Belka

You're both mistaken. Meddle is the best, although unlike any of their later work it doesn't have the concepts running through it. I think the Wall and Animals are ok overall and brilliant in places, but when Rick Wright checked out they were missing a key musical ingredient. Just my opinion of course.

Demis Roussos - not a lot of people know he played bass. Or that he was in a progressive rock band (Aprodite's Child) before becoming a '70s suburban housewife staple.

I remember reading copies of Bass guitar back in the '90s. You would see used Wals in the classifieds for under £1000 all the time. Yes, they became unobtainable new around the time the whole Tool thing took off; back in the '90s they were just basses rooted firmly in the 1980s, and were no more sought after than Jaydees and so prices were similar. I used to see them at pub gigs all the time back then. However, those electronics are unique and if you want that sound I feel too that nothing else will do. Also, with a waiting list like they have, they have no choice but to ask high prices. If they came down to even around the £3000 mark they would be inundated with orders and would either have to outsource production or see the waiting time for a build stretch even further into the future. Also, if you do spend money on a Wal, new or used and don't like it, you won't lose any money if you sell it on (although who knows what COVID might do to the market). @CamdenRob , your bass looks great; sure it sounds great too.

No idea. I'd guess it's probably real but has been refinished by an owner or perhaps the Japanese shop.The body doesn't look cheap to me, it doesn't have the neck heel carve but not all of them did. I just don't think the finish is particularly attractive. I don't think it's a carbon fibre neck either, just carbon effect lacquer as you say. I honestly don't think anyone would fake an NYC. Contrary to what some people believe, the vast majority of Fodera copies are poorly executed Chinese jobs that no-one would ever confuse with the real thing. If someone had access to Fodera pickups/hardware and the luthiery skills and wanted to fake a bass they'd probably do a custom, not an NYC, as they could charge a lot more money for it. So, it's almost certainly the real thing, with an unconventional refinish. The pickups with the Fodera butterfly on them are Lane Poors.

Couple of pictures to show what I mean. Here's one with the dual coils, and an early looking 4 string with the Schaller roller bridge and what look like Lane Poor pickups. There are probably quite a few exceptions to the standard and custom specs.

Yes, sending the wood there and back does sound odd, and I'm sure there is plenty of high quality wood in Japan, but Fodera take their wood stock very seriously (I've actually seen it) and I have no reason to doubt them. They inspect and select, and age all the wood they buy so purchasing and shipping directly to Japan wouldn't be an option. Back when the NYCs were being made, their shop was a lot smaller than it is now, with maybe only 4 or 5 people building there, and they had horrendous (2-3 year) waiting times for instruments, so it made sense to build them separately I suppose.

As far as I remember the deal was this: Fodera would send some woods to a custom shop in Japan. The same shop also had some links with F Clef and Bottomwave early on, but apparently in later years they were only building Fodera NYCs. The actual NYC model was designed (or more like refined, as it's basically a Jazz clone) by Vinnie Fodera, and the Japanese luthiers in question were trained at the Fodera shop. When the bodies and necks were carved, they would send then back to Brooklyn where Fodera would install the hardware, pickups and electronics, inspect the fit and finish and do the final setups. They mostly have Seymour Duncan Jazz pickups (probably the same models that go into the customs), although some seem to have dual coils, which I presume would also be Seymour Duncans from the custom series and would almost certainly have been an upcharge. They had a two band version of the Pope preamp. They seem to mostly be ash body/maple fingerboard and '70s pickup spacing, or alder body/rosewood fingerboard and '60s pickup spacing. They made both 4 and 5 string versions but the 5 strings seem to be more common.They are fine basses, although at that price point they were competing with Sadowsky, Mike Lull and the Fender custom shop. Victor does indeed have one. Also, I believe that Jamareo Artis played one on the recording of Uptown Funk, so no arguments about how good they sound in a track

The two biggest overrated offenders for me would have to be Pearl Jam and to a lesser extent the Foo Fighters. This is not simply because I don't like them; there are a few bands/artists who, while I personally do not enjoy their music (The Spice Girls, The Pogues, Free, Soundgarden, The Mavericks and Nickelback to name an eclectic few), I can at least appreciate why others would enjoy them. It's also not a genre thing, I happen to think Nirvana were brilliant writers and I like lots of alternative rock. But they're just so boring. The melodies, harmonies and dynamics are not necessarily bad, they're just complete cardboard. Utterly dull. The fog-grey 2005 Ford Mondeo of music. Serious music for people who don't really like music. In terms of underrated, rather than going for obscure acts whose lack of success eludes me, I would rather mention popular writer who are often dismissed as lightweight. Abba, Gary Barlow, Nick Kershaw, all are extremely skilled writers who craft great music. Take That's Everything Changes has more melodic and harmonic interest than Pearl Jam's entire back catalogue. I'm not the only one who seems to think so: https://www.laweekly.com/pearl-jam-are-the-most-boring-band-in-20-years/

