Bassassin

Learned & played a Quo song or two when I started, age 16, wasn't much of a fan but my guitar playing mates were. I suppose it was reasonable training in keeping time playing a root note 12 bar, but I can't say it exactly held my attention or inspired me as a bassist. Don't know if it's true but I do remember reading that Alan Lancaster didn't play on Quo's recordings because he, erm, couldn't keep good time.

Don't worry, it'll be up on Ebay soon. For a grand, obviously. (Before anyone asks - IT WASN'T ME!!!)

I don't think a band can - or should - be a democracy. You put it together, you know what you want & have a particular vision for the band - and you are able to very clearly articulate in this thread what that is, how it will work & why trying to change it weakens it & makes the band less marketable. I think you need to explain it to your bandmates in the same way & remind them (diplomatically is probably best!) whose idea the band was in the first place! Not sure, but it sounds like it's predominantly the singer trying to pull it away from your original concept - if so & she can't be talked round, you might have to accept that she's not the right singer, no matter how good/experienced she is.

I was maybe thinking of 'plum juice'.

Am I correct in assuming that when you say 'tomato juice', that's a polite metaphor on a family-friendly forum?

Afraid I don't know too much about Ferrnandes specifically but this looks to be a nice example, all looks original and in cosmetically good condition, apart from some slightly manky looking metalwork. These are considered replica-standard instruments alongside Tokai, ESP & other high-end 80s Japanese brands - and price-wise it looks good, certainly when compared to JV Squiers & such from the same era. One thing I'm not a huge fan of is the visible wiring channel between the control & pickup route when the scratchplate's removed - that's an odd thing to see on a bass with correct neck pickup routing & I'd wonder if that's original. The seller also mentions the bridge pickup being 'weak' - without any more detail it's hard to know what that issue might be or how weak the output is. Had a quick look at the Fernandes catalogue archive & I think it's an FJB-65 - page 11 in this 1980 catalogue: http://fernandes-cojp.check-xserver.jp/fer_wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/1980.pdf Text is Japanese but the images appear to show DiMarzio-style split coil pickups & the push/pull controls.

Looks like a nicely done, great-looking & well-specified bitsa. No idea how high the price will go, but at the moment it's £200 - which is about the value of the pickups & bridge alone. I'd definitely keep an eye on it.

Nice - but waaay too tasteful for the likes of me!

I like that a lot. Interesting & unusual to see a reverse P on a P/J and I'm sufficiently stuck in the 70s to really like the cream covers on the DiMarzios. Haven't seen the blue but that green's awesome! Think I like it because it's Triumph Roulette Green!

That laminated front's really unusal & eye-catching - why the hell would someone wreck it by banging a load of drawing pins into it?

Apropos of nothing really, but it's interesting to me that the players you mention there - Townshend, Marr, Summers, Edge, Lifeson - are all high on my list of guitarists who have really made me sit up & listen, whether I particularly like their bands/music or not. And it's all more to do with what they bring to the songs, rather than solos. Lifeson would be in my top 3 favourite guitarists and he is an incredibly lyrical, tasteful & to my ears, original soloist - but I'm more inspired & engaged by the colour & texture he contributes to the music as a whole.

Daring colour for dear old Fender. Although they missed a trick not calling it P Green.

I've had a bunch of Indian-made Sunn Mustang Strats, never had a bass but I imagine the quality's similar. The guitars were actually very good, some cheap hardware (poor tuners & bridge blocks made of crumbly zinc alloy) being the real letdowns. Otherwise nice solid timber (not ply) bodies & quality fretwork. Later ones had a changed headstock shape & different logos and apparently aren't as good - not sure but I don't think those are Indian-made. Did a bit of reading about them & it seems the Sunn brand was UK/EU only, in other territories they were sold as 'Squier II' and command higher s/h prices than the Sunns. Late 80s/early 90s Indian-made Encores appear to be the same instruments & are quite well regarded. Pickups on this one could be DiMarzio DP127s. If so they'll have red/black/green/white wires.

