Beedster

Maple, plus a chunky neck, do part way there already mate (and yes, I totally agree re boards despite the naysayers)

So this begs the question of the differences between a Jazz SC and a 51 SC, they’re in a similar point on the string, at least the front Jazz PUP?

OK, does anyone here speak Nordstrand, i think I need an interpreter

Ha ha, thanks Cameron, that had probably done the job, although I have a sneaking suspicion they’re not going to be at the low end of the price spectrum

Thanks Andy, yeh that's my sense, I'm wondering whether the neck PUP of the Jazz will get as grunty as a '51 when pushed, or perhaps whether there are any P-PUPs that'll get me close to the tone? I've got a pair of '80's DiMarzios in my Jazz, and they don't, at least to my ear?

Folks Looking at a nice new musical venture and something I've been wanting to do with the guys in question for a while. Kind of a tribute act, but perhaps more of a 'various songs in the style of' band really. Ideally I'd be looking at a 51' to emulate the rather special tone the bassist gets, which having listened at length, really is quite different to the tone of my Precision, even when it's driven to hell through my SVT-II. So if I want that gnarly '51 single-coil tone, without buying a '51, what's the most likely contender? I'm guessing front PUP of a Jazz, but I was wondering whether there are other options? Cheers C

Have to say that if owned a music store and a guy brought back a four year old amp, I'd tell him where to go also! Sorry, but amps aren't TVs, they get moved around, dropped, stuff spilled on them, plugged into dodgy power supplies, pushed to their limits. I think it would have been outstanding to the point of madness (the type of madness that put's stores out of business) if they'd taken in back

I think there's two sides to this. There's a lot of talk about the arts 'dying out' as if one generation and one event have the power to destroy a definitive aspect of human culture, not only going back several tens of thousands of years, but with what i think the anthropologists describe as cultural universality, that is arts emerged out of the emergent biology of human brains not by being developed and exported by a specific culture. In short, humans are hard-wired to not just enjoy, but need to be involved in music - either listening or performing - and to be engaging with other people as they do so. I'm an optimistic for sure, but I have some degree of evidence to back it up The other side however is the current business model in the arts and the current economy. The current business model, which has improved I think in some sectors, is still one in which about 98% of the money is owned by about 2% of the performers and organisations (yes I made that up before you ask, but it's ball park), so yes, like sport, I hope that business model is changed by Covid 19. I say this with all respect to the people here and elsewhere who make a living out of playing and/or recording music.

I think they will, although in a revised form (or at least, they will be replaced). Live music was struggling anyway, but Covid-19 has made many more people appreciate the value of real as opposed to virtual media. Once it's all over, we might see a revival of interesting in live music and live arts generally

You think live music is bad, come and see my lot sometime, it'll confirm it for you

All good and fair points BRX, I just work the algorithms until things get more and more obscure. Re the absence of filters and in music and mediocrity, I was bought up in the 60's, 70's and 80's, and era when even the music that made it through the extensive music industry filters was largely mediocre, so I'm not sure I agree. But it's all subjective I was watching a TV show with the kids the other day, and a song played. My eldest daughter said "Daddy, is this your band" because, no joke, it sounded like our band, and the singer could have been Robbie. So, I did it the hard way (could have used an app), typed the lyrics of the chorus into Google, and up come The White Buffalo. Funnily enough, the song in question bored me very quickly, but some of his other stuff, located in a curious artistic space between Tom Waits and Glen Campbell, is glorious. I'd likely never have found it without the new democracy (IIRC a lot of his early stuff was self recorded & promoted) or the information tech that allowed me to simply enter his lyrics into Google. I heard a track in 1978 by The Motors, it was a B-side, and it took me 6-months of singing it badly to people for me to find out who it was, by which time the single had been and gone and, given the B-side wasn't on an album, was not likely to cross my path again. Luckily a mate had the single so I got the bus to his house with my cassette recorder, put the mic in front of his speaker, and pressed record. There's some magic in how hard music was to get in those days, especially if you were skint, but I think it's healthier today

And I'm not just talking about finding newly produced music, I've discovered bands form the 70's and 80's I'd probably not have found otherwise

And subjective, as you suggest

Agree 100%

Really, I find it so easy to find new music compared to even 20 years ago. How did you find Airbag? You did a Google search. Try finding a similar band in 1980, unless they were in the print press, and most weren't, no go. And nearly all music apps etc have great algorithms to introduce you to new music, it's like Xmas every day as far as I'm concerned. And if you think the industry is exploitative now, you should have been in it in 1980-1990 when I was. Trust me, it's a whole lot easier and better now. Not perfect by any means, but way better in nearly every respect (production values being one big exception perhaps)

Agreed Agreed x100, I mentioned this in another thread and someone suggested I was not getting it. Possibly, but just in the same sense that something being old doesn't make it bad, something being new doesn't make it good either. Horse/courses, YMMV etc

I doubt there's ever been a better time for music, it's easier to make and easier to listen to than ever. And of course, there's even more of it (and modern tech allows us to discover stuff from the past we'd otherwise never have come across)! OK, music production and culture is different to how it used to be, but they'd have been saying that in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 etc

Those Indonesian Squiers and their subtle tone controls eh

I quite enjoyed it, and I thought your clarification re not chopping up the child was well made. Either way, this thread has turned philosophic, and any excuse to bring Eric in works for me

Which is what this forum should be doing (and often does of course). Rhetoric has its place, as does experience and opinion, but it's a decent discussion/debate with good evidence - albeit alongside opinion and experience - that's required on these topics. As any decent neuroscientist will tell you, when the brain has learned something new, it experiences and processes information related to that learning differently. Learning about sound, acoustics, tone, etc is a great way to process those forms of information in a different way. Different doesn't mean better of course, but it gives you options. And of course, this new learning means you can justify more - albeit different - gear

The HH VS was my first bass amp in about '85, coupled with a Westone Thunder 1 and a cab that doesn't spiring to memory. Many happy memories.

One should never miss the opportunity to add some Python

Think you answered your own question there Stew Personally I'm very glad Bill does keep returning to these threads

Being a musician today is so much easier that 30/40 years ago, both in terms of availability and range of relatively inexpensive but good quality equipment and the equivalent in terms of learning tech and resources. If I wanted to lean a bassline in 1980 I had to get my unplayable Woolworth Bass, tune it for about 20 minutes, then play the track I wanted to learn at really low resolution on my cassette player (often having had to record it opportunistically from the radio using the cassette player's in-built mic), and then play all of this through a bass 'combo' that turned the mud coming out of the bass circuit into sludge. And that lot probably cost me the same as a decent Squier, PJB combo and bass training app would cost me today

It's interesting, I think of CD as being very high on detail, hi-fi and clean (digital in the technical and subjective sense), whilst tape is lower on detail but has warmth and, perhaps, a slightly more 'acoustic' feel (analog in technical and subjective sense). For me all tube amps are the best of both worlds, the detail of the former, the warmth of the latter Please note that it was not easy to write the above without using the word 'heft'