EliasMooseblaster

My journey into fretless bass began a couple of years ago, and today I think I might have reached the endpoint I hoped for: [attachment=225052:frontFull.JPG] It began with a Warwick/Rockbass Corvette, which, after a year or so, I part-exchanged for a MIM Fender Jazz. Much as I liked the Jazz, I always saw it as a step between the rather budget-priced RB and this. I had heard wonderful things about the Franklin, and tried it in the shop a couple of times, so at least I knew I wasn't just deluding myself with the name and the price tag! After sensibly suggesting that I patiently save up for this one, Mrs Mooseblaster completely changed tack when I quoted the RRP, told me that it was a much smaller sum than she had previously thought and that I should therefore go and buy it post-haste, if that was what I so desired. So after phoning ahead to make sure it was still in stock, I arrived at Wunjo's to find they'd already got it out of the back room for me, case and all. [attachment=225053:bassInCase.JPG] (Excuse the JJ Abrams levels of lens-flare in that one, but hopefully it gives some idea of the hallowed feeling as I laid eyes on it!) In an attempt to keep the bass herd under control, I traded in my Jazz for this, and compared them both in the shop to be sure I was making the right decision. There are several obvious reasons why I expected this to sound and feel quite different: [attachment=225055:hardware.JPG] ^ Of course, it's a Precision, so a big chunky Precision split-coil where you'd expect one to be. The neck profile is a deeper C-shape, which also felt quite different. However the first big surprise, tonally, was the difference between the bridge pickups: the Franklin's J-pickup is fuller and more bassy; not a million miles away, but still quite a lot less "burpy" than they tend to be on a Jazz. The Precision pickup has been a bit of a surprise as well. The tone control seems to offer a very wide variability; not just "woolly" and "clanky" but plenty of shades in between. The brightest tones are remarkably similar to the metallic bark of a fretted Precision. I'd got used to my previous fretless basses offering differing variations on a theme of "mwah," but this offers tones both within that spectrum and far outside of it. [attachment=225056:board.JPG] This probably has a lot to do with the roundwound strings and low action, of course! I was very cautious when I first put rounds on my Jazz, for fear of knackering the rosewood board, but I'm led to believe that the ebony board on the Franklin was chosen specifically to cope with the more abrasive nature of rounds. (And it is a beautiful bit of ebony!) It's surprised me just how different this bass is, but then I remember that it took me a while to get used to the transition from the Corvette to the Jazz, and despite looking more similar, these two are also very different beasts. So I shall see how I get on - I might raise the bridge saddles a touch (the action is very low, even by my usual standards) but otherwise I thoroughly enjoying becoming acquainted with my new arrival. (The most reassuring thing has been the lack of trouble going from a lined board back to an unlined one - if we ignore a few funny micro-intervals up at the dusty end, my intonation has not been nearly as bad as I had feared!)

[quote name='Yoda' timestamp='1470568922' post='3106746'] Also MIA P basses are available new, but again, they're out of my reach financially....is there a huge difference between MIM & MIA as new? the price would seem to suggest that there is... [/quote] With the more recent models (and if this MIM P is new, it's probably been built in the last few years), the MIM and MIA do feel and sound quite different. I did A/B one of each in a shop a little while ago, and the MIA had a better neck feel (those rolled edges do feel nice!) and a more clear and robust tone from the pickup. The MIA also offers through-body stringing; I will leave it to more experienced members of this parish to debate the merits of that! This is not to say that the MIM is in any way a bad bass! Up until just yesterday I owned a MIM Jazz (fretless, so a slightly different beast) and it was a lovely instrument - think of it as the difference between playing your favourite album through a good-but-affordable stereo and then through one of the huge expensive rigs in Richer Sounds: you'll hear the difference, but you can't really fault the sound through the moderately priced setup. Edit /PS: or see if you can track down one of these: https://www.gak.co.uk/en/schecter-model-t-bass-13-black/80011 - they were roughly the same price as a MIM P when I bought mine, and I thought the feel and sound were better. I have seen a few floating round the For Sale forum on here in the past!

