Beedster

Wonderful, I'm going to dig out the DVD tonight. Shall I spell it out for you......

That was its RRP not what I sold it for by the way

I don't think I was referring to you specifically Spencer, no But absolutely, for a lot of people, certainly myself included, knowing that something is certain age or type changes how we respond to it. Visual information can contribute significantly to how we perceive sound, taste, a whole range of things. We can probably un-train this effect - I've tried to over the years - but to a degree we're all susceptible to it.

Was mine for a while, and whilst it was nice, it wasn't £3,500 and better than anyting up to that price point nice. I've played MIJs that were as good. Of course, this, and related psychological factors are always at play......

Buy through forums and not eBay or shops (shops can be dodgy also). It’s so much easier to establish the trustworthiness of a seller somewhere like BC than elsewhere

Absolutely this. I still rate the greatest compliment I’ve ever received as a bassist as ‘We didn’t notice how good your playing was until you stopped playing’

...and the neck is visibly at an angle to the body, more-so than the strong alignment with the neck would suggest (?), which in turn suggests that the whole thing is somewhat badly put together, which is not usually the case with anything MIJ?

No, because CS instruments are not guaranteed to be better instruments. Perhaps better materials and better finished, but that doesn't make for a better instrument. As you say, there was nothing special about the production of the holy grail pre-CBSs, and some of them were dogs as well (their dog-ness now offset by their value as antiques)

Absolutely, well put. This is why I build/use Fender-fit bitsas; I can simply source the bits that work best together at the same quality point but at a fraction of the price and risk of a CS instrument. The bass below cost less than £300 to build, but it sings, is extraordinarily versatile (helped by a Kiogon series/parallel circuit), and is a joy to play. It also allows me the non-Fender option of a Precision width neck on a Jazz Bass. Is it as good as a CS fretless jazz? I owned the(now ludicrously expensive) CS Jaco Relic, and this knocks the socks off it

Great outcome, hope it all works out, especially as it sounds like it's a great band

Ultimately it's why I now play Fender-alike bitsas that I put together by trial and error. I've played £5k basses by Fender that were crap and £250 basses by Fender (well Squier) that were outstanding. In the grand scheme of things, the most reliable of all Fender lines appear to be the old MIJ models. I've now got four basses, two Precisions and two Jazzes (fretted and fretless of each, although all four with Precision width necks), that cost in total about £1200 to put together and which I'd happily put up against most top-end Fenders, even CS and vintage. OK, I've had to hunt around for used Allparts/Warmoth bodies and necks, and have done a lot of trial and error - some neck/body combinations work, some don't, some PUPs seem to work on some basses, some don't - but I've got four great instruments. The reality is I think that you can't predict how well a bass is going to play and sound until you play it, and I guess there's not many QC departments in mass market manufacturers that get into that level of detail.

If every band/sports team who had one or more problematic members folded at the first sign of problems we'd be listening to Cliff & The Shadows and Match of the Day would be canceled every week. If it's worth working through, work through it. Having been in quite a few similar situations, the first step - one that it took me a long time to learn - is to really try to understand his point of view. We all tend to think that a band member who doesn't share our point of view is wrong. Likewise, a band member being being difficult tends to bring out equally challenging reactions in us. Doesn't make him wrong, just difficult. Also, I'll give you my gut response to the above. You're saying you can't reply to emails four evenings a week is not constructive, and in fact appears deliberately obstructive - I bet you'd reply quickly if one of them was offering you a '62 Strat for £300 Yep

For me it means knowing your drummer (and them knowing you) and both being able to feel and play to the same clock in any track. My old drummer was amazing, we'd sound as if we were playing to a click, but when we tried putting a click on tracks we'd recorded live, whilst we were both tight to each other, we would drift significantly ahead and behind a click at various points in songs. Took us a long time to get there however. Key for me was that he used to learn my parts and then play drum lines that complemented them, sometimes by filling the spaces I left, and kinda relieving the tension, and sometimes by leaving the same spaces and increasing it. Great when it works, but hard work and hours of playing were the key. It's certainly about more than timing.

SZ's lines were a big part of my getting back into bass in the early 2000's. I remember posting on here a few years back that he was a major influence (alongside Flea), and there being a few negative responses. OK, I get the derivative/plagiarism thing, but there was real musical novelty to both of them that IMO many people missed (and all music is derivative in one way or another). And anyway, derivative or not, Zender's timing and feel on many of the early Jamiroquai tracks were sublime

Yep, that's the easiest thing to do, it won;t change things that much. A few other things to think about. 1. Look at using EQ to address gain/volume, small cuts at certain frequencies can make a huge difference to the overall level. 2. What was your reference point for 'too loud'? You? A competent sound-guy? The audience? The guitarist/singer? All of these have different perspectives. Show me a guitarist who doesn't think the bass should turn down a little and I'll eat my trousers. Sound-guys/audience on the other hand tend to be more objective (although not always). Also 'too loud' can be a genre/taste thing as much as a statement of fact (bass is front and centre in some genres, background thump in others). Did you record the gig, might help you get an objective view? 3. In relation to the above, also think about where the rig was on the stage, specifically its proximity to other musicians/PA etc? The sound on stage can be very zonal, with some lucky audience/band members receiving viscera modifying bass tone with other getting none at all. 4. The Powerhouse 2x10 is also a very punchy cab, which IME cuts through way more than an equivalent 1x15. Bottom line however is that you need to rehearse with the same rig you're going to gig and get the balance in rehearsal to a point that the whole band are happy, otherwise you can waste whole gigs trying to get the right tone/volume. And just for the record, a bass cannot be too loud

As above, I've been lugging my Mesa rig, all-tube 200w head with two 2x10s to rehearsals for a while, and having got fed up of the leg work decided to use my Avalon into the PA. However, there was an Ashdown 15" combo that I thought I'd try first, and it sounded absolutely spot on from the moment I plugged in, punchy as hell and lovely sweet tone for a Precision with heavy flats. Having checked them on eBay they go for a couple of hundred quid? I asked the guy at the studio about it and he said that everyone tries to buy it off him but it's going nowhere! I just I don't get it? No idea why I posted really