chris_b

I'd start with a better (good quality) pickup. That will be 90% of a good sound if you get the right one. Evaluate one change at a time. Onboard pre amps are OK, but they are expensive and aren't always better than a passive set up. I have a passive PJ, with custom wound Seymour Duncan pickups, which sounds better than most active basses I've owned.

My #1 and backup gear have remained the same since 2019. A couple of amps and a bass have come and gone, but nothing was worth keeping. Even so, I guess that excludes me from the program.

Actually Pre-CBS Fenders had a good reputation and were highly sought after almost as soon as CBS bought the company and started to make their cuts and production changes. Of course they weren't all great instruments, but the better Pre-CBS basses have mostly found their way into studio work via the A list session players. Those guys don't use any old basses. They have their pick of the best sounding basses so there must be something in the "myth".

No comfort intended, just relating the relative situation. 60 years ago you had to pay big prices. These days you don't. The many great alternatives around these days is the difference.

I remember when a Precision bass was 122 gns. That's what I paid in 1969. The only problem. . . . in 2023 money that is £1976.83 and a Jazz bass was about £2336.70. That was for bog-standard burst. Custom colours were extra. Basses are not more expensive than they were. The difference is these days you can buy a great bass for a few hundred pounds and you couldn't do that 60 years ago.

All AI really has to do is come up with another Strat and Precision. Job done.

How can we say what something is worth. We don't know the running costs of the factory, staff costs, raw materials etc etc. Everything is priced in relation to everything else. If it's too expensive then it won't sell. If a company prices a product then they expect it to sell at that price. All we can say is what our budget is, and what we would pay.

I had a bass, in a case, sent over from Denmark. The whole thing was in so much bubble wrap it could have bounced. It was fine.

Our singer suggested Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This and Tainted Love. I flinched, but he said, just give it a go. We did, and the audience reaction kept them in the set for several years. That's the the gig. Getting a reaction like that never gets old.

Set lists are always a compromise and we don't always get our own way, so most of us are playing a few songs we'd rather not. My view is that if we give any song less than our best then we're failing ourselves, the band and the audience. It doesn't hurt to spend 5 mins giving a bad song your best playing. I've spent nearly 40 years gigging in bands via personal recommendation. That's because I give every song 101%, even the ones I'd rather not be playing.

The tuners on my Framus Star bass were one of the first things to break. They were plastic buttons on a metal shaft and the plastic broke off in no time at all. I replaced them with tuners bought at a local shop. They worked but never looked right.

But you can ask Mark to contact the buyer and give them your number.

If anyone is bored playing bass they should be looking at themselves and then the band. If it's a cover band, and it's a successful cover band, I'll play anything the audience wants to hear. That's the gig. My only requirement is that we do it well. For all other bands I'll express an opinion, but as I'm usually with good players I can enjoy most songs for what the guys are playing. I'll enjoy anything if I'm with a good drummer.

I've never played a song that didn't work with fingers. I have tried to play with a pick, there is one in my pocket at this very moment, but I have never got close to good enough to think about using it in a band.

I have no recollection how I met up with this lot, but in the mid 70's I was in a band who played working men's clubs around west London, and some Irish clubs. They opened with Spanish Eyes and went down hill from there. The band leader/organist only knew 3 chords and he played them in every song! Every gig was painful, awful and embarrassingly bad. We even had a band uniform, with a bow tie, which Ii still have!! The only upside was very cheap Guinness. Even after all these years, the thought of that band and those gigs is making me feel queezy!

Is this countering a problem you have with your basses ? Or just insurance. Is fret wear a thing anymore? I wore the frets out on my 68 Precision bass in less than 4 years, but that was not a good time for Fender quality. I haven't seen any modern built bass with significant fret wear. The cheap solution is to lower the action and play with a lighter touch.

IMO leaning into the beat and playing behind the beat work on gigs but correct timing, playing on the beat, is what I'd prefer to hear on a recording.

Fabulous Thunderbirds Sly and the Family Stone Canned Heat Elmore James

When I had a Two10S I also ran it with a One10. A fantastic sounding 310 and an easy load in/out.

Would you drive your car with the tyres half inflated or fully inflated? You'll get from A to B either way, but which is best?

My band leaders let me get on with it, but if they expressed a hard preference then, as long as it doesn't involve spending money, I'd go with it. I have basses strung with flats and rounds. I don't mind playing either.

Some individuals in the audience will know stuff about the bass (I regularly get people come up and ask about 5 string basses), and I think most of them will know something has changed if we stop playing in the middle of a song, but wouldn't bet they'll have any idea what just happened!

I haven't researched it, but Danlelectro had the 6 string baritone guitar from the 50's, so he might have picked up on the idea from them.

I had Burns Black Nylon flats on my old Framus in the 60's. They had a great feel and sound. Looked cool too.

I believe the first commercially available roundwounds were made by Rotosound circa 1966, for John Entwistle. He wanted a more guitar like sound and along with the development of Marshall amps and 412 stacks, was in a perpetual battle for sound and volume with Pete Townsend.