Misdee

Same colour scheme as my Fender AVRI 74 reissue. I expect the neck on yours is nowhere near as chunky, though. Anyhow, that's a beautiful bass.

That's a lovely bass. Some expert woodworking has gone into that! The shape reminds me a bit of some Manson basses I've seen. It's quite (very)reminiscent of Alembic designs, too.

Some bass parts are fun to play, some less so. Whether they are complicated or difficult doesn't really matter. When I started playing I naturally gravitated towards busy players. Also, my bass teacher fancied himself as a jazzer and was dismissive of most electric players who weren't Stanley Clarke or Jaco. Playing with a pick was completely forbidden, for example. However, something I've learnt from my personal journey playing the bass is that I can be very wrong to assume that less busy bass lines are necessarily easy, and some bass players are very crafty in hiding the difficulties of their bass parts. Cliff Williams is a prime example. If you listen carefully he often puts all kinds of subtle variations in his lines that make them work so well. Making that band rock like they do is no mean feat. John McVie is another example of a very crafty bass player whose skills I have learnt to appreciate, not to mention Paul McCartney. I really respect those kinds of players and it's always fun to learn their bass parts. By the same token, I love to learn Norman Watt Roy basslines and he's no slouch. Sometimes he plays simple, sometimes he plays busy, but whatever he plays is always so clever. The individual bits are often straightforward, but the way he puts them together is genius. You could say the same about Robbie Shakespeare. YouTube is full of bright young virtuoso bassists of varying styles, but the thing that most of them have in common is that they cannot find of anything worthwhile to do with their skills. Nothing they play is memorable or particularly interesting. That kind of complex playing doesn't interest me in the slightest. I like bass players who are creative and have a style, then it doesn't matter if the bassline is complex or simple.

Your right, that one looks LPB, but it's difficult to tell definitively because the two colours are so similar. Fender's Ocean Turquoise is far more blue than turquoise.The one in the Geddy Lee book looks more like Ocean Turquoise to me, especially looking at the matching headstock. You also have to allow for how both colours will have faded over time.

To my sensibilities the bottom line would be that unless this bass is sorted out either by Rob at Status or another top luthier such as Martin Peterson armed with the correct replacement parts, I would never be happy with it. Chris has acted in good faith throughout, and been left sucking lemons. I've been treated similarly badly in the past myself, so I can really relate to the anger and frustration.

I'm really sorry that the Buzzard isn't going to be staying, but I sincerely hope the Who covers project is still going ahead. As an Entwistle fan myself, one of the great things about trying to copy his lines is, if you haven't got an Alembic or Status, you can always do a rendition on a P Bass with a new set of Rotosound strings. Even the material from after JE's P Bass era is eminently suited to that tone.

That colour is actually Ocean Turquoise Metallic. It was a custom colour Fender offered in the mid-1970s.

I have a strong suspicion my ex was a member of the SS. She definitely had an aptitude for that kind of work.

Not really the bass for a jazz gig. What you have done by acquiring this bass has some kind of equivalence with a middle aged man leaving his wife for a busty blonde half his age. Not really very sensible but tremendous fun for a while. I can tell just by looking that this bass is going to be a monster. A new set of Rotosound RS66 is an absolute must, by the way.

I've got one of these and they are shockingly good basses for the money. I've played basses that cost ten times the price that weren't put together as well. Seriously. I'm having some problems adjusting to the neck profile, it's a bit more beefy than a MM Stingray, but I'm sure if I played it more I would get used to it. I wish more affordable basses were of this standard back in the olden days when I started playing.

I went to see Jamiroquai live in early 1993 when they were a new act. They were really, really good. It was refreshing to hear a band with those kinds of influences at that time. To my taste, it's been downhill from there for them. They just seem to be doing the same thing over and over again in a more and more stultified manner. After Travelling Without Moving it was all over as far as I'm concerned. Regarding the bass playing, Stuart Zender was (and I suspect still is) just one of those people who is a naturally gifted player. That's to take nothing away from him, but he learnt by doing it rather than studying the instrument in a more formal manner. That's probably why his playing sounds so fresh, energetic and spontaneous. For me, neither of the bass players who have followed him in that band (both superb musicians) have had anything like the same level of originality or personality in their playing.

