ezbass

Try eating a beetroot and asparagus salad, colour and aroma!

I like to call it comedy veg, what with the stinky pee, especially when you forget you ate it and the noxious cloud takes you by surprise 🤢😂.

Asparagus, seems straightforward and one way to pronounce it, right? Ooh no. Watching the TV some years back, we were treated to a Scottish gardener who pronounced it - áss-per-aar-gus, I was so open mouthed at the time, the TV might’ve fitted in - sideways!

Which leads onto words like lieutenant and Loughborough (lowgahborowgah? ) As far as I can remember from conversations with teachers with an interest in these things, British spellings and pronunciations are the product of deciding a language by committee, taking into account every tribe's idiosyncrasies and having every dialect represented in some form or other.

It’s how we say it at Castle McEz.

We have to keep throwable objects out of reach when watching any programs involving food. Lady Ez studied Spanish at college, so you can imagine her ire with the various pronunciations of chorizo (chor-its-O being the most offensive, step forward Greg Wallace). However, it is the current pronunciation of almond as al-mond rather than ar-mond, that really has her shouting at the TV. As to the correct pronunciation of oregano and turmeric, who knows? It’s all rather like Uranus and pecan (according to a Texan of our acquaintance, you pee in a can if caught short, you don’t eat it, that’d be a peck-arn).

Another great MM story. Now all that remains is to post this...

My thoughts exactly.

Or Shuddupa Your Face? 😱

Started passive, then went all, on board active for years, then gradually all the actives were replaced with passives. I do have a Sadowsky pre amp pedal on my pedal board just sprinkle Roger’s fairy dust when required, but I like the simplicity of a passive bass now and the way, with the right capacitor, you can use the tone control really effectively. Less knobs, less faff and no batteries to worry about. This all assumes that you like classic bass tones of course.

It’s what I use. Make sure that you have continuity between the tape and the earth loop on the bass, solder, star washer, etc.

Like it - a lot. 👏👏👏

That’s what what grabbed my attention too. The Aria is the same place too.

As promised...

Looking at this now, I realise I’ve made, at least from my perspective, a massive omission - no T’Bird! I’ll revisit it later (fortunately, I saved the file for a change) and replace one of the Mustangs with the T’Bird. Watch this space.

Following on from a different thread where the question was asked as to how a Bongo differs from a Stingray, I went down a pickup position rabbit hole for a number of popular basses. I've very roughly copied internet photos of various basses, some long scale, some short, some in between (Ric 4003) and sized them to be the same (or as close as I could get) between the bridge saddles and 12th fret. There were, for me at least, some surprises ('Ray, Ric, SB700 similarity for instance). I've not added lines as it would be messy, just use your eye, or a ruler for a slightly more exact comparison. This is not meant as a definitive guide as some saddle positions may have been 'wrong' and the cropping may be a tad sketchy, but I think it's there or thereabouts. Anyway, for your delectation...

That extends beyond pick players too, Geddy and Entwistle spring to mind. I started with 2mm picks, using my guitarist brain that thicker picks give a more pleasing tone and I still think that for guitar this applies, at least to my ears. However, since then, I reduced the gauge I used until I was down to .73mm, not least due to Bobby Vega’s use of that gauge and using the rounder corner. Although it does add a sharper attack, it does make the bass punch through, whilst still retaining good low end. This might be desirable if you have a guitarist who insists on a low end heavy tone.* I still mess about with other gauges, but I don’t stray too far above the .73 (never lower), a Dunlop Jazz 3 being about as heavy as I’ll go. I was wondering what Chris Squire used, he being one of the more famous pick users and a Google search revealed a Herco Flex 75, which, despite the name, is apparently around the 1mm mark. *I’d be inclined to put a sticker over his EQ section that says, “You already have a bass player.”

Turning the pick around to use the rounder corners will also soften the attack.

I have to say that I’m really enjoying the single coil setting on my shorty Ray. It’s placement just behind the lower half of a P pickup seems perfect when the more nasal, standard Ray tone isn’t quite full enough. Not much in the way of single coil buzz either.

Both mine were/are fine as was the off the peg Jake I had for a while.

I wanted to minimise the marks on my fretless. I liked them so much, I fitted them on the fretted basses too.

Ian is very much like Scott after way too much coffee and with a trans-Atlantic accent. Killer player too.

Pencil - check Digital rule - check Wire clippers - check Dog paw - er… check Whatever you used, quality result.

Ped nails the very definition of the P bass tone. Having seemingly moved to short scale basses in the last year or so, I can confidently say that my JMJ Mustang (which sounds just like my old ‘63 P) and shorty ‘Ray (the series/single/parallel switch is super useful) cover all the fretted tones I usually need. A short ‘Ray fretless added to the pack would see me complete.