Yeah. It really is who can go widdly-widdly-weeee the fastest. I think we already knew that anyway.

I've always found it interesting that people seem to assume that the reason players such as Dave Edge don't play 'proper' solos all over songs is because they can't. From my own perspective as a composer, I don't dislike traditional solos but more often than not they're little more than gap-fillers, & I prefer to do something that is (to me at least) more interesting or creative. The guitarist in my last band (who had no interest in actually contributing to songwriting) occasionally expressed frustration that our songs didn't give him more opportunities to solo - but if a song doesn't need a solo then it doesn't get a solo!

This is one of those one of those nonsensical questions to which I normally respond by pointing out it's art, not a bloody competition. Prince was without question an incredibly talented, versatile, gifted & prolific musician but my personal issue is that I don't happen to particularly like anything I've ever heard by him - which given his success over a long career is quite a lot. I'd say someone's greatness as a musician has to be proportionate to the impact they've had on music as a whole, which broadly means how they've influenced & changed the playing of those musicians who come after them. I think you'd be hard-pushed to point to a current guitar 'great' & go - that's a clear Prince influence right there. There are probably a lot more composers & songwriters directly influenced by him but that can't qualify him as 'greatest guitar player'. The whole 'best guitarist' thing always seems terribly reductive, it seldom amounts to any more than who somebody's decided is best at going widdly-widdly-weeee with a guitar. And so it is with this guy's Prince article - if you doubt he's the GREATEST EVAAR, just listen to him playing a solo, written by someone else. There are guitar players who've been the catalyst for & shaped the sound of entire genres of music - for example there's not a metal band on Earth which doesn't owe a debt, directly or indirectly, to Tony Iommi. Not sure he's on many 'greatest ever' lists - but plenty he's influenced will be.

This is some old Vintage brand metal style bass that someone's taken a tenon saw to. Poor thing, it was ugly to start with and they haven't exactly helped.

You'd definitely need to look at it in person. I guess this explains why it's £200+ less than the typical Ebay grifter price!

I'd say yes it is - it looks to be in very good, original & unmolested order & JVs (admittedly usually Ps) tend to be listed in 4 figures these days, and typically not as clean as this one. The 'Squier' word always seems to trigger a bit of sniffy indignation, even when attached to high-quality, sought-after & collectable instruments. But these will almost certainly continue to appreciate and to be base, you could make a couple of hundred from this one just by buying it & flipping it. Which is probably what someone (not me) will do. Regarding quality as an absolute, realistically you could buy a £100 Harley Benton & with a bit of fettling & inexpensive upgrading make it play as well & sound as good as a JV, or any other standard J type. But that's not the point, as far as I can tell.

All sound pretty much the same to me, listening on decent studio headphones. Maybe as much to do with the messy, heavy handed stunt-bass playing, where he's so focused on I'M SO FAAAAAAST MUM!!! that there's no opportunity to hear individual notes, never mind tone. Oh god, he's started slapping now, enough of this awful w@nk. So no, nothing there to persuade me that tone's not 99.99999% pickups, strings, electronics & technique. Ugly, showy clattering is ugly, showy clattering, whatever the material.

Would have sent you there anyway! So, what's this Aria, then?

Post a pic if you can - not familiar with an 'Image'. Good source of APII info & knowledgeable people here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AriaProII

Don't know my low-end Squiers well enough to be sure but would any Fender/Squier with a maple board be glued-on, rather than have a one-piece neck with skunk stripe? Tuners look too nice for an Affinity-level Squier. Looks like a half-decent bitsa with a sticker to me. About £150's worth.

Interesting old 60s Kawai he's playing in the pic. Not what you'd expect.

I think it's certainly 60s MIJ, bear in mind in seller-speak everything 60s MIJ is Teisco!