BigRedX

Wow both of those are really interesting! I love the Overwater Original shape basses. My fretted 5-string was the first really good bass I owned, and I've had a fascination for them ever since.

Barnacle Bob, There's some interesting contouring going on on the front of the body of yours, plus the bound neck is quite unusual. I've seen another 4-string (fretless)with similar pickups, but I don't recall the contouring on the front of the body being like that.

JanSpeeltBas, The body shape on the one you've posted isn't quite as extreme as the Originals, but then it appears to be later than the ones you usually see. £450 is about the right price for a second-hand Original-shape 4-string at the moment, so if it's what you want go for it.

Hopefully Chris May will be along soon, and give you some more information. If not post the photo in the Overwater forum (under Basschat affiliates and you should get a reply).

Having seen these I think it's definitely time to start and Overwater thread in the Porn section!

Buy a Mac. Garageband come free with it, and is a great way to get started with home recording. If, as you develop, you find it becomes too limiting then Logic is a sensible upgrade and a complete steal at around £300.

Once again mixed...

First gig with my new originals band. Disappointing lack of audience (forgotten how poorly originals gigs can be supported...), but those who were there were appreciative. Played well and my bass sounded great - especially the fretless. Definitely want to do more because the music is fantastic. The band need to learn some more about performance and set pacing but right now I'm just the FNG so that will have to wait for a while until I'm an accepted part of the band. However not a bad start.

Just a bump to remind everyone that this is on tonight.

Any bass chatters going, come and say hi - I'm the one playing the Gus basses!

Big Helicopter Girl fan...

She's made three albums: "How To Steal The World", "Voodoo Chic" - which is the album that Angel City comes from, and then last year's Metropolitan.

Her MySpace page is [url="http://www.myspace.com/helicoptergirlmusic"]here[/url].

Before packing it all in and selling up, think very carefully about what you're going to do with the time you'd previously used for band/musical activities.

For me pretty much anything from my [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5525"]Weird & Wonderful thread[/url] that I don't already own.

If we're talking a specific bass then Mick Karn's fretless Travis Bean.

I don't think anyone is ever as good as they want to be.

Just get out there and go to some auditions. The worst thing that can happen is that you don't get into the band.

IMO every hour spent playing with other musicians is worth at least 10 spent practising by your self.

First gig with the band I joined earlier this year:



There will also be copies of the new mini album on sale.

For a sneak preview have a listen [url="http://www.myspace.com/mableshusbands"]here[/url].

Just like doublecut basses some are beautiful and others lumpen monstrosities. I can't get on with them because their construction interfers with my terrible guitarist's technique.

Of my main basses, 6 were made in the UK (Gus, Overwater and Sei) and the other three were made in the US (Born To Rock, Lightwave and Pedulla).

The Wal site is just a holding page at the moment, but once production is up and running again it will be [url="http://www.walbass.co.uk/"]here[/url].

You're also missing the following luthiers/manufacturers (all from my bass collection)
[url="http://borntorock.com/index.html"]Born To Rock[/url]
[url="http://www.gusguitars.com/"]Gus[/url]
[url="http://www.lacemusic.com/index.php"]Lace[/url]
[url="http://www.lightwave-systems.com/"]Lightwave[/url]
[url="http://www.seibass.com/"]Sei[/url]
[url="http://www.tokaijapan.com/"]Tokai[/url]

Also it would be nice to see [url="http://www.mickkarn.net/"]Mick Karn[/url] on the players page.

I've tried both and bought the Squier VMJ. I preferred the feel of the ebanol fingerboard and the look of the glossy finish. To me even leaving the relic'ing aside the finish on the Vintage looked nasty much too matt and the colours looked like a faded photocopy. Also the neck didn't feel quite as good to me. (I also tried the Fender Jaco sig which was a nice bass but nowhere near £1k nicer than either the Squire or the Vintage.)

Of course that's just my opinion and what suits me for feel and looks might not be right for someone else. However neither were bad.

In the end though I sold the Squier on as I really don't find Fender-style basses comfortable to play - the basses I ended up replacing it with each cost over 10 times what the Squier did though - so not too bad for a starter fretless.

You'll be after a [url="http://www.knuckleguitarworks.com/what/quake.html"]Knuckle Quake[/url] then?

Personally I think that a lot of the time people over-spec custom basses and this can lead to disappointment.

I don't care what wood is used provided that it looks the way I want it to look and it results in a bass that feels and sounds how I want it to. Matching these too things up isn't my job, it's the task of the luthier building the bass.

As a player pick the things that are important to you: Sound, feel, shape and finish and then let the luthier get on with what they do best.

Less horrible than the "German One" though.

Thanks for that pic.

Might have to give this a go some time with a suitable instrument.

According to their website there's a second hand 5-string Fly at the Bass Gallery. Maybe a trip to London is in order?

Bear in mind that there's two different version of the bass with the 'Fly' shape, but only the Fly basses have the wood/carbon fibre laminate neck construction, the P series basses have a wood-only construction. For me the feel of the laminate neck was the major attraction (it was at the time the best bass neck I'd played - back in 2003) and I couldn't say if the all-wood neck would be as good.

The body shape however simply doesn't work as a bass. Which is strange considering that the first Parker instruments were basses made for Steve Swallow, and that the production guitars came later. However looking at the photos of the Swallow prototypes and the production bass it doesn't seem quite so elegant - maybe the prototypes had features that made making them in quantities of more than one-offs too complicated. Whatever the reason the body on the Fly bass is really uncomfortable. No matter how you sit or arrange it on the strap some part digs into you.

As for the sound, I couldn't comment. I tried mine at a trade show where I was doing battle for sound space with 100s of shredding guitarists and anyway I spent most of the time trying trying to get the body in a comfortable position so I could really appreciate the wonderful neck.

Is it everything that you want in a bass except for the damaged finish? If so get a pro refin done. Someone like [url="http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/finish.html"]Steve Robinson[/url] or [url="http://www.simscustom.com/html/sprayshop.htm"]Sims Custom[/url].

If not sell it to someone who's after an all original Fender and buy something that is exactly what you want.

I wanted the ramp on my Sei to give me a uniform playing surface all the way from the neck to the bridge pickup.

I like the look of that too.

The Mudbucker looks excellent on that - remember it's just a casing you could have pretty much any pickup you wanted underneath that!

Unfortunately despite being pretty crap as a bridge there's something right about the looks of the Gibson 3-point that the alternatives don't seem to have, and for all it's excellence as a piece of engineering IMO the Hipshot replacement is downright ugly. The only possible alternative would be the bass version of the Tunematic that some Thunderbirds have (and that Mike Lull is using on his new Thunderbird-inspired bass).

Korean maker Dillion used to produce a bass with a similar shape body and three Tri-Sonic pickups. There's someone on TB with one, and there was another for sale on eBay a couple of weeks back that went for just a little bit more than I was prepared to pay...

Sorry, but that's completely wrong. The only difference between shimming at one end of the neck pocket and shimming the whole neck pocket is the thickness of material needed to get the same change in action and the position of the headstock in relation to the body. It's all simple geometry - look at the diagrams I posted.

Last time this question came up I did a couple of diagrams showing how various neck adjustments affected the action:





IMO this topic should really be added to the Wiki rather than stickying it.

+1 For Peterson tuners.