Dr.Dave

[quote name='beerdragon' post='406466' date='Feb 11 2009, 03:34 PM']i didn't know you could go that high up the neck. [/quote] Get a taxi - that's what I do !! You're not Flea , he's not Beerdragon. Get to know the tunes and go be yourself. If you don't feel confident ....well , you're on a stage. Be an actor. Pretend to be someone who's confident. If you do that long enough you will be. Oh - and turn it up. Nobody here will talk to you again if you don't

I'm with Ross. Good to try new tunings etc and for the sake of a different nut it can all go back to normal painlessly should it not work out. Play about and see what works for you. No reason I can see to call this one as a 'better' or 'worse' - just an option.

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='410320' date='Feb 15 2009, 07:14 PM']Please sir, I have ticket number 8 - what did I win? [/quote] A Noel Gallagher baseball cap , as I remember

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='410259' date='Feb 15 2009, 06:20 PM']It was nice hearing my fretless being played by people who play the fretless properly. A real eye-opener.[/quote] Sitting having a noodle on that I realised why 'tea leaves' get the urge !!! My fave bit of kit of the day by a country mile. Always a plez to meet BCers old and new , many thanks to all who organised the day. Excellent use of a Sunday afternoon even though I got bugger all in the raffle!!!

You walked the walk , Al, - f****ing good effort - and I think that entitles you to talk the talk with the band re. your concerns. My guess is they'll be pretty receptive to a bloke who wants to play the songs with a bit more thought and may not feel they have to wing it so much to lift things. If you've walked straight into that , and joined in with the winging as well as shown what you can do in a week , they'd be dumb not to listen.

Well - story rather than an opinion. I was a dyed in the wool Fender head but several years ago found myself also in the possession of a Status graphite necked Energy and a 2 band EQ Stingray. Very fine basses they were too. I liked the 'precision put right'ness of the Ray and the modern playability of the Status. Sometime later I decided to get Jon Shuker to build me a bass that would , in a sense , do the job of both. It's more of a posh, lightweight Ray than a Status but has the 'moderness' of tone. As a result I sold the others. Not that long afterwards I bought another Status - I've never felt the need to buy another Ray. Take from that what you will. Opinion - if you want something a lot different to the Fender , buy a Status. If you want to feel you're safely at home - buy the Ray.

Just realised we're doing both bands tonight , inc the ZZ show , in Bradford - so when I turn up tomorrow don't be alarmed by my probable leprosy face !! It's only the false beard glue (takes about 2 days to get off) and it's not catching!!!

[quote name='sixshooter' post='408761' date='Feb 13 2009, 04:25 PM']Before [attachment=20250:Basses_f...sale_002.jpg] After [attachment=20251:DSC02345.JPG] Just my opinion but I prefer my 59 how it looks now than before when it was minus paint. My feelings are the same about that Jazz, nice looking Bass but somehow it looks like someone decided to "relic it" in a very unnatural way. With a bit of careful restoration it could look even nicer![/quote] I'm guessing (from the thumb print) but I take it the 'arm wear' etc was part of the restoration rather than natural wear since a complete re-finish. I've never seen that before (to my knowledge - I probably have and not known it). Very interesting. I agree it looks better than it did sans paint.

There's mojo and there's damage , I think. In this case my very humble opinion is the amount of finish loss would detract from it's desirablilty and therefore it's value. Current climate - ignoring the telephone numbers at vintage and rare - if I'd saved £1500 to get the ideal 73 Jazz for me and had def. got to have one .......I'd try for £850 to £900 and be satisfied happy if I got it for a few quid either side of a grand. Under those circs I think I'd be tempted to wait and spend the lot on one less battered. Other hypothetical opinions are available. If seller and buyer are happy that's all that matters. Something that's not hypothetical - several years ago I managed £1800 on a 69 Jazz that was vandalised compared to this. Grateful as I was I thought whoever bought it (commission sale through V and R) was a fool. He'd have done a lot better , I feel , if Ebay and Basschat had been around then. I'd bought it only a few months earlier for £600.

I can only speak for fretted versions - and then only from a couple of shop trials. I found them very comfy to play with some very useable and good , slightly 'different' sounds. This isn't hindsight but I remember at the time thinking to myself that a fretless version would be really good. Beauty remains in the eye of the beholder , and the look is certainly a bit 'marmite'. I quite like it. The odd body shape wasn't a problem to me for playing purposes though. At a price approaching half what this ebayer's wanting (IMHO) - why not be a little different.

