molan

What are you worried about the drive being unusable?

Based on the relative US price it ought to come into the UK at around £100 - circa 30% lower than a Vertigo.

I have to be honest and say that if I walked into a bar and heard those vocals I'd be turning right around and heading straight back out again

Paul Turner uses a TH500 (same pre amp as the 350) for all of his club gigs - he gets a fabulous slap sound

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1409426827' post='2539657'] It's become a bit of a tradition for me... [/quote] I haven't played at my own wedding but I did get to play a couple of songs with the band I booked for my daughter's wedding this year. They were stupidly good : http://www.swaytheband.com/

[quote name='njr911' timestamp='1409307166' post='2538480'] Re-issuing the originals a bit too faithfully ? [/quote] Funnily enough we had a '75 in at one point for a set up, neck shim & repair to a protruding truss rod and the luthier said he'd seen exactly the same issues on original late 70's Jazzes

[quote name='bakerster135' timestamp='1409301726' post='2538400'] Having played a lot of AVRI Fenders, I don't agree with this. The 64 Jazz basses I've played have been good, but they don't feel as nice as the previous 62 reissues do to me. [/quote] In very general terms I think some of the older '62's were better than the previous '64's but all of the latest '64's I've played have been in a differen league to both of the older models. Of course, Fender have been making reissue instruments for years (from early '80's I think) and Fender's QC over such an extended period has been all over the place. My thoughts about the latest ones being better than the previous ones are based simply on the upgraded models that came out last year vs the ones available directly before them. The 74's vs 75's also seem nicer to me and QC on these definitely seems a lot better. There are some very nice '75's out there but there are also some real dogs which nasty neck pockets and all sorts of truss rod issues

The latest reissue series is a quality step up from the previous models. Better finished, more of a vintage feel,,custom wound pickups etc.,etc. Definitely nicer and worth more than the earlier series

I traded basses with Henno & everything went incredibly smoothly - great guy and really nice to deal with. International currency stuff all sailed through very easily as well

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1408796094' post='2533536'] Phenowood 😊 thanks I'll get in touch with them see what they say ! [/quote] I've got Julian's details if you need them. He's more of a phone guy than email (mostly because he's usually working solidly all day and can't get to emails until evenings). I speak to him very regularly so happy to ask him for you if you need any help

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1408715802' post='2532896'] Maybe those [color=#000000][font=Calibri, sans-serif]guys in the ori[/font][/color][font="Calibri, sans-serif"][color="#000000"]ginal post would simply benefit from bein[/color][/font][color=#000000][font=Calibri, sans-serif]g told?! [/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Calibri, sans-serif]Si[/font][/color] [/quote] I did tell the first guy that it was my bass and amp when he failed to understand how to un-mute a tuner pedal. Given how he didn't seem to have any interest in being a sympathetic player to the rest of his 'band' and couldn't be bothered to say thanks for letting him use my gear I didn't think he'd take any 'constructive criticism' of his playing very well

Is it a phenowood or pay ferro board? Composite neck Zons will have the former and wooden neck the latter. The phenowood definitely needs someone who's worked with it before. The Gallery is definitely a good call,if you're in London. Julian Mullen is the person we use at our shop west of London and he's very good as well.

I have an MB Blackline sitting next to me right now. I really like it as a low cost lightweight head. It won't fit in a bass gig bag pocket though. The GK is a great little amp and that will definitely fit in a lot of gig bag front pockets.

Totally agree with what Chris says. Both of these amps will outperform a lot of other models with similar power ratings. The Aguilar will have the greater headroom but it's more expensive - but only by maybe £125 if you shop around.

Omar Hakim & John Giblin - I'd love to see those two together!

