ezbass

I’ve tried to like The Smiths time and time again, I really have (Marr & Rourke were just wonderful together) but I just can’t get past Mozza’s vocals and this is from a bloke who learnt to like Geddy Lee’s voice. However, Mr Astley seems to have solved my dilemma.

Just copied it from the Guitar Guitar website, to be honest. One of our local charity shops has a couple of shorty Ps, but they’re way over priced (not Fenders or Squiers) and one of them has so much relief in the neck you can stick your fingers underneath the strings, I suspect the truss rod had gone.

Specification BodyPoplar Body FinishGloss Polyurethane Body ShapeMini Precision Bass® Neck MaterialMaple Neck FinishSatin Urethane Neck Shape"C" Shape Scale Length28.6" (726 mm) FingerboardLaurel Fingerboard Radius9.5" (241 mm) Number of Frets20 Frets SizeNarrow Tall String NutSynthetic Bone Nut Width1.60” (40.6 mm) Position InlaysPearloid Dot Truss RodsHead Adjust Neck PickupSplit Single-Coil Precision Bass® ControlsVolume, Tone Pickup SwitchingNone Pickup ConfigurationSplit Single Coil Bridge4-Saddle Vintage-Style Hardware FinishChrome Tuning MachinesDie-Cast Sealed Pickguard1-Ply White Control KnobsKnurled Flat-Top StringsNickel Plated Steel (.045-.105 Gauges)

Some very nice basses you have there. I’m sure a good number of us would be interested in the details of you Wal replicas.

I’m really liking that Mustang.

West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys

Ghost Town - The Specials

Night Swimming - REM

Put one of those pickups (or sometimes any pickups) in the P position and you get something not a million miles away from what we think of as P bass tone.

You’ve taken me right back to my childhood there, @Riverbassman65, I remember repeatedly reading a book about the St Lawrence river in the library. Nice to see that the epithet ‘gits’ is in use so far from these shores. Kudos!

That colour combo 😍

I like the T’Bird pickup.

Start Me Up - The Stones

Alive - Pearl Jam

Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue - The Ramones

The Seeker - The Whoo

Stick It Out - Rush

Don’t Speak - No Doubt

Get On Up - JB

Arrested For Driving While Blind - ZZ Top

I’ve seen Phil & Co doing the Thunderthumbs gig at the Bull’s Head and it’s absolutely well worth going to see. Everybody in the band (one of whom is a friend of mine) is absolutely top notch and the Bull’s Head is a nice venue, separate from the pub itself.

As much as slides, vibrato and mwah are great fun and are pretty much the de facto, trademarks of fretless, also set some time aside avoiding these and try and make it sound like a fretted bass (accurate fingering, using the fingertips, without vibrato). The ability to move between these techniques means that when you break out those trademark, fretless tones, they’ll stand out as features, rather than being full on, all the time.