Yes, nothing wrong with the Stingray Special neck profile, (I've got one myself, lovely bass for sure) but in my estimation it's got much more depth front-to-back than a pre-EBMM Stingray. As a point of reference, The Lakland 44-94 and Skyline 44-02 version thereof to has got a neck profile much closer to the old MM basses. I believe they copied the neck profile of Dan Lakin's favourite vintage MM Stingray. I had an 82/83 Stingray that had exactly that shallow neck profile.

That's the real deal right there. The chances of finding a light one from this era are pretty remote, so well done you! The necks on these vintage Stingrays is like a very shallow capital "D". I was playing a Stingray Special the other day and the neck profile bears little or no relation to the original Stingrays. Not that the newer profile isn't very playable, it's just that I expect most folks would prefer the original slimmer profile, given the choice. I'd be very interested to know what this bass actually weighs, and whether you plan to put rounds or flats on it. Either way, may you get much pleasure from this beautiful bass.

I am a bit mystified why anyone would seek out this chap to build a bass for them. Even if he actually made and delivered the basses as agreed. I can only surmise from his support for Reform UK that, in some way only he knows, it's overweight workshy transgender violent criminals on benefits who arrived illegally in this country by boat that are retarding his progress in building basses and fulfilling his obligations. I'd value one of his instruments at about £200. And that's £200 of someone else's money, it certainly wouldn't be mine.

Someone in retail told me that when it comes to new models,Yamaha work in cycles. The previous BB range was in production for seven years. The current range which replaced it has now been in production well over seven years. Also, the fact that Yamaha has introduced new colours for the P34 suggests they want to get rid of their stockpile of parts for that model in preparation for it being discontinued. Nothing that definite, it must be said, that's why I said it's just a whisper. However, this chap is in regular contact with the Yamaha reps ect, so he might know more than he's letting on. He has always known what he is talking about in the past. Regarding new models, I would love to see a BB3000 but with the pickups and bridge from the BB2024. That would be a mouth-watering prospect. Very unlikely to happen though, unless Yamaha is tapping into my imagination.

These were top basses back in the day. I used oggle the adverts in Guitar Player magazine, back before there was such a thing as Bass Player magazine ect. Back in the mid-'80s the Guild Pilot Bass was very much in vogue. I remember Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith and the chap from Bon Jovi playing them, among many others. Always seemed more popular (or maybe just more available) in the USA than Europe back then. Anyhow, would have loved to get my hands on one at the time, and it still looks like a very useful and enjoyable design now after all these years.

As for an all-time favourite Geezer bassline, I love playing Lady Evil, and I'm still trying to get Children Of The Sea and Slipping Away right. I think War Pigs might be my favourite, though.

I'm sure these are top quality basses but I don't think I could live with that headstock shape.

The EMG Geezer model is an undeniably great-sounding P pickup, regardless of genre. It'll do a great job for any style of music Totally agree with what others have said about Geezer effectively disappearing into a mysterious sludge for a few albums following Paranoid. Starts to resurface on Sabotage but quite not enough. Technical Ecstasy is a bit better, as is Never Say Die, but Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules are the benchmark albums when it comes to bass tone and Geezer's playing. Absolute perfection, for my taste anyway. I got to meet Sabbath on the Heaven and Hell tour and it was pretty awe-inspiring. I remember they were all deeply tanned with leathery-looking skin. Geezer had a perm and moustache that wouldn't have looked out of place on a Bayern Munich midfielder of that era, or a male porn performer from around that time.

A Sire V5, new or second hand, would be ideal, it seems to me. I've seen them that are a reasonable weight, too. Failing that, as others have pointed out, this is Basschat! There's an endless supply of quality used basses on the market, with bargains to be had in every price range. If it were my daughter that's where I would be looking for a bass (after the initial shock of finding out I had a daughter wore off and DNA test results ect). I'm sure you can find a cracking bass with a Jazz neck for the kind of money you want to spend, and if for some reason it doesn't suit in the longer term then you can get your money back out of it and start again.

I've heard some whispers that Yamaha might be bringing out a new range next year.

I know what you mean. It sounds like new Rotosound strings played with a pick and a bit of overdrive on the top end. And compression. Pete's a terrific player within his chosen idiom though, it must be said, and that always helps. Like so many accomplished musicians, it's probably more the attitude with which he plays rather than the minutiae of the gear he's using.

I wish someone would resume production of the classic Steinberger models at the quality level of the originals, like Ernie Ball did with Musicman. I've got a Status Graphite Streamline, but it's a very different sound to the Steinberger L2. That was a unique tone, and I've always loved it.