JohnFitzgerald

I don't think any of us will ever sound like Jaco.
None of the famous names who played the reconstituted Bass Of Doom in the video on youtube sounded like him either.

What they did sound though, was good.

There's also a fair bit of potential for many of the fine players on here to sound good using a fretless jazz.
It's an iconic sound, a fretless jazz on the back pickup with the tone rolled off a bit.

I really don't see the issue with any of us getting a hold of a Fender Jaco if we can afford it or either the Vintage reliced job or the VM Squier fretless if that's more to our budget..
I think we're all aware we won't sound like Jaco, but there's nothing wrong with buying a fretless sunburst jazz.

I'll never be a millionth of the musician Jaco was, but I'm unapologetically having a fretless jazz.

Very happy with my Squier Jazz V.
As I often tell people, I also had a Fender Jazz V too.

Both of them are active.

Back to back testing, I was happier with the Squier and that's the one I kept.
Totally happy with that decision.

Ideally, I'd buy another identical one, but fretless.
Unfortunately, they don't do such a bass.

I'll be the one that says according to the rules you have to state a price.
Sorry.

The dull thud of Macca never quite did it for me, that's why the old violin bass never quite tugged at the heart strings.

Now it does.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCOycca1ezo&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCOycca1ezo&feature=related[/url]

The one in my avatar has a 51mm width at the nut. That's quite a jump I guess.

At the ripe old age of 46 and 3/4 I'm getting ready to do my first ever festival at the Summer's End prog festival in 3 weeks time.

A couple of months back, I was approached by a drummer friend to see if I was interested in taking on the bass chair in his band. Comedy Of Errors.
I'm the first to admit that I don't completely have an understanding of what prog is, but listened to the stuff and was interested enough to agree to throw my lot in and sign up.

In true prog fashion here's a clip which involves harpsichord, guitar solos, yadda yadda.
The guitarist's a monster. Strange thing is, I told him he sounded very Al Murphy and he had never heard of him.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xELokNBChpE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xELokNBChpE[/url]

Really looking forward to it. even though were all based around Glasgow area and the gig's in the Forest of Dean.

Cheers Andy.

To be honest, a pair of J pickups would be my natural choice.
We'll see.

Anyone got one or tried one ?

Looks a tidy buy for under £100.
I already have the Squier 5 string Jazz. I don't have a big budget, but was (perhaps stupidly) thinking of one of these to do a fretless on. Any other budget 5 string J basses which might already be fretless ?

Jose

Still have VM Jazz for sale ?

Cheers

JF

Some pics of the time when I had these lovelys.

Anyone think they might have one of them now ?

They were repsectively, an S1 bolted on headed, a series 3000 bolt on headless with side LEDs and a Groove 5 string in sunburst. Pics hopefully attached.

Anyone spotted them around ?

I have long since domesticated their value for such fripperies as annual holidays, car repairs and the like.

Here we go.

[attachment=117161:251418_452400791457920_813642543_n.jpg]

[attachment=117162:Series 3000.jpg]

[attachment=117163:Groove 5 string.jpg]

I've been playing in a new band of late.
More of that to follow.

The rehearsal rooms are fairly well equipped.

The one we've been in the last few weeks has an Ampeg SVT450H into an EBS 8x10.

Every time you go in, it seems that various previous incumbents have been winding all sorts of EQ onto the graphic and the rotary tone section.
Tonight, I set everything flat as a starting point.

I kinda forgot to go back to the EQ after that point.

The Jazz Bass was both pickups full on, mid and top bit of boost, bass left flat. (It's an active one).

Lovely mid range projection, nice bit of presence and cut and decent depth too.
Really, the very sound I've always wanted.

How come it's so simple.
Set it flat, use a decent cabinet - there you go.

The next time my own Trace gets used, everything will be flat with the preshape most certainly off.

Every day's a school day.

You have PM

Hi

Definitely interested in both cabs.
Will investigate if I can arrange someone to uplift them, seeing as I'm a couple of hundred miles north of you.

Will get back to you asap.

Regds

JF

My Trace head and Peavey 410 cab cost me a total of £160.
I bring a lead too, which obviously must have cost a tenner or so at some time in the past.
My strap is a freebie planets waves locking one which was given to me by a pal who was terminally ill with cancer at the time.
Me and that strap shall never be parted.

That's it.

Every time I see that TC are doing a deal on a free cab. I get tempted by a new BH500 and a pair of BC210 cabs for £610, but I don't imagine I'd sound much better.

My only bass that goes out with me is the Squier 5 string in my avatar.

The Yamaha in my sig is still very much a project and cost me nothing.


I guess those who have spent more than me do so because they can. For that, I'd never be a hypocrite and criticise. I would too.

I'll fess up to always being on the lookout for a lighter cab with a bit more mid, but the cost would have to make sense.

Scoop is just wrong.
Sounds mega on its own, disspears when played ensemble.

I had occasion to do a set on guitar the other night using someone else's gear.

A completely lovely Gibson ES137 into a Marshall all valve 50 watt combo.
Can't remember the model.

Anyway, it was a mix of other people's gear.
As It came to me, the mid was wound off and bass was wound on.
Fat sound, but just no cut.

I adjusted to suit myself and did the set.
Man what a sound, The ES137 on the neck pickup into just a tad of crunch was really lovely.

Mid is such an under appreciated commodity.
Even on guitar.

Trace head / Ampeg cab ?

