Dingus

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1357082801' post='1917407'] An Aerodyne is a marketing/redesign exercise to me. A PJ is an adaption players have been making for ever and a day to try and combine the two classic Fender types - with a degree of success somewhere short of total. I suppose that's a fair stab at the 'ultimate' bass but not it's definition. I can't think why anyone would mention a Stingray in this thread. They are wonderful instruments but they sound like one thing only - a Stingray. Long may that continue. 5 strings........ I think there's yet to be a classic 5 string. Most well known ones are upstringed versions of successful 4 strings rather than a design that set out to be a 5. Having said that - if you can only have one instrument and you need to do a lot of jobs on it it's a good choice , but not the choice of dinosaurs like me. It's all pretty subjective - but I still maintain that if you want to be mainstream classic and versatile with one bass - buy a no frills jazz. I wouldn't give one house room myself , but that's what I think. [/quote] Dave is right on the money with all of these points as far as I am concerned . I would be interested to know why you wouldn't want a Jazz yourself though Dave .

There is no denying their great sound of the venerable Stingray 5 , but the tight string spacing , typical weight and the fact that the strings have a tendency to be very close to the edge of the fingerboard precluded me ever buying one myself . Looking at the basses you do have , I would say that yes a Stingray style sound is missing , but look at what you have got ! That Sadowsky M5 is one of the best 5s on the planet , with a spookily tight and focused low B and a very comfy 34 inch scale , and the MTD is up there too . Maybe you could get a used Stingray 5 at a bargain price if you wait for the right deal to come up .

I suppose that the bottom line is that , as Karl Marx famously hypothesized , Capitalism is barbarism , and ultimately the more profitable companies will consume the less profitable ones .

Out there on some BBC Introducing website or other is Lee Pomeroy along with Take Thats guitar tech Deptford John giving a bit of a masterclass to a group of aspirant young musicians . Well worth watching , and he does indeed seem like a very nice bloke .

I've got a feeling that people are going to start falling out over this one very soon , so before it kicks off let me put in my two pence worth and say that whereas a Jazz bass will give you a reasonable working approximation of a Precision sound , the converse is not true ; a Precision cannot give you the characteristic Jazz Bass tones ( I love both basses though , so either would make me happy ) . If you were called on to play dub reggae , punk , heavy metal , funk , soul , pop , electro , techno , dubstep or , God forbid , some good old fashioned sing - along tunes down the local pub , a decent Jazz style bass played with your fingers , a pick or very occasionally your thumb will give you the appropriate sounds you need for the given style of music . A versatile and supremely comfortable design .

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1357068807' post='1917135'] Hate to say this but that sounds suspiciously like an Alembic Series bass on the bridge pick up!! [/quote] I can see what you mean , but I have never heard of Jamaaladeen Tacuma using an Alembic .Anything is possible , of course , but Jamaaladeen was famous for using for the Steinberger at the time , and as far as I know he used it exclusively on that album except for one track he used a fretless on . One thing is certain however - I STILL WANT A STEINBERGER !

Has to be a Jazz Bass . A good passive Jazz bass will give you an decent and appropriate sound for just about any musical situation you are likely to use an electric bass guitar in .

Very nice selection there Chris , with a nice spread of different sounds . That Sadowsky and the 69 Precision would make me very happy .

They were lovely guitars and a real prestige brand in the late 70s / early 80s but the original guys that started the company left one by one to start other careers and when that happens it is usually the case that the brand loses some of it's direction .

[quote name='leroydiamond' timestamp='1357039360' post='1916546'] +1. Perfectly good bass playing [/quote] Totally agree . Simple or straightforward bass playing is not neccesarily bad playing , nor is complex or busy playing . Bad playing is bad playing .

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1356986398' post='1916176'] Given Kaman have achieved lofty heights of indifference with another brand (Trace Elliot), so it could be Kaman's fault. [/quote] To be fair to Kaman , they owned TE from 92- 97 with reasonable success , but the decline in TEs fortunes came after Kaman sold TE to three of the old directors of TE , who promptly sold out to Gibson in 98 . It was Gibson who presided over the almost incomprehensible fall from grace of this once mighty brand .

