peteb

Reading the BBC article, it’s actually quite cool how chuffed he is to write a song that has stood the test of time and to have written another ‘Streets Have No Name’ or whatever. It’s one of those songs that you can shout along to after a few beers, even if you can only know some of the lyrics. As long as you remember ‘jealousy’, ‘price I pay’ and ‘Mr Brightside’, you’re good to go!

It is a great anthemic pop rock tune that stands out from all the other big hits from the same period, which tend to be very formulaic!

Great tune - I'm not sure that the Metallica version is better than the original, but they're both great. I used to be in a band that did a version of this - completely different to either Bob or Metallica's versions.

Was the GNR version called 'Civil War' (because I believe that was based on a punk cover)??

The thing I remember was a (very good) American bass player using my bass with the East pre (through my rig) at a jam session at a blues festival. He just did what he normally did with a Fender jazz and turned up the bass control to full without thinking about it and off he went. I was stood there cringing, thinking that he was going to blow my (fortunately very powerful) Berg cab out and waiting for him to finish a song so I could get to him and tell him to turn the f***ing bass control down before he; a) blew my cab out, and b) found the infamous 'brown' note and had half the audience desperately queuing for the venue's toilet facilities...!

I used to have an East j-retro on a jazz bass a few years ago and although it is a nice sounding preamp, I certainly would not have another one (I have had this discussion with @LukeFRC, who I believe still has an East installed on his Lakland and really likes it). The problem is, as you have said, the bass control isn't set at a very usable frequency and has way too much boost. It s too easy to get a very boomy bottom end, not too mention it can feel like you are going to blow your speakers out if you are not careful. There are too many bad / unusable sounds in there and as @krispn has said, setting the bass EQ at something like 70hz would be much more useful. Actually, the sweepable mids control is pretty cool - you can tune it to find the 'sweet spot' for the room, which can come in handy for venues with strange acoustics.

I have to say that I preferred my old Nash to the Limelight that I played once at a rehearsal studio.

I did have a 63 version a few years ago. Certainly had the feel and sound of the real thing. My one was possibly a bit over-relic'd, but looked authentic from a distance.

I know what you mean. At some point I am going to have to put put some work to get my chops back, even though I have done plenty of noodling in lockdown and managed to learn some things that I always meant to. But very hit and miss. Your noodling sounds fine...

Choon! Always reminds me of when I first started frequenting pubs regularly (very late 70s) - this was always on the jukebox at the Vaults Bar in Bradford!

There really is no 'right' answer here. The thing is that an old Fender Precision is the predominant ‘reference sound’ for the electric bass. If you don’t want that particular sound, then a Ken Smith or a Fodera, etc will technically be a better bass than an old Fender. In fact, you have literally hundreds of different options to choose from. However, many people do want that sound and prefer to use the real thing rather than try and get some other bass to sound as close as possible (especially when recording). There is a reason why so many session players and producers will spend a lot of money for a vintage Fender to use in the studio. There are also other factors to consider. Back in the day, everyone used to customise their 70s Fenders so that they all played / sounded slightly different and, as we all know, QC was patchy at best and there are some great 70s Fenders out there and some complete dogs (I know, I owned one of each). There is also sentiment to consider. When I was a kid, virtually every one of my favourite bass players used a P bass, so that’s what I went and got as soon as I could possibly afford it. It was quite a big thing then, almost like a statement of intent that you had ambitions to be a serious player. In those days, Fender had virtually no competition, they hadn’t diluted their brand and every one was built out in California. Soon after, they started manufacturing in Japan, the QC of the US models got even worse and suddenly there was loads of competition from other builders who were producing decent quality basses. In my subjective experience, old Fenders do tend to feel and sound slightly different (for good and band). Whether that is what you want from a bass or not will largely determine if you think that they are the Emperor’s new (old) clothes…

The Colne Blues Festival (where I work stagecrew every year), scheduled for August Bank Holiday, has just announced that it will NOT be going ahead this year.

I would take the bass to a tech to check out the truss rod

Will have a look at that later. I had a one-off lesson with Neil a few years ago - great bloke and an amazing ear...!

I’m not sure why people are arguing about this – it’s pretty clear cut. if you are playing classical or the more cerebral types of jazz then it doesn’t really matter if you dance or not. Of course, a bit of showmanship doesn’t hurt, as everyone from Mozart to Paganini to Louis Armstrong to Jaco have shown. But generally speaking, if you are not expecting the audience to dance then it doesn’t matter if you do. However, if you are playing rock / pop / funk or whatever then you had better have some sort of stage presence going on. I suppose you can get by without if you are playing the lower level of function / wedding band work, where the audience are not there to see the band but for the occasion / free bar. But if you want to people to come and see your band then you need to put on a show of some sort. This doesn’t necessarily mean running around like Angus Young, just looking comfortable onstage and acknowledging the audience will do for a start. But if you can’t engage an audience then no one will make an effort to come and see your rock / pop band.

I put together loads of them. I thought that they looked alright, but not a single one worked. I ended up getting a tech to re-do everyone of them. He originally said that he would just fix what I had done as a favour, but ended up saying he would have to charge me £5 a cable because they were taking so long to get them to work. Despite that virtually every single one failed after a number of gigs. I'm afraid that they are way too much of a hassle / risk for a very marginal gain, certainly not feasible for live work.

The story I heard was Chad Wackerman. I think that most of the band apparently hated Scott Thunes!

Yep, that happened to me, useless on a gig. No useful advice I'm afraid. After a while, I just cut my losses and swapped all my solderless patch leads out to Van Damme soldered ones.

If you are going to go onstage then you need to engage the audience. Having some level of performance skills will certainly help (OK, jazz maybe an exception). The ironic thing is that I didn't watch the whole of the video in the OP because... it was very boring...!

Win-win

Yea, way before 2008, it was when the Czech built Euros first became a thing. Always fancied an American Spector, but never owned one. I know people who swear by them. I played streamers for years; rock solid basses that worked really well for the hard rock stuff I was playing. I switched to more traditional Fender style basses when I started picking up more blues gigs, as they kinda looked and sounded more appropriate.

I was very underwhelmed when I played a couple of Euros when they first came out and didn't think that they were as good as the two Warwick Streamers that I was gigging at the time, but I've got a mate (a really good player) who swears by his American NS Spectors. I always fancied one, but couldn't justify the cost when I had a couple of Streamers that pretty much did the same thing.

Yea, I had this discussion with you when I picked up a bass from you. The Rebop isn't a bad bass by any means, but needs some decent pickups. Having said that, it just doesn't compare to my go-to Xotic basses.

I've got a 5 string Rebop. I got it for potential live work for a project that has an album I'm on. They are intending to tune down a whole step for gigs, so I got the Rebop as it has a 35" scale. Yes, it does have a bit of neck dive and the tone is nothing special (I may upgrade the pickups if the project really takes off), but it does play quite nicely. It's one that I will sell if the band doesn't happen (quite likely as it has lost a certain amount of momentum due to the pandemic / lockdown), so I'm afraid its not really a keeper for me.

Presumably you would have Rick Savage from Def Leppard in there somewhere - he was on Sheffield United's books as a kid.