Doctor J

Picking favourites is impossible, there is so much great music out there so I've gone for things I haven't seen posted yet - something rock, something jazz and something recent Masters Of Reality - s/t Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Viaticum Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind Of Fix

Well done

First day buyer here

Gibson tried to shoehorn robo-tuners into 60+ year old designs. Somebody who buys something as ergonomically dreadful for the sake of adhering to original form as a Les Paul is generally not looking for robo-tuners as part of the deal.

I don't agree with that at all. To suggest people wouldn't buy a fanned-fret, neo-pickup bass just because it said Fender on the headstock is not logical, the same as saying someone looking for a Precision would opt against Fender because they offered a non-mundane instrument. That argument makes no sense. If they offered genuinely good alternatives I have no doubt people would give them a chance. They just need to be good instruments. Fender are big enough to offer a range of instruments to cater for any taste, be that under a different brand if needed (Heartfield, Kubicki, Hamer or any of the other great names which have been devoured and plopped out). What really good models have they put out and really got behind? It's hard to figure out what hole the Dimension was supposed to fill. What else was there? They're never going to the same amount of units of, let's say, contemporary designs, but if Dingwall, Sadowsky, Lull, Ibanez, etc, etc, etc can make money selling new designs, then I don't think it would be beyond Fender. They just take the lazy route, repackage and sell the same old thing and they're going out of business because of it. With these old designs, they're going up in competition with themselves, as stupid as it sounds. This new line offers some of what the originals did but with a sterile and mass-produced flavour to it. No mojo, no personality, just cookie-cutter unit shifters. People have those pictures of Jimi and Jaco with Fender headstocks and the company cash in on that every year. It's what gives modern Fender an edge the rest of the competition will never have. If modern Fender had to trade on just the standard of their instruments at those prices, they would be broke next week. Gibson, I'm also looking in your direction.

The Dimension wasn’t particularly new or innovative, just different for them. It wasn’t a bass which filled a hole, it would be hard to see a vital place for it on any company’s roster. It came across as a half-hearted effort. I really believe if they put out a high quality instrument which actually did something well, it could be a success. Their business model is just utter laziness. Either “here’s old stuff with a new name” or “here’s something new which is a mish-mash of old parts with a variation of an old name” It’s safe and dull and predictable.

Fender slightly modify the same old things and give it a new name, the same depressing business model they’ve followed for quite some time. They are in one hell of a rut. It’s sad that a company once known for such revolutionary innovation have descended into being their own tribute band.

Ok, I'm in. Apologies to your ears

It tastes salty if you lick it?

I can go Sabbath Bleedin' Sabbath all day long. Every lineup, every studio and live album, no skipping. Ok, maybe I slip out to the loo when Ice-T starts rapping, but other than that...

Every bass can play like a dream if you know how to set it up and get the best out of it. I've sold a few recently and the common feedback I get from the buyers is "The action is really low, I might higher it up a bit" I have a parts Jazz I made with a JPJ pickup configuration for sale over here and, despite it looking rather ropey, it plays better than my Alembic. It's one of the best players I've ever owned. How can I get that across to the buyer without slipping into cliche? I never refer to butter, though. Not in instrument ads, at least.

I haven't played the Kestrel or Kingfisher but I used to own a PRS EB which, from what I've seen, I think those two are quite influenced by. You see a lot of comments by the uninformed suggesting PRS do not know how to make a great bass and, being quite blunt, it's utter shite. The PRS was one of the best thought out and most comfortable basses I've ever played. Their SE stuff tends to be excellent for the money so I'd have great confidence in them being rather good indeed.

Currently in the midst of a legal-bill fuelled cull but, for a time, the World was a glorious place

That colour is amazing, I love it!

The bass is a Mexican Jazz deluxe with a 3-band EQ. Make of that what you will. You might be able to get an idea of how he's EQ'ing it from the knobs. The third is a stack bass & treble cut /boost and the last is mid cut/boost

To the user, they operate as standard, the top ones all turn the same way to tighten and vice-versa, same for the bottom ones. Frequently you see them strung on each tuner the same way, so you need to turn clockwise to tighten for one, anti-clockwise for the next, etc. Madness. Some pennies drop forever without ever hitting the bottom.

Nice! Bonus points for it being strung correctly, it’s amazing how many of them you see with the headstock all arseways.

Fender seem fixated on jumbling up miscellaneous parts from 60+ year old designs and giving it a name. What was the last truly innovative thing they did?

Slightly deranged sounding. I like it.

When I was working in a studio in Dublin in the mid-2000’s, I was recording a band whose guitarist had just bought a brand new Les Paul Standard that very day. I had him play while we mic’d up his amp and, every now and then, a chord would sound badly out of tune. He retuned and played and the same thing, every now and then out of tune. After going through the song chords, whenever he played G, it sounded horrible. We checked tuning again, then went through the E string fret by fret. E - in tune F - in tune F# - in tune G - badly sharp G# - in tune A - in tune I felt sick for the guy, he had spent IR£2,500 at the time on his dream guitar and it was junk. I believe the shop exchanged it for him. I have a Tokai 335, an ES130, and have yet to encounter a “real” 335 which comes close. Gibson, to me, are the epitome of a brand trading on former glories and great designs made by great people several generations ago and the current company are just the owners of some copyrights with nothing in common with the spirit of innovation or quality which made the brand name what it is. Just like the big F, the designs they own are incredible, but there are other companies doing much better jobs of manufacturing them.

This came out a while ago http://bravewords.com/news/gibson-to-sell-memphis-guitar-factory Juszkiewicz seems to be utterly inept and behind some truly baffling decisions, such as enforcing the robo-tuning crap on many models, and is trying to put a "we meant to do this" spin as the cold sea creeps over the bow. How he has remained CEO for so long will probably only be explained in a long documentary in a decade's time.

Beautiful. It looks great with the black scratchplate.

That picture deserves lots of entries. I tried to record something earlier but it was a shittake.

That’s really nice

Don’t let it get to you. If you had bought an Alembic that would have come with plastic knobs too.