That Cruise bass with the 2TEK bridge was indeed a belter and can be picked up for very reasonable money . I remember the original Hamer Cruis basses in the early 80s with pj pickups and they were very good basses at that time too . I recall Sting and Andy Summers sporting various Hamers in those days , and they were considered to be one of the most desrable brands to own for guitars and basses alike . Once little independent companies start getting swallowed up by bigger companies it is nearly always bad news for the image of their products , but sadly it seems to happen time and again . Look at Tobias and Steinberger who were bought by Gibson - both great brands that have now disappeared .

Kaman is now a subsidiary of Fender , but they were not when Kaman bought Hamer in the late 80s . Kaman were a major competitor to Fender until Fender effectively bought them out in late 2007 .

The decline of Hamer as a brand is not so much the fault of Fender so much as it a result of the long but steady decline of the brand , due almost solely to the founders of the company abandoning it . Hamer were never the same company after Kaman aquired them in the late 80s , and their profile in the prestige guitar market slipped accordingly . I remember when Hamer were one of the most aspirational brands in the early 1980s , but a decade later they had lost nearly all their high -profile endorsees.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1356894693' post='1914878'] Its one of those basses I would buy if I won the lottery, a tunnel with a 51 P bass hangin up at one end and everything there after in chronological order inc the steinberger, which would be the only one on a stand instead of a hanger I suppose, plan failed before it got started there [/quote] You could use the Steinberger to dig the tunnel with !

Sub Zero ! Providing you can cope with the ergonomics ( ie how it feels to play and how it hangs on a strap ect ) and you like the tightly focused sound ( I do) it's one of the all-time great basses . A Steinberger is the one bass I have never owned that still torments me to this day . Hopefully Pete Academy will be along soon to give you the lowdown , because I seem to remember he had one back in the day and he knows his stuff when it comes to basses . In the meantime here's how one sounds in the right hands : [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qMAUSr8GaE[/media]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1356874241' post='1914524'] Hmmm ... You'd think if you we're going to have a solo feature in the same show as EVH... who is simply a gtr genius, IMO, then you should come prepared with your A game ... And if people who know the guys playing better think that is his A game then I think it is fair to comment on it. I would hope in the early days he worked harder...!!!!! Still. He must have made a decent $ so I doubt he cares [/quote] To be fair to Michael , I think his solo spot in the VH was designed to be a bit of showbiz more than it is designed to show off his virtuosity . He might not be a soloist , but his ensemble playing is much more than just simple root notes ect .

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1356827868' post='1914186'] I'm also amazed at some of the negative comments about Adam Clayton on here, from apparently fellow bass players. he's very melodic, and more than competent bass player always produces the perfect bass line to some fantastic, and classic songs can be in the front of the mix when needed, like Vertigo, or more in the back, whatever suits has managed to change to suit the era and sound of the time, over 5 decades recorded a more varied back catalogue than almost any other band i can think of over a similar period always looks uber cool dates supermodels earns gazillions someone compared him to stanley clarke on this thread? really? i bet stanley sometimes wishes he had Adam's life, I bet Adam never wishes he had Stanley's!! Too many bass snobs i think. I'd rather listen to Adam play bass in his home studio than Stanley bore me to death any day of the week. I'm not a big U2 fan by the way, just feel he's being unfairly criticised. its all subjective though isnt it, oh, and following some other comments, of course U2 are a supergroup. I think threads like this always turn into a 'who i don't like' thread. I'll save my own thoughts on that one for the appropriate thread. To comment on the thread, albeit rather boringly, there arent many supergroups to begin with are there (By my definition anyway), and i can't think of any with a poor bass player, i think they're all great, and very different, and all doing what we probably all want to do. I agree with previous coldplay comments though, although they arent a supergroup, but fair play to the guy, he's got his dream job, and he hasnt been found out yet, good luck to him. [/quote] Rick , I think you are a little bit confused here . Firstly , I agree with you wholeheartedly that Adam Clayton is a perfectly good bass player within the context of U2 as a band , and went so far as to defend AC and his contribution to bass playing earlier in this thread . It was me who said that Adam was no Stanley Clarke , but I said he was all the better for that . The point was made as one of contrast , not comparison . However , when you start saying Adam isn't a bad bass player because he always looks cool ( not to me he doesn't ) , dates supermodels and earns lots of money then there we have to part company . None of those things make one iota of difference to how good or bad Adam Clayton is as a bass player . They are all a complete irrelevance . The only thing that has any bearing on how good a player he is is what he [b]plays [/b]and how he plays it -the rest is sophistry . Put another way , the only thing that separates a bass player from any other member of the general public who cannot is their ability to play the bass guitar , nothing else . Furthermore , when you start speculating about how much Stanley Clarke might envy Adam Claytons lifestyle , I can't see what bearing that would have on eithers [i]playing , [/i]or anything else that might be pertinant . Just for your information , Stanley Clarke is a millionaire and last I heard , had luxury homes in Long Island and LA ,( although his divorce a while back may have impacted on that slightly !) . Besides that , even if it's a question of image , who could be cooler than Stanley Clarke ? He took on the world armed only with an Alembic bass , his prodigious talent and a very impressive afro hairstyle . Looks like a stylish man to me .