Bit more background to the gig - it wasn't supposed to a be a jam night and all acts were invited and their line-up and songs confirmed in advance (partly to avoid duplication and/or repetitiveness). I was supposed to be the only bass player there so the two guys who decided to help themselves to my bass had decided to do so on the spur of the moment. There were no official house instruments but some of the solo singers had agreed in advance to swap acoustic guitars. There was no setup time or soundcheck so when we arrived we went straight on to the stage area and it was very clear that I brought the bass (in a case) and set up the little amp with the sound man. I guess I, foolishly, thought it was pretty clear that it was my kit. If the first guy decided to play bass with his friends on the spur of the moment he could easily have walked over and asked. I was standing near the stage all evening. I can accept the 2nd guy maybe thinking it was a house setup because he would have seen both me and the other player using it. What I found particularly galling was that it just seemed to be the two bassists that showed such little respect to the other musicians. Plus the overplaying was particularly annoying - one song was Get Lucky which has such a nice Nathan East bass line but this guy thought he could improve on it by adding loads of unnecessary fills, runs and slides. Given that the rest of the band was an acoustic guitar and a female singer he looked a right tit and was just embarrassing The baby MicroMark was the single speaker 801 by the way. Sounded great sitting on the floor with volume about 14:00 and eq flat. Little bit of cut on the Fender tone knob and both pickups on full There was some foh support as well but it certainly worked as a stage monitor really well.

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1408706277' post='2532731'] Never leave your bass in that situation. The op is lucky it wasn't marked/damaged. [/quote] It was a Fender Relic - my tech tells me that each dent and scratch increases the value

I know this topic has been around before but it's the first time I've experienced it first-hand so thought I'd share. I was asked, at very short notice, to play a small 'acoustic' gig last night. I was told it would be a few singers with acoustic guitars and a pianist. The guys I knew wanted some bass for 4-5 songs to add a bit of depth and drive as they didn't have a drummer. I took a Fender Custom Shop Relic Jazz, nothing flashy so it would blend in reasonably well with the acoustic guitars and a tiny MarkBass MicroMark combo. We set up, played a few numbers and made way for the next act. I left my bass on the stage because I'd been told I was the only bass player there. Next act comes on and a twenty-something guy strolls straight over to my bass and straps it on. No 'is it ok if I use your bass and amp' or anything. My first thought was that he had a bit of a cheek but then I thought maybe he just thought it was a 'house bass' so assumed anyone could use it. He failed to get any sort of sound out of it because he obviously didn't understand how a tuner pedal worked and it was muting the signal. I showed him what to do and made a point of saying it was ok for him to borrow MY bass and amp. Once he got some sound he immediately started playing random Chic bass parts too loud whilst the musicians were being introduced. Once the song started it was obvious he could play but what he was playing was totally different from the original bass part of the song, slightly out of time and wholly inappropriate for the song! They played about 3 songs of gradually deteriorating quality and finished. He left the bass plugged in and turned on without muting it. He then strolled right past me without a word of thanks. I left the bass on stage because we were due back on soon. Then another young guy did pretty much exactly the same thing! Borrowed the bass without asking, overplayed horribly and drowned out some of the guitars and vocals and then buggered off. I wasn't particularly looking for gratitude for lending my gear but a simple word of thanks might have been nice. It was also a shame that the only people who overplayed and potentially spoiled songs because of a lack of basic stagecraft were these two bass players. All the other musicians on the night blended in really well and supported each other musically but the two bassists just came across as arrogant and disrespectful

Have you tried Jimmy Johnson with James Taylor? It's not entirely solo but on the double live album some of his playing is sublime and the tone of his Alembic is lovely. I can't hear quite how it is on this YT vid because I'm only on my iphone at the moment but worth hunting down the original live version of this song: http://youtu.be/AGmUsPp1yKI

Recently bought some speakers from Keith and they arrived super fast and perfectly packed. He did offer some free marrows as part of the deal but we didn't think they'd survive the courier journey Top bloke and very friendly and helpful!

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1408569476' post='2531513'] Yes. Yes, although the difference will be heard in the mids and highs, not the bass. If all speaker sizes had a 'signature sound' then all tens would sound the same, as would all twelves and all fifteens. Not only is that not the case, but you can make the same driver sound different by loading it into a different enclosure. For that matter you can realize literally dozens of audibly different sounds using the same driver with different cab configurations. [/quote] Simple example of this would be the Aguilar DB and GS ranges. Same speakers in all of them but they definitely sound noticeably different. I've tried a pair of DB112's vs GS112's and it was easy to tell them apart in a blind test.

[quote name='alstocko' timestamp='1408529145' post='2531009'] I thought so too. I haven't looked for one in a year (GAS avoidance), is this what the market is like now? [/quote] It's about £1,500 more than the '64 I sold a while ago . . .