the flanging effects I was using at the time was insane.

The Who - Live at the Royal Albert Hall Kings X - Dogman

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1357134057' post='1917862'] A bizarre attitude. Musicians want to buy Fenders. Not only that, but musicians want to buy Fenders that are the same as they were 50 years ago. You can hardly blame Fender for making what people want to buy... [/quote] You are quite correct of course. Nothing wrong with Fender making stuff that people want to buy. It could be argued that Fender (like Rickenbacker) can't deviate too much from their tried and tested formula. Nothing wrong with that. What is totally wrong is them closing down a company which makes better instruments than them and also them giving me some sort of crap about "they're too similar" to Fender basses and therefore not allowing them to be sold in the UK. Surely it's Fender that have the bizarre attitude and not me?

Interestingly, a mate of mine got a 2nd hand Cruise bass a few years ago. He flogged it making a not entirely substantial loss on it and got a MIM Jazz which I thought was although a bit less in theory was miles behind in terms of feel and how it played and sounded. He then went mad and bought 5 Danelectros all of which are mince. I thought the Cruise bass was brilliant. What a mug. Look at this. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170962227167?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170962227167?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649[/url] It's just ridiculously nice and I wouldn't say stupidly pricey either. If I had the cash it'd be worth a punt. Yet, no more to come. Thank you for closing them down Fender. Go back to your mass produced, "we haven't changed anything about our design at a fundamental level for more than 50 years" tosh. It's just so wrong.

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1356974408' post='1915924'] why the link to Fender causing their demise? [/quote] Fender is part of the Kamen group who bought Hamer. As far as I'm concerned, Fender are scumbags for this. About a 18 months ago, I wanted a 12 string. When you go through all the contact details for Hamer you find out you're contacting Fender UK. When I enquired about ordering one, I was told that "as they're so similar to Fender basses, they're not available and we don't expect them to be in the future." Naturally my reply was simple - when did Fender ever make a 12 sting bass? Er.. (to the best of my knowledge) NEVER. Oh, so it looks like a precision then? "We just don't sell them anymore." I asked if they wanted my money as I was quite happy to cough up. All to no avail. Tools. In the end, it took me 6 months to find one that the seller would ship to the UK. It was made in 1998 and I got it from Germany. It's a fantastic instrument and one which no matter how bad I feel sometimes, just playing it always makes me happy. Sod Fender. It's just another reason for me to dislike them.

Hi all, Here's my "progressive grunge" band's first recorded song. We've actually been rehearsing about 15 but only got round to recording this one the other week. It's not quite right, as the vocals are slightly low, but opinions are gratefully taken. I'm playing the Hamer 12 string on this as I've decided to go for a more King's X type sound for this band and use the 12 and 8 exclusively. With my other band I'll only be using 4's. Let me know what you think. Cheers Wolverinebass [url="https://soundcloud.com/#signalsfromcallisto"]https://soundcloud.c...alsfromcallisto[/url]

[quote name='far0n' timestamp='1354298864' post='1884652'] Wasn't the SD1200 discontinued a while back ? He must have bought them second hand [/quote] It still appears to be on their website as being under "special heads." So, not discontinued.

None of this makes any sense. Did the Vietnamese gardeners sell you the fake bass? Did you get any "herb of Zarg" to try as recompense? Was there free wireless broadband in the shop you tried it in? It's all getting a bit far fetched for me.

Maybe it was just my imagination. I could have played one with a rubbish amp or cab, but I didn't like the sound. I generally find passive basses a bit wooly for me and there isn't enough cut without stupid eq curves. Each to their own. Certainly they have low mids in abundance, but for that sort of attack noise 1.5 - 2.5k, I didn't get what I wanted out of it without a rather hefty bout of eq boosting. I'm not saying they're rubbish (far from it), just that they don't work for me. If I'm mistaken, then fair enough, it was only my own experience (ducks head).

They were fantastic at Hyde Park. I loved it.

