Cato

I fancied a go at moding a few years back so I bought a Squire VM70s jazz and put in Aguilar pickups a Babicz bridge and a Kiogon loom. It was a fun project and I'm glad I've scratched that itch, but being perfectly honest with myself the results weren't such a radical improvement that I've been tempted to fiddle with any of my other bassses.

After spending musch of the last 15 years or so listening to mainly funky/jazzy stuff with a smattering of British indie in the last few weeks I've gone back to my youth and down a real 'American alternative scene of the 80s and early 90s' rabbit hole. After hugely enjoying rediscovering the Butthole Surfers I've moved on to my favourite band of the era/genre - Dinosaur Jr. Somewhat controversially I've decided that my favourite stuff of theirs is from after the 'classsic' line up split and they essentially be came a Jay Mascis solo project. Exhibit A I think Mascis may be my favourite guitarist of all time, one of the very few who I can listen to an extended solo from with genuine enjoyment rather than getting bored and wishing it would end.

Sometimes I walk into the room where I keep my modest collection of guitars and basses and just smile.

DR strings are also silkless.

Retrovibe got away with using a version of that shape for a few years befor Ric sent the 'cease and desist'. Rickenbacker don't have the right or the means to order the destruction of copies all they can do is get the lawyers to tell the offending manufacturer not to do it again. And since the departure of John Hall manufacturers such as Harley Benton seem to be testing the perimeter on what they can get away with again..

Maple boards are nearly always sealed with polyurethane or , less commonly, nitro there's no point oiling them as the oil will just sit on the finish without ever getting into the wood.

That sorry episode (as does Fender's ownership of Charvel/Jackson) belongs to that dark period in modern guitar history between the 1990s and mid 2010s when both Gibson and Fender were buying guitar and amp brands left, right and centre, only to dicontinue those brands within a few years of acquisition. Given the amount of debt the strategy ultimately left both Fender and Gibson with I think it's fair to say that everyone involved would admit 'mistakes were made'.

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation own 4 of the worlds most recognisable guitar brands. They have Charvel which specialises in modern specced guitars, Jackson for the metal heads and Gretsch which covers a lot of the same territory as Gibson. I doubt we'll ever see radical innovation under the modern Fender brand, that's not it's place in the 21st century market. Fender make the 'originals' of classic highly popular guitar designs that are much copied by many other manufacturers (for a certain value of 'original'). Like the competition copies they do this at a number of price points. Every now and then they go nuts and put out a Meteora guitar or a Dimension Bass, but nothing that's radically out of place with their classic line up. If FMIC ever were to come up with something really different my guess is they would put it out under the Charvel or Jackson brands.

Great review, lovely specimen. I've been getting a lot of shortscale/retro gas recently and the Acinonyx certainly ticks the boxes on both fronts.

I feel it needs something to break up the monotony unless you like the stealth look. I wouldn't normally go for gold hardware, but a black bass is the exception, I reckon a gold bridge and maybe tuners would really suit it.

Always sad to see a guitar shop closing. At least in this case it seems to happening on their terms.

I got decent at fretless just by having mine as the most reachable bass for home noodling. Most of the time I don't do the 'mwah' thing at all, I'm just using it to work out or practice lines that weren't originally played on a fretless. I don't want to get into the whole lined vs unlined thing but my personal experience was that having a lined fretless meant that I could intonate notes more or less accurately from day 1, albeit requiring a bit more concentration and care.

And we're definitely talking earholes?

Dear Dr @Ricky 4000 I've got my set square out and my nipples are around 1 inch to either side of my ear lobes. Should I see my GP?

I've had a few Mexican Fenders in the last 20 or so years, I know everyone's experience is different, but I've never had a bad bass or guitar from that factory. My Baja telecster is one the favourite guitars that I've ever owned. As said above the Goldfoil design looks flawed, the pickup looks too narrow for the string spacing, even if the bridge and nut were perfectly placed the outer strings would be right on the edge of the pickup. I'm not making excuses for the factory, obviously they should have noticed the issues during QC, but they should also have been picked up at the R & D phase before production had even started.

I can't see what the issue is. I'm sure he's not the first youtuber whose planned to buy themselves nice things with whatever money they can make on their channels.

Recognition at last! Congratulations sir.

It's another one where he's talking to that bloke who looks like his American identical twin. The first time I saw one of these I was really confused. It took me a while to realise that he wasn't talking to himself while putting on a American accent

Despite his clickbait titles, he's generally not that negative about anything. My guess is that like many people he hates the horse shoe pickup surround but then goes on to be mainly positive.

Heard this on Radio 1 the other day. Definite 80s vibe.

Nothing to be ashamed of there, regardless of the painful reality, it looks like you're having a great time. Maybe you should make it a 'thing'.

I've always fancied a BC Rich Mockingbird bass, I think it's one of the nicest guitar shapes out there, althhough I've heard neckdive can be an issue. I also keep an eye out for Ibanez Destroyer skinny stringers, a lad at scool had one and I fell in love with it.

I don't think I have a fixed number 1 bass. I'm pretty happy with each of them individually, they all do what they're supposed to, the jazzes sound like jazzes the P soumds like a P. I rotate through my modest collection as the mood takes me. That's why everyone needs more than 1 bass.

Not sure if it strictly counts but many Ibanez endorsees don't play 'off the peg' versions of their signature guitars. Ibanez has a Japanese custom shop that until fairly recently has only made high spec guitars for endorsees. There's a bit more about it here. https://www.ibanez.com/usa/special/50th_Anniversary/japan-custom-shop.html