Doctor J

I've a few different Gotoh sets on the go here. You tune up, they stay in tune until you decide you want to change that. Don't know what else to tell you.

Fair play. I remember when I made that decision too. The first time you open the case, that's a magical feeling you'll never replicate. Save on!

Listed chronologically: ESP 400 Series Jazz - I can't think of anything I dislike, it's the perfect J bass. I can be a real prick for swapping out parts but the fact that this is as stock as the day they made it tells you everything you need to know. Bacchus Standard 5 - This thing looks and sounds amazing, my only gripe is I'm not playing 5s that much any more. Maybe a passive tone control would be worth adding, it's bass and treble boost only but still sounds amazing. Hotwire Custom 5 - It wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be in terms of build quality and the Bacchus blew it away. I like the Q-Tuners which work well with the ACG filter pre I installed recently. I've recently defretted it and it's getting more use that way. Warwick Streamer LX4 - The tone, I love. The neck I grew to love after rolling the edges. I dislike where they put the bridge strap button which is about two inches away from the bridge and the strap rubs off my arm when I play. Bacchus Woodline P Classic - is to P basses what the ESP is to J basses. Godlyke Disciple 4 - Just fits my hands perfectly, I love everything about it and sold my Stingray after getting it. Godlyke Disciple 5 - I like it a lot but don't love it yet, just haven't been able to get what I want from it tonally, but I'm getting closer. It's the most comfortable 5er I've ever played and the fretwork is perfect. Home Made Jazz - It's good, but it's not the ESP Ibanez SR1300 - Very nice bass, has really come alive since I installed EMG pickups and preamp Warwick Streamer NT - Put in a lot of work bringing this back from the dead, it's really, really nice and the strap button is in the right place so very comfortable too. Bacchus 24 - Just got it a couple of weeks ago but I am deeply in love with this thing, probably the best built instrument I've ever held. I'm still getting to know it though. Lookie [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/100315-the-bassdrobe/page__view__findpost__p__1370974"]here[/url] for pics

Is it a series 1, 2 or 3? I've had a series 1 for almost 10 years and never had a minute of trouble out of it. There is talk of Series 2 and 3 being less reliable but I can't comment on that and it's quite possibly just internet sh*te talk. It's plenty loud and, while the EQ isn't the greatest I've tried (but I tend to bypass the EQ anyway), I can get the sounds I'm perfectly happy with out of it with ease. The solid state channel with a bit of valve dirt added in is a thing of beauty. I've no idea what the going rate is for them but £200 doesn't sound too bad to me, though it might be worth your while checking the FS section here and ebay too for more references.

Time to head to the opticians so

[quote name='Clarky72' timestamp='1335871916' post='1637210'] Arent the jags jazz neck anyway? [/quote]That one looks wider than a J neck, looks like P width to me.

Does it have to be a [i]Fender[/i]?

As above, ordered from them plenty of times, always great service.

And a Jazz neck profile.

Trying harder will be when they re-release it in a couple of years with a [i]new[/i] colour, oooooooooooh, like goldflake mystical pixie blue, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Proving the draw-parts-from-a-bag-and-see-what-it-makes theory... new Fenders... a mish-mash of old Fenders... I do like the reverse Jag though That well is going to run dry some day, then they'll do Reverse Jag With Humbuckers Reissues, but we'll all know the first ones are the ones with mojo.

I've never had a problem with the MECs in my Warwicks. As a pickup manufacturer, they don't have the prestige of some of the American brands but I don't believe they're an inferior option. In fact, the MEC MM style in the $$ sounded better to my ears than my old Stingray.

Do you set your eq with a big mid scoop by any chance?

Just don't play it the Soft Cell way. Give it the same treatment Devo gave I Can't Get No Satisfaction.

Hey, let's not start knocking Counterparts because that's just wrong wrong wrong

Bernard was the man, exceedingly gifted without a trace of self indulgence.

Grand Wazoo has posted exactly the two videos I would have posted My very first memory in life is listening to my mum's Absolutely Free and We're Only In It For The Money records and probably the reason why anything goes, musically, in my brain (apart from jazz-funk). Call Any Vegetable was a big hit with the three year old me and it still is. Invocation And Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin is still one of my favourites, almost at the same level as King King, just brilliant. Hot Rats would probably be my absolute favourite album, definitely a desert island disc if I had to make that choice. I would urge everyone to give this twenty minutes of their lives, at least once [flash]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PhkCRTK2jQ[/flash]

[quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1335518630' post='1632401'] But then when they do introduce something a little different. It doesn't sell so they take it out off production. they only sell what people want and when it comes to Fender people only buy the same old designs.. [/quote]The Stingray and L2000 shift decent numbers to this day and are wisely regarded as classic designs, like their ancestors. If you put out something good and worthwhile which fills a space in the market (rather than tries to fit into an already crowded area), chances are it will sell. Oh, wait, you mean the half-assed stuff FMIC put where you struggle to see who exactly they're trying to sell to? I don't buy the argument that only Luddites buy Fender and so the big F must pander to their never changing whim. There is plenty of goodwill out there for Fender, that's clearly how they get away charging that kind of money for their US instruments but consider all their reissues - do you ever think you'll see the day there'll be an 80's or 90's reissue Jazz or P, like there are 60's and 70's? Why? Because they stopped being creative when FMIC bought the rights. They haven't [i]seriously[/i] tried to do anything new other than repackage the same old stuff (the odd sig model deviation excepted). What interesting and creative design have they released since 1983 other than the Roscoe Beck? They haven't sold, not because people aren't interested in something new with a Fender logo on it, it's because most of them have been pretty crap designs.

I'd say they don't have enough models. Everything they do is based on two models which are designs over 50 years old really, with an increasingly scattergun approach to parts and colours and they call [i]that[/] a new model. It's sad. When you contrast the innovation and daring of the man himself against the FMIC sham just churning out the same old stuff in his name, cheaper made but with ever increasing price tags, it's a sorry state of affairs.

Save another hundred quid or so and get a "real" Stingray from the FS section here

The nub of it is that he needs to get his setup together and he needs to do this in his own time. There's no harm using effects, but two hours is not acceptable, even thirty minutes is not acceptable.

Video this. Send him two hours of video of him setting up. Also, record your rehearsals and send him audio. Advise him that, if he wants to keep the pedals, he should get a pedalboard and set it up properly in his own time, then arrive on time and plug his guitar in one end and the amp in the other and be ready to go. If that doesn't work then you and the drummer show up two hours late and ask him if he's ready when you get in.

Don't care. I have rosewood, maple, wenge and ebony fretboards and, for me, the shape of the neck as a whole matters more than what the frets have been hammered into. Once it sounds good, feels good and looks good I just don't care what it is and all are perfectly capable of meeting those criteria. Most people can't tell one from the other with their eyes closed.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1335190230' post='1626915'] Alot of people on here, from what they say anyway, would only have one if they had millions of quid, fine by me, but I'd have shitloads!!! [/quote]Amen!

[quote name='The Dark Lord' timestamp='1335186389' post='1626840'] I have three. Two Precisions, a Jazz and a Warwick. [/quote]Eh, I'm no mathematician, but isn't that four?