NancyJohnson

My fundamental issue with every facet of replacement parts (be it pickups or bridges or machines or, or, or) is that they're merely one element in a chain of events that involves the transference of the sound emanating from your fingertips through to the air that hits your eardrum. I would wager that pretty much any (working) bass, that's been similarly set up and is playable, would be more or less unrecognisable tonally from another, be it an old Russian monstrosity through to a £10k Fodera. Seriously. We've proven this already.

As the components of any pickup are pretty much magnets, copper wire and (if potted) wax, the only variants are going to be under/overwinding or different magnetic materials (iron/neodymium). Fundamentally the core materials/process is in general, more or less the same. If you consider this, then the fundamentals of pickup design/manufacturing are pretty much set in stone; I owned a Rickenbacker 400* for a while, the quintessential Rick tone was there, but I'd wager that part of this tone was to do with caps and pots along with my desire/belief to sound Rickenbackeresque. It was arguably cheaper to achieve this by integrating outboard processing rather than swapping pickups every five minutes! I simply don't buy into the claims that pickups sound inherently different from each other, irrespective of claims otherwise. I know what I want to sound like and can achieve that (more or less) off a BDDI.

Oh, and the new Tears For Fears live album (which has also arrived on Blu-ray/5.1).

Interesting day of re-releases today. While I'm not really a Green Day fan, I've been spinning the American Idiot deluxe thing today in the background. Currently going through the Queen 1 Collector's Edition deluxe set, which extends to 63 tracks (which in the actual box extends to six discs)...I'm on track 30 at the moment. Also enjoying the new Momma single; if you like Veruca Salt and Smashing Pumpkins, then this should be right up your alley:

Gadzooks! Here we go. IME (quite a bit), there's no such thing as dirty sounding units, per se; sure there are pickups that have their own individual characteristics (Rickenbacker units, Mudbuckers and - by default rather than design - vintage/60s Thunderbird units, which were lap steel surplus units) and those that arguably have a hotter output, but by and large in reality they're all pretty much the same. If you're looking for dirt, best practice is to add something into your signal chain!

I'll admit I've never truly been 100% happy with stock amps giving me the tone I truly desire and I thought the Darkglass AO900 was going to be a one box solution, but it's too aggressive and totally the drive element is different to what I'm looking for. I've run various pre > Poweramp setups over the years, so (for now) this is my desired route (again) albeit in a smaller box. I was toying with the 1000w version, but that would have been a bit of a vanity purchase, headroom aside, I don't need that amount of power; I've never taken the Darkglass over 40%!

Just ordered the 600w version. Wife chipping in so it'll form part of my birthday stuff, so I won't actually get my hands on it for five weeks.

Bought a Badtz-Maru Bronco years ago; biggest failing was the machines. First attempt at enlarging the holes resulted in what is best described as catastrophic headstock damage. Junked the neck; bought a vintage rosewood '70s neck from the US (including machines), but that was horribly bowed and the truss rod maxed out. Neck #3 was a loaded one (with decent machines) from the Stratosphere place in the US.

I think I've posted elsewhere on Basschat about that gig. The Sweet were one of my first big musical squeezes when I was pre-teen. He'd been really ill and, truth be, I can't grasp how difficult it must have been for him to perform. While he didn't have an issue remembering the words, he was pretty much glued to one spot and was led on and off stage with helpers (it was like Joe Biden); he was heckled too. It was a shambles. Thoroughly unpleasant.

Just echoing a few of the comments here, years ago I saw a double header at Guildford Civic Hall of Brian Connolly's Sweet and Les Gray's Mud. Not a great experience; ageing frontmen backed by young bucks. I believe at one point there may have been three versions of The Sweet out there, surviving member Andy Scott is still out there gigging and using the Sweet name. I'm sure there's bands out there trading off a name where there's no a single original member; I'd have respected Connolly and Gray more if they'd just gone out under their own name rather than using Sweet/Mud. End of the day, bands are like football teams, many of which are simply a revolving door of talent. Personally, I'm of the belief that once your primary singer goes, then that should be that. Using 10cc as an example, the classics were all sung by Creme/Stewart/Godley, all of whom flew the nest decades ago; I have friends who try and catch Gouldman's 10cc as often as possible, even travelling abroad and combining the gig with a city-break. They've asked whether we'd be interested and have declined the offer; to me if they broke out Rubber Bullets, I want Lol and Kevin to be singing and I couldn't get past that, otherwise isn't it effectively karaoke?

I used to work with this bloke who'd occasionally come out with these off the cuff remarks that you'd actually think, 'Woah, stop the bus!' One time he said, 'What if you were in your garden putting some plants in and you dug a hole and found a brand new colour in there? Something that nobody had ever seen before.' I know we are times where, at our fingertips, we have access to a colour pallete that pretty much encompasses everything in the visible spectrum, but this comment continues to boggle my mind thirty odd years since he said it (much like the size of the universe stuff). Maybe Ernie Ball have been digging holes in my mates garden.

I owned a Waterstone TP12 for a while, it was effectively of a semi-hollow Les Paul style design; there was obviously a bit of weight on the headstock, but a combination of grippier strap and tendency for playing with the side of my right hand resting on the bridge, meant there wasn't really any discernable issues with balance. Have also been playing Thunderbirds for years, no real issue there either.

