risingson

Fred Thomas is the guy who was with James Brown for years, he usually plays a Carvin 5 string. I should imagine the other bass player is 'Sweets' Sherrell. They both played when I saw him in 2004... RIP James!

[quote name='umph' post='493130' date='May 20 2009, 11:38 AM']just crank the upper mids on your amp[/quote] Yeh, not completely straight forward as that, I can get a decent sound out of my amp fine, but just after some help on getting a close enough tone. But ta anyways [quote]The Barber LTD is great, there's a silver edition in the classifieds right now, which sits between the standard (slightly more muddy, boosted midrange) and SR (more flat and transparent) in terms of tone. I'm really happy with my modded Bad Monkey, but I'm going to build myself an LTD silver some day, the schematic is on the Barber site.[/quote] Cheers for the info! Will definitely look into it.

I fear the joke was lost a bit on me anyway! A bit slow on the uptake this morning...

I've heard good things about this, but I wanted to know first hand from some users just how good. I'm putting together a small board and I want rid of my Tech 21 Bass XXL for something a little more subtle and less 'distortion-ish' (that pedal does not do subtle well, even if it sounds great). I'm basically after a bass sound like 'Rock and Roll Is Dead' by Lenny Kravitz, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqzzAyGl3zA). Any other help or suggestions on other pedals would also be welcomed! Cheers

[quote name='Kongo' post='492875' date='May 20 2009, 12:50 AM']I use Pro Steels so I'll add they do last a long time! Especially the Low-B which seems piano like for...well...forever! Elixir strings, whereas I don't like how they play or sound DO work. I had a set that came with my Ibanez BTB556 for almost a year and the tone was still there, they didn't die. I just didn't like how they started to "flake" in places where the coating started to come off or the ultra slippy feel of them...If I want slippy I'd buy flatwounds! They also don't sound like Trad strings either...they keep tone for ages yes, but they keep "Elixir tone" for ages...it's tough to explain.[/quote] That's fair enough, I've had a pack before and wasn't sold on them... but it was a while back now

I use Hi-Beams but to be honest, the brightness of the string doesn't last forever, especially if you're gigging regularly. I don't buy into all that coated protection stuff that Elixir do, the strings I have heard that have lasted the longest are either Hi-Beams from DR or D'Addario Pro Steels. The black stuff is skin, and that dead skin deadens the strings remarkably quickly. I'd recommend trying to clean off your strings after playing with a cloth, or buying some Stringlife, or both.

[quote name='bassace' post='492627' date='May 19 2009, 07:44 PM']Er, I don't think it was Charlie Parker but Ornette Coleman who played a plastic sax. But that was a 'proper' plastic sax - as opposed to a toy.[/quote] And on the third day, the Lord said; 'thou shalt not argue with Marcus Miller!!'

I guess you'd know...

[quote name='largo' post='492182' date='May 19 2009, 10:30 AM']It might seem like a lot of money, but £4K isn't that much these days.[/quote] 4 grand is a massive sum of cash, there is a lot of people at the moment who would kill for that sort of money! I wouldn't care even in the slightest about the resell value if I got a new bass, because I'd want to be able to keep that bass for life, i.e. I would be sure I wasn't being compulsive or anything. Money ain't throwaway ya know

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='492399' date='May 19 2009, 02:43 PM']Didn't those Casio guitars and MIDI horns cost a small fortune back in the '80s? If they'd grabbed instruments from a school's music department it would've proved their point a bit better.[/quote] We got given one a while ago, it was such a piece of trash that we left it inside an old piano and no one has touched it in about 6 or 7 years.

I couldn't believe this really, but check out what I've just found on Youtube! And presented by Jools Holland! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBmLa-TrRRo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBmLa-TrRRo[/url]

That's Mike Elizondo on bass and he's also the track's producer. He's produced for Dr. Dre, Eminem, Maroon 5, Natasha Beddingfield, 50 Cent, Nelly Furtado and Pink. He is a complete monster of a bass player, and a superb producer as well. It would be hard to say what particular bass Mike used on the track because of the amount of processing gone into the whole tune, but he often uses a 5 string Sadowsky purpose built for Darryl Jones in 1990, vintage Fender Jazz/Precision basses strung with both flats and rounds, and a Hofner violin bass, amongst others. He most often records either straight into an Avalon U5 or into a miked Ampeg B15.

