Dingus

[quote name='mikeswals' timestamp='1395508229' post='2403228'] Dingus, alot has happened since this series of posts about a fretless. I did buy back the fretted violet MkI I mentioned, but I then sold it and bought a MkII 5 string since I thought I was going to be needing one. Of course I miss that MkI now too! However like your suggestion above, I did manage to pick up a spare fretless neck. So for now, the white bass in my avatar is back to being a fretless, which I'm having alot of fun with again. But I think eventually when I have more money than I know what to do with (yeah right!) I'll have Paul build me a body for it. Oh btw, Rob Burns is pretty active on the Wal/facebook page. [/quote] Glad to hear Rob Burns is still around in cyberspace,. A friend of mine had some lessons with him when he was still based in London, and as well as being a great player he is also very nice guy, apparently. Last I heard he was still happily settled in New Zealand with his wife and young family. As for your bass, I don't need to tell you that there are only a precious few basses on the planet that can rival the sound of a Wal fretless . In the U.K back in the 1980's , it wasn't unusual for some of the top producers at the time specifying to session bassists they hired that they wanted them not only to play fretless but specifically a Wal fretless. Uber-producer Trevor Horn was a devoted exponent of the Wal on his highly successful recordings with various artists during that era. I remember reading an interview with some American session player whose name I have long-since forgotten and he was relating the story of how he was hired to play on a Rod Stewart album that Trevor Horn was producing in L.A and Trevor promptly sent him down to the Bass Center in Studio City to get a fretless Wal five string because he said it recorded better than any other fretless on the market. .

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1395854123' post='2407228'] [i]An action shot of my '96 American Deluxe....[/i] [i][/i] [/quote] Nice bass, Warren. Those John Suhr-designed pickups with 1/4 inch magnet slugs on the original series of the American Deluxe Jazz Basses were really good , and better than the Noiseless design Fender replaced them with, in my opinion.

I'm a big admirer of Jack Bruce not just as a bass player but as a writer/composer, too, but to be totally honest, a lot of his records have been below par considering his awesome talents as a musician. Songs For A Taylor and Harmony Row were indeed his best efforts as a solo artist , so far at least, anyway. On the subject of Steve Wright, to put his stature as a so-called "bell end" in to context, back in the 1980's , the Steve Wright Show was considered supremely entertaining, and essential afternoon listening. If you didn't like him, it was because[i] you[/i] were a knob with no sense of humor. His hilarious characters, catch phrases and spontaneously effervescent banter with his erstwhile Afternoon Posse were a national institution . I used to particularly enjoy his anecdotes about his normal everyday life driving his Range Rover from his luxury home in Surry into central London every day , going to awards ceremonies and regularly taking his wife to L.A or similarly glamorous locations for a few days break , during which time that other Man Of The People, Gary Davis , would sit in for Steve. The funny thing was, by most standards, it was a very strange and inaccessible world that all these Radio 1 people lived in , and yet at the time ordinary people were made to feel inadequate for not living a similar lifestyle. DLT had a Swedish wife and a mobile home he brought back from a holiday in the States, , and boy did we all know it.

Just for future reference, does anybody know if it is possible to send a bass in the U.K insured for a much higher value than £1000? There are plenty of folks selling some very expensive gear who may need to post it to distant buyers.

New full-length video of Geezer talking about his new EMG signature pickups, Hartke amps and Lakland basses ect, including reminiscences about his B.C Rich basses, which once again he refers to as being custom-made by Bernie Rico: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmzuiRLcD2E[/media]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1395786969' post='2406425'] Pity they couldn't be bothered to match the neck finish to the body though. [/quote] Just out of interest, do you think this bass would be better with a matching sunburst headstock, or do you mean it should have a 'burst finish on the [i]back[/i] of the neck as well ? These do indeed look like nice basses, but to my own tastes, they don't look right with Music Man - style pickups with the big exposed pole pieces, If they sound like MM pickups that would be wrong, too, but I doubt that they do . It would be much more apt for this bass to have traditional Gibson-style humbuckers with chrome covers. That is the classic Gibson look. Overall though, I expect these would be very useful basses at a very reasonable price for a decent quality American-made bass.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1395758783' post='2405873'] I agree with most of your post, but I have to pull you on this point - I don't think they can be accused of peddling out greatest hits over and over again, not that they could do a show full of greatest hits anyway. They're continually pushing the new stuff. [/quote] You are absolutely right about Rush's normal set ,WoT, but I was thinking about the recent "themed " tours, where they played Moving Pictures and with an emphasis on 1980's material, and now this mooted tour in 2015 where, according to this press release, they are threatening to revisit the 1970's. What I can say with complete conviction is that if Rush are going to play the songs from the 1970's era then Geddy Lee [u][i]has[/i][/u] to play his Rickenbacker, or people should ask for a refund. The prospect of them rattling through material from Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres with that crappy Jazz Bass/Sans Amp tone he favours nowadays doesn't bear thinking about.

