Beedster

Yep, they were designed to intimidate as much as to operate. It works. When we saw the final flight, the image that came to mind as I watched it bank towards the shoreline was of the battle dragons in the Lord of the Rings movies, it really is a very ominous shape in flight, and provokes some fairly primeval emotions 🦅

...and I have to say big thanks to Rob at Status, who's helping my identify what might, or might not be, a very slight issue with the electrics on this

Yep, this is a very large instrument, and yes, I get the draw of physicality, it's in part why I love to play upright 👍 And the new-year sale? Who knows, if I like it it'll stay, if I don't, or I can't tame it, it might go. It's certainly going to be around for the duration of the current project. Time will tell........... 🤔

Agree with all of that 👍 First thing I noticed was the PUP cover also. I wonder if - given the physicality of JE's playing - it simply reduced the chances of him damaging the PUP during a set. This would be kinda ironic given that the rest of the rhythm section were doing just the opposite at many gigs, but then JE was of a very different type to Moon and Townsend...... 🤔

I wonder what the dudes over at Talkbass are making of this thread 😁

There's a lot of truth there also, was certainly the case when I had a P-Retro, just allowed me to always have the core Precision tone that was in my head, with small tweaks - usually in the mids - for the environment 👍

I've always assumed that's the case 👍

Passive sometimes, active others, depends on the music, and just occasionally the band/venue. But mostly the music 👍

......well, it's an extremely good instrument for Jazz, extremely low action allowing greater technical ambition (for me anyway), huge tonal variety, and an audio range more associated with ERBs. Just not what I bought it for

I did a trial of bows valued up to around £1500 with Caswells and ended up buying a £300 model that felt best of them all to me

We saw the final flight of the Vulcan a few years back. Several thousand people rammed onto a cold beach in north Kent. People were tracking the flight on their phones, and it suddenly went quiet. Everyone looked left to see an ominous - almost buzzard like - shape baking over the Thames estuary. It flew towards us and banked left showing the crowd the awesome silhouette/profile (and bomb doors). The entire crowd was silent, still, and tense until it had flown another 20 second or so, allowing us to experience the blast of the engines. At that moment, no joke or exaggeration, several thousand people were struggling to hold it together, there were Dad's trying to pretend not to cry to their kids, kids screaming with excitement at each other, and a few older folks for whom this was the end of an era proudly letting the tears fall. It was a pretty unexpected and powerful moment. You can even see the Vulcan/Buzzard similarity....

Can't disagree 👍

Lovely isn't it, I thought I was a bit of a bitsa fiend, but man, that guy does some mods 👍

It's the ability to have the chainsaw through the megaphone at the same time as the viscera-shifting bass that really appeals though

That, like the Modulus Flea 20 years ago, is exactly why I bought it 👍

....and look at what was written on Moon's chair only weeks before he passed

Who Are You is such a great, if occasionally flawed, album 👍

The problem is the same as with so many bands. They come together through an organic selection process because in the early days they complement each other, Moon's loose approach to timing and Townsend's gloriously tight guitar playing supported by JE's mediational/translational bass lines walking the middle way so to speak, and Daltrey benefitting from it all. Jones was was a tight timing drummer - JE said at the time it was the first tiome he's ever played with a drummer sho could keep time - but like putting Nile Rodgers in the New York Dolls or Babyshambles, he didn't fit The Who. Suddenly the glue that was provided by JE wasn't necessary so he started to play not because what he played was needed but because he could, same I suspect with Townsend. Out of necessity Daltrey became more a traditional front man then I think?

This guys sells some interesting Entwhistle-style bitsas/hybrids https://reverb.com/uk/shop/januszs-gear-depot-5

I was referring to the Buzzard, it is of course not possible to have too many basses

And that's exactly the tone I'm going for. I tried winding up a LOT of tubes and several cabs with new roundwounds on a maple board Precision recently. It got close, but no VC10. I suspect the B2 through the same rig is going to less VC-10 and more this....

Yep, they were a pretty decent album band but man they nailed it live, and you're absolutely right, that is at the very least a challenging, theatrical, diverse, and at times almost mediaeval, piece of music, that as @Cosmo Valdemarpointed out, was pretty straight and almost throwaway in the studio but massive and visceral live (and while I prefer the version above, the Live at Leeds version is also pretty special). For me it's the complete engagement and investment from the band that makes it so, you get the sense that at times they're on the edge of it completely falling apart, but that it's held together by their complete absorption. It's hard to reconcile the reputation of Moon with the almost cherubic innocence he seems to display in this. OK, there's acting and showmanship, but nonetheless........... And Townsend, yes, a genius 👍

I suspect I'm going to find what I have is m ore than enough to be going on with

Many thanks @Wolverinebass 🙏 Yep, that all sounds like what I'm starting to experience! I am a Precision with flats kinda guy, but then this is a different type of instrument all together. I'm going to give it a very good clean at the weekend and then start looking at the action (there's a couple of minor repairs needed also). The mids when engaged are are, well, present aren't they! It's like standing at the end of the runway as a jet takes off. it was reading about the tone - plus it meeting all my other 'Bass 3' criteria - that really convinced me that this was the way to go (I'm moving on a couple of equally lovely yet less sedate basses to pay for it). Of course, a bass so well designed and engineered that action can goes madly low is never a bad thing either. I'm looking forward to hearing this through some Mesa tubes very soon 👍