Roger2611

Ok, tried everything, I dismantled the bass completely yesterday, a couple of slightly loose bridge screws,a couple of slightly loose tuner screws and the nut was not glued in so was loose...all rectified, re-assembled the bass and no difference, still dead as a Dodo! The strings are new Elites and you can hear that they are fresh....I know it is not down to strings as the bass has always lacked sparkle irrespective of strings. Gig wise last time I gigged it we had one of our regular bass chat contributors in the audience he is not a fan of Jazzes or Precision's and he said afterwards that the Precision sounded far better / stronger than the Jazz. I have decided I am going to strip the Fralin's out and the stack knob controls, put the Fralin's in the cheapy sell on the stack knob plate and stick the bass out on Ebay (I won't put it out on here as I don't want to sell, what I consider to be, a poor bass on Basschat) shame really as it is a beautiful looking bass in CAR with matching headstock but it does go to prove "beauty is more than skin deep"

Happy new year my friends! Do we think it is possible for a bass to just be dead? something in the wood just sucking any life out of the tone, I have an early eighties Tokai Jazz that I brought off here some years back, it had been messed about with before I brought it having had the pickups swapped for Fender ones and the tuners swapped again for Fender items.....I was never impressed with the sound of it and it has sat in its case for a couple of years rarely being used....so last year I swapped the pick ups out for a set of overwound Lindy Fralin's and a Fender Stack Knob control plate.....the difference.....nowt, nothing, not a sausage, it is still as dead sounding as ever. Over Christmas I have been working on a cheap Andy McClusky Jazz bass project which consists of a cheap basswood body, generic pick ups, mini pot wiring and a cheap bridge and tuners, I have now finished it and plugged it in and instantly liked the sound....a tighter more compressed almost Precision type tone off the neck pickup (I don't bother with bridge pick ups on Jazzes) I A/B ed the two basses, same amp, same volume etc both basses with new Elites fitted and the cheapy project sounds so much more alive than the Tokai and much more like I think a Jazz should sound, so I am left with the conclusion that the wood used for the Tokai is dead and just saps all the tone out of the bass and irrespective of the parts added it is not going to improve the tone if the wood is dead What do we reckon?

I wonder if it is just a case of coming back to a bass that you are not 100% taken with the sound of....I have a Jazz that just will not sound good irrespective of strings / pick ups, wiring etc....I have changed the lot and it still sounds dead, I have just A/B tested it with a dirt cheap project I have put together over Christmas and the flipping project sounds loads better for some reason!

I would guess the Chain is probably the most instantly recognisable bass part, yes for its F1 links and yes some people may not even recognise it as a bass guitar part but if I said to my mum an example of bass guitar is Good Times / Another One Bites the Dust I would get a "meh" if I said the Formula 1 intro music she would know it immediately...I also think Stand By Me is a good call in the same vein. One for me would possibly be Beats International / The Clash, Dub Be Good To Me / Guns Of Brixton another iconic short riff

I was always saddened that punters and landlords didn't share my obvious great taste in music and no matter how much I liked the song or even how well we played it, it never got a good reaction.....any Foo Fighters song springs to mind for some unknown reason! Yet landlords and punters really like things like Sex On Fire, Mr Brightside, Chelsea Dagger and One Way or Another...especially when introduced as a [s]Wine[/s] One Direction cover song! I know as musicians we can be really protective of what we play and how we perceive ourselves as a band when in reality we are there to entertain punters keeping them drinking and hence paying money to the establishment. If the punters like One Direction and you can deliver it to a decent standard then you probably have a bright future as a covers band.....I considered it a form of prostitution, playing covers kept me gig sharp, with good gear so when the original band goes out I was at the top of my game Much as I disliked playing some songs, if they are well received then they are good for the band

survive the year!

Sad day for music today, another influential musician of my time gone RIP sir

I saw him back in 1986? when he joined Hawkwind on stage at Reading Festival to play Silver Machine, I remember having a tear in my eye that night, but that might have been down to the amount of plastic bottles being burnt on the various camp fires littering the arena. A proper legend, RIP sir

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HOT-ROD-RAT-ROD-CUSTOM-CAR-/181974651414?hash=item2a5e88d216:g:gQIAAOSw1S9WgRWl Seldom am I stumped for words but on this occasion........

Weird, I wonder if he did something with the listing that stopped it appearing on a UK only search, I check Ebay everyday and hadn't seen this one, it does look a real bargain, I am thankful I already have too many Precision's and a Jazz build in progress otherwise the bank account would be getting another beating as we speak!

Mrs 2611 "surprised" me with another 2 sets of Elite strings....I say surprised as I brought them a couple of months back so I knew I would get what I wanted!

Apparently T and P come up next to each other on a phone, so it could be a typo. My sister in law advises me that if you program enough swear words into the phone predictive text may even pop it in there for you! Ahh technology!

Hi all, merry Christmas. My Christmas project is to build a replica of Andy's famous Jazz Bass, I can see it is a CBS era bass in Grey so I assume it has been painted as I have never come across a grey Jazz before, I have had a look on line and can find a few photos but can find absolutely no information on the bass at all other than it being strung upside down. Anyone know anything about the bass and its history? Cheers Rog

Blitzkrieg Bop for sure

And it's in Gold......I think it;s a genuine 52 Gold top, you might get a bargain there......or maybe not!

Glam for me was New York Dolls, Bowie, Sweet etc. Bands like Motley Crew were glam metal then Lords of The New Church were sort of Glam Goth. An earlier post mentioned Slammer as a thrash band, I worked doing sound for a band called Metal Messiah back at the time they supported Slammer on a couple of occasions Sheffield Uni was a gig I remember especially well

Ex hair metal these days

Glam all day, can't do thrash

[i] don't think he has massively overpriced it considering its alleged provenance, a new one is over a £1000.00, yeah he might be chancing it a little but I have seen far worse chancers....ohh my font has gone all slopey! [/i]

Cheers I have put both on record, that will make fine viewing Christmas Day night with a nice bottle of red to hand!

Look come on guys, he said he wanted it to slip away to avoid embarrassment, and now people keep bumping it back up to the top....no consideration at all

I only tend to play Simple Mind's "Someone, Somewhere in Summertime" in the summer as it doesn't feel right listening to it in the winter.....but I am not sure this contributes much to the conversation!

If you can find a Japanese Precision Lyte for around that price I think you will be seriously impressed, they are really light, great fast necks and sound great. This is on Evilbay at the moment (I am not connected to the seller is any way but this is the same as mine and in a nicer colour) I think it's a reasonable price as well http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Precision-Bass-Lite-/321953261075?hash=item4af5e8e613:g:kmMAAOSwHjNWA8q8

It's funny it seems most were either pushed into it as there was no one else wanting to play bass or ended up doing it because there was already a guitarist, I was totally the opposite, I started on guitar because I couldn't find a bass I could afford, I spent two years playing the guitar (a £25.00 Satellite Strat copy) before I found a £50.00 un-named Precision, the rest....they say, is history!