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1470315138' post='3105038'] [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Circa-2013-Musicvox-Spaceranger-Bass-Guitar-Sunburst-W-Gig-Bag-Cool-Funk-Vibe-/201638454397?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=p2056016.l4276[/url] [/quote] Good lord...it looks like it should be hanging off one of the strutting gentlemen on those old "Keep on Truckin'" posters.

[quote name='sirmuppet' timestamp='1470263515' post='3104682'] Thanks for the replies guys...Are the Entwistle pickups any good? They seem very cheap. I could only find one demo online. Intrigued by Entwistle though, the price makes me weary though. [/quote] I understand your caution, but there are some very good pickups coming out of these smaller companies - Entwistle, Tonerider and Wilkinson all spring to mind as being "surprisingly good for the money" - the only thing they don't have is the well-established name and reputation of SD, EMG, Kent Armstrong, etc. I've heard good things about Entwistles (haven't tried them myself) and I've had good experience with Tonerider and Wilkinson pickups previously, so I'd say the Entwistles are probably worth a punt!

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1470226715' post='3104236'] Either a classic case of GAS denial or none of the above and a flaw in the poll. [/quote] I think you were right with the first one - despite all my focus being on this one particular bass, I can see myself looking further afield if/when I do finally get hold of it. I am in denial about the extent of my GAS!

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1470229405' post='3104274'] h venue has asked us t play a cancellation - they gave us les than a weeks notice. That's fair enough I guess, but thy are now indicating that not only will they be judging our performance, but they also expect us to bring a crowd and will decide whether to book us based on our pulling power. [/quote] I'd be very interested to know who the cancelled band were, and why they cancelled. It's probably only ringing alarm bells due to a particular chip on my shoulder, back when a local pub took on my sister to do a "trial shift" behind the bar, then told her they didn't really have room to take on more staff and made up any excuse under the sun to not pay her for the trial shift. Given that you're essentially doing them a favour by filling this slot for free, at short notice, and that they now appear to be trying to stack the odds against you, I'd be getting suspicious.

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1470143139' post='3103547'] Yes, I've often wondered why XLR connectors have not been more popular for guitar leads. A balanced connection would have many noise/interference advantages and the possibility of phantom powering could eliminate the need for batteries in active guitars. [/quote] Didn't some of the very early Alembic basses come with a second cable input than ran power up to the onboard preamp from a transformer on the floor? Combining phantom power into the signal cable seems like a good idea (as long as you're not trying to go wireless!)

OK...which is the closest match for "I've got pretty much all the things I want/need, except for [i]one very specific bass[/i], and I'm going to need to save a fair bit of money and probably wait for the exchange rates to shift in my favour before I can finally buy that one and then be happy for life*"? *[size=2]"Life" may not necessarily mean "life."[/size]

[quote name='sirmuppet' timestamp='1467881572' post='3086884'] Hi guys. I know some of this has been covered as I've read through the forums and done some searches online. I have a few PJ Basses and as I'm gigging more and more I'm realising that there's issues. For instance on the P pickup I really need to have the pickup height set correctly otherwise I get one string louder than the other, kinda goes without saying but I had to do a few little tweaks here and there. The Jazz sounds lower in output and when I put them on together the bass disappears into the mix, so much so that my guitarist thought I had stopped playing. My issue is I really would like a hum cancelling J pickup matched with a P pickup. I'll list my PJ basses and the pickups I have and perhaps you could suggest what I should change. Fender Precision plus with a set of EMGs (Not sure of the mode). I like this bass but it doesn't have the grunt of my passive basses thought the balance is a lot better. Fender Mex deluxe (passive) Seymour Duncan SPB2 and STK-JB2 Fender Aerodyne Seymour Duncan SPB3 and STK-JB2 Fender Aerodyne Stock pickups Am looking for a rock tone with hopefully a humcancelling J pickup, not a deal breaker but I did notice the Aerodyne J's buzzed so it put me off having a single coil J but if there's one that won't buzz as much with the P then I'll give it a try. FYI I know the SPB3 is really high output, I just had it lying around and thought I'd try it, Still have the original. My other basses are a Gibson thunderbird with stock pickups, a custom Thunderbird with a Kent Armstrong Musicman pickup and a Fender Jazz bass with SJB2 set. I'd ideally like my PJs to match the output of these. Any help guys? [/quote] I don't own a Fender, but I do have a very P-like Schecter with the same pickup config as your Mex deluxe. Simple answer - I'm afraid - is to just turn off the bridge pickup. I've often found the same as you: the Precision pickup on its own sits very comfortably in any rock band setting, but whilst blending in the Jazz pickup gives a bit more trebly 'honk', if I go too far then all the low mids start disappearing and so does my presence in the mix! The likely reason your T-bird and Jazz don't suffer in the same way is because the pickups are more evenly matched - I reckon Wateroftyne is onto something with the suggestion of adding a hotter bridge pickup. Or you could part-ex the worst offender for a Fender Blacktop Jazz - I believe that was two Precision pickups in the positions a Jazz would normally have them, wasn't it?