I'm sure he played a Telecaster bass on this track, or perhaps an early single coil precision. It's not a split coil precision to my ears anyway. It also sounds like the tone control is wide open - I remember reading that Motown bassists would record like that, but the engineers/producers processed the sound the treble got rolled off Jamerson himself said something about it being better to be able to take treble away from a bright sound during mixing than having a signal you would have to add to later (I'm sure someone else could quote him better). These days people trying to get that '60s Motown vibe just keep their town all the way down.

Elites. I hated them in the '90s when I first tried them. Picked up a set to try again recently and still couldn't stand them. Can't really say I've disliked any other sets, although I don't like steels with brighter sounding basses.

If it's a rare or vintage instrument, especially one which is prone to headstock breakages (vintage Gibsons) the financial impact would be less (perhaps even minimal on something like a '52-'60 Gibson), providing the repair has been professionally done. On anything else I'd probably say at least 40%. I have a bass with a broken headstock, albeit professionally repaired, and I wouldn't even bother trying to sell it; the hassle of explaining the break and how it's been repaired and the money off I'd be willing to take a hit on means that any sale is just not worth my while.

It would definitely matter if ever he needed to take it or sell it abroad due to CITES regulations on rosewood.

I used them for a bit in the 1990s and thought they were ok. I've got a set which is a bout 20 years old on an old fretless and they still have just a bit of brightness left. They were certainly better than the short-lived Trace Elliot strings which died completely within a week, and infinitely better than Elites, which I found to be my least favourite strings of all time. After trying out LaBella, Fender, Fodera and D'Addario in recent years I've settled on D'Addario nickels. As imported brands go, they're not too expensive, they last a long time, the B strings are firm, and they sound really good. It's all subjective though - I'm sure there are players out there who hate D'Addario and make Elites sound great.

The only thing you can really do if you want to truly keep your input stage passive is get a more powerful amp. A clean boost/preamp/equalizer pedal will help with output but will also add hiss and may affect your tone just like an active preamp would. Essentially they are nothing more than active preamps, but in a pedal rather than onboard your bass. If you don't want to get a more powerful amp then I would look into fitting a Bartolini preamp to the bass. As active preamps go, they are very quiet (although not as quiet as passive electronics) and they complement the tone of Bartolini pickups very well. They also have an active/passive switch which you could use if you DI the bass to keep it passive.

I recently moved back to the UK after a long time abroad (non EU country) with basses I'd purchased abroad and just walked through the green channel with no questions asked. I didn't do this deliberately, I had owned them for a minimum of two years and so didn't even think of them as purchases that needed to be declared. If I had gone abroad to buy them I would have declared them. As for rosewood, you can take one bass back from the US with you if belongs to you (and it will be your bass if you buy it, obviously). It's when you send them abroad/import from abroad that you need a CITES cert. If it's Brazilian rosewood however you will need a CITES cert to take it out of the States/bring it to the UK as I think it's in a different category to other rosewood types.

He was great in Jamiroqaui. He is just very talented to be able to do what he did after playing for so short a time. He also said that he doesn't really practice (by himself, I'm sure he does practice with the bands he's been in). By the way, was the identity of Mr X (who played on the album version of Return of the Space Cowboy, Zender played on the single) ever established? Anyone here in the know?

I've wondered about the authenticity of some vintage guitars for years. A skilled luthier who knows a lot about vintage guitars could pretty much fake anything, but I guess to make it worth the scammer's while they would stick to the really high dollar stuff like '50s Gibsons and pre-CBS Fender. Strangely enough, I would imagine it's easier to fake a '50s Les Paul than it would be to do a '60s Fender. Laminate (non slab) Brazilian rosewood necks would have to be done as one-offs and aside from Spitfire, it's almost impossible to come up with tortoiseshell that looks vintage. I guess that's more of an incentive to fake slab board custom colour Fenders with white/mint guards which would claim a higher price anyway.