diskwave

I'll take technique and experience over just about any tech/materials, all day long. For eg, when I started playing P basses 45 years ago I couldnt get them to work at all... mushy, boomy, indestinct..I couldn't make it work. I play a VM P bass now with its stock PU and I can make it punch and grind like crazy. Technique/experience.

Dont know about killer but the walnut CV 70's P bass I bought two years ago and tried a couple of times only, is back in its delivery box. Superb instrument but I dont really need it and it makes sense to keep it mint. I cant sell it tho as they are still making the darn things. Have to wait till they drop the line I guess.

Interesting thread. Thing is there's backing vox where you all sing in the same key and then theres Harmony singing.. two different animals.

Same here tbh. . For me the Ray killed the P bass dead. In 1977 I got an early one and played it all thru the 80's.

Even it wasnt a scam and they were a nice ole pairing...Id still be feeling weird owning it for such a low amount.

Very good indeed and that 70's vibe is cool as heck. Reckon the name did for them. Pity.

Good grief. Ive had a few over the years and there's nout any of them can do that for 250 quid my CV 70 cant do better.

Recording is a very precise animal and not many can do it well. Some of the most famous bands in history arent all playing on their best recorded tunes. Theres no easy answer. I found out the hard way many years ago that Im simply not quick enough and not precise enough...I can read a chart but Ive always had a bad habit of going off piste so to speak much to the annoyance of everyone else.

Ive 'watched' hundreds of bands, big, large, local, amateurish, great, crap....etc over the decades and in my mind there are two basic generic bass tones. A generic lowish thud and the Jaco burp. Im not much of a Jaco technician and the P bass drone if you will suits literally everything I play...ha I can even manage Durans "Rio" without sounding too dull and boring, suffice to say not one single musician in 45 yrs has said... 'That Fender bass sounds awful mate, got one of those whizz banger models?, Thats what we need'...Not once. Anyway getting this thread back on track. Reading some of the above. Whether the "Iconic" P bass is any good or not Ive simply noticed not many are for sale...which must be telling us something.

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Goodness your brave. If the game starts going the wrong way get yourselves and the gear outta there asap.

What sounds good at home on ur boom box or on the radio wont always sound good live. Just noticed ..'Call Me' above. Thats the type of thing that works live, well written, danceable and drives hard. Its a very tricky thing putting together a really good set which keeps people entertained... been there a million times and it never got any easier with the years. Its that thing when u look out and the crowd are totally ignoring you then that tune has to go. You gotta be ruthless which can be painful when ur fav gets the chop.

Here too. Have to admit after decades of playing them and a few other types which didn't last long, ... a P bass just feels like an old pair of shoes.. it just fits so well... so darn easy to make work whatever Im asked to play.

Ok. Id say there are way more Jazzes and derivates of, than P basses for sale at any one time, yet I get the sense that J's are more popular which would mean more peeps would hang on to them, or maybe not.

Yes I know another P bass thread, however I dont want to know what they're like, make comparisons etc dont need to, played them for years. Seems there are so many brands and styles out there yet you look in the classifieds and there are so few P basses for sale, yet the vibe I get, especially around here is that they are just not that popular, you have to search high and low to find one. Just got me thinking.

Agree and mines a P bass. If have to twiddle even one little control half a cent then a bass is no good to me at all, probably comes from my cello playing where it literally is all in the hands and technique. Remember seeing Steely Span a while back (great band) and watching the bassist twiddling his J bass all night long, he might as well have been playing a scaffolding plank with some twine nailed on it for all the good it did. Anyway I bought my Squire CV brand new off the internet, superb bass, good as or better than any of the Fenders Ive owned.

Absolutely no idea whats going here but Im thoroughly enjoying seeing username randomly popping up across this illustrious site. Cheers.👍

I'll take Freddie Washington over MM or Sir King, any day in the slap tone department. . Whether or not Mr S is a musician or not, (pretty sure hes not), I knew this when I was a kid. You play maple and it feels harder, colder "clangier" than RW. You play RW and it feels warmer, nicer if you like. And dont underestimate the look. Darker things tend in the main to make us feel better.. cozier if you will. If all adds up.

I said those very words over on TB...They did not like it. Its all very silly.

Luthiers "dont care less", most are passionate about their work but it can get a bit silly as in the statement from Mr Sadowsky. Ive learnt in 45 years of playing bass that it really is in the fingers. A recent playback from a thing I did on a naff ole Squire P bass with dead flats, and the tone coming out thru the PA was tight..mid punchy, round, fat and extremely satisfying. I doubt there was a punter in the house who's emotions werent tugged by the experience.

I cant help thinking modern electrical instrument websites such as our illustrious BC have muddied the waters so much everyone has lost sight of the primary issue of being a musician, that of .... "Practise and study.". I dabble on the cello and playing a stringed instrument is all about practise, study and technique and absolutely not, what type of materials might be used. In fact when you go to buy or upgrade your stringed instrument for example, you dont look at the makers label, you think about how it looks, feels and sounds..It matters not a jot who made it. It boggles the mind that people involved in bass go on about this and that... At the end of the day its just bass. Think about that. Bass.

Unless the bassline is up front carrying the song, ie... 'A Forest' etc....the crowd wont notice anything you do if your playing a supportive role... so as long as you hit the roots correctly everything else is just fun.

Probably an original 1975 natural ash RW P bass. Light, chunky neck and punchy. Probably now owned by someone on this very site ...who knows. but they'll know it if they have it.

Wasn't this thread on TB?

That first vid is just lovely. Reminds me of France, sat in a sunny square somewhere with a nice glass of red watching the world go by.