Painy

Sounds like a film script. Congrats! Just out of interest I've always wondered, does your singer actually wear a cobra snake for a necktie or was he just making it up to sound cool?

Welcome from darkest peru! Well Norfolk actually but the locals can be just as strange. My 1st bass was a B2a. Got rid cos I didn't like the shape and only realised later in my playing career that it had actually been a really nice bass!

My old bass teacher used to wipe his strings down with surgical spirit cos it evapourates without leaving any residue. Only problem was people at his gigs would always ask if he had a bad back cos he smelt like Ralgex!

Nothing to do with bass but once saw a tee shirt advertised in Viz that said 'Save Trees - Eat Beavers!!!' Always wanted that one!

I think expresion in music obviously makes a big difference. My dad (an extremely accomplished classically trained musician) would often comment on the tendency for a lot of Japanese musicians to be technically flawless and very precise but he found their playing to be somewhat 'souless' and to his ears somehow less musical. Now this is of course a rather sweaping generalisation of musicians of one particular nationality but I do see how he felt about music played that way. For some reason music creates an emotional response in our brains which is why we enjoy it but this looses somethin in translation if every note is played in a mechanical fashion. For me the danger of simply playing something note for note is that it is very difficult to recreate faithfully the phrasing and feel fingerprint of the original player and you can then end up playing with almost no expression at all. I would much rather play with the feel that comes to me naturally and still create expressive music, albeit a different feel, than with no feeling at all. Of course as for whether the average punter will notice the difference in the music they may not but I know I'll be able to tell myself and 18 years / 1000+ gigs of playing covers has certainly taught me that the crowd respond more if you appear to be enjoying yourself and believe in what you do! Of course thats me and my opinion - boring if we all thought the same way!

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1368570743' post='2078806'] 'Fraid not. It stands for "flamed maple". [/quote] Okay, now I feel stupid for missing the obvious! Maybe the F series in general is for funkmeister then, or then again maybe not. :\ To be fair it does just sound like the kind of name GH would have come up with himself for his own custom shop bass. If I'm honest, as much as I like the sound on that album, I'm not really over keen on that body shape now that I see it but still cool to finally know what it looks like!

Big thanks to all. Having looked on the ESP website I did find that they make an 'F' series of basses and I can now see that this is the same distinctive body shape. One of these models in particular also has an 'FM' suffix (FunkMeister?) although its only listed as being available in a 4 string but I'm guessing this may be the production version in any case. Always thought it was interesting that Glenn Hughes was using a 6 string on the feel album when I'd only really seen him use 4s/5s. Always loved the bass sound on that album though! Right next question. Anyone know what amp he was using?!?!

Never owned anything I really hated at the time. Obviously as I've upgraded a fair few times over the years some basses I've owned in recent years have been better than those owned in the past though. Of them all the one I got on with the least was a Spector Legend 5 string which I got as an inexpensive backup. So light it felt like it was made of balsa wood (I know lightweight is something many people look for in a bass but I'd spent too many years playing my bubinga Corvette which weighs slightly more than a baby hippo) and tonally just a bit weak and lacking a bit in bottom end. By no means sh*te and certainly looked the business but just left me cold. As for worst bass I've played- my mates P shape Rockwood by Hohner. Plywood body, half inch thick gloss varnish on the fingerboard, pickguard seemingly made from old margarine tubs, a bridge that would lacerate your hand if you played with a pick and best of all a tone so dead it sounded like a xylophone!

Are they still making these? A friend of mine bought a couple direct from Bogart a few years back and was apparently told he was getting the last completed one and the other would have to be cobbled together from left over parts as they were stopping production from what I remember! My old bass teacher (who owned some truly beautiful basses) always said the best bass he ever played was a Bogart and it was on his recomendation - my friend was also one of his students - that my friend bought them.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1368314210' post='2075693'] Sorry that you haven't had an answer but look on the bright side at least you haven't been bombarded with the usual replies telling you: A. Not to buy it B. Why it would be a waste of money C. Why it wouldn't suit your playing style D. Why it should have less strings E. Why it should have more strings F. They don't make it in the right colour G. I wouldn't buy a bass with a maple fretboard (call me a traditionalist etc etc......) [/quote] Ha ha. Very good point well made. In all fairness though it's never been more than idle curiosity anyway - just one of those things that bugs you. Guess if I just emailed ESP direct it might be easier.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1368307055' post='2075623'] Dunlop plastic strap locks. Useful in an emergency. About £1.99 for two. [/quote] Dammit! Just paid £3.15 for a pair of these on ebay! Now I feel I've been had! Postage was free mind

Errrrrrrr..... Guess not then!

