OutToPlayJazz

One of my pupils just got a Thunderbird for his birthday & it's a really nice sounding bass. Very Precision-like thump to it. Just bloody huge & difficult to get a hard case for. Plays really well also. The Squiers as you'll have heard/read are getting better & better these days. I've had two of the VMJ's (fretted 70's & fretless) & they're really good basses. Also to consider is the hideous looking Pete Wentz Precision model. That one really has a great sound & is excellent value. The other one definitely worth considering along with the BB414 is the Yamaha BB614 with the 3-band active pre on board. These are great basses & truly versatile with it.

I think I'd have to use my one remaining hand to shoot myself!

I quite liked it, actually... Typical Italian fare, but somehow quite cool at the same time

Hey, Bilbo... They must've had it a while! That was a very good price. It's actually an Energy 'Artist'. The Artist models had the nicer woods, such as the quilted maple on yours. I had a five string the same (apart from the retro-fitted graphite neck) until a Germay guy offered me silly money for it. I think I had it for 5 days or less. It was that fast! If you really want to part with it, put it on Statii.com. It'll go very quickly on there!

Hi Dabootsy, yes we all have to play covers at times (and yes, it can get soul destroying!) I never play the original line, always making up my own (which is often more apt to the music!) Or at the least I "soup up" the original and make it better.

Hi Molan, the black pearl looks class to me!

Hey Martin, I played one at Electro & was quite impressed. It played really well, the sound was very nice & quality was very good. The only downside was the wobbly plastic-chrome neck pickup cover. Other than that it was a really nice bass.

Hmmm... Not sure on that one, however I did like the STD joke at the end of the teaser trailer!

The term "rest stroke" comes from the classical guitar world. If a player is playing a "single line" piece with no bass notes or chordal content, that's how they play, using alternate strokes of the index & middle fingers, walking into the next string, thereby creating a damping effect. (Much like us bass players, really!) I use this technique & also left hand damp at the same time. I also use extra "damped hits" on the right hand for damping and percussive effects as well. There are some interesting videos of Gary Willis showing his more advanced version where he actually uses unused fingers to further damp strings he's moving away from. Scary!

In a word, yes. For the money they're one of Fender's better products. I recently had the Standard 5-string in midnight wine & it was a lovely bass. More recently, I played an MIM standard jazz 4 while testing amps & it was biblical! An awsome to play & awsome sounding bass. Make sure you try a few, though. As with every mass produced instrument, you're going to get a few dogs around, but Fender's recent Mexican quality control has been very encouraging!

Hey Ped, the jazz sound is remarkably like my Marcus Miller, with the same kind of bite and attack. Excellent sound.

Lovely black American Precision, Stu!

They did a really nice job there, Ritch. Looks the same as my Marcus Miller Jazz neck (apart from the gloss finish.)

The "Pledge" story at the top of this page is not as strange as it seems... Rob Green uses Pledge to polish basses before handover at Status. Must be good!

Another Stingray vote here!

UPDATE... Spoke to Dave at Electro the other day & he's definitely up for it. I'll let you all know how the negotiations go from here... Rich.

Hi again, Molan. It actually came form Electro in Doncaster. Dave Ryan did me an amazing deal, meaning I actually earned money on my Hofner Contemporary & Squier VMJ fretless by trading them in. There's a first! The Japanese MM's are really nice quality overall. Never played a badly made one at all. Mine's the natural, so you can see the ash grain very clearly. All I've done is changed the Fender 45-105 strings for some Roto 40-100's. The bass has such a thick sound that I thought I'd keep the guages a little higher than I usually would. The 30-90's can be reserved for my Status basses. Also played a brand new just out of the box American Standard Precision (black with maple) & it absolutely sang. Lovely bass, so I've ordered 3TS with tort guard & maple board.