When I read the title of this thread I assumed that Rush had recorded a sequel album to 2112 called "2015" , and it was going to be a concept album where they predicted what was going to happen next year, set to music I too was a big Rush fan when I was younger, and started becoming a bit obsessed with them as a pre-teen in 1979. Back in those days Rush were a special band with a mystique to them that really only Led Zeppelin could match. I am sorry to say that most of the music they have made in the last few years has been absolute dross by comparison to their best work, and I wouldn't bother to go to one of their concerts nowadays, even if it was free. I don't resent the fact that they have decided to keep going- they are a special band that have become a unique institution- but at the same time , I don't really want to see what they have become. Bands like Rush who tour the World doing these greatest hits shows remind me of a modern version of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show , giving audiences a chance to glimse a very safe, family-friendly recreation of something that was once spontaneous, a bit dangerous and real . I like to remember Rush as they were in their prime , with full heads of hair, flat stomachs , wearing kimonos and frequently lost under swathes of dry ice and ambitious allegorical lyrics .

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1395647462' post='2404571'] I find road worn basses very funny. I can see why you'd use one if you'd had it years and it had gotten that way.... but can't for the life of me work out why you buy one new like it... Hilarious... [/quote] ...and pay extra for it! It's funny because it's true.

I am indeed having a bit of fun at Vic and Steve's expense, despite the fact that they are both very good at what they do, if you like that kind of thing, ect. However, joking aside, the naked fact is that the level of virtuosity of a musician like Jaqueline Du Pre is completely beyond the reach and comprehension of almost all the so-called virtuoso exponents of the bass guitar . Players of her stature make most of the jokers who grace the front covers of guitar magazines look like the flimsy pretenders that they are. What sets Jaqueline Du Pre apart from them is the amazing and awe-inspiring depth of feeling and personal expression in her playing. Yes she has flawless technique, but like the very best musicians, you are never aware of it, because as a listener you are captivated by the emotion of the music she creates. It takes God-given talent plus a lifetime of dedication, study and practise to make everything seem so natural and effortless.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1395578153' post='2403829'] I think maybe the Zon's are slightly 'woodier' in their tone, I guess this could be due to the fretboards being made from a wood composite called Phenowood. Layers of birch wood impregnated with phenolic. Status basses and most Modulus are just phenolic resin. Though Modulus were sometimes built with chechen fretboards, Steve Lawson's are I believe. [/quote] I think the phenowood board combined with the glued in neck join on the Legacy Elite basses gives them their warmer-than-usual tone.

[quote name='paulconnolly' timestamp='1395580626' post='2403859'] John Wetton and Dick Nolan (It Bites first time around) both use/d Zons. Good enough for me. Can't afford one though . Whatever happened to Dick Nolan? [/quote] I remember when they had one of Dick Nolan's Zon basses for sale in the Bass Center at Wapping. That must be a very long time ago, though. Last I heard of Dick, he was playing bass for the Alan Parsons Project, and also with Ray Davies. I seem to remember that he is playing an old P Bass nowadays, in stark contrast to his Zon era.

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1395577966' post='2403827'] The original Machine Head bassist Adam Duce had a MM style Zon with just a, I assume, volume pot. [/quote] That bass is actually quite different to Ikay's/ JG's custom Legacy. Adam Duce is playing a standard model there , the Sonus 4+1 ( albeit with custom wiring so it only has a volume control , so it is custom probably passive version specially for Adam.) That bass has a single Seymour Duncan Custom Shop humbucker in exactly the Stingray position, whereas if you look at that fretless Legacy, the pickup is slightly further towards the neck than that.

[quote name='ikay' timestamp='1395523739' post='2403432'] We like to keep them to ourselves - here's my rather lovely 90s Legacy Elite fretless 5 (ex J. Giblin) [attachment=158352:IMG_0276.jpg] [/quote] Beautiful bass, Ian. Looks like a Koa top. Joe picks out the Koa tops himself when he goes on his regular vacation to Hawaii, apparently. Must have been a one-off for John Giblin with the single pickup in the sweet spot like that. Perfect placement for fretless playing , I expect.

I used to play Zon basses back in the 1990s/early 2000's , Marcus. Is there something specific you want to know? If you think about it, it's not surprising that you don't see them in the U.K very often, considering that the USA -manufactured graphite necked ones are made by hand by a small team in very small numbers in California and they cost [u][i]a lot[/i][/u] of money, especially the Legacy Elites. There is always a long waiting time for new orders, too. If you like that modern, hifi, hi-tech sound they are one of the very best basses on the market, in my opinion, not least of all because Joe Zon's basses manage to sound less clinical than most other graphite instruments.

As I understand it, Zon's pickups are indeed specifically wound by Bartolini to best suit the sound of those basses, but in reality they probably won't actually sound[i] that [/i]different to some of the stock models currently offered by Bartolini . However, the one exception to that generalization are the specially wound humbuckers used on the Legacy Elite Special. Those pickups have a[i][u] very [/u][/i] pronounced emphasis in the lower mids, so much so that they are instantly recognizable if you come across them . They are only used on that very rare Special model that was introduced in the mid 1990's , which also features a bubinga top and coil tap switch. If you really want to know which Bartolinis sound like the pickups Zon used in the early '90's then, like Ikay says, contact Zon and/ or Bartolini and ask their advice.

She was a true virtuoso, an incredible talent. I cannot help but think, though, that Victor Wooten could do a better solo version with his double thump /palm mute technique. Maybe Steve Bailey could play six string fretless on top of that and make it even better.

Great news, Marcus. I've never seen a pearl green JD, but I do remember when the pearl, colours like pink, blue and yellow were introduced in about 1987. A bit disturbingly in retrospect , those colours complimented rather well a lot of the clothes that people were wearing at the time . I hope you get many years of pleasure from your new acquisitions. But then again, the odds aren't good.