Would that not be like trying to install a gas cooker into an electric power point ?

I know, stupid comment, but to my befuddled head, there's some strange reason in there.

On a side note, I caught Simple Minds from T in the park on Iplayer last night.
Ged Grimes (ex Danny Wilson) was toting an elderly Stingray (probably, pre EB) into an SVT and 8x10.

It was indeed a lovely sound, I have to say.
Great combo.

Didn't Pino use such a setup at one point ?

I regularly use an Ashdown 6x10 in one of the rehearsal rooms I frequent.

I have to say, it's the top I find missing from that.

Maybe I need to be getting a hold of a Trace 2103 and 1153 for a try out.
I'd love those two to do the trick for me.

Thanks chaps for the input.

Glad I'm not the only one to have noticed this phenomenon with the Peavey.

I do take the point that Trace pre shape and this cab. is not a marriage made in heaven.

Will investigate the Schroeder cab too.

Fair points.

My favourite setup from the past was an AH250 and 1048 and that didn't lack for mid.
Maybe that's the sound I'm trying to get back.

Used a 1215 combo last week in a rehersal room and it gave me the sound I like.

I think that's why I was casting guilty looks at the Peavey cab.

Will keep all suggestions in mind.

Morning chaps

Haven't logged in for a while.

Had login issues, all now fixed.

Thinking of a new cab.

Currently running a Trace AH130 into a Peavey 410TX.

The cab has all the bottom and top I need, but does seem a bit lacking in the prominent mid that I like to give the bass an audible voice to make itself heard.

It always weighs more than a small planet.

Any suggestions for a moderately priced, reasonably light, cab ?

My sound is fingerstyle jazz bass biased towards the back pickup.


Cheers

JF

For guitarist calling up patches, replace with.

Drummer fannying about with individual pad sensitivity settings on V drum module.
It goes from no trigger at all -/ low tom blows the back wall out.

You'd think it would be set and forget.

I've already spoken to one of the other guys and he's fine with my thoughts.

I'll go forward with my original approach then.
Clairfy things to everyone, but with a degree of tact.

To my mind, the upper mid range is critical in giving instruments a real voice.
I think that's what they're not quite getting.

As a slight asides, when we played friday night, I stuck completely with the bridge pickup on my jazz.
That will maybe tell you of the part of the audio spectrum that [i]I [/i]was trying to live in.
You can't beat that upper mid honk for poking its nose through the mud.

Talk about late to the party.....

Yep, we do young hearts at weddings.

People generally miss that line.

All they hear is 'young hearts, run free' and assume you must be talking about them.

So it seems anyway.
It's never failed to fill the dance floor.
Not once.

We live in Scotland, we're weird that way.

I do have another ace up my sleeve.

I've been recording all the gigs...

I've got a pair of Adats slaved together and I'm recording it all via the direct outs onto individual tracks, so I can mix later.
I then import it into Sonar via my RME DIGI9636 sound card (16 simultaneous ins via lightpipe form the adats.)

Anyway, playing with these recordings tells me that there's an overabundance of stuff happening below 400hz.
The minute I filter that out, it all becomes clear and you can hear individual parts.

I'll may go for that approach.
Here's how it does sound / here's how it can sound.

Thanks for the input so far chaps.

I've been one of those idiots who takes on the job of doing the live sound for quite some time now. (Since about 1992 or so.)
I've never ever professed to be an expert, but my methods are very simple and it usually serves me well.

1) Not too loud on stage.
2) Keep it simple with the EQ, the less tweaking the better.
3) Use quality gear and let it do its job.

Current band I'm in, I'm on the point of distraction.

New lead guitarist, new drummer.

Both great players, both sound lads, but I think they're contributing to the problems I'm having.
I have some theories that I want to put to them but wouldn't mind putting them to you before I do so.

Quick rundown on what we've got.
Mackie CFX12, EV ND767 mics, Crown XLS602s, Logic System LS12s, Logic System LS115 subs.
All good enough kit.

My problem is what I would describe is low mid mud.

Drummer has a Roland TD12 kit and he likes his tom sound low and loose. Fair enough.
Lead player plays Les Pauls through a Marshall TSL and 1936 2x12" cab. He likes a big chunky sound with a fair old bottom end crunch.

Both fair enough in themselves.

Add in that I've been trying to wean the lead singer off the proximity effect for as long as I've known him and it's all starting to get a bit congested.

Add in that the drummer fancies himself as being knowledgable about live sound.
The graphic on the mixer, I generally leave flat. If it's there for anything, it's to maybe fix a problem frequency.
If we're on a wooden floor, I'll maybe take 2-3db out at 250hz to get rid of the boom from mic stands.
Other than that, the graphic's doing nothing.
The drummer's decided that smiley faces are a good idea.

It's all ended up as a big pile of low mid mud.

I want the graphic back to flat.
I want the guitarist to lose a bit of the bottom end thud from his sound.
I want the drummer to lose some of the bottom end off the toms.
I want the drummer to leave the graphic the f**k alone.
I'll continue to deprive the singer of proximity effect low end macho sound.

Does any of the above sound reasonable ?

I have long preached the following maxims.

1) If someone else is playing something in a certain part of the bar (timing wise), you need to find a space elsewhere.
2) If someone else is playing a part at a specific part of the audio spectrum, again you need to find a space elswhere.

I think the above is all reasonable. Lose the low mid congestion.

Thoughts anyone, before I wade in and spout forth.

Cheers

JF