Dood

Thank You!

I have video reviewed both the GB Cube 800 and a nice handful of Barefaced cabinets. I think all the reviews are in this playlist. I hope they help! I have been road testing the Barefaced Big Twin 3 and have been very impressed with its big tone delivery. I'd really love to give the Big Baby 3 a spin too and, even beterr, for the system I am using, a powered option would be so cool!

Thank you!! We've got a massive pile of new gear to video review, including lining up this very bass for a full in-depth deep dive! I've recently covered the Fender Player Plus Jazz bass that is, I guess, the same family as the Blu DeTiger Signature Bass, and I really liked the one Fender sent me.

For basschatters, it's worth sharing that the Bass Gear Magazine newsletter is free to receive and you won't get bombarded with daily spam like some. Furthermore, all of the full video reviews, interviews and columns in the magazine are also free to read! You can subscribe via the link above. You can either enter your details on a side panel or at the bottom of the screen depending on what page you are looking at. You absolutely should follow the BassGearMag YouTube channel too!

My first bass was a Marlin Sidewinder! 80’s P/HB config, which, I believe pre-dated the Fender Deluxe that had the same. I read a rumour that the Marlin inspired the Jazz Bass Special too, but I’ve not looked in to it. Though, I think with the right HB, it certainly has a fatter tone than a standard single coil. There’s a few basses I have reviewed with downright weedy bridge pickups. I don’t tend to solo the bridge pickup in all honesty. Nice to have something useable if I need to.

It’s the bridge pickup solo’d. Probably doesn’t sound awesome on a mobile device, but it had some nice bite on my studio monitors.

Have you tried Brave browser, I find that useful to keep the ads at bay.

You know she's been fronting her own touring band for yonks, right?

"..this Tiger woman.."

In interviews (prior to any discussion over a signature bass), Blu DeTiger had talked about her desire to bring the bass out of the shadows and to the front of the music, having been heavily inspired by Motown and Funk greats and the like. So, that’s not new news, it’s literally the sound of her band and self-penned songs from the beginning. As for “empowering bassists” of the future, I don’t have a signature Fender bass, or 2 million followers on TikTok, but I sure as sh*t have spent more years than our Blu has been alive wanting to inspire all ages to pick up the bass and fall in love with it as much as I have. (I made it my career after all; 100’s of video reviews, years of magazine columns and countless students from all corners.) Is Blu different because she is signed and has albums out and stacks of touring air miles? Still just someone who deep down loves bass and supporting other musicians right? You know, like bass chatters …. 🤨 I, like many of us on BC, have been a music teacher for many, many years and the stats everywhere are the same, there are fewer women choosing to play guitar or bass. Why wouldn’t someone in Blu DeTiger’s position want to use the opportunity to spread some positivity and address this? In support of, I can immediately think of three pro UK bassists (female) off the top of my head who have sought to address the issue in either interview or written their own magazine articles. And there are plenty more!

Putting two compressors in series is a great studio trick for any instrument with a mixture of transients and longer sustained notes. Vocals with plosives for example. A typical example would be to run a super fast 1176 style compressor to capture the initial transients (on average around 3-5dB of reduction) and then place a slower but more 'flavourful' compressor after in series, such as an LA-2A style compressor to do the leveling side of things. (I like to use a cheeky maximiser limiter in my mixes to lift things a bit too.) I'm a massive fan of multiband and parallel compression, something that I have had in my set up for.. i dunno, 25 years+. No, it's not to make up for poor technique, before anyone starts whining, I just like to send a more polished sound to my FOH engineer (when it is appropriate to do so)

1.4M followers on TikTok and 500K on Instagram etc, monetising makes it a very commercial concern to the tax man.

If this is 'no commercial success' then we're all doomed. (From 2023)

And yes, I've asked Fender for a review sample, the standard Player Plus Jazz they sent me was rather good, (You can see and read the review for free in Bass Gear Magazine) so high hopes for Blu's bass.

Bass Player Magazine cover star from a few years back when I was writing for 'em!

Ok, so I found this! https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/371822625824941/ I'm not sure about the controls area of the guard, but at least its a start for me to visualise what it'd look like I guess... and, I don't really like the look, so I may shelve the idea...

I think I want to try a pickguard on one (or more) of my Fender Power Jazz Bass Specials - now, the standard MIJ Jazz Bass Special is a P bass body and thus, without too much trouble a normal Fender Precision guard wil pop straight on (disregarding the controls alignment for the moment). However, the PJBS has additional sculting around the horns and a longer 22 fret neck to navigate around. Firstly, I don't know if a pickguard will even look that good on my basses and I wouldn't mind finding a talented basschatter who is good with design to mock up an image and then, some suggestions for people who'd actually be able to make a really high quality pickguard if I decided to give it a go. I'm not against the idea of a jazz or "54" shape guard if it looks good, as an alternative. I'll get a decent "flat on" picture of the bass up later.

I hope it straddles 60/70s spacing! I'd dump a pair of coils in and switch between the two!

I've been following Blu for a long while, a good few years. We were asked what upcoming bassists should get a Bass Player Magazine feature way back and Blu got a front cover piece, deservingly. Other than being a great song writer for her genre, Blu definitely knows how to craft an inspired bass line, citing James Jamerson and other calssic bassists as an influence. So, gets my vote. I'd like a nice jazz bass and this one would be quite close to my penchant for shiny finishes ha ha!!

There's also the linked forum, I suspect there will be a few informed peeps available to comment! https://www.tokaiforum.com

There's some useful information here, https://www.tokairegistry.com/tokai-info/tokai-fender.html https://www.tokairegistry.com/tokai-info/tokai-catalogs.html but, certainly with my bass, visual clues such as headstock shape and the logo on it told me more about the year it was 'born'. Mine I beleive is a 1981. So maybe some pictures will help here

https://www.noisyhammer.com Might be able to help. They have refinished and done custom work for Steve Vai and The Darkness. They’re local to me.