Cato

If the different tonal qualities of wood had an obvious effect there wouldn't be so much argument and debate over them. That fact that people can't agree whether there's any audible effect is evidence in itself that any infuence on the tone of the plugged in instrument is marginal at best.

Fender put out new designs pretty regularly. There was the Dimension bass a few years back. Various versions of the new Meteora guitar have proved quite popular over the last few years and the Parallel Universe series that spawned the Meteora is probably the most interesting line in the current Fender range, although there's not much for bass players. Also worth remembering that that the Fender group owns Charvel and Jackson which cover the rock and metal markets and Gretsch which covers a lot of the same territory as Gibson. Difficult to see what else could be done under the Fender brand without directly competing with it's own subsidiaries.

It is nice. It's the sort of thing Fender have been doing in their 'Parallel Universe' series. So there might be half a chance that if it gets enough attention something like it could get a limited production run.

Every year Fender asks their top luthiers to each make a one off for display at the various shows. This is this years collection, it's primary purpose is marketing, something to grab a bit of attention for the brand. Although I'm sure they also make a healthy profit when they sell.

Looking at the Maruszcyzyk configurator it looks like they could do it. Have a go, see if you can get your exact spec. https://public-peace.de/configurator/jake-c/jake-c-type

It's been posted before but this clip of Bobby Vega is one of my favourite bits of picking. The way he puts in the ghost notes, it almost has a 'slap' feel to it.

There was some discussion on BC and other forums some years ago about the SUB preamp being somewhat on the 'hot' side, so that the only way to get a good clean sound was to turn down the volume on the bass or lower the pickup. I'm not sure if that's something that's been addressed in the meantime.

Warmoth do an unrouted J bass body. It's possible that they do one with an MM route or will make one on order. https://www.warmoth.com/Mobile.aspx Edit: If you click on the 'use full website' option there's a custom shop where you can spec out the various routings you want on the body.

I bought some Dava picks to try with my skinny stringers a few years back, I haven't used anything else since. On the rare occasion I use a pick on bass they've been great for that too.

Sorry, double post.

Happened a while back. The new American Professional ii range started using roasted Pine for its natural finishes last year. It's particularly interesting from a bass point of view because the reviews I've seen suggest that the roasted pine is noticably lighter in weight than the Ash was, so it might be a useful change for those looking for a lightweight instrument.

I think there's a difference between an expensive boutique bass like a Ritter or an Alembic and the Fender Custom Shop stuff. With a Ritter you can look it at and see that it's different from other basses, there's nothing else like it. With the Fender you're always asking the question 'Is this really £7K better than a bog standard Precision?'

I'm singing backing vocals with about 80,000 other people on two live albums recorded at the Monsters of Rock in 1992. Both The Almighty and Iron Maiden released their sets as albums, although I think the Almighty one might have been a bonus disc with something else, rather than a stand alone release. Other than that I'm in the 'Alice Cooper Trashes the World' live video for a fraction of a second during a panning crowd shot.

It is an extreme example. In all honesty if I saw that in a shop I don't think I'd want to touch it. I don't mind a relic, but that actually looks unhygienic to me.

That's what I figured. And you'd be getting something truly unique built from the blocks up.

Just out of idle curiosity sparked by this thread in General Discussion that features an £8k Fender Custom Shop Precision. Would I theoretically be able to get more than one of Andy's latest masterpiece for the same money?

For me, I think this may be @Andyjr1515's best work yet. If that was in Bass Direct parked next to all the top end basses, it would still be the one I'd be most drawn to.

I've got a first generation Sire V7. The bridge on that is as solid as most basic BBOTs. If you pull the bottom E sideways you can move the saddle, but you do have to pull it with a force far greater than most people would ever use when playing. Other than that it's solid.

Assuming we're talking about an active bass with a preamp that has an EQ section then generally I would say you have much more control over how scooped or not the sound is than on a passive bass.

There was an entire plastic pipe 'orchestra' that used to do the festival circuit in the 90s. They weren't officially on the bills but they'd find a bit of space in one of the fields, set up and start playing, often to a fairly large, if somewhat transient audience.

I went to see Placebo at the O2 Academy in Birmingham 5 or 6 years ago. It was painfully loud. I saw a lot of the big heavy metal bands of the 80s and 90s back in the day and it was pretty normal for my ears to ring for a couple of days after those shows, but this was louder than anything I've previously experienced. I stayed to the end because the friend I went with is a massive fan, if I'd been with anyone else I would have left. That was the gig that made me decide I was going to start taking ear plugs to live shows.

I'll state the obvious and say headphones. Preferably through one of the many multi fx/amp modeller units currently available at many price points. And get Mrs Skinny a keyboard.

But are you playing on all those beats, or, say, just the 1 and the 3?

One of the questions I have about Fender Custom Shop in particular is to what extent the bodies and necks are 'hand made'? Are the necks and bodies really crafted by hand from the original blocks of wood or are they made on the same CNC machines as all the other US Fenders albeit from a special 'custom shop' wood pile? To some extent using CNC would be much closer to Leo Fender's original vision for his instruments, but it then becomes more difficult to justify the prices. I'm not suggesting that they're not constructed using 'highly skilled' labour, just that most of the man hours are going on finishing rather than actual construction and assembly, which isn't radically different from their mass production lines.

If someone gave me the custom shop bass in the link the first thing I'd do is get it refinished and have all the rusty/tarnished hardware replaced, presumably drastically reducing it's resale value in the process.