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1364209455' post='2023101'] Do I recall seeing a leather covered bass here?? [/quote] Sheryl Crowe often played a leather covered MM.

Just wondering if anyone out there could help me with this - nothing more than curiosity but been kinda bugging me for years. I've always liked the bass sound on Glenn Hughes' Feel album (very warm sound especially given that he plays with a pick) and the sleeve notes say the bass he used was an ESP Funkmeister 6 string. Now I'm guessing it's long been discontinued but I can't find so much as a picture on line and wondered if anyone on here knew anything about them or had a picture they could put up?

I played for a couple of years with a band that did a very heavy, hard rock cover of Insomnia by Faithless which was guaranteed to fill the dance floor! Be careful you don't allow yourself to get too gimmicky with making this your thing though. Saw a band in Norwich years ago who's entire set was made up of lightening fast shouty punk covers of pop songs. Hilarious as I found their version of My Heart Will Go On from Titanic, it did get a bit tired after about 15 minutes! As it happens my band recently played a gig where the support was booked by the venue. The guitarist from afore mentioned punk band was playing with them and this time was playing nothing but lightening fast shouty punk covers of Elvis songs!

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1368222102' post='2074740'] I have 3 Jazz basses. A Japanese Fender, a Korean Squier and a clone by Vintage. The Squier is probably the best of the three, and the Fender is the one I use the least! [/quote] I know a few guitarists who rate an old squire strat over a new fender so not that surprised to hear this. Even Hank Marvin's signature strat is a squire - although not sure that was his choice

Sorry to jump in again. Just remembered an old Eko 4 string acoustic I bought from a little curiosities shop many moons ago. Had a neck like half a telegraph pole and an action like a suspension bridge. Used it to learn anything I was struggling with so that when I picked up one of the Aria Magna series basses I had at the time it would feel much easier. That was a neck I wouldn't hurry back to.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1368220488' post='2074717'] Did you have to take time to get used to the Warwick neck? Maybe that sort of profile just suits you. [/quote] I think that in all fairness, all 3 basses I mentioned felt right for me in varying degrees when I first played them - which was of course a factor in my buying them. Thinking back further to my first 5 string though (haven't really played a 4 now for about 15 years) the feel of the neck when picked it up for the 1st time, kinda made it all click for me that I was more comfortable with a more substantial neck - even though I'd always prefered Ibanez sr necks to a Fender P when it came to a 4! These days my preference is for wide and flat (the main reason for now moving to a 6 rather than needing an extra string if I'm honest) but I'll still come back to the old Corvette with its narrow and deep neck and feel like I'm slipping on a comfy old pair of slippers.

Just changed my bass from a wide neck 5 string warwick to a 6 string Cort A6 and apart from the string spacing being narrower on the 6 string the neck profiles are very similar on paper but in your hands the difference is really noticable. Fortunately for me the Cort seems to suit me better. So I do think it makes a difference for me to a certain extent but on the other hand my trusty old Corvette 5 has a hugely different neck and is still always comfortable. Guess it just depends really!

Seems I'm not alone then. In all fairness my new Cort does seem a lot of bass for the money but it has still left me wondering where the money I spent on the Warwick actually went. Obviously its a lot about what suits you though. For so many people the ultimate bass is still a Fender P, of which there a plenty of very fine examples available for a fraction of what I paid for my streamer.

I very recently sold my much loved Warwick streamer Stage1 5 string to raise some funds but with part of the proceeds also bought myself a Cort Artisan A6 as a replacement. Now bearing in mind the Warwick new would now cost over £4000 and the Cort around £800 I have to say there really isn't that much difference in quality between the two that I can see. Sure there are a few fine details on the cort that aren't quite as refined as the Warwick but I certainly couldn't say the Warwick was five times better! My question really is can you justify the additional cost of high end basses and does anyone else have a similar experience where a relatively budget bass they've owned has held it's own against a much more expensive one?