I don't know. I saw Soundgarden at Hyde Park a few months ago. I felt that Ben Shephard was using too much low end and added to the fact that P basses have a natural mid scoop he wasn't that clear for quite a lot of it. Nothing in that had changed on Jools, plus like all bass players everywhere he was undermixed. I happen to quite like him as a player. I don't think he's innovative in any way, but for some reason I just think he's really good.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1351708263' post='1854495'] [/quote] Am I not right in thinking that's one of the fakers that you bought off ebay the other day Mr F?

I play every day rotating between basses. I love playing too much to not do it every day.

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1348948299' post='1820109'] Wasn't it there that John trashed his bass afterwards because it wouldn't hold tune? [/quote] No. He sold it to the Hard Rock Cafe afterwards. He'd been fiddling with it and crossed some wires and it went dead. He then raced for the backup and it wasn't tuned. There wasn't a transformer (5 pin canon jack familiar to those Alembic users out there) so he couldn't tune it and just muddled through. To quote the man himself - "Right before we were to play, my main bass went dead because I’d accidentally crossed some wires while changing the battery. I ran for the backup bass but couldn’t tune it because there were no transformers backstage. At that point we were introduced, and I barely managed to get back onstage in time to start ‘[url="http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/tablature/mygenbass.txt"]My Generation[/url].’ If you listen closely to the video, you can hear me tuning the [i]D[/i] string as we go. I just about got it in tune in time for the bass solo. I sold the main bass to the [url="http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/misc/museumpieces.html"]Hard Rock Cafe[/url] — that was its punishment.” He smashed his bass at the Houston Astrodome in 1975 when Daltrey told him (not very politely) to turn down. His response of "You play the f###ing thing then!!" then smashing his bass, jumping off a 12 foot high stage and locking himself in the dressing room is pretty much exactly what I would have done barring smashing an Alembic. Ouch.....

It's a very nice bass. The mid shift is taken from something like the EMG circuit I have in my 8 string (although that has stacked knobs). It was always a source of slight frustration that even on a bass like the buzzard the mids were only either "flat" or "boosted." If it were a complete graphite mould rather than just facings (which I consider cheating), I'd probably be a bit more interested. The simple fact of it is that Status don't have that many endorsees that are stupidly high profile. Whilst there can be no argument (love them or hate them) that Muse are one of the biggest bands in the world, does anyone like Chris Wolstenholme enough to shell out £2300 on a bass when it's very unlikely to make you sound like him? It's like people that buy a Wal to sound like Justin Chancellor. It just doesn't happen as he's using so much processing. However, that's a whole other argument. I would like to think that this is finally Status stopping rolling out Kingbasses every year or 2. However, I doubt it. Do we really need 9 different Kingbass variants? Really? Really?!!! Do us (or more importantly me!!) a favour and build a bass to replace the buzzard. Preferably one which your forearm can rest on and is availble as an 8 string which would be a one piece graphite mould.

This in many ways is totally unsurprising. If anything, it reinforces my opinon that a bass that doesn't cost at least £800 isn't worth playing. I've never found one under that price range I'd wish to own even if I got it for free. I used to think that Fodera were kind of having a laugh with their pricing, but on the other hand it's not like their making P bass clones for £6k a pop. They're making top quality gear. I wonder what Alembic or Wal are getting give or take. I would assume about the same. It's a travesty that in some cases people who put such beautiful instruments into our hands can't get enough to break much more than even for the ludicrous amount of work that has been put in.

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1346705925' post='1792285'] Graham Noden in Denmark Street . [/quote] Well, I'd never use anyone on Denmark Street again, especially those tools. When I took my 8 string for a setup I asked them to lower the action and the guy just filed down the nut until the first fret was being fretted by playing an open string. I was seriously not amused when a couple of days later I couldn't figure out why it was going out of tune. I then took it to Graham Parker who made me a very reasonably priced bone nut. I got that bloke Tim Hardin to build it for me (I'm not the most handy of people) and he broke the nut. Filed off the bit on the side of the fundamental G string. Then tried to deny that he'd bodged it not realising that since the nut was made of corian it showed up the superglue he'd tried to fix it with very, very well. Not impressed.