In a live setting, I have found that people will judge a band (at least to some extent) based on their appearance, so it follows that one may have to consider the look of one's instrument as a consideration of one's image. This is why, in the name of science*, I want to get hold of a Daisy Rock Butterfly bass and see whether I can get away with playing it on stage. *[size=2]For a very loose definition of 'science'...[/size]

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1469705786' post='3100460'] no but I fell for mini disc [/quote] Whilst I never owned a minidisc player myself, I always thought it was a shame that the format never caught on - from my limited experience (that is to say: correct me if I'm flagrantly and embarrassingly wrong), it seemed to offer most/all of the advantages of a CD, but in a smaller package that wasn't as prone to getting dented and scratched. Was it just its timing (it seemed to appear just before the first iPods and the boom in small, portable mp3 players), or were there other downsides that kept it grounded as a format?

Excellent stuff all round chaps, not an easy choice to make, but choose I must.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1469539804' post='3099146'] I knew about the different quality tapes as a teenager. They were pricey compared to the standard ones, so I saved them for albums that sounded particularly nice on vinyl. I always made copies of my vinyl records, and play the tape normally. When the tape gets knackered, make another copy, thus saving the vinyl from dust and wear. It wasn't THAT expensive to have good sounding tapes. Just about any decent tape deck would do a good job. When CD players came out they were a LOT more expensive than standard tape decks. [/quote] I can certainly see the logic in backing things up onto tape - a friend of mine used to copy all his CDs onto CD-Rs to preserve the originals from getting worn, (which I was a little more sceptical about) and I know bits of my father's vinyl collection are "past it" and have been replaced with the CD version. That said, what would it cost you to achieve good-sounding tapes from scratch now? This chap's holding up his 21-year-old tape player, which must have been a rare find and he seems to pooh-pooh a lot of modern builds. On the other hand, what's "inferior" to him could likely be "perfectly fine" for the rest of us. Given he insists that "EVERYTHING" we knew about cassettes was a "LIE," shortly before admitting that FeO tapes were a bit crap, I expect he may be exaggerating a little!

Personally I think it's a great idea. Now you can set up an amp either side of your drummer to scare the living bejeezus out of them when you play in octaves...

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1469524206' post='3098933'] He is right about the chrome & metal tapes: they sounded so much better than the standard ones (assuming the source was good quality)... But, portability? Yeah, smaller than a CD, but you can put a lot more music in a CD these days. And let's not start with digital media players that can hold gigabytes of data... [/quote] Yeah, it was quite interesting, and I certainly didn't know about the four distinct species of cassette, but if I were being cynical the video could be summarised as "cassette tapes can sound amazing if you're prepared to sink large amounts of money into it."