I've just got myself a headstock decal from a UK ebay source. It's of as high a quality as I've seen and superbly packaged with clear instructions. It was £6 inc postage. The guy is wary of my posting links to his website which has pics of his wares which is fair enough - but if anyone's interested in doing up their basses with such products PM me and I'll give you the links. BTW - my opinion of anyone using products such as these to try and scam someone else into buying a fake is lower than a Yorkshire Terrier's bollocks. I'm sure most of us around here are decent enough to use these things for cosmetic reasons re. their own gear and should they decide to sell on will be 100% accurate in their descriptions of what they're selling. I would hate anyone looking here to abuse my faith in their honesty.

Felt sure I was having my door kicked down when half a ton of badass came crashing through my letter box. Nice shiny pickguard too. Many thanks Oli - well pleased with the stuff.

Steve - if you go a few yards 'uphill' at the side of the Boardwalk there's a turning which takes you right round the back of the venue where it's safe to park just outside a pair of steel gates which are locked. The dressing rooms have a firedoor just outside and a large platform/fore escape (where those of us that way inclined go for a fag) and you can see your cars from there right below you.

Here's one from the gear porn forum - first search result only so maybe there's more. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8785&hl=guild"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8785&hl=guild[/url] I think the ebay one is expensive too.

Opinions!!!!!!! You'll not get many of those round these parts I've always like the old Trace Elliot dual compressor pedal. You can find them on ebay for around 50 brick I should think. Pretty sure they don't make them new anymore.

I find it quite natural....... most of the time. One interesting thing to try - playing and singing to songs by other singing bass players. Phil Lynott springs to mind. A lot of the stuff , you can tell the guy had to fit both together and changed both accordingly from what he'd probably play or sing if he'd only one job to do. The hardest one I do is for the t*i*u*e band (!!!!) - Cheap Sunglasses by ZZ Top. The bass line is a punctuating B flat followed by a little riff on G and F - keeps repeating through the verse. I cracked the vocal in the end by writing out the lyrics and highlighting the word I should sing on the B flat. I sang it from this written lyric sheet while playing and eventually I got it. 'When you WAKE up in the morning and the LIGHT hurts your head The FIRST thing you do when you GET up out of bed ' etc etc Forefinger/first fret/A string everytime I sing the word. Long way to reach on the EpiEx , I can tell you! Job done. You asked how to do it and that's how for me.

We were doing the Clone Blues fest a couple of years back and buggered off for a pint to get out of the way - certain the guitar player we saw was Lee Wharton , having watched that vid. He was very , very good - as were the rest of the 4 piece band. Not sure if Norman Helm was the bass player though , think not.

Alan , that's ferkin brilliant news - you've sounded so dischuffed of late. What sort of material ??

God , yes - if it feels right you've cracked it. Sounding good acoustically is a good sign of a class instrument too. If they 'speak' unplugged you know you're on a winner. Honestly , I'd spend some time with it as it is , matey , before you potentially fix something that's probably not broken.

Andy - I hate to say it ,mate, but if you couldn't get such a superb instrument to make a sound close to the one you're looking for with whatever strings were on it in the shop , I doubt you ever will. If you love it - put a set of your regular brand strings on and find sounds you like that it will do. Sure there'll be no shortage of them in something of that build quality.

[quote name='joe_bass' post='402446' date='Feb 6 2009, 10:16 PM']Wow that's a good price for an all original bar the scratch plate isn't it?![/quote] I think it's a realistic price. There's a lot of 70's basses around for sale at silly money and I don't know how folk expect to sell them. Congrats - markyl. You must be well pleased. I also reckon your financial ideas were sound so no need to convince yourself of anything. Enjoy playing your sound investment.

Thanks all - I like Rich's idea esp. because there's a really good model shop about a mile away from me. I know they do all sorts for scratch builders as well as kits. Don't know why I didn't think of it myself.

I know you can buy white plastic rod from places like Stew mac but it'll take forever to come and cost 3 times it's value in postage. I want to make new side dot markers for a fenderish fretless and wondered if anyone can think of anything available from local shops that might do the same job.