4000

Three of my favourite-sounding bassists right there. I'll be interested to see what the pedal is like. I use a VTBass pedal and have 2 x VT500 heads. They're great.

That'll do me.

This. Think about the song, not the bass playing. The bass playing is supposed to be there to support/enhance the song.

You may wish to check out the isolated bass on Youtube. There's more going on than you'd think.

Chatted to Julian at some length a long time ago in The Gallery. A thoroughly nice and humble chap.

I’m aware of that. My point wasn’t that it was the P Bass that was the entire issue, only that the fact that he was using one didn’t miraculously “fix” the issue. Regardless, as I said, these things move in cycles. There have certainly been periods since where a P with flats would have been the last thing chosen by engineers or producers. And maybe that time will come again, for better or worse.

These things move in cycles anyway. I can't help but think of Jamerson, who eventually started to lose work in the '70s because he wouldn't change his sound, which was provided by......a P Bass with flats.

When I was last in The Gallery Martin was fitting a new board to a Fodera. It originally had a rosewood or possibly ebony board and the owner wanted maple with blocks. I can only assume the owner thought that Martin would do as good a job as Fodera, and last time I looked, a custom Sei bass was half the price, if that. But having said that, if it must be a Fodera, go for it.

"At social media self promotion but not necessarily bass playing!" I asked if this was aimed at Scott, then gave my opinion. So was it aimed at Scott or not? Whilst quite obviously people with mass media social followings don't necessarily have talent, it's quite possible that some of them do. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, even if they generally are. If Bach had a Youtube channel, would he automatically become crap, simply because he had a Youtube channel?

My understanding, and to some degree experience, is that bolt-ons can also occasionally develop issues in the area of the bolt on which may lead to a fret or fretboard dress (in the case of a fretted bass removing the frets first) in that area. My experience of bolt-ons and neck throughs is that they sound quite different, but as the designs have also been quite different, how much of that is attributable to the bolt-on or neck-through I don't know, and no two instruments sound exactly alike anyway. Generally bolt-ons, to my ear, have a certain immediacy. However, I typically prefer neck-throughs, for all sorts of reasons. Not least is that to me they simply feel better. I'm sure much of it is psychological. A friend who prefers bolt-on guitars once told me he felt that the join "feels" more solid, whereas to me it simply "feels" like two different and unconnected pieces of wood bolted together, rather than one unified instrument. And I'm also sure that some of it is simply what you're used to. He learned to play on a bolt-on, I learned to play on a neck through. People who use bolt-ons often refer to shimming, for instance, as if it's the most inconsequential job in the world, but the very idea appalls me. Build it right in the first place!😉

I've only had one bass where I had the option. Sounded and felt quite different, and at the time I had no idea it was supposed to (or not). I preferred both NOT through body, FWIW.

Sixth form common room, sometime in spring/summer '82, aged roughly 17. We built a stage out of big wooden boxes designed for that purpose and then realised my non-adjustable mic stand was too short for me (I was lead singer as well as bass), so we took a box out and I stood in the hole. Seriously. 😂

And there was me thinking this was a former Top Gear presenter revelation. 😉 Huge Hammond fan (not the one above). It's the sound of a lot of my favourite music. In fact give me a crunchy Ric bass, a 12 string, a flute, some Hammond and a Mellotron and I'm done.😂

Is this suggesting Scott's not a talented bass player? Because he clearly is.

*Cough* Led Zeppelin *Cough*. "We've never even heard of Spirit, guv. Or any of them blues fellas. Or Bert Jansch. Or Jake Holmes."

Do you mean "Wow"? FWIW the 2 songs you don't like her singing on were early in her career and the others much later. I actually like her first 2 albums the most, but they're all great. FWIW, I love KB, PG and really like Sia (wouldn't have described her as tinny and nasal at all). KB is my fave though. Horses for courses and all that.

I dabble on acoustic simply as an aide to writing, but for me it's Martin Simpson all the way. Tone, phrasing, note choice; for me he's leagues above anyone else I've ever heard. One of my favourite people to listen to musically, full stop.

Completely unrelated to the P Bass thing, but Scott set up a Jaydee I bought, many years ago when he was at Overwater and we both had hair. Lovely bloke and the setup was bob-on for me straight off, something that doesn't happen often. That's it really.

+1. To be honest these days I feel the same about many bassists in the fusion field. Technical proficiency on your instrument is no substitute for good composition, IMO.

Indeed. I've never even liked Jeff's tone all that much and I still found that fascinating. That's the sort of stuff I come on these forums for. Excellent post.

Lizzy are the main reason I became a musician. Saw the OGWT 'Live and Dangerous' gig on the telly aged, what, 15? They blew my head off. Phil remains one of my all-time heroes.

Bilbo, my only experience has been this year via both my dad and step dad, but given how they’ve been (although they’re both in their 80s) I would take it as easy as humanly possible. You take care of yourself and hope you get back to it when the time is right.