molan

Just received this today & very nice it is too - absolutely stunning birdseye maple neck (looks much nicer in the flesh than the pictures show) & superb craftsmanship. My first through neck Fodera

Just received a stunning Fodera from Jordi. Expertly packed and in fabulous condition with all the 'case candy' intact as well. Jordi was amazingly trusting with such a rare and expensive instrument - absolutely someone you can deal with in confidence. happy to supply a personal reference if anyone wants to private message me

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1340558000' post='1706191'] I think he might have been the bassist at the first gig I ever went to as well! [/quote] Greenslade, Colosseum?

Some excellent stuff in here, I've watched two of the programmes so far & have the Ziggy movie & the live BBc concert to go I have to admit that I always thought Bolder & Woody were 'passengers' in the Spiders but was surprised at quite how badly they seem to have been treated (although we only heard their side of the story). The one thing it bought home to me was quite how young I was when I got my first Bowie obsession, lol. I pre-ordered Aladdin Sane from WH Smith & remember queuing to get it on the first day it was available. Had't realised it was April '73 when I was only 13 The only other album I had at the time was Roxy's For Your Pleasure which came out a month earlier. I'd been buying singles since 1967 (Kinks Waterloo Sunset was my first ever) but our old record player was jammed on 45rpm and I didn't get my first personal one until my 13th birthday. Never missed a Bowie album after that right up until Never Let Me Down in '87. A few clunker tracks here & there but some cracking stuff on the albums in between. I think my most played ones must be Diamond Dogs & Station to Station closely followed by Young Americans & Scary Monsters (love some of Fripps guitar on the latter. Quite a few of the more recent live albums are excellent as well. Gail Ann Dorsey particularly good on some of these

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1340487940' post='1705280'] They seem to be trying their best to, same goes for Tony Reeves up there! Cheers [/quote] Top bass player Mr Reeves - very possibly the first live bass player I ever saw! He was the only person in the band not sitting down - the rest of the band consisted of two keyboard players & the drummer. He managed to fill the 'vertical' role very well & was really inspiring to watch

I'm not sure they are in the retailers yet. There's a UK retailer trade show this week and they are being shown there so I'd assume they'll hit the shops pretty soon

I've only recently got into flats as well & really like them on certain basses. I have found different brands to be really different in feel & tone. Had some D'Addario Chromes and absolutely hated them but then picked up a P bass strung with Thomastic Infelds & thought they were great. On a vintage P & with the tone on the bass wound down there's a great growl from the lower notes. Have also tried TI's on a '63 Jazz which sounded really nice as well. Had a brief blast on some LaBellas which were good but the ones I used were a bit too heavy gauge for me. I gigged my old Alleva Coppolo KBP4 with TI's in a soul/funk/disco band once and everyone in the band loved the sound

Ok - I am going to set myself up for ridicule here I paid about £50 for an original '63 thumb rest to sit on my '63 Jazz. As thumb rests age they tend to warp around the screw holes and original nitro-cellulose pickguards also go out of shape directly in line with the warped shape of the thumb rest. I saw the one I bought on US EBay from a very reputable old parts dealer in Nashville and could see the warped shape looked near identical to the indentation in my original nitro pickguard. Took a flyer on it & it fits absolutely perfectly. You can actually hold the bass nearly vertical without any screws in the thumb rest and the indentations hold it in place without falling off. It was the only thing missing from my '63 & I didn't fell like £50 was much of an investment to finish off the original look. Of course I could have bought a $5 one, screwed it too tight & left it to warp naturally & then roughened it up a bit to make it look like it was nearly 50 years old but I kinda like the fact that it's an old bit of Fender history performing a vaguely useful function - purely aesthetically because I don't even use it to play with

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1340449151' post='1704553'] Is it possible to tell the difference under that horrible stuff they are coated in? [/quote] The newer the Elixirs the better the feel. Original ones were quite 'sticky' but I think the latest ones are really good. Last for ages & easy on the fingers for long gigs or if you don't have really tough callouses