Rex Brown. £££ or $$$

Dirty edits. Gotta say it looks nicer in all black, although I don't particularly like thoss sharp bits Even just dumping the neck and bridge into the Simon Gallup signature looks nicer:

I used to run a shallow 4U rack, tuner, Sansamp and a 2U Poweramp. On the back I had a 1U PSU. Everything was hardwired in including a wireless unit, there was even a convenient short XLR extension out of the Sansamp that made it a breeze to squirt my signal to FoH. Speakons were always jacked into the Poweramp. It was also a good place to put your keys/phone while playing. I'd agree that having everything tucked away in there was kind of dreamy; coil up the leads, pop all the little bits in a small plastic box, put the lid on and you knew nothing was missing and it would all get home safely. Happy days.

Sweetwater have just added a Schecter 12-string bass. Amazingly, it's only $1.100. Sadly, the body design is a bit Rickenbackeresque, which I'm not particularly enamoured with. It's instruments like this where I ponder the idea of finding a luthier who could cut off the wings and glue the central core into something else. (I may have a noodle in Photoshop later today.) It's going to be available in the white option below or black with a maple neck. No black/rosewood option.

My old one is great, but the lining is nightmareish if you have a hangnail (it just makes the hairs on my arms stand up even thinking about this!). They've changed the interior finish, thankfully.

I've just been using a variety of smallish Gator bags. I've got one (12"x12x5.5" - bought ten years ago), that will snugly hold my (class-d) amp and it has front pockets which are adequate enough to hold Speakon/power cables. If I need to take anything else, I'll just take a bigger version of the same bag. Gator bags are competitively priced, incredibly well made, decently padded, robust zips, spacious in a TARDIS like way. (God, I should work in marketing for them.) Here you go: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gator-G-MIXERBAG-1212-5-5-Inch-Mixer-Gear-dp-B00T0OJG5M/dp/B00T0OJG5M/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

The original Hamer business was acquired by Kaman at the end of the 80s - some production was done in Korea and Indonesia - Fender acquired Kaman end of 2007 and shut down Hamer five years later. Kaman owned several brands, Fender hived off some of these but ultimately killed off Hamer as a brand. They weren't a threat to Fender or anything...they were a business producing Gibson-esque instruments, but there's innovation for you. Hamer could have continued, but Fender effectively wiped them out.

1. Micro-tilt neck. If the fit and finish of new instruments was 100%, there should be no requirement for micro-tilt necks (or shims). These are machine made basses/guitars; any adjustment should be able to be achieved with truss rod/bridge/fret-dressing. 2. Aerodyne body shape. Well fundamentally, these are just Jazz/Precision body shapes with binding and without rolled edges or too much chamfering. Surely Gibson were making Les Pauls in the 50s with binding and 90° edges? 3. TBX tone control. Hmm. Never seen one in use, but in theory doesn't it just ape a regular Varitone pot (which Gibson used on the Ripper)? 4. Partnership with Lace sensors. Isn't this like saying Gibson partnering with DiMarzio or something? Businesses collaborating with other businesses to create a product isn't particularly new. 5. Antigua finish... Stretching things here Stub. 6. 'Paranormal' series mixing and matching features. FMIC board visiting Mexican/Japanese plants: "What are all those bodies and necks over there?" Floor manager: "They're parts that we haven't put together yet." FMIC board (hearing the sound of cash registers riging): "Try just building things from random parts, see what happens and report back in 48 hours. We can give it a range name of something funky and sell our unused inventory at a bloated price, then pull the range once that junk is cleared.' 7. The little string hook thst fits on the A tuner. WOW! 8. Fender Fatfinger. Good grief. I have some snake oil in my garage if you're interested. 9. Grasping that the 'budget series' should offer a quality playing experience to help build loyalty and aspiration to the more expensive instruments. They are the masters of market segmentation. I think this is spot on. 10. Modelling amps that focus on one classic amp and do it well. Why not just keep producing those classic amps, rather than dozens of amps trying to be those classic amps. 11. Custom shop. When Fender bought and shut down Hamer, Fender described Hamer as a custom shop; a small team of builders producing great instruments in reasonably small quantities/runs. Hamer were building as long ago as 1977, ten years pre-Fender. 12. Relicing. Nope, just nope.

What an album.

If anyone needs one. Shoot me a PM.

While I reckon this statement is reasonably accurate, if I see bassists using Fender stuff it's almost like marking the whole band down a point. It was like this when I saw Geddy Lee photographed with his Jazz bass on the inner sleeve of (I think) Farewell To Kings. 'That's not a Rickenbacker,' I almost shouted out. I'm so glad that guys like Mick Karn, Jeff Ament, Eddie McDonald, Muzzy, Pete Vukovic, Overend and (early) Nikki Sixx bucked Fender. Despite owning three Fenders over the years, 10+ years since last ownership, I despise the brand.

I've seen many TE bargains over the years and once in a while my heart does this little flutter; I'm thinking how I simply couldn't afford that kit when it came out originally and how you can now pickup serviceable kit for takeaway prices. I ran a ridiculous Trace rig in the '90s. Tri-amp. GP12 preamp, stereo and mono power amps, selection of cabinets including a 4x5 bright box. Mental. Amazingly, I could fit everything into a Renault 5. Sadness is that a pair of current 1x12 cabs and a class-d head will likely outperform all that. Sadly little use for it now. I'm geared up!