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1469180439' post='3096326'] I stopped worrying about Brontosaurus when they accidentally changed the name to Apatosaurus. [/quote] I fear you may have dismissed your fears prematurely... http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/ Discreet and I will be hiding in our Brontosaurus Bunker until this all blows over.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1469198475' post='3096578'] We're defining cover band not what a cover is. Blue [/quote] Ah, but this semantic hair-spitting is one of the essential details of the argument! For in order to determine what defines "a cover band," we must return to first principles regarding our determination of what is, or is not, "a cover." Once we have concluded this section of the debate, we shall move on post-haste to discussing a philosophically rigorous definition of "a band."

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1469174273' post='3096264'] I had to look that up. Though I know what 'brontophobia' is - fear of thunder. As in brontosaurus (thunder lizard). [/quote] I, for one, live in constant fear of brontosauruses.

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1469045715' post='3095408'] Perhaps we should take a climb back up the taxonomic tree and start at the type of music being played, regardless of the style genre. Thus original or non-original - surely that's a non-contentious starting point? [/quote] *rolls up sleeves* Have we ordered the taxa incorrectly? Historically (and from what I've seen today) jazz bands give little thought as to whether they want to focus on "covers" or self-penned material; a set will often comprise their interpretations of various standards and other tunes, maybe along with a couple of pieces written by the band members. I have encountered jazz bands who mostly focus on writing their own pieces, just like I've encountered some who are happy to just take tunes out of the Real Book and haul those into new territory, but nobody seems to be too worried about whether they're an "originals" band or not. (Ditto orchestras - I know a lot of them will crowbar a modern composer's piece into the first half before they play what you actually paid to hear, but it's not often written by the feller waving his stick around at the front.) The distinction does seem to be a bit more endemic to rock/pop music, and then I wonder...has the distinction been reinforced artificially by pub landlords who want to eliminate the risk that the band they're booking will play a 2-hour doom-sludge-improv set?

I suppose the real question is whether you want to try and sand out the marks where he's engraved the note names into the fingerboard...

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1468934456' post='3094438'] What about nudity, donkeys and hemp..? [/quote] Dammit, I just sold my donkey and moved over to lightweight Shetland ponies with neodymium horseshoes. Can I still use those?

Well, it's certainly closer to playing a guitar than all this "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" stuff that the kids are into these days. Limited, sure, but a nice idea - and it's reassuring that he seems to have a sense of humour about the whole thing!

[quote name='pintspiller' timestamp='1468895338' post='3094132'] Bass Centre Bass Collection have a Frankenstein model. In pink. Which is weird, as I don't think he performed it in that colour. Haven't tried it though. [/quote] I believe the original body might have been finished in sunburst (could be wrong), but he had it resprayed in "salmon" - perhaps unsurprisingly, given it was supposedly assembled from a collection of smashed bass parts. [quote name='pintspiller' timestamp='1468895472' post='3094133'] [url="http://www.basscentre.com/british-bass-masters/the-bass-centre-frankenstein-bass.html"]http://www.basscentr...stein-bass.html[/url] [/quote] I think I've seen these on another thread, though the reaction from others was a little lukewarm overall...anybody know whether they're much cop compared to a similarly-priced Precision copy?

If your guitarists [i]really [/i]have it in for you, they'll put their guitar in an alternative tuning - perhaps an open chord, or a DADGAD, or similar. Then when you ask for the chords, they'll reply, "Well, I'm playing E, D, A, B in the verses..." "OK." "...but I'm in open G." "Ah." "Oh, and I've got the capo on II because it was a bit low for my voice..." "GAAAAH."

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1467879099' post='3086855'] Because it's hard enough finding one reliable keyboard player never mind 2 or 3? [/quote] [quote name='charic' timestamp='1467880195' post='3086868'] oi [/quote] Joking aside, it's a fair point in my experience. If I had to cobble a band together at short notice, I wouldn't struggle to find guitarists among my friends and acquaintances; bassists and drummers are a bit more limited but not impossible...keyboard players, I can think of three I could call on for a gig. But then one of those is me, and I probably wouldn't call one of the others 'cause he's a pain in the arse*. *[size=2]So am I, but I can just about bear to work with myself.[/size]