All those slagging offf Michael Anthony are wide of the mark . The guy is a very capable player . If you listen to the early VH albums I really don't see how anyone could fault him . I can personally vouch for him , having heard him play on a one- to -one level , and he can do a very good JPJ and John Entwistle impersonation when the mood takes him .

Have a word with them at the shop . The prices on the website might be a guide and each job may well be quoted for on an individual basis depending on the work involved . I know it's easy for us recommend spending money you don't have at the moment , but it's better to leave the bass fretless for now than have a less than perfect job done and regret it . That would be a waste of money that you could have put towards getting it done by the Gallery . If it was me I would wait and save up until I could get them to do the work or someone just as good , even if it took several months or even a year .

If it's an expensive high end bass you want to keep then I would bite the bullet and pay to have it done at the Gallery . It's a tricky job that needs doing [u]perfectly [/u]or the bass in question will be ruined . If it's an instrument you value I would recommend going the extra yard to get Martin and crew to do the job . They know how to do it right . Chris Macintyre who used to work at the Gallery also knows how to do it properly , but I doubt he would be cheaper .

All I will add is that please , whatever you do , don't do another one of those calendars where you all discreetly pose nude in aid of charity . I don't think the world can take any more of those .

[quote name='Horizontalste' timestamp='1356806215' post='1913868'] Amended Mate had that on the back of his truck for years [/quote] Presumably in light of that adage , women in wheel chairs ( tits [i]and[/i] wheels ) are considered to be particulaly troublesome ?

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1356806644' post='1913875'] We seem to be mixing up "poor" with "virtuoso". Most of the people who are getting mentioned are playing reasonably tasteful notes that fit and playing them in time - at least. I would call 'poor' someone who noticeably can't play. [/quote] Coldplay = can't play .

[quote name='mbellishment' timestamp='1356801500' post='1913782'] I've always said I'll join any type of band as long as it's good and I get a kick out of it. I'm not exclusive to any particular genre. I've played in several twee indie bands, a metal band, a folk rock band, a punk band and a power pop style band, and never had any issues really. We used to have a musicians forum up in the north east that a lot of musicians from the local originals bands posted in regularly. Some of the people who used to get it in the neck on there were multi stringed bass players... bands who were too 'tight'... bands who used amps bigger than those you can fit in a rucksack... bands that didn't sound like Maximo Park, The Futureheads, Elbow or Belle & Sebastian! I thought it was ridiculous, but these fashion statements or whatever, eventually spread out to nearly everyone using the forum and almost overnight I found it increasingly difficult to find a band because everybody knew I played a 5. The forum is no longer there, but that stigma seems to have embedded itself in a lot of folks minds. A few people on here from the area have said I'm just unlucky, but I think it might be more a case that you guys are lucky to not have been persecuted this way, because like I say I know a few musicians this has affected. [/quote] I don't think it's a NE thing . Everywhere in the country the prevailing mood is anti- muso ( just like it nearly always was ) yet at the same time depressingly conformist and predictable . Indie / alternative rock music is the new pop music : even function bands play Kings Of Leon and Strokes numbers nowadays . It's always important to bear in mind that a lot of self - styled " band leaders " have only chosen playing an instrument and being in a band as a vehicle for their "talents" rather than because they love to play and love learning how to play . If I had a pound for every would-be self-styled Pete Docherty wannabe I have encountered in the last ten years I would probably have enough money to pay the real Pete Docherty's bail next time he gets busted . Image is an important part of most bands , but as others have said , if you are wedded to the idea of playing a five string then you were never going to suit those bands anyway . For what its worth , I think some fives would look fine in an indie setting ie Music Man , Fender ect , but no doubt they would be looking for someone with a vintage Gibson Thunderbird bass that they got from a Scope shop in Camden slung round their knees .