EliasMooseblaster

*polite cough*

I've always thought it a shame that they didn't continue the Blacktop range - presumably these didn't sell especially well as I've only met one person who owned one! - but at least the Blacktop basses offered some new pickup configurations that Fender hadn't really offered previously. So not radically different, but more different/less cynical than a different list of colour combinations.

I can't even be certain there isn't an idiot in my solo project...

Hello Lewis, and welcome to BassChat. Do you mind if I ask you narrow down your location a little further, as in my experience, the answer to your first question is a resounding "Yes!" and I happen to be playing a lot of folk-blues at the moment myself...

Considering this is the same company that invented the split-coil Precision pickup, you'd think they'd be brave enough to offer something as basic as a choice between "traditional" and reverse P-pickups, wouldn't you? Perhaps they could really go off the deep end and offer different configurations for their two-pickup basses - not just P/J or J/J, but maybe P/P, J/P, P/HB, J/HB. (OK, I'm not sure how well J/P would work, but plenty of other companies have had good results with the other three combinations...)

Presumably the same group of unspeakable deviants who were confident that the fey cover of Chaka Khan used on that Tui advert wouldn't be a capital offence.

Well, they are British.

That's a shame - I've heard of a few jams like that around London where you're lucky to get a look-in unless you're a mate of the guy running it. Which is, of course, the fastest way to stop people coming along week after week, and the first nail in the coffin of that particular jam.

So am I right in thinking that the valves are biased incorrectly? I've heard the legend that the released take of Let There Be Rock was recorded while Angus' amp started to smoulder and eventually melted/caught fire, but is there some tonal advantage to abusing other amp heads like this?

They can be in their own way - if the person running the jam knows their onions, the good bass players get called back up more frequently!

I'm going to hazard a guess that this might make more a difference than the number of speakers in each cab! The voicing of a ported cab is going to be very different from that of a sealed one, and the horn is going to mean a lot more treble thrown out of one cab but not the other (though you may be able to disable that). If both cabs were sealed, I'd have thought the difference in tone between a 6 and an 8 would be negligible (ignoring the difference in volume from the extra two cones), but if you have a ported, horn-loaded cab on one side of your rig, and a sealed cab on the other, you might find your perceived tone changes quite drastically as you move around it onstage!

It's a contentious one. I have been in the fortunate position to A/B two otherwise identical basses with different fretboard woods, and the difference was audible, but subtle. Basically, the one with the maple board had a bit more a trebly "snap" to it, the rosewood board, a bit more of a dark growl. But to be honest, it's the kind of subtle difference that would quickly disappear in a band mix - or possibly even with a twist of a passive tone control!

"Now when I talked to God, I knew he'd understand, He said, 'sit by me, and I'll be your guiding hand, but don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to...'" (Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac; Oh Well, Part 1)

This would be the same corporation that banned The Who's My Generation back in 1965, because they were worried it would incite young people to riot. (I'm sure over on Guitarchat, they'll be suggesting it was banned because of the bass solos...)

I've not tried Hofner's own rounds, but I can vouch for - in order of my own preference* - Rotosound Swing Bass RS66 (nickel, then steel); Warwick Reds; Dunlop stainless steel. *translation: half the forum will tell me I'm talking cobblers

It would make sense, given the name! I seem to remember the VM Jazz Fretless being sans pickguard, so I did wonder whether it had been designed with a nod to Jaco's best-known instrument - i.e., a modified '70s Jazz. (Any idea what this meaty pickup was that they put into the VM Precision, incidentally?)

I believe with the CV series, it was an attempt to recreate a replica of a bass correct to a certain era on a limited budget - so the choice of parts, colours, pickup placements, etc, would be in keeping with a '50s, '60s or '70s Fender. There have been rumours that they were using Tonerider pickups in the CV series (as opposed to using Squier or Fender-licensed equivalents), which sounded very impressive: I came within a gnat's whisker of pulling the trigger on a '60 CV Precision years ago. VM, I'm less sure about the specifics - particularly as they didn't seem to be associating the basses with a particular era in the same way. I thought their fretless P and J were both very good, though I was completely new to fretless when I tried them. Interesting to note that they used ebanol fingerboards on those (wasn't a fan at the time, but imagine I'd be warmer towards it these days); I don't know whether this was also true of the fretted options.

The manufactureres of Tetrion claim it sets strong enough to mount shelves and hang pictures...time to see if it will cope with a set of bass strings?

The expensive answer might be a different bass: "dark" makes me think Thunderbird. I've heard them described as a P-bass on steroids - a lot of the same characteristics but with more thickness, and less brightness. The less expensive answer is that you're probably right about the strings. Not a Clash expert, but I'm fairly sure Paul Simonon played a Precision with rounds. I'd have thought you could get pretty close to that tone by popping said rounds on, soloing the P pickup, and maybe playing with the tone control to suit taste. Rounds are often characterised as being all "clank" and "growl" whilst flats are more of a "thump" - and it sounds like "growl" is what you're after.

This sounds like a call for me to drop in and say... Schecter Model T? Not the easiest things to track down these days, but they don't cost much more than a Mexican Fender, and they play as nicely as most of the American Fenders I've tried. Seymour Duncan P/J in the passive ones, EMGs in the active version, and generally very well-regarded basses. Nice slender neck as well - more like a Jazz in its profile.

Completely missed the low-hanging fruit there, didn't I?

Maybe he was aiming for a 12 - then realised there wasn't enough wood left to drill two more holes!

^ you see? I turned up at @Merton's house and TOOK HIS FAVOURITE AMP AWAY FROM HIM. (Granted, he was flogging it, but still...)

I own two Ashdown heads - a Little Bastard and a CTM-100 - and both are wonderful. Sorry to be the exception to your rule: I'm a frightful ar$e.

Christ on a bike. Failed attempt at an 8-string mod? I count more than six holes on that poor old headstock...