Hellzero

They are always selling crap and since such a long time that it's indeed ridiculous.

I will not see Steven Wilson over here in Luxemburg next Saturday, the venue being too small it's been sold out in a snap, but my wife and I are going to see Gary Numan this Friday just ... 40 years too late, but a least, we'll have seen him once.

Seen him a few times, and I don't like slap at all, but it's really part of his sound and musical. The price tag is high simply because it's Ronnie Scott's.. Around £35 GBP over here in Luxemburg ! If you have the opportunity to see him, go you won't be disappointed. Overkill !

And I've checked : the preamps with a 48 Volts phantom power are quite rare. This Vintage Revolution Acoustic Box™ Live looks to be some kind of Swiss knife at an affordable price. Just let us know. That said I really love my AER BassCube first generation (updated for free by the AER service in Germany).

Try to find an AER BassCube first generation with 3 inputs totally mixable. Ok it'sa combo, not a preamp, but it's not that heavy, quite small and certainly the best combo ever, soyou won't need anything else. Period. And it's working great for electric bass as well.

Better change the title into "Pino PALLADINO's Fascinating Fretless".

Leduc U-Basse 5 strings fretless, yes fretless, with magnetics and piezo... Single coils punchy sound with the great Frédéric MONINO paying his due to a guy named Jaco. LISTEN to what a terrific fretless sound is !

Don't tell me there is no punch in Mick KARN's playing !?! Listen to the album "Bestial Cluster". Or this most improbable reunion :

Mick KARN here :

Terrific !

I discovered the instrument I wanted to play in the end of the 70's, early 80's listening to the music of that period like Japan, Brand X and the likes without knowing it was an instrument. I loved the sound and told myself I would play that instrument which I naively thought was a brand called : Fretless ! Then Paul YOUNG came with a guy called Pino PALLADINO and I realised it was an instrument by itself, not a brand... I bought my first bass when I raised enough money : a horrible fretted some kind of Maya Unprecision bass, but I didn't like it, sold it and got drunk with the money: hey a was a student... Then I noticed an Aria Diamond Violin bass for peanuts in a second hand shop, being a huge fan of the Beatles, I bought it. Then I went to my local luthier, a guy called Christophe LEDUC, to have it defretted. I followed his advise and had a pair of EMG humbuckers installed on it. Got it back some weeks later and IT was it. That was the end of the 80's and it became my one and only bass for years. I couldn't play anything than fretless, period. I even got it painted ... pearly yellow, great fun ! Then I started my long journey into fretless with my main influences : Mick KARN, Percy JONES and Pino PALLADINO. I have to admit that I've never been a big fan of Jaco, not what I was waiting for a fretless bass player, except when he is (was?) playing with Joni MITCHELL. So, I can say that I'm a fretless player owning today 6 fretlesses, including a double bass and a 6 strings LEDUC EUB, even if I've played some fretted over these three decades. Fretless addicted, that's what I am ... and proud of it.

The idea could be very good, but I had to check first that they named it right : electroluminescent, which means AC powering theorically at high voltage. So, will you tell me where is the point? Not the high voltage itself, but you'll induce a lot of hum because of the AC 50 or 60 Hz cycle. And it will be close to your pickups : have you ever tried to play in a 50 or 60 Hz polluted environment with single coils ? No, give it a try... But the idea was good, tat said. Keep on searching, it's the way to discover unsuspected ways to do things.

Like blue is always colder.

And then you'll have a stone in the stomach.

No, with kebab sauce, but I think only the two of us will understand.

Any UV lighting will do the job, like the sun for instance and most of the now found everywhere LED lights as they are not filtered except if there is a real glass panel between the source and the Luminlay's. Real glass being a natural UV filter. Ever tried to tan behind a window ?

What would you have expected from bureaucratic, uneducated and selfish people ?

Ok, I've done the listening and there are obvious differences between the two woods. This is a game I've played for years with my fellow audiophiles, but stopped because I was really fed up to listen again and again to the exact same pieces of music. So, here are my conclusions : The first is more compressed, less defined and muddier, with some mellower bass, a light dip in the mids and some kind of absorbed high which is typical from less denser woods or a bad fret job. The second is way far more opened and way less compressed, with more presence in the high mid region, a well defined bass with more fundamental in it and a sparkling high (you can hear the frets rattling) which is typical from denser woods or real good fret job. The fret job is also very important and that's one of the main reason almost all maple necks always sound compressed... I now will vote instead of giving an answer which is the real game, I guess. But I have to say that there should have been a 1 second silence between each part to be fairer and let the ears reset.

In all UK's Cash Converters... They just used it to throw the snow away in the north and to dig hard in the south. I'm glad it's in your hands now, Kevin.

There is another bias. What format is used for recording and playback : mp3 or wave ? Or in other words, compressed or uncompressed file ? The mp3 is compresing, so the bass will always sound stronger and hard to recognize, the high will be less affected, but again, only good reproduction system will help... I'll listen to your sound files tomorrow through my hi-fi system and through headphones and I'll give you my answer(s).

Had an early model with the original HazLabs electronics, wasn't that light... Liked the sound, but wanted something more focused, so I put a set of original Q-Tuner pickups on it and it sounded even better. Than a year or two later, I sold it for peanuts to a friend of mine who still owns it. By the way, Ned Steinberger was close to bankrupt at the beginning... Because he simply couldn't build enough instruments according to the orders until he found a new facility. In fact, as a furniture designer, he thought he could sell his design.