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' timestamp='1340449053' post='1704549'] Is stainless steel supposed to give a brighter sound than nickel then? [/quote] Obviously a bit of a generalisation but steels are usually brighter, and coarser on the fingers & fretboard, than nickel. I'm sure you could find some nickels that are ultra bright and steels that sound a bit dull but if you get strings from the same manufacturer then the steels will usually be brighter.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1340455129' post='1704646'] Cheers, maybe it's because I'm on an iPad. Anyway - crikey, I wish I hadn't asked! :-) Not my cup of tea at all. I dislike quilted maple anyway, and agree that Fender should leave the fancy stuff to the 'boutique' builders [/quote] Picture is showing as a broken link on my machine too now - maybe it's a Twitter issue. Anyway, I've uploaded it here now as well - have to click to see full size though [attachment=111209:603656953.jpeg]

That's odd - I can see the pic on my machine but not on iPhone! Here's a libk to the page http://twitpic.com/9zegop/full

Whilst I'm a lover of flashy tops on nice basses I always think that a Fender should have a 'classic' colour finish & never sure about their attempts to play the custom builders at their own game. The custom shop have just published pics of this Dennis Galuszka Masterbuilt model - just wondered what people thought of it?

[quote name='walbassist' timestamp='1340399974' post='1704175'] Badges removed. Looks much better I think. [/quote] What a great idea!

The steel ones are the new ones. They have upgraded the nickel ones as well apparently. I don't know anyone who's tried the stainless ones yet though so can't comment on tone. Official release says: [color=#4C4C4C][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3] "Our new Stainless Steel Nanoweb Coated Strings are perfect for players who love the ‘zingy’ clarity of steel, but have been put off in the past by the rough texture these strings sometimes have. Our product has that classic steel snap, but it also offers a smoother, more natural feel, thanks to the Nanoweb coating.”[/size][/font][/color]

AV's come passive as standard - AC's can be whatever you want them to be Personally I think Jimmy C's active circuit is one of the very best around. Really musical & rich, very difficult to get a bad sound from one. Unless you have massive bass & treble boost the switch between active & passive is quite balanced on the AC's as well. The passive sound is very nice, it's not just an 'emergency' standby switch for when your batteries fail. I've played both and my personal preference is towards AC. The really nice AC's are pretty much the best Fender style basses around. Jimmy's 'winning' hand is that he makes three core basses that capture classic Fender sounds: LG - Alder bodied '60's RA - Alder bodied early '70's LM - Ash bodied late '70's But all of them in 5 string formats (for no premium on a 4!). His 4's sound great as well but it's the ability to get a great vintage sound in a 5 string that has made his name. I like the AV basses but they sound more 'modern' to me. They can still cop a good vintage feel but not quite to the same degree that Jimmy manages. Mind you, Jimmy charges a fair bit more for his basses these days and his wait list is getting ever longer. One thing I would say to watch out for on AC's is that Jimmy sometimes experiments with things that don't always come off. His classic LG/RA/LM are almost all dead certs to be nice, some of the others are also very good but need to be properly tried out before buying

[quote name='cloudburst' timestamp='1340311467' post='1702832'] Only 2 still remain in existence? Owner number 1 please donate to Fender museum. Owner number 2 please buy a pack of matches and do the decent thing. CB [/quote] +1

[quote name='crez5150' timestamp='1340297556' post='1702537'] Great video mate..... really really don't like the vocal performance though. Hope that's not too harsh [/quote] I'm with you on this I'm afraid Crez. My attempt at constructive criticism is: Vid quality is good & some of the instruments sound great but the lead vox is weak & doesn't seem to sit nicely in the mix to me (certainly not on my home hifi anyway). For a corporate audience (the big payers for function bands) the vid might almost be too much like a promo vid for a band's single because of all the close ups & cutting from musician to musician. Could be that I'm an old duffer but there's a bit of a feel of a cameraman showing off his chops & post production skills rather than capturing the band to sell to a prospective customer. From personal experience (my wife books bands for pretty big money) the bookers are looking for full band shots, on stage, with lights &, ideally, a live audience to show lots of people dancing. Great playing from Mr K though