Just having a look at your signature... bloody hell mate, that's quite a collection! Why don't you leave it for a while and not let the money burn a hole in your pocket? There is SO much more you can get with £4000 than just a bass. Not to say that you shouldn't get what you want of course, I just think that with the impressive gear you've already got, can there be much that is missing that you REALLY need still? Just my thoughts of course. If you were determined to get a new axe, then get a Sadowsky NYC or a Celinder

Fenders, along with Squiers, generally hold the biggest sales quota in music shops up and down the country, so any good music store to you locally should stock them. Lakland are somewhat more limited, being much less popular and a less familiar brand but they are picking up now in a lot of good music stores, and I'd really advise checking them out if possible! Hope that's some help.

Wow, there really is about £3000-3500 price difference between the MTD 4/535's and the Jap '75 reissue! If you want to save money then you've made a good choice! In terms of current Fender products, and being a U.S Jazz bass owner myself, the quality of instruments can be hit or miss at times. I have, however, enjoyed a lot of the USA model basses, but I'd recommend trying before you buy. Other Fender style basses I would recommend in your price range would be Lakland Skylines, I believe the quality and sound of these instruments IMO exceed that of most of Fender's current range. Aside from that, there are Sadowsky Metros, which although are not entirely vintage Fender sounding, are superbly well-built and for me personally, are sonic perfection personified. There is a lovely second hand Sadowsky RV-5 being sold in the 'For Sale' section of the site, and the seller I can tell you is a very nice chap indeed! Check it out here [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=48010"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=48010[/url]. At the price, this bass is a complete steal, I'd have it myself if I had the money!

If I'm not gigging then I'll make the trip!

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='489896' date='May 16 2009, 04:11 PM']Yes I did Jack, the bass is a genuine '64 Hofner and was brought in for a restoration job by one of Chris's customers. It needed a pickup rewinding and the electrics needed looking at. I plucked a few of the strings and it seemed to be a very resonant instrument. I didn't dare pick it up in that state though just incase something fell out and rolled under a cabinet. He does have plans in place to put the site back up. There's a lot going on in his mind at the moment and I think he's very worried that he will get so sucked into spending all his time managing the backlog orders and customer relationships that he won't have any time for his first love which is building the instruments (which is what actually brings in the money and makes the business viable). He doesn't want to delegate the building of instruments to anyone else because they don't have his experience or skill. I should have asked him why he doesn't get someone in to manage the customer side of things and leave him to deal with the instruments but I think he might feel there's no point if everything comes back to getting the basses out the door and maintaining a reputation for quality. I think he's in a very similar situation to Jon Shuker where he doesn't have a wide pool of skilled labour to draw on and he doesn't have the time to spend training someone up so ultimately he takes on 100% responsibility for producing the instruments.[/quote] I don't know anything about his business ideal at all, but if he could ever afford the overheads, then someone to manage his orders and the website that he has faith in and someone with a genuine love for his instruments would be a great asset. Promotion is always vital to business, and I know there is a worldwide interest in his marvelous basses, both on the continent and in the U.S. He's my favourite luthier next to Roger Sadowsky respectively. I'm hoping to hunt an Update model down in the summer when I'm over in Copenhagen very briefly so I can finally try one out! Liam

Celinder's have always made what I think would just be the perfect bass for me, I've always wanted a Jazz Update 5 in Daphne Blue. I must say that I do find it endlessly frustrating that he's taken down the website now, I went home every night after school and just used to be completely dazzled by the skill of his work.

[quote name='dood' post='488349' date='May 14 2009, 11:06 PM']I was looking at the 'isolated bass tracks' thread earlier.. - Anyone know if there are any Deacon bass lines floating around out there? I once heard large sections of Boh' Rap' in a studio broken down, that was pretty amazing, but I never had the chance to crank up the bass on its own.[/quote] If you have access to torrents, the multi-tracks for a boatload of Queen tracks are available. The basslines are all there! Even more amazing are the vocals, the arrangements that went into them I think rival the likes of the Beach Boys at times. Deacon is a simply fantastic bass player, so understated and yet completely melodic and brilliant. EDIT: perhaps I should have been a little more discreet about those multi-tracks... probably one to keep on the down low

I've had the pleasure of playing an old 1972 Jazz for a few gigs and it does sound terrific, but I'd say buying an old Fender is more of an investment. Prices for them are rocketing sky high, I remember looking round a couple of years ago and the price of a pre-CBS was the same price for an early to mid 70's model now... it's getting really out of hand. A lot of them sound great though, I think that once the wood has dried out over years and years, tone in Fenders vastly improves. I got the chance to play a '79 P-Bass and it sounded amazing, but the asking price was £2000... no thanks...

I think it's hugely obvious that Victor Wooten has a lot of soul, and I'm not even a massive fan.