BigRedX

[quote name='Shaggy' post='441123' date='Mar 21 2009, 03:20 PM']There were a couple of others less mainstream, like the bass player of the Slits (anyone remember her name?)[/quote]

Tessa Pollitt.

Err... isn't the Kubicki Factor American?

Unless you're overdubbing latency is irrelevant. Plus you can avoid it by monitoring in hardware rather than software.

I don't understand what the difference is between the first two options.

If he's true to his standards he also won't accept any money you might make from gigs got with the original demo...

[quote name='Rich' post='439111' date='Mar 19 2009, 12:28 PM']So, at what point does an expensive bass become too expensive to comfortably take to a gig? Let's say an ordinary gig at the Dog & Duck, rather than a big gig on a proper stage.[/quote]

The answer should be "never too expensive to take to a gig", unless it was bought as a recording only instrument or a an 'investment'.

Personally if I own a bass I'm going to play it. If it's the right sounding bass for the job I'll be playing it wherever. Instruments are just as likely to pick up dings and bumps at rehearsals or even in your own house as at a gig. If a venue looked really dodgy then maybe the bass would stay in its case by my side except when I'm on stage playing it. If you have an expensive bass and you don't use it then that is a waste of money. Thinking about it now the replacement value of the basses and amplification I was using at my last gig would have been approaching £10,000, but I simply can't let that sort of thing worry me. Also in a way an exotic custom bass is far less steal-able than a Fender or Warwick simply because they are so unique.

If you work with drum machines or any other device that outputs a MIDI clock signal then you should certainly take a look at the [url="http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/"]Linn Adrenalinn[/url]. Not a synth pedal as such but a MIDI synchronised filter/gate/flanger/delay/amp modeller.

Shaggy, is that Gordon Smith the one that was on eBay about a year or so ago? That's the only GS bass I've every seen. The guitars play and sound nice but they're all pretty much adaptations of established designs.

thisnameistaken, obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder, because I personally think the Overwater Originals are as cool as f**k, and find most traditional bass designs seemingly stuck in the 50s and 60s...

BTW I had a look at your profile, but there's no info there. So I can get where your coming from with this question what bass(es) do you use and what music do you play?

Its one of the Splat Hybrid bass prototypes.

Gorgeous IMO, but the rest of you feel free to keep talking it down, that way I'll have less competition...

However the sellers estimate of it's worth is somewhat inflated. From what I recall it sold originally for around the starting price and last time I was in contact with Michael Spalt a new one to my spec would have cost about $3000.

I own several 5 strings in 34, 35 and 36" scale and to me the 35" ones sound the least convincing. Admittedly the longer and shorter basses were far more expensive, but it confirms for me that the overall quality of the bass is more important than simply the speaking length of the strings.

I think with almost 50 years of familiarity and the sheer numbers of instruments out there the big American brands have tied up most of the mainstream 'classic' basses. What the great European and Japanese basses bring is the unconventional that appeals those those of us who find the American classics simply uninspiring.

So, what to pick?

From Japan the Ibanez and Aria Pro II original designs from the late 70s and early 80s, especially the Aria SBs and the Ibanez Artist basses.
The Yamaha SBV basses may have not made much of an impact here or in the US, but they're very popular in Japan and have several high-profile users.

From the UK, the Overwater Originals from the early 80s, and as CK said the early JD basses, Wals and Status again from the late 70s and early 80s. All these designs are now at least 25 years old so if the OP thinks that they're too modern that just shows how far ahead of the game they were when they first came out!

Unfortunately while there were many great guitar builders in the UK before 1980 few of them built any great basses. John Birch in particular made some stunning guitars but the majority of his basses are revised versions of US designs - an improvement but not an innovation and that's what is needed to become a classic.

For me what is interesting is not what is already considered classic but what will achieve that status in the next 20-30 years. I think the they will be like the Wal basses - a recognisable shape and a couple of high-profile users with individual sounds.

No because it's not worth it.

Plus I'd want paying a couple of hundred for the disposal of the Ashdown and Behringer...

I can see exactly were ARGH is coming from with this and why to a certain extent the OPs question is fairly meaningless.

First off "growly warm tone" is such a subjective thing. Personally I don't even know what "growly" is as regards a bass tone. If there were some sound clips to go with that description that would help for a start.

Also the OP wants woods that "look good". Again totally subjective. One persons idea of a nice looking piece of wood is another's aesthetic nightmare. Lets not also forget that Spalted really means fungus infected and rotten. 20 years ago these pieces would never have been remotely considered as suitable for instrument building.

So matching a wood to a tone. Yes to certain extent it can be done, but these days basses are made out of several pieces of different woods and the important bit is not how each piece sounds but how they all interact. Even traditional F-type designs are rarely made out of a single slab so knowing how all the bits when glued and bolted together are going to react that is the key.

We might get some kind of consensus for some growly tone woods and the OP goes off and has their bass built out of them. Unfortunately the particular pieces used might be the least growly versions - remember wood is from a living thing and every piece is going to be different to some extent and the more figured it is the less predictable. Someone will be disappointed.

Don't worry about the species of wood. Go to your luthier with ideas about the playability, the sound and the look. Its then their job to pick the woods that will (hopefully) give you what you want or gently tell you that what you're after is unlikely to be achievable.

Finally just to throw a complete spanner in the works, here's a picture of a bass that several people have described as having a good woody tone:



It's made almost entirely out of aluminium - the only wood is two pieces on the back of the T section that forms the neck/fingerboard and they might well not even be hard wood and their function is simply to provide something that is easy to shape for the back of the neck.

You'll probably also find that different strings suit different basses.

Just to make it even more complicated...

His most recent live bassist is David Brooks who is a Gus G3 Bass user...

[quote name='SJA' post='434586' date='Mar 14 2009, 01:49 PM']didn't he join Interpol?

...and his kids are in Editors, The Rakes and White Lies.....[/quote]

Poor relations that don't come anywhere close to the majesty and power of Joy Division.

The closest I've heard to what JD could have produced next would be Dragons:

You can avoid latency completely by monitoring outside of your PC. Simply split the in-going signal(s) two ways and route one to your soundcard input and the other to a hardware mixer. Run the outputs of the soundcard to the mixer as well, but don't have the inputs routed to the outputs within your recording app. Easy recording an zero latency worries. Of course a cheap soundcard won't have particularly good A/D converters or be necessarily well shielded from all the digital noise floating around in your computer...

I played a lot of Warwicks in my search for a good fretless bass and the thing I found in nearly all of them was that the necks felt really sticky and not at all conducive to sliding fretless playing. The fretless Star bass on display at the LGS last year looked gorgeous, but the edges of the fingerboard were the sharpest I've ever come across on any bass which is completely unforgivable on a bass with a £1700 price tag. The only fretless Warwick I really liked was the JB Cream Reunion model but there's no way I could justify spending £4000 on an off-the-peg model!

[quote name='Buzz' post='432054' date='Mar 12 2009, 12:21 AM']I do have to ask though, the clothing choices for the instrumentalists and the singer? The band really look like a backing band as the singer doens't really have a tie in at all to the rest of you.[/quote]

If you're in a band with a female singer as far as the majority of the audience are concerned you are her backing band. If you don't get that and live with the fact your probably in the wrong business.

At least the blokes aren't a bunch of fat ugly baldies, so they might just have a chance at being treated as equals... ;-)

I like the one immediately below that with the extended cut away. Take the frets off and that would be exactly my kind of bass!

Yeah, but as I said in my earlier post the majority of his signature fretless work in Japan was done on a Travis Bean TB2000 before he got the Wal and changing basses didn't make that much difference to his tone so in his case it's probably more down to the player than just the bass.

That's about 100x better than most band's first photos. At least you all look like you're in the same band and the blokes are all fairly photogenic which makes a change. The first shot is by far the best and says everything - provided that you actually act like that on stage, and if you don't start practising so you can, right now! Loose the others they just sell you short.

More details [url="http://www.manne.com/eng/custom.htm"]here - about two-thirds down the page[/url].

Does this count?



Manne Mandobass. 26" scale normal bass string spacing but tuned an octave up.

I can remember when this was first announced and people complained about the price (then $100,000 IIRC). At the time I pointed out that my boss had just spent that much on a new car and that wasn't anything particularly flash. Given that kind of money I know what I'd have spent it on (a clue: it wouldn't be the car), plus judging by that article it looks as though the bass was a better investment - I doubt to car